Grant Theft Auto IV. Red Dead Redemption. L.A. Noire. For the last few years every console game from Rockstar Games has been a big deal, creatively and commercially. Next up: Max Payne 3, whose debut trailer hit today and you can see right here.
GTA is Rockstar's baby. Red Dead and L.A. Noire were the types of games no other studio was brazen enough to try. Max? That's a shooter. That's the kind of game everyone is trying to make. So can Rockstar's be special? Can it be great and important?
Max Payne 3 will be out for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in March of next year, nine years after the last Max Payne was released. Rockstar is developing without the involvement of original series creators Remedy. The trailer implies that Max's signature bullet time is back and it sure looks like this game is going to be all about the gunplay and hard-boiled crime. Graphically, it looks superb.
Max Payne fans, do you like what you see? And can you spot any small details us non-experts may not have caught?
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at stephentotilo@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.