Max Payne
Would Max Payne be close to returning? According to a rumor that emerged on Reddit in the past few hours, Rockstar Games is preparing a new chapter of the IP, after an absence of 9 years. The project has been in development for some time now and would also see the involvement of Dan Houser, who would return to the development team after a long absence.The new project linked Max Payne should come out under the Judas brand and should be to all intents and purposes a real sequel to the third chapter. The work is defined as ambitious and the work would have started in all respects in 2020, while three years earlier Rockstar Games focused on pre-production. Remedy Entertainment (original developers of the first two chapters) would not be involved. However, the release would be set after the release of another project currently in progress (at least always according to rumors), namely GTA VI, therefore between 2024 and 2026.
As for the technical details, the new Max Payne would only debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S. The target is 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. There is no reference to a PC version but knowing the Rockstar Games workflow it is not excluded that it could debut at a later time, as already happened with Grand Theft Auto V and the more recent Red Dead Redemption 2.
Yes therefore navigate on sight. The return of Max Payne to its current state is more of a fanciful idea but it is also possible that Rockstar is actually working on the franchise. On the other hand, the development team is known for launching very few games during a console generation, so beyond a return of Grand Theft Auto, the possibility of seeing a new project is quite high. However, the times will be very long and it is good not to get carried away by the hype, especially given the precedent of Agent.
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Severed Steel is a unique mix of FPS, Max Payne and Metroid
Well here’s something that looks rather promising: an upcoming game called Severed Steel – a FPS with an emphasis on bullet time, acrobatics and gunplay.
If you’re seeing this game for the first time and think it may look familiar to you, that’s because it was originally called “Impact”, but has since had a name change and developer Greylock Studio has partnered with publisher Digerati to bring it to PC and PlayStation 4 later this year.
“Maybe the most unique aspect of Severed Steel is its protagonist, Steel. Steel loses her arm in an accident just before the start of the game. EdenSys, the gigantic corporation responsible for her injury, decides to abandon her rather than help. The campaign is about Steel liberating others crushed under the boot of EdenSys while seeking revenge for her abandonment,” writes Matt Larrabee, the founder and game designer at Greylock Studio.
Our Metroid comparison in the headline comes from the fact that Steel gets an arm cannon at some point in the game. While also also could have used Mega Man as a contemporary here (or many others) the weapon in Metroid is also simply called the Arm Cannon.
You can see the games combat in action together with the arm cannon and destructible voxel environment in the trailer embed below.
The arm cannon isn’t just another weapon as it ties into various aspects of the game. Steel having one arm works into a core concept of the game where the idea of reloading is put aside in favour of manic gun juggling. The cannon being able to destroy the environment is also used as showcase for the Unreal Engine’s Voxel Plugin allowing for destruction while still keeping performance.
Larrabee also took inspiration from those who are differently abled in real life.
“Before committing to the character design I researched what it is like to be a gamer with one arm. Through that I discovered a lot. For instance: Did you know there is a vibrant community on YouTube of highly skilled console FPS gamers who play with one arm? Taking my learnings from that, I made sure to include a custom button binding option to be dictated by the player. Once I was confident I could realize the character of Steel in an inclusive way, I committed to the design,” Larrabee adds.
Shooting aside mobility is obviously a big part of the game. To encourage players to use the various jumps, flips, slides and more, enemy fire will miss the player while doing these stunts. Bullet time is paired with this stunt system to give players a lot of time in the air watching bullets and explosives fly by.
You can wishlist Severed Steel on Steam while we wait for more information and a release date.
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