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During the Entertainment Expo in LA known as E3, members of the Remedy development team were present to give private viewings of Max Payne to the Media. (This demonstration is different to what you may have seen on the Max Payne site – E3 2000 Movie) In one of several motor home trailers parked in the Gathering of Developers’ Promised Lot (across from the LA Convention Center), the unimaginable was witnessed. Project Lead Petri Jarvilehto and Writer & Game Designer Sam Lake were at hand and described scene by scene what was being displayed. Many of the comments Petri was relaying had to do with the amount of graphical detail the player will see in the game once it is complete.

1)Similar Pic to the close up in demo 2)Another Detailed Character

Throughout the demonstration, Petri controlled the movement of Max, froze the screen a few times throughout the level and zoomed in on the character to demonstrate what the MAX-FX engine can do. In one instance, Petri slowed down the gameplay, and then froze it completely. He zoomed in on a bullet en route from Max’s gun, and as he did this, the quality in the detail in the graphics did not decrease significantly. While viewing the game in slow motion, one could actually see the bullet leave the muzzle, as well as a kickback experienced upon pulling the gun’s trigger. Another feature to note is the addition of a light smoke effect surrounding the weapon upon firing, providing even more realism to the overall experience. The kickback of the gun illustrates one key realistic game feature found in the games that many other action titles cannot begin to touch. In addition, the characters’ skins were so exceedingly vivid from a graphical standpoint, that the game may set precedence for 3D entertainment games. In fact, some of the skins used in the game will have over 1200 polygons. Undeniably, Max Payne portrays a close representation of a true action hero from the use of a real life physics model. While the graphics can never be as good as photographs, the visual effects in Max Payne seem to represent the closest thus far that are found in a third person action game. Graphics design in the game should be tweaked for perfection since the development team won’t release the game until “it’s done”.