Broussard on Payne
It's done and dusted
3D Realms owner George Broussard has penned a characteristically blunt update to his .plan concerning the status of 3DR/Remedy's Max Payne. "Max Payne has been in duplication since July 16th," he says, and "as of tomorrow, July 20th, the bulk of the boxes will have been assembled and ready for shipping." "The final boxes should start to hit the trucks on July 23rd and will arrive in stores around the 26th (in the US). 3DR pre-orders should be shipped very early next week, as we get our shipment from Take 2 on Monday." With a game of Max Payne's calibre, you would normally expect to see reviews dotted all over the net in time for the game to hit store shelves. However, 3D Realms has long been a subscriber to the adage "when it's done", and with that they mean full kit and caboodle. The chances are you'll get to play it just about the same time that we do. Following the release of the game, Broussard says that a demo is in the works which will no doubt bring the Internet to a standstill in a couple of weeks' time. At 120Mb or so they reckon it'll be a corker, and given the lack of reviews gamers will be in the unique (and perhaps comfortable) position of being able to make their own minds up for once. On the size of the demo, Broussard said, "We're basically not going to trim the content of the demo to make it an easy download," but later amended this to say "It's not that we're lazy and leaving data in there. It's that the demo is just going to be that large with the maps we're giving out." Max Payne is currently scheduled for a July 27th release this side of the Atlantic, but that's subject to change.