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Max Payne 3 out this winter

PC and console, "new direction".

Take-Two has announced that Max Payne 3 is in development at Rockstar Vancouver and will be released for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this winter.

The game was originally mooted all the way back in 2004, but things have been quiet since. Original developer Remedy is not involved by the sound of it.

While specific details about MP3 are thin on the ground, we're told that gritty, trenchcoat-loving grumpy-guts Max is now retired but still "embroiled in a world of corruption, turmoil and intense violence".

In fact, Max has left New York behind, and having been double-crossed, is now trapped "in a city full of violence and bloodshed, using his weapons and instincts in a desperate search for the truth and a way out".

We're also promised "more of the classic elements and hyper-intense action that fans have come to love", although the game will be "moving the story of Max in a new direction".

"We're starting a new chapter of Max's life with this game," said Sam Houser, Rockstar Games founder.

"This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation."

Poor old Max. He only wanted to be loved. And kill people in slow motion. Check out our creaky old reviews of Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne if you've forgotten what the Bullet Time gunplayer was up to back then. (Apologies for the hilarious broken formatting.)