Max Payne 2 trailer released

Rockstar has popped a short Max Payne 2 trailer up on its website (here, dears), which shows off some of the noir-ish third person shooter's updated gameplay. Anybody downloading the 71MB (720x480) or 13MB (320x240) movie can expect to see Bullet Time, a haggard-looking Max and a bit of kissing. All set to a thoroughly rousing tune.

However, before you do that, we feel obliged to pre-emptively defend MP2, which we're sure some folks will be more than happy to lay into. OK, it doesn't look as good as Half-Life 2. But Max Payne was more than just a tech demo - that it spawned one as part of the 3D Mark benchmark suite is entirely incidental. As a Bullet Time playground, it was ahead of its time, and it had one of the bravest narrative structures we've ever seen in a game, with cartoon strips and levels set aside simply to highlight the mental anguish of the lead character. If The Fall Of Max Payne can master its noir love story angle then it should be every bit as important as its predecessor, and we're more than prepared to overlook a slightly underwhelming trailer with that in mind.

As the trailer points out, Max Payne 2 is due out on October 15th in the US. It should be out over here fairly swiftly thereafter.