You’ll notice that there has been a lapse of a few days with this particular weblog. That lapse can be summarized in two words:

Max Payne

Yes, it was worth the wait, and yes, bullet-time rules. Just real quick update for the non gaming crowd, Max Payne is an action game, a third person shooter (looks like tomb raider, with the behind the back view) with the distinctive gameplay feature which Remedy (the developer) has dubbed, “bullet time.”

Basically, “bullet time” is the slow down effect seen numerous times in hong kong action films, and finally utilized to great artistic effect in the US movie, The Matrix. At its heart, Max Payne is a third person shooter, like Syphon Filter. However, the game’s noir storyline and action play out more like a John Woo movie. Think, The Killer. Think, Hard Boiled. Then imagine them made into games that are actually good. Oh yeah.