Max Payne 3 gets $100 special edition

Gamers looking to get the maximum Max Payne 3 experience have a new premium-priced bundle to consider. Rockstar Games today announced a $100 Max Payne 3 Special Edition set to launch alongside the standard versions of the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in March.

Available for preorder until January 15, the Max Payne 3 Special Edition features a 10-inch-tall statue of Max, depicting the tormented protagonist in a sharp gray suit and packing a pair of handguns. The bundle will also include a bullet keychain with a screw-off back, art prints, the soundtrack, in-game weapons, and "classic" multiplayer characters from previous games in the series.

Max Payne 3 is in the works at Rockstar Games' Vancouver studio, which took over series duties from Finnish shop Remedy (Alan Wake). The game will catch up with the now-former cop, who has spent the time since Max Payne 2 running from his troubled past. That has led him to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he works as a private bodyguard for a wealthy family.

Payne will fulfill his duties with a healthy helping of the series' signature bullet-time gameplay mechanic, in which the player slows the world to a crawl, and Max acrobatically leaps into action, firing twin pistols at anyone in range. That's not the only way to play, as Rockstar is supplementing that approach with a variety of weaponry and a cover system.

Rockstar is also incorporating multiplayer into the series for the first time with Max Payne 3. The publisher has said it will feature "traditional" multiplayer game modes with full-featured support for character progression, clans, and loadout options.

For more on Rockstar's latest, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Max Payne 3.