Modern Hong Kong gangster movies such as The Killer and A Better Tomorrow from filmmakers like John Woo have become famous for their high-intensity, ultraviolent gunfights, in which heroes and villains spray each other with hundreds of rounds in beautifully choreographed, insanely over-the-top sequences. These films went on to influence the popular Matrix film series from the Wachowski brothers, as well as a small Finnish developer known as Remedy Entertainment, a self-described "garage band" group whose lack of resources resulted in constant delays in the development of the highly anticipated 2001 action game Max Payne. Yet despite its delays, Max Payne surprised everyone when it was finally released with its technically impressive graphics, exceptional production values, and its innovative "bullet time" game mechanic, which let you actually slow the passage of time--a neat trick that came in handy in the game's toughest battles and mimicked the dramatic effect used in the movies that inspired the game.

Officer Max Payne returns to duty.

Remedy Entertainment and publisher Rockstar Games are back and have announced that the sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, is not only in development, but is also scheduled for release this fall. That's right, the developer and publisher are both confident that the game will ship this year, and they attribute the sequel's shorter development cycle to having a more-experienced team of developers at Remedy, as well as having full access to Rockstar's production facilities in New York, which are home to motion-capture equipment, sound studios, and a team of producers who regularly go on location in their hometown of New York City to help provide on-location photos, artwork, textures, and other material for the upcoming game.

Like the first game, Max Payne 2 will take place in New York City, and the star of the show will still be the titular, world-weary cop Max Payne. And though Max is older, wiser, and much worse for wear, the story will unfold over the course of a retrospective that covers a recent series of events that led up to his current situation, like in the original game. Though Rockstar was not yet ready to confirm the lineup of actors who will provide voice talent for the game, the original actor who voiced Max Payne will reprise his role in the sequel. Apparently, despite the fact that in the original game Max had been framed for murder, had witnessed his family get slaughtered, and had exacted a brutal revenge on the criminals who had wronged him, he was somehow cleared of the charges brought against him and reinstated as a DEA agent--and was even considered to be a hero by the city. However, the understandably embittered Max cared nothing for those accolades and left the DEA to return to the NYPD as a regular detective. Over the course of the game's story, it will be revealed that Max will get framed once again, but he'll react much differently, considering that he's tired of fighting the system, as well as his own loneliness.

In other words, Max Payne 2 will be, as you might have heard, a love story--or as Rockstar describes it, a "film noir love story." His main love interest will be the beautiful and mysterious Mona Sax, a murder suspect who had previously had a few run-ins with the law--and with Max himself--before the events in the sequel. Remedy apparently felt that a love interest was a key element that was missing from the original game, which introduced several key characters but quickly killed most of them off in a way that was practically wasteful. The developer felt that the sequel could benefit from developing its characters further, so just about every major character that survived the original game will return in the sequel. More importantly, according to the story, Max still is easily one of the best cops ever to hit the streets of the Big Apple, but it will take a lot to bring him back on duty--and Remedy decided that a love interest would fit the bill.