Mark Buckingham: We've had a nice break from the franchise that more or less invented "bullet time," and hopefully the break has brought Max a fresh perspective. It'll be interesting to see what they bring to the table to out-do the last game, and we desperately need something to erase the memory of having seen that movie they tried to make.

Dustin Chadwell: I played the hell out of the original Max Payne, and while I sincerely hate the dark room, following blood trails and baby crying sequences, everything else about it really set the bar for third-person shooters. I mean, "bullet time"! Where would we be without that often-copied element? Hopefully, Max Payne 3 can put another shot in the arm of third-person shooters, and I'm looking forward to seeing what bald Max is all about. Also, if the trailers are any indication, it's a beautiful-looking game, so it has that going for it.

Brian Dumlao: Rockstar loves to take its sweet time with its games, but after some consistent hits over the last few years, its fans aren't really complaining. This time around, Rockstar is trying to bring the classic game responsible for "bullet time" into a shooting game and giving him an equally bleak and beautiful setting by moving the action from the dead of winter in New York to the tropical climate of Brazil. Though the game has gotten another delay that pushes the title to May, it has already gotten the stamp of approval from former developer Remedy, so the expectations for a good comeback are rather high.

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: This game has been in development for so long that it's almost more exciting to see it come out at all. Still, it's one of the games that really pioneered the whole "slow-motion gunplay" mechanic that has since been driven into the ground by hundreds of games. What will be most interesting is how it will overcome its own legacy; it takes a bit more than two blazing guns in a slow-motion dive to make compelling gameplay these days, and yet it is tough to imagine the series as anything but.

Thomas Wilde: There are a lot of reasons to be wary of Max Payne 3. Its dev cycle has a snooze alarm, Remedy's not involved, it's switched locales, and the weird film noir of the previous games seems to have been replaced with a dark and gritty sort of sleaze. Putting all that aside, it's a Rockstar game, which means it's likely to be, at worst, flawed in an interesting way, and I'm curious to see just how much worse Max's life can actually get. Hopefully, Mona's in there somewhere.