New Trailer Shows the Technology Behind Max Payne 3’s Gun Ballet

Rockstar has kicked off a new Design and Technology series of Max Payne 3 trailers with a look at the tech Rockstar has utilized to make the game's firefights both wholly dynamic and stylistically cinematic.

This first installment touches on the complex animation system, which enables both cutscenes and gunplay to look weighty and realistic. Well, at least as realistic as a bald dude taking twenty bullets to the chest can get. The trailer also delves into bullet time, the slow-mo killcam, and how a strong AI system ties it all together.

Even if you're not interested in what's going on under the hood, the trailer features nearly four minutes of never-before-seen footage from the game, including a few levels that weren't included in the closed-door press demo we previewed at New York Comic Con last month.

Max Payne 3 is scheduled for release in March of 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.