MAX PAYNE STATUS UPDATE
5:00 PM 7/5/01

George Broussard has posted an update in his .plan file about the status of Max
Payne. Here it is...

Some 4th of July Max Payne news bits for you all.

* The game is essentially done. It's close to a final release candidate and feature freeze (hopefully later this week). From there it will be bug/compatibility fixes only. We're signed off on mouse pads, boxes and everything except the manual (which should be done Friday/Saturday). At that point we just play test and wait on the gold CD.

One area of focus now is tweaking the harder skill levels that unlock after you
beat the game, including New York Minute. In NYM, you start with time on a clock and it counts down. Every time you kill a guy you get more time. If the timer hits zero you die. It's a really, really fun way to play the game after beating it the first time.

* Yes, there will be a demo. I'd imagine it will be out a couple of weeks after
Max hits store shelves.

* Gathering of Developers should announce a street date for Max soon. It's still "when it's done", but as I said above, it's basically done except for bugs and that's the only thing that can hold it back. We're fairly confident we'll hit very close to the street date due to how stable the game has been for
the last month.

* The game will ship in DVD cases overseas (as most of the world has a clue, whereas the US lags behind). In the US, Max will ship in a box, but this has a couple of advantages. First, we still put Max in a DVD case inside the box. So the end result is the same for you guys. No more jewel cases! Second, we ate some costs and decided that EVERY box that ships will have a Max Payne mouse pad in it. Consider it an extra bonus for being patient, supporting the game, and just because it's cool.

* You should start seeing hands on previews of Max Payne in the next week. We had GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN here last week, and they played the game themselves for 4 hours. Tomorrow, Sean Martin (Stomped), and Steve Gibson (Shuga Shack) will be here to play Max Payne. There should be a steady stream of press up until release.

An update to this update.. Sean & Steve were here and played the game for a few hours this afternoon. :)

The game is getting close - but remember, the release date is "When it's done" until announced either here or on the Remedy web site.

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* Origin: Pegasus Flight *REMOTE* (1:124/7013.1)