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Max Payne 2 Gets Love Life, New Face
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to two separate stories at the Max Payne Headquarters, which firstly has brand-new information on the recently-announced Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne from a PC Zone preview, with lead writer Sam Lake saying of Max: "..we're taking a big risk by putting him in a love story this time around." Also new are some good-looking, magazine-leaked screenshots, complete with Scott Miller of 3D Realms commenting on why Sam Lake's face wasn't used for Max's likeness as it was for the first game ("The original game used Remedy developers, family and friends for faces... we all like Sam Lake better as Max.. [but] he doesn't have time to fly to New York to take part in the photo sessions.")
It looks like the guy who scanned them in out of the Danish magazine tried to remove the moire pattern by adding some sort of blurring filter.
They all look enlarged too. I expect the magazine screenshots were no more than thumbnails.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
I think this may be more than just "we couldn't get him." Cause if Sam is around for the next sequel would they really change Max's face back? Switching around your characters likeness is probably not a good idea for brand recognition.
I really feel like there were some legal issues somewhere. If the company's relationship with Sam Lake were to sour in the future (for whatever reason) and they were still using his likeness in a popular game, there would be some definite legal problems. Rather than risk losing the face of their popular main character, they figured they'd switch it now before Max Payne becomes too popular and a switch would be unacceptable