Max Payne remake tease just got us more hyped than we thought possible

Remedy Entertainment certainly made us wait a very long time for Alan Wake 2 but my oh my, it was worth it.

Proving a hit with critics and players alike, it’s no surprise that Alan Wake 2 has been nabbing up award wins left, right, and centre.

If you tuned into last night’s BAFTA Games Awards, you might be aware of the fact that Alan Wake 2 entered the ceremony with a very impressive eight nominations.

Facing some tough competition, it came away with two wins - those being for Artistic Achievement and Audio Achievement.

While I’m sure we’re all itching for a third instalment in the franchise, we also know that Remedy is hard at work on remakes of the first two Max Payne games.

In a recent update, Remedy CEO Tero Vertala said the project was in the “production readiness stage,” adding that “Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake is going to be a major new game with great potential, enabled by a similar development budget as Alan Wake 2.”

There’s no word on when this project might launch given how early it is in its development but when we had the chance to chat to the face of Max Payne, Mr Sam Lake himself, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to enquire about the project.

Alan Wake 2 is well worth diving into, if you haven’t already.

We asked Sam if he was excited to revisit this iconic piece of video gaming history. “For sure,” he told us. “Yes. I mean that’s where we really started our journey at Remedy,” alluding to what a full circle moment this is. “It’s wonderful.”

We spoke to @SamLakeRMD about the Max Payne remakes and that little trip he took to Kojima Productions 👀 #BAFTAGamesAwards pic.twitter.com/TwoaT7Cdh9

— GAMINGbible (@gamingbible) April 12, 2024

Naturally, it’s impossible to stand in front of Sam Lake and not ask about that incredible Alan Wake 2 musical sequence. I was curious to hear what the original pitch for that scene was and it turns out, its origins date back to the days of Control.

“I have wanted to make a musical sequence in a game for a very long time,” Sam said. “There was one planned for Control, but we had to cut its scope down. So I was like, ‘Next time,’ and started just planning what would make sense.”

“It was difficult to do. Because it's so different from our normal mission building. There was a lot of planning and figuring it out. But it was all worth it.”

You may also have noticed that Sam, alongside The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann, recently took a trip over to Kojima Productions: “I was on a vacation in Tokyo and Neil just happened to be there on a vacation at the same time. And just, you know, when you are in Tokyo, you have to take the opportunity to visit Kojima Productions and to say hi, and drink a bit of coffee.”

Three of the greatest minds in the world of video games … imagine the conversations.

“They are very nice people. And yeah, it's fun to chat with them.”