It might not equate to a massive overhaul from the original but you'll be pleased to know the clipping problems that plagued the original have been eliminated and there are some funky new effects, like the Matrix-style gun reload that sees you spinning around like an extra from The Nutcracker before resuming the fight. Take out multiple enemies and you move into what's called 'the zone', where your enemies get slower and you remain at the same speed, giving you an even bigger edge in battles.

(And when every single bullet is rendered and coming at you from all angles you need every little advantage you can get.)

The game still hinges on the concept of Bullet Time, the ability to slow the action down and dive through the air piling lead into anything that moves - without it you'd be dead within minutes of firing up the game.ДЄs with everything else in the game, Bullet Time has been polished and, dare I say, perfected, so you can Shot Dodge without expending any of your Bullet Time, stay prone until you've finished shooting, or switch into full-on Bullet Time mode giving you time to think, focus your shots and get your body out of the way of as many bullets as you can. this is Max Payne, but every element has been buffed beyond recognition and it's a thrill from start to finish. Limbs buckle, paint pots fly off the wall, bodies arc through the air in graceful flight and boxes you'd been using for cover a few seconds earlier are blown away leaving you fully exposed to the relentless waves of gunmen all packing bullets emblazoned with your name. It did (round about six hours after I started it), but by then I'd been sucked in and spat out by the new Havok 2 physics engine that fully realises the cinematic scope the developers were aiming for in the original. Believe me when I say that The Fall Of Max Payne is one of the tightest, most thrillingly captivating games of all time, and like all good things in life I didn't want it to end. Cut forward a few hours and I was bom again, tired only of games that finish too early. I started playing the game at six o'clock on a Sunday evening after a heavy weekend, tired, hungover and in need of sleep.

I'm not saying best, I'm just saying coolest, and it's just been superseded in almost every way possible. The original was, in my humble opinion, the coolest PC game ever. So why the huge score? Let me try to explain.

Max payne 2 for pc full version