Max Payne 3 trailer surfaces?

After its existence was confirmed in 2004, Max Payne 3 faded from public view for five years. Then, this past March, Take-Two officially announced that Rockstar's Vancouver studio was taking the reins of the hard-boiled shooter series. The game was originally pegged for a "winter 2009" release, but has since been pushed back into the first half of 2010.

Unfortunately, other than the game's official site launching with a few screens showing a bald, bulked-up Payne living in a Brazilian slum, little has been heard about the sequel since the initial announcement.

However, this week, what appeared to be a teaser trailer for the game surfaced on YouTube, showing that, despite having less hair and more girth, the series hero will use his signature bullet time mechanic. Rockstar reps had not confirmed its authenticity as of press time, but the character model and title font appear to be the same as those on the game's official site.

The Max Payne franchise began with the acclaimed 2001 original, developed by Finish studio Remedy (Alan Wake), produced by the increasingly troubled 3D Realms (Duke Nukem Forever), and published by Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive's defunct Gathering label. It was followed in 2003 by the similarly praised sequel Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.