It's looking to be a big week for gamers as both Diablo 3 and Max Payne 3 will arrive on May 15. To whet gamers' appetites for bullet time, smoking and guns Rockstar Games has unveiled the official launch trailer a week before the Max Payne 3 release.

Max Payne 3 released next week follows the story of protagonist Max Payne as he descends into a world of booze, pills and violence in an effort to escape his past. This isn't the Max Payne that many gamers remember from previous games, this is a broken down wreck who is slumming in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The game will focus on Payne as he takes a security job in Brazil in an attempt to get his life back on track. He soon discovers that there's more to the easy security job he took.

Max Payne 3 is the first game in the series developed by Rockstar Games although the developers have promised to keep the game consistent with its predecessors. There's still the game's unique "bullet time" ability that allows Max to slow time and take down groups of enemies. Making all the components work together in real time and Bullet Time has been the developers' biggest challenge according to Rob Nelson, Max Payne 3's art director.

"The guns are made up of individual components and each bullet is singly modelled, so we had to make sure that every animation looked perfect. Everything needs to look incredible, regardless of the speed at which you're playing, so in some cases, we'd create new animations for actions that take place in Bullet Time because they wouldn't look right if we simply slowed down real-time animations," he told The Independent.

The game will also have a dedicated cover mechanic that gives gamers more options when it comes to battle.

"AI responds differently to player actions and each type of enemy will have their own unique responses," Nelson continues. "Mobsters might not coordinate well with each other, while a group of paramilitaries might try and box the player in, laying suppressive fire while one of their members flanks you or flushes you out with grenades."

Max Payne 3 will also be the first game in the series to have a multiplayer option. The game will arrive on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on May 15 in North America, May 18 in Australia and Europe. The PC version will be available two weeks later.