Summary
AMax Payne 3mod lets players swap out Max’s new face for his original face, which was based on the face of Sam Lake, one of the original writers and level designers of theMax Payneseries. Lake worked on the first two entries in the series before moving on to develop a pair of new original franchises, leaving the development ofMax Payne 3in the able hands of Rockstar Games. Subsequent entries in the series used different face models.
Sami Antero Jarvi, who goes by the pen name Sam Lake, is the Creative Director at Remedy Entertainment. After writing and designing levels for the first two entries in theMax Payneseries,Lake spearheaded theAlan WakeandControlfranchises. The face of actor Timmothy Gibs was used as Max’s character model forMax Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. After development work onMax Payne 3was handed off from Remedy to Rockstar Games, which also acted as the game’s publisher, Max’s iconic face was again replaced with an entirely new one. Actor James McCaffrey finally got the chance to be the face of Max Payne after having voiced the character since the first entry in the series.
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A mod available on Nexus Mods created by a user named AlexSavvy aims to bring an updated version of the old Max Payne/Sam Lake character model, face included, intoMax Payne 3with stunning definition and clarity. Simply and elegantly titled “Sam Lake Mod,” the texture reskin is a little more than just a new face slapped onto a character model.Sam Lake’s faceis fully integrated intoMax Payne 3’s character model. All of Max’s facial expressions displayed during gameplay and cutscenes have been fully preserved, right down to the beads of sweat that dribble down Max’s head in real-time.
Max’s hairstyle changes 14 times throughout the story, so AlexSavvy made sure each change in style was specifically modeled to fit Sam Lake’s head, so it’s not just an ill-fitting port fromthe originalMax Payne 3character model. AlexSavvy made sure the rest of the body from the neck down bared a closer resemblance to the thinner frame of the Sam Lake version of the character. This meant refitting every outfit Max wears throughout the story to the new character model, including the classic leather jacket and Hawaiian shirt combo Max wore throughout the first game in the series and wears partly through the third entry.
Sam Lake may have moved onto different projects,including theX-Files-esqueControl, and is currently in development on a newAlan Wakegame, but his face is the one many players will most commonly associate with the gritty, revenge-seeking anti-hero with the pulp crime novel name. It only seems fitting that mods like AlexSavvy’s preserve Lake’s face to keep the original version of the character alive.
Max Payne 3is available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
