It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Max 
Payne – that godawful 2008 Mark Wahlberg movie notwithstanding.
There hasn’t been a new game in the series for eight years. And while Rockstar Games announced two years ago that a third installment was on the way (and initially planned for a holiday 2009 release), the only time it has mentioned the game since is to announce delays. Over the course of the past week, though, the hype machine started to churn once again.
Everyone knows a new Grand Theft Auto is coming. It is, 
after all, one of the biggest franchises in the video game industry. But to date, Rockstar Games hasn’t dropped many hints about what to expect.
Over the past few weeks, though, there have been some cracks in the armor, indicating that work is well underway on the next installment in the iconic series.
Rockstar Games has been edging towards a Hollywood
model for quite some time now, but the film community is finally taking notice.
The Tribeca Film Festival will present a one-hour gameplay session of “L.A. Noire” at this year’s event, followed by a question and answer session. Scheduled to take place April 25, this is the first time the festival has recognized a video game.
While Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD is absolutely not 
a game you want children to play, it’s a very good game for adult action fans. The world is lush and filled with interesting characters and has over 50 challenging missions. Like most GTA games, it’s filled with sidequests that extend the amount of playable hours considerably. An iPhone version of the game has been available for a while – but the graphics are notably better on the iPad version. This is, arguably, the best looking version of the game to date. (It has also been published for the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.) Players can also use any iTunes music they have on the iPad as one of the in-game radio stations whenever they’re driving in the game. Even better, the iPad version does not charge extra for these features.
The good news is video game software sales were up 
4 percent in May. The bad news is people were expecting them to be about twice as high. The OTHER bad news is that video game hardware sales were down 20 percent in May – dragging the industry as a whole down 5 percent compared to the 2009 figures.
While any improvement is a good one, it’s becoming clear that the video game industry is not going to be able to easily shake off its ongoing slump. May was a month loaded with potential blockbusters, including “Red Dead Redemption,” “Alan Wake” and “Super Mario Galaxy 2”.
The jokes were pretty easy when “Red 
Dead Redemption” was announced… “Grand Theft Horse” cynics called it. “Yet Another Doomed Western” was another popular phrase.
Today, we can wipe those snarky asides away and call it something else: A bonafied hit. Take Two Interactive Software reports that it has shipped 5 million copies of the game so far – and it’s so bullish on the title that it’s raising its fiscal forecast for the year.
Machinima (films that are made from the graphics engines 
and assets of video games) isn’t exactly a household word in most of America. And, despite its critical acclaim and strong sales, “Red Dead Redemption” probably isn’t either.
That’s not stopping Fox from taking a gamble with the new title from Take Two Interactive Software and the makers of the “Grand Theft Auto” franchise. On Saturday May 29, the network will air a 30 minute short film made from the game at midnight.
Chris Morris: Journalist 