"Max is even able, in bullet time, when he goes towards a door to push his arm out and open it. That's something that as a main character we are able to do but obviously not something we are running all the time."
Max Payne 3 is clearly a game at the cutting edge for today's modern consoles; but Reil is not champing at the bit to get working on the PS4 and Xbox 720, insisting that the current crop still have more tricks up their sleeves.
"People often think we are at the capacity of the [console] processing power, but actually it's always possible to top it," said Reil.
"Max shows that; it's still the same hardware that it has been in previous years, but we've always been able to push things further.
"It's about two things – one is just to understand how to use the technology better and how it's integrated in the game, and on the other side it's code optimisation at a really basic level to make things run even faster."
Rockstar's next big thing
Discussing the future inevitably brings up how the lessons learned in Max will apply in the next game coming out of the Rockstar studio – a little title in a small series called Grand Theft Auto V.
Rockstar are inevitably staying a little tight-lipped about GTA V, but Nelson was prepared to talk a little about the differences between using the Euphoria system in Max compared to an open-world environment.
Nelson:
"It's a different environment in terms of the open world, because in Max you couldn't go around and interact with people in the same way as you can in an open world."
"Max had a set of mechanics where we could look at combining elements of Natural Motion with those things, GTA V may have different mechanics we can look into and we're always looking to improve the general reaction and the way those read and the ways those look," said Nelson.
"Whether it's just walking down a street and hitting people or cars with guns or whatever it is those are things we'll look to expand on it and improve as much as we can.
"It's a different environment in terms of the open world, because in Max you couldn't go around and interact with people in the same way as you can in an open world,
"But in terms of how people respond to gun fire and fire back that's quite similar.
Inevitably we questioned Nelson as to whether this would bring some spectacular death scenes in GTA V. "I would hope so!" he laughed.
Nelson is overjoyed that the tech behind Max Payne 3 has picked up great credit from both reviewers and the public since its console launch.
"To me it's really gratifying that people seem to be picking up on [the technical accomplishment] and it makes us want to go further with each one we put out," he concludes.
"Sometimes in your dark moments you wonder are people even going feel this and it's really nice that they respond in the way they have."
