Rockstar has slowly but surely started to peel back the lid on Max Payne 3. We’ve been rummaging throughout the vast excesses of the Internet to find all the details about the game and compile them for you, our dear readers.

The game will take place 12 years after the events of Max Payne 2 and will see the protagonist, Max Payne, in Sao Paulo, Brazil providing security for a wealthy family. Sao Paulo is one of the more dangerous cities in the world, with brutal street gangs like the Primeiro Comando da Capital, who have organized prison breaks, prison riots, and are responsible for drug trafficking, kidnappings, and robberies in the city.

It appears that because Rockstar has made these gangs a part of their marketing materials, the PCC — or gangs with different names, but similar tendencies — will be the individuals that Max will be up against.

If you’ve seen the screenshots that Rockstar has made available, you can tell that the twelve years between the end of Max Payne 2 and the beginning of Max Payne 3 has taken a massive toll on Max. He’s older, bald, grizzled and a bit heftier. He’s also battling alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers. The addiction may have some impact on gameplay as well. According to the July 2009 issue of Game Informer, the game’s HUD will have some sort of indication of his level of addiction and/or how bad he needs a drink or pop a pill.

While most of the screenshots that have been released thus far show the game set in the daytime, Rockstar has confirmed that there will be nighttime levels in the rain, much like you would expect from the first two games. Also not being left out from Max Payne 3 is the bullet time that made the original games so memorable when they were released.

The game engine will be a souped up version of Rockstar’s “RAGE” engine and NaturalMotion’s Euphoria engine — which was featured in Grand Theft Auto IV. Simply by looking at the screenshots for this game you can tell that will be a technical marvel both in the way the environments look, and we’re going to go out on a limb and say that the animations will be spectacular. (Just look at the gorgeous visuals and animations GTAIV provided).

The last little tidbit that Rockstar let loose was that Max Payne 3 will feature a multiplayer component. They haven’t confirmed whether the multiplayer will be cooperative, co-op or both — but they have confirmed that the game will have some form of multiplayer for players to devour.

Max Payne 3 is set for release in Winter 2009 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.