When we finally got our first look at Rockstar's reboot of the Max Payne franchise, the man at the centre of the action was a rudderless, burnt-out husk of a man. But, hey, what's new? While Max had left the chilly New York winter seeking out the more tropical shores of Brazil to do contract security with friend Raul Passos in Sao Paulo, old habits die hard, as Max once again tried to protect the women around him. We recently got an exclusive look at some more of the single-player story in action.

The fact that our hero was still sporting healthy-looking locks of dark hair meant that the events of our latest demo predate those of the bus depot shoot-outs in our last preview. Fabiana, the wife of our boss, Rodrigo Branco, has been kidnapped, and we've been summoned to assist in the hunt. While the city may be different, the situation was the same. As Passos arrived at Max's apartment, he attempted to rouse us from the comfortable-looking slumber that comes from a night spent head down on a wooden table. Discarded Chinese food containers of indeterminable date lay strewn, while empty bottles of booze lined most available surfaces. Passos took playful verbal jabs at Max as he stumbled around looking for pants, but there was a stern, and concerned, edge to his voice. Clothes really do maketh the man, and nowhere is this a more evident reflection of the wearer. Passos' clean, pressed linen suit was in stark contrast with the grimy, wrinkled appearance of Max's outfit.

Upon arrival at Branco's office, the conversation flitted between unsubtitled Portuguese and English, as a high-ranking member of the local law enforcement, Marcelo Branco (the hard-partying yin to brother Rodrigo's wealthy, but respectable, yang) and members of staff discussed Fabiana's disappearance. The steady stream of language barely paused for air, and Max's limited language abilities further exemplified his fish-out-of-water status, being located in a foreign place and roped into situations that he didn't completely understand.

Ever the trooper, once the group dispersed Max found himself back in his comfort zone: less chat and more splat. Armed Cracha Preto gunmen stormed the building, and while Branco had taken the initiative and installed an elaborate, and expensive, alarm system, it was immediately clear that there was a problem with the plan when it failed to activate on command. A big-haired IT support staffer rushed into the room, unsuccessfully attempting to override the system with some furious keyboard massage, but to no avail. Branco hunkered down in his office while we played babysitter to the IT guy, who shared more than a passing resemblance to Moss from British comedy series The IT Crowd. Bullets flew, and while our sidekick didn't know one end of a gun from the other, we stalked the hallways with confidence, pumping round after round into enemy soldiers as they crossed our path.

Bright sunshine streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the office building. Desks appeared to be worked at, stocked with piles of carefully filed paper reports, knickknacks, and architectural model mock-ups of buildings in progress. All became casualties of battle as we returned fire, bullets whizzing past, and the glass of desk dividers shattered as we inched our way towards the server room to reboot the security system. Cover quickly became shredded, necessitating our need to push forward, while a combination of low-slung furniture, diving jumps, and bullet time provided its fair share of dramatic Hong Kong-cinema-style action moments.

While we half expected a survival-style mission where waves of attackers would descend on our position as we protected our frail, intellectual buddy, it wasn't the case. In true help-desk style, all it took was a flick of the power switch and a few keyboard strikes to get the system back online, and only moments later, large metal doors slowly began to slide down from the ceiling to seal us in.

I said soy chai latte! SOY!

Branco may be wealthy and connected, but he's certainly no Tony Montana. Commanded by Max back to the safety of his office, he scuttled off, pleading with us to "try not to completely destroy the place." Our move to the lobby revealed a slain receptionist with her phone headset still attached. The image didn't have much time to sink in, though, as another of the game's set-piece moments was triggered: a jeep smashed through the glass doorway of the building. Time slowed, and reloading and bullet conservation were no longer our concerns as we took aim at the driver first. Gun-toting passengers were second on the list, closely followed by the stream of armed men rushing in through the now-destroyed entrance. Reinforcements arrived when a white van pulled up and the doors flung open. Anyone we hadn't already filled with lead was picked off one by one as we ducked behind pillars and returned fire. The foyer's opulent facade was stripped bare in the skirmish, revealing a functional, but unattractive, steel rebar below. With the bodies finally beginning to pile up, we were presented with one last challenge: a significantly more heavily armed soldier wielding a machine gun. Our rounds appeared to bounce off his helmet and thick body plating at first, but after working him for a bit with a mixture of blind fire from the remaining cover and some well-placed bullet-time shots, a final, fatal blow forced the camera to zoom forward, tracking the slug as it burrowed deep into his flesh in slow motion, kicking his body back violently in the process.

The scene skipped ahead slightly to avoid storyline spoilers, and whatever went on during that period trashed the building even further. Bullet holes had been replaced with smoking craters, fire burned intensely out of control, and the multistorey structural integrity had clearly been weakened by the mystery assault. Max was covered in a thick coating of ash, his once-grey suit now a new, darker shade, but, on the plus side, conveniently hiding many of its wrinkles. In your face, ironing! He was badly injured, grasping at his chest in pain as he struggled to pull himself up a flight of stairs.

Blaze and ember effects looked particularly impressive, as pockets of flame fell on the floor and clung to the walls. A brief gunfight with some dedicated goons who stayed behind ensued, and after disposing of them like we did their counterparts, we pushed over a large metal filing cabinet to gain access to a precarious-looking high-rise path. We sighed with relief as it held together long enough for us to safely cross, and we struggled onwards, only to fall through a collapsing cement walkway, tumbling down and encountering a wounded Cracha Preto grunt with horrendous injuries. With a leg missing, and fire slowly consuming his ravaged body, the downed bad guy attempted to crawl away as our demo came to a close.

Perhaps a slightly excessive way to light a cigarette…

The two demos that we've seen have given us a look at some of the indoor and outdoor environments that we can expect, and given the focus being put on destructibility, we're glad that there's plenty to shoot at. Max is nimble, but steady, with gun in hand, and while maybe we didn't exactly follow Rodrigo Branco's orders about keeping the place in one piece, we were still alive to fight another day. Look for more on Max Payne 3 in the coming months, including info on the franchise's multiplayer debut ahead of its March 2012 release on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

With the Saint Haven update out and the level cap increased to 32, gamers new to Dragon Nest may be perplexed as to which subclass they should be after hitting level 15. Here's a breakdown of all the subclasses available for the game's main four classes.

Swordmaster: One of the subclasses from the warrior's side, the swordmaster's forte is performing quick strikes onto enemies. He has a good mix of melee and ranged attacks; his crescent cleave hits enemies from a good midrange, while the frenzied charge is, well, just a glorified charging stab that knocks a group of foes into the air. We were fans of his two unique stances: the parrying stance and hacking stance.

Though the former is suitable when you're backing away from a mob while waiting for the cooldown for your other skills, the latter is good for juggling clustered enemies for a small amount of time. Basically, you stand in a sword-drawing position for a few seconds; clicking the attack button makes you do rapid slashes.

If you favor using the sword more than the other weapons while applying hit-and-run tactics and pressure on foes, the swordmaster subclass is the way to go.

Mercenary: Another subclass of the warrior, the mercenary specializes in taking hits while performing crowd-control attacks so that mobs and enemies take notice of him first. His high tolerance for damage is due to his many buffs and upgrades like iron skin (super armor buff and immune to stun), empowering howl (party gets super armor and defense bonuses), and battle howl (attack ratings and critical chances are increased).

The mercenary can dish it out without much reprisal because a majority of his melee attacks have a good chance of interrupting other enemy's attacks. Examples include the midrange bombs away that sends enemies flying, the circle swing, and the demolition fist. If surrounded and anticipating the worst, he can use the roll attack to get out of a jam while also dealing damage to whoever is foolish enough to be on his landing path. His whirlwind attack travels a good distance, but it's better as an offensive crowd control tool and should be used to press forward toward the enemy.

Pick this class if you love accepting requests for being the group's tank for both player-versus-player and player-versus-environment sessions and if you favor using hammers and axes. After all, the majority of this class's skills require the aforementioned weapons.

Paladin: Most fantasy world paladins have a mix of heavy hitting and healing; Dragon Nest's paladin takes one for the team, thanks to its assortment of spells. A subclass of the cleric class, the paladin allows you to buff up your party with conviction aura and elemental aura, as well as strengthen itself with the counterattack stance called stance of faith and the damage-reducing iron will.

Even so, the paladin can still dish it out, though not as effectively as the other classes. Lightning spells like smite zap make the paladin leap up and strike down anyone within his path, while sacred hammering charges up your flail and makes two hammers come out during your normal attacks. The latter skill was good at raking up the combos for a better dungeon completion grade during PVE when complemented with the paladin's lightning spells.

While the developers officially state that the paladin's mana pool is limited, we didn't find it much of a detriment as long as the right buffs were applied and you left the main attacks to the heavy hitters of the four-person party. You may find the mana pool a problem if you're going solo; our choice of tactic was to go offensive with the lightning and attack spells on the regular mobs while saving up the buffs against the dungeon bosses.

Priest: While the paladin has buffs, the priest can summon giant cross things called relics onto the battlefield that can both help the party and hinder opponents nearby. Bind relic put nearby mobs at a standstill and makes them ripe for a party beatdown, while lightning relic seems self-explanatory (relic comes down, shoots out bolts that fry enemies). Do keep in mind that when any sort of relic pops down, it produces its own agro and will make enemies cluster to it.

The priest seems more effective at healing because the healing relic and cure relic can help turn the tide of battle in both PVE and PVP scenarios. For that bit of offensive touch in case your priest is cornered, the area-of-effect holy burst can get you out of a crowd while chain lightning is a great surprise attack for approaching enemies in a small group.

We don't recommend putting your skill points on grand cross; the attack comes out slowly and ineffectively when compared to the rest of his arsenal and relic attacks. Much like some spellcasters in the game, the priest is a good choice if you play well with others and don't mind staying at the sidelines to keep your party members in tip-top shape.