Enlistment Roundup: The First Days of CREWS at the New Rockstar Social Club

Posted: May 12, 2012 7:18PM | Author: R* A

Social Club Crew registration has only been open for a few short days and already we’re seeing rivalries fostering between storied internet communities, very ill original Emblem Editor creations, and allegiances being forged amongst our longtime Social Club members, #MaxPayne3 Twitter cast members and more. We promise to keep you updated on a regular basis at the Newswire in the weeks and months ahead on the latest news from the Crew frontlines – highlighting those that are dominating the Max Payne 3 Leaderboards and unlocking accomplishments, and those that have managed to catch our eye out there in the community. For now, check out a first roundup of some noteworthy first Founder Crews.

From top left:

911 NYC, PCC Crew, and Bring on the Payne – these guys have been actively recruiting at the Newswire and on Facebook since well before the New Social Club launched – and we know many of you in Comments have already pledged your allegiance to one (or a potentially treasonous multiple). We’re looking forward to an epic Feud between these warring factions online once Max Payne 3 drops next week.

Enlistment support drive – these guys may be short as yet on members, but big on fun names, emblems and mottos that have caught our attention – have a look: Raging Wookiees (“Don’t anger the Wookiees”), GameTimeAgainNinjas (“There’s only two ways this can end & in both of them, you die), War Kitties (“I am the devil, and I am here to do the devil’s work”), Jimmy Rustlers (“Your Jimmies just got rustled”), Cthulu Catz (“Crew for having a good time. Open to all!”), Los Santos Kings (“Oooosh bang tidy!!!”) and Pattern Baldness (“We’re not ready to let it go… Share your despair. Tear the hair from your enemies.”).

Reddit versus The Vidya (4Chan) – we are not taking sides in this one, but these two communities have planted their Founder Crew flags down and it looks like the beef is on. The Vidya has inadvertently broken the Crew cap of 250 members and soared to over 300 deep – the biggest Crew yet. With that, we've officially lifted the member cap for all private Crews to 300, and are working on lifting it even higher in the coming weeks – in the meantime, the gauntlet has been thrown in Reddit’s direction as Vidya Crew member ThuhPickle states on their Crew page, “Reddit doesn’t stand a chance”…

GTAForums and iGrandTheftAuto – two of the longest-running GTA fan communities Crewing up. Shout to Crew leaders Meta_Pathos and Psyware respectively. But will it be a GTA fan alliance between these two – or a Rampage?

Ready for action – these Crews are growing in numbers and appear to be pretty damn serious about making a mark in Multiplayer: Russian Bears Team (“Turn yourself into a best, get rid of the pain of being a man. Recruiting new members and NOT only Russians. Join and together we will build a mighty and powerful crew”), UK Crew (“Anarchy from the UK, is all about the GMT… We’ll be Bringing the Payne from all UK consoles to everyone else.”), NYC Bloodpack (“Fighting for Peace, Killing for Fun”), Riot Hounds (“Play Hard or Play Chill. Most of all – Play for Fun.”), SFO-Wolf (“Mortis Nostrum Hostilis… Welcome to the den! Home of the tier-one Special Force Operative WOLF!”) and Guerilla Gaming (“Looking for the Best of the Best of the Best to Dominate the Competition.”).

SODMG Gamers – we’ve seen these guys from the SODMG community on Twitter for weeks now getting amped for Payne, even making original songs like “Strapped Up Like Max Payne”. Ready to see all of SODMG flood in to that Crew.

Two gaming community Crews worth noting - WetheGamerz of WetheGamerz.com with an awesome emblem – and of course, NeoGANG – The Official NeoGAF Crew founded by DGSimo. Also everyone can check out the NeoGAF Max Payne 3 OT now up and rocking.

Broken Whiskey Bottles – Finally, a special shout to this Crew for its constituency of faithful Social Club members like ChicagoEnigma, FugetSudo_Jr, emmi18176860, German Scientist, Marney-1, IWIHooligan, and others – as well as for recruiting several of the #MaxPayne3 Twitter cast members like JaclynJimenez, silenthamish, Twisted_AZ, ElvisMarques and Louzer. We’re sure this squad will be a fixture in the daily play sessions with Rockstar and official Max Payne 3 live streaming Social Club events.
 

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The Max Payne 3 Mural at the Figueroa Hotel in Los Angeles

Posted: April 06, 2012 4:15PM | Author: R* Z

If you're following us on Twitter, you may have noticed last week that we posted a pic of the work-in-progress hand-painted Max Payne 3 mural being painted on the side of the Figueroa Hotel in downtown L.A.

As you can see in the photo above, the mural has been fully completed featuring a 100 foot tall Max looming large over the City of Angels, flanked by a Brazilian bombshell and one of São Paulo's gun-toting gang members as seen in the game's cover art.

Thanks as well to some of our eagle-eyed fans in the L.A. area who have been snapping and posting pics since it was completed last weekend.

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First Look: The #MaxPayne3 Multiplayer Gang Characters Cast from Twitter as They Appear in the Game

Posted: March 21, 2012 3:59PM | Author: R* Q

In January, we announced the eight lucky people that were selected from our exclusive Twitter casting-call to have their likenesses appear as playable characters in Max Payne 3's multiplayer. You've already seen the photo mugshots of this handsome gang of online assassins, but today we can reveal exactly how they will look in-game. Behold the #MaxPayne3 gang.

In the selection of shots above, the gun-toting group of digitized incarnations can be seen in action at several of Max Payne 3's multiplayer maps each of which are based on levels from the single-player game story - including the docks on the Tietê River, the favelas, and the São Paulo bus depot.

Congratulations once again to our international set of cast members.
Harald Fraenkel (@HaraldFraenkel) from Germany whose mohawk and menacing glare have made it through intact... 
Radio DJ Dave Wheeler (@Wheelerj28) from Winnipeg, Canada, looking sharp and poised for action...
Alexis "Lou" (@Alexisssx3) from Southern California, with her fiery red short-cropped hair...
Elvis (@ElvisMarques) ready to represent for his home of Brazil...
Artist Shohei (@hakuchitare) from Japan with his distinctive hairstyle slicked back and shaved on the sides making for a mean looking killer...
Hamish (@SilentHamish) from Australia who as expected has come off looking a convincing action hero...
Jaclyn (@jaclynejimenez) from the NYC area as a no-nonsense, tough yet feminine guerilla solider... 
and Nick (@TwisBeats) of London whose unique braided beard has been faithfully re-created - here posed in a dignified grey suit...

Keep in mind that the Max Payne 3 online multiplayer avatar selector is customizable, so you will be able to dress these guys up in a vast variety of ensembles as you tailor your character's look (and weaponry) before going online and brutalizing the competition.

We'll be revealing more of Max Payne 3's multiplayer including details on avatar and loadout selections in the coming weeks here at the Rockstar Newswire...
 

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Reserve Your Own Plot in Max Payne 3's Cemetery Multiplayer Map via GameStop

Posted: March 05, 2012 8:00AM | Author: R* Q

Your name. Forever etched on a tombstone. This May.
It's a prize that would certainly freak the hell out of you in real life - but a bona fide treat in the world of Max Payne 3 online multiplayer, as part of the "Be Caught Dead in Max Payne 3" promotion currently running with GameStop.

Through March 11th, GameStop is offering fans the chance to have their names digitally immortalized - engraved on tombstones in the Cemetery Multiplayer Map for Max Payne 3. The map, which anyone who pre-orders from GameStop will get early access to, will forever contain your name. 

From now through March 6th
Go to www.facebook.com/GameStop and enter the sweepstakes.

From March 6th through March 11th
Go to www.facebook.com/GameStop to watch the Max Payne 3 trailer and answer a trivia question to enter the sweepstakes.

We've also reserved a couple tombstones especially for members of the Rockstar Games Social Club including countries outside of the US, look for more details in the next week or two...


Previously:
Max Payne 3 Pre-Order Exclusive Bonuses for Europe and Australia
Pre-Order Max Payne 3 from GameStop and Get Early Access to the Cemetery Multiplayer Map

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"HELP HELP!!!": A Sketch by #MaxPayne3 Multiplayer Gang Cast Member SHOHEI

Posted: February 03, 2012 3:18PM | Author: R* A

Arigato to Japanese artist SHOHEI aka @hakuchitare - one of the cast members selected in our worldwide #MaxPayne3 multiplayer gang casting event held on Twitter recently - for whipping up this nice sketch to celebrate the occasion. In it, SHOHEI appears as a marked man desperately trying to get away from a pistol-toting Max Payne while exclaiming "HELP HELP!!!". Of course in his in-game multiplayer gang member appearance, SHOHEI's likeness will be just as likely to be the one wielding the weaponry and inflicting fear in would-be online assailants.

Stay tuned as we will be revealing what the #MaxPayne3 gang looks like in-game sometime this March.

Related: http://www.famitsu.com/blog/rockstargames/2012/01/mp3-congrats-shohei.html  

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The Final Four Faces Chosen in our #MaxPayne3 Multiplayer Gang Casting Event via Twitter

Posted: January 23, 2012 1:00PM | Author: R* A

Presenting our final four multiplayer gang member faces; click here to see the first 4 which were revealed previously.

We’d like to thank EVERYONE out there who participated in the #MaxPayne3 casting event we’ve been holding on Twitter over the past month – the casting call turnout activity surpassed our expectations with #MaxPayne3 usage spiking to the top of the worldwide Trending Topics moments after the event was first announced in December. Suffice it to say, it’s been pretty difficult settling on only 8 people in total who will get to have their likeness as the face of a playable Max Payne 3 multiplayer gang character member.

In the end, the gang looks to be a pretty rad multiplayer hit squad of internationally-assembled killers – recruited from Germany, London, NYC, Los Angeles, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Japan. Certainly looking forward to seeing all of your grills online.

Without further ado, a bit more on the final four faces:

Shohei (first from left in picture above) aka @hakuchitare is a huge Rockstar fan who works as an acclaimed illustrator in his native Japan. His distinctive look, with hair shaved on the sides and slicked back on top, will look right in place amidst the gang’s rogues gallery and do well to represent Max Payne 3’s setting of Sao Paulo which has the largest Japanese community in the world outside of Japan.

Hamish (2nd from left) aka @silenthamish had been amongst the most prolific tweeters during the event and went super hard in the final weeks – a massive fan proudly from Melbourne, Australia who’s promised to portray an inherently tough road warrior online.

@RockstarGames Australia has a harsh climate. While young we have to get use to scorching hot days and nights. Perfect training. #maxpayne3

— Silent-Hamish (@SilentHamish) January 13, 2012

Jaclyn (3rd from left) aka @jaclynejimenez is a PC gamer from our own homebase of NYC. Her dream of getting her face in the game has come to pass, and looks like she’s ready to celebrate with some Social Club multiplayer event action later this spring as well. 

Social Club! yes @cranmerwill: @jaclynejimenez I like this Idea a lot! Maybe they can be featured in the first Social club match. #MaxPayne3

— Jaclyn E. Jiménez (@jaclynejimenez) January 14, 2012

Finally, Nick (4th from left above; and right) aka @TwisBeats works in the underground rap scene of London and is someone we spotted back in the 2nd week of the event and contacted for photos.

Nick was just about losing hope of being chosen, but c’mon – how could we say no to this guy?

Congratulations again, all. We’re in the midst of getting everyone’s final production reference photographs to get them all into the game now. Stay tuned to see what their final in-game characters look like, which is something we’ll be posting here at the Rockstar Newswire before the game comes out.

Previously:
First Four Multiplayer Faces Have Been Selected in the #MaxPayne3 Casting Event
 

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First Four Multiplayer Faces Have Been Selected in the #MaxPayne3 Casting Event

Posted: January 10, 2012 3:03PM | Author: R* A

Congrats to our first four #MaxPayne3 multiplayer gang members, (from left) @HaraldFraenkel, @Alexisssx3, @Wheelerj28, @ElvisMarques. We still have another four to pick, so keep using the hashtag for your chance to be noticed and selected.

Today we’re proud to announce that the first 4 people have been cast (of a total eventual 8) in our special #MaxPayne3 casting event via Twitter.

For the week ending December 23rd, @HaraldFraenkel of Germany and @Alexisssx3 of California, US are our first pair of Max Payne 3 multiplayer gang faces. And for the week ending December 30th, @Wheelerj28 of Canada and @ElvisMarques of Brazil are our pair. Congratulations, lady and gents.

Harald won us over with his incredible look – with the classic shaved head Mohawk and aggressive demeanor, looks totally like someone who’d be believable facing off in an online deathmatch.

Alexis "Lou" caught our eye with her gauntlet-throw below in our direction and quite true claim that every multiplayer gang needs a bad ass female assassin.

@RockstarGames you need a real gamer for the chick! guarantee I could smash you in the multiplayer! #MaxPayne3

 

— Lou (@Alexisssx3) December 23, 2011

Dave Wheeler is known up in Winnipeg, Canada as morning show mouthpiece of local rock radio station Power 97 and caught our eye with his campaign to proudly let his listeners virtually shoot him in the mug should he be cast.
 
And Elvis Marques is a devoted fan hailing from Max Payne 3's locale of Brazil - it's only right that this unit have at least one Brasileiro verdadeiro, and who better than a member of the troop who call themselves the #MaxPayne3 Family (shout to scareface1970, keep it up and good luck!).

This is the last week to be chosen so keep using the #MaxPayne3 hashtag everyone to make sure we notice you! Also make sure you're following us on Twitter, and checking your DMs regularly.

Hit the official event page at http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne3/casting for all the details and for official rules. We’ll be casting through this Friday, January 13th.
 

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Grand Theft Auto III: Your Questions Answered – Part Two (9/11, The “Ghost Town”, The Dodo and Other Mysteries)

Posted: January 05, 2012 12:00PM | Author: R* Q

VBProject
Did you cut off any missions or stuff after 9/11?

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gtaencyclopedia (via Twitter)
How different would be #GTAIII if 9/11 wouldn't have happened?

Rockstar says:
About 1% different. We removed only one mission that referenced terrorists and changed a few other cosmetic details – car details, a couple of ped comments, lines of radio dialogue etc – the game came out a very short time later. The biggest change was the US packaging which remixed the previous packaging into what became our signature style – because the previous packaging [which was released as the cover of the game in Europe] was, we felt, too raw after 9/11. All of the more extreme rumours are amusing but impossible to have been achieved in such a short period of time.

CrazyNiko187
Any chance of releasing GTA3 with all the stuff that was removed due to 9/11?

Rockstar says:
No. As above, it really was not very much stuff – just one mission and other than that some superficial and cosmetic details.

Magic_Al
The game was released only 41 days after 9/11. It's known that last-minute changes were made to game content because of the traumatic emotional situation at the time. Some are known, such as police vehicles being changed to not look like NYPD, but rumors of bigger changes won't completely go away. Such as: there were school buses and children in Liberty City that were removed, Liberty City had twin towers that were changed into a construction site, and Donald Love was killed by airplane hitting his building and this was edited out so he just disappears. Big changes seem unlikely to do in 41 days considering Rockstar New York was literally in a war zone and there had to be time to test and physically ship the game. Once and for all, can you list everything that was changed after 9/11 and debunk the most ridiculous rumors about this situation?

Rockstar says:
As far as we can remember, the list of changes is covered above – the other stuff is nonsense.

tytiyuiyitytiy
Is the location in the beginning where the bank robbery takes place supposed to be a part of Liberty City? Or is it supposed the be another town?

Rockstar says:
Yes – it is meant to be part of Liberty City.

bcinvestor1
Is the name of the Island taken out of the game named "Jakota Island," referred to in the game as "Ghost Town?"

Rockstar says:
We didn’t take an island out of the game. There were only ever the three. We think what people refer to as “ghost town” is just the small area of a city we built for the bank heist scene at the very start of the game. It never had a name, but we wanted it to be somewhere separate from the liberty map and so we built these few streets floating in space and assumed no one would ever find them.  We noticed someone built a bridge mod so you can actually drive there now - amazing…

Blazinbash
Was the Dodo ever supposed to stay in flight? don't get me wrong my friends and I spent many fun hours trying to see who could fly the longest, in a plane with clipped wings before crashing into the sea.

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CrazyNiko187
Was the Dodo intended to be a actual plane, or was its wingspan reduced because of 9/11? (I know it can be flown with practice)

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Christobell46
How come the Dodo plane in GTA3 can’t fly?

Rockstar says:
Because we were making a driving and shooting game - even that, as a combination of core gameplay elements, was very, very radical at the time. The Dodo was never meant to be flown very much at all, and it certainly wasn’t grounded as a result of 9/11 – it was just a fun thing that people then went crazy with when they figured out various bugs that let them fly it!

BenDeR.
The tunnels in Shoreside Vale, so much speculation has been made about them. They seem to be closed 24/7 due to construction work. Were they originally supposed to lead somewhere or are the workers just too lazy to finish the work, ha!

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Vortex94
Also why was the tunnel to upstate blocked in the Shoreside Vale island?

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CrazyNiko187
The tunnel in Shoreside Vale, was it just for looks?

Rockstar says:
There was never meant to be anything on the other end of the tunnel, we were just playing with ways to make the world feel like it continues past the physical boundary. It’s something that we’ve been pushing in all sorts of ways ever since, making the world you experience as a player feel like it’s part of something bigger. This tunnel was one of our first little baby steps in that direction. 

WolfRogers
Hidden away on the PC version of Grand Theft Auto III are menus and listings for Multiplayer, what was supposed to be planned for Grand Theft Auto III and at what point was it removed?

Rockstar says:
We played around with the idea of multiplayer back then but never got very far with it. At the time, we decided to make Vice City instead of dedicating a big team to multiplayer, as we did not feel it would ever really be good enough. When we finally made a multiplayer game, we wanted it to rival the fun and experience of single player, and this was something not possible until much later.

tytiyuiyitytiy
Who wrote the "My mother's my sister" pedestrian dialogue line?

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jesse45
How does "My Mother is my Sister" work?

Rockstar says:
Ha – to be honest, we are not sure – we all work together on this stuff – and we supposed too many of us just find rural inbreeding amusing.

OrIGInalPyRO
Where did the 'squish' noise that played when you ran over a pedestrian come from? That always made me laugh.

Rockstar says:
The pedestrian squishing sound was made up from a combination of squelchy sounds that Rockstar North Audio Designer, Allan Walker recorded live (Rockstar North Lead Music Producer, Craig Conner seems to recall crushing fruit and raw chicken in a vocal booth...) and then they added a few more layers from our SFX library.

Bruciesautos
Why were the graphics in very early screenshots cartoonish?

Rockstar says:
Before we properly got started on building the game we tried out a few different looks. Some of these were released during development. We toyed with a very cartoony style but pulled it back quite a lot.

cannoman5
Is it true that the Ammu-Nation clerk's appearance and voice was Dan Houser?

Rockstar says:
No, not true. However it does look (but not sound) like a relative of his.

Luc de Mooij (via Facebook)
How is the cannoli at Marco's Bistro?

Rockstar says:
Horrible! Stale as hell.

Jamie Press (via Facebook)
What's the script like for all GTA games?? How long do they roughly last and how are they formatted? also would you ever consider releasing a script from a GTA game?? Thks :) Can't wait for GTAV!

Rockstar says:
They are long. Very long. And they only seem to get bigger with each subsequent Grand Theft Auto production. Check out the image set below which shows a picture of the GTA3 script alongside the GTAIV script for some sense of what we mean.

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