Rockstar Newswire

Earlier this week, we brought you some first details about Max Payne 3's soundtrack with word of L.A. rock ensemble HEALTH's work crafting the game's unique original score (heard in dramatic fashion in the most recent Official Trailer).

Today, we're proud to announce that another key contributor to the game's aural action is celebrated São Paulo rap star Emicida - one of the leaders in a movement that's helped make São Paulo a veritable hip-hop capital for Brazil. Emicida is known for his tough and raw rhymes and freestyles ('Emicida' being a fusion of the words 'emcee' and 'homicide') and for his dedication not only to aesthetics but to imparting important messages of social justice as it relates to the downtrodden of his city and country. Winner of Act of the Year in the 2011 MTV VMB Awards, Emicida's regarded as one of the biggest icons in Brazilian music today and has rocked mega festivals around the world from Rock in Rio to SWU, Sonar, Planet, Atlantis to Coachella.

We reached out to Emicida last week for his candid thoughts on what it's been like working on original music for the game:

"Antes de mais nada, sou fã de video games, como disse nas primeiras reuniões sobre o jogo, temos aqui na Laboratório Fantasma uma admiração muito grande pela Rockstar pois todos, sem excessão somos fãs de GTA, entre outros titulos lançados por eles. Ter a oportunidade de fazer parte do Jogo Max Payne 3 foi muito especial, compor para o jogo então, foi como um sonho, trabalhar com uma história tão densa, obscura onde temos uma trama que se passa na cidade de São Paulo, minha amada São Paulo, é nisso que eu quis me apegar, no inferno astral do personagem somado a paisagem caótica da maior cidade da américa latina, com seus contrastes e cenários, tensão, violência, corrupção, principalmente em um momento tão delicado da história de São Paulo, onde presenciamos uma onda de ataques politicos contra a população de menor renda... estou ansioso para o lançamento e vai ser foda!!" - Emicida

("Before anything else, I’m a huge fan of video games as I shared with you guys during our first meetings regarding the game. Here at Laboratório Fantasma (Records), we have a great admiration for Rockstar and we are, without exception, fans of GTA, among other titles that Rockstar has released. Having the opportunity to be part of the game Max Payne 3 was really special. Creating a song for the game was simply like a dream. We worked along a storyline that is dense, obscure and that takes place in the city of São Paulo, our beloved São Paulo. My intention was to hold on to this idea, that of an astrological inferno – when all the planets are aligned against you – of a character immersed in a chaotic landscape in the largest city of Latin America, with its contrasts and scenarios of tension, violence, corruption, and especially at this very delicate moment in São Paulo’s history where we witness a wave of political attacks against our low-income communities... I am eagerly awaiting the release of the game and it’s gonna be f***ing awesome!!! - Emicida)

We'll have more details including info and a first listen of the original song he created for the game soon...
 

A life of despondency and hopelessness in New York City is left behind by Max for the promise of a fresh start, a new opportunity and a brighter future in one of the world’s most burgeoning foreign markets – São Paulo, Brazil. A chance encounter with an old colleague, Raul Passos, leads to a job offer working personal security for a wealthy South American family – The Brancos – and Max follows a lead traveled by many businessmen and investors over the past decade-plus to the South American powerhouse city that twenty or more billionaires call home. 

Today’s installment in our continuing series looking at the research, information and production that went into the making of Max Payne 3 examines the posh life of São Paulo – a city with wealth and power rivaled only by global metropolises of the highest order.

In a series of trips to São Paulo throughout the making of the game, Rockstar developers and Research team members studied the highs and lows of city life to help inform the characters, storyline and situations that befall Max with utmost authenticity. As Max is recruited to work for the rich and powerful Brancos, we needed to make sure the touchstones of this elite and growing segment of Paulistano society was represented appropriately and vividly. São Paulo has directly benefited from some of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva's progressive economic policies over the past decade, with so much money now floating around (São Paulo alone represents over 12% of the entire country’s GDP), the city’s name has become somewhat synonymous with prestige and power - Brazilian TV even capitalizing on a Real-Housewives-style reality show starring four women from São Paulo. And for 2012, Forbes named São Paulo the top global city for investors after New York, London and Washington DC, in that order.

There are interrelated problems that plague São Paulo however, forcing wealthy residents to live cautiously and adapt. One is a persistently high crime rate (despite encouraging recent gains) deterring many from feeling too free to stroll the streets in certain areas of the city. Reminders of this are a part of daily life in the city, as more than one cabbie informed us that the fear of carjacking leads many drivers to treat red lights more like stop signs after midnight – and the conspicuous presence of extra beefed-up security is a common sight at entry points to virtually all prestigious points-of-interest from hotels to nightclubs to high-end shops.
 
The other is the notorious traffic that chokes the city at street level – with traffic jams that can extend for well over 100 miles, and where a five-mile drive can take an hour or two. And sometimes the two problems combine with dangerous consequences – the threat of armed, motorbike-riding thieves and kidnappers weaving in and out of traffic (which has inspired not only a spike in bulletproof windows but a proposed law banning moto-passengers) helped fuel the need for an alternative fast and safe means of short-distance transportation for rich Paulistanos. As a result, the elite take to the skies with helicopters – a trend that’s given São Paulo the distinction of having more helicopters than any other city in the world, and has dotted the city’s skyscraper rooftops with helipads galore.

Snapped during an aerial tour of the city and surrounding areas taken by Max Payne 3 developers, helipads are a common sight dotting the tops of city skyscrapers.

Max and helicopter pilot Passos take to the São Paulo skies in Max Payne 3.

That's just part of a way of life for Paulistano elites that you’ll see come into play in the game as Max works armed private security for the Brancos alongside Passos, who also serves as their personal helicopter pilot. Whether helping family patriarch and industrialist Rodrigo Branco make it to his day-to-day appointments on time by eliminating the variable of street traffic – or for when socialite trophy wife, Fabiana Branco, feels the whim to spend the night drinking and dancing away at one of the city’s hottest nightspots and must arrive in style – Max and Passos are relied on to ensure safe transport by heli.

Fabiana Branco and her sister Giovanna skip the line and arrive in style via helicopter to the exclusive Club Moderno for a night of drinking and dancing, escorted by Max and Passos.

On the outskirts of town, the city’s millionaires and billionaires live in sprawling mansion estates.

Fancy VIP nightclubs like the fictionalized Club Moderno that Fabiana and her sister Giovanna attend in the game serve as nocturnal playgrounds for São Paulo’s rich – with bottle service, layout and décor inspired by continental and international nightclubs and ultra-lounges. While our firsthand research excursions to São Paulo were serious work (really!), developers did get a small taste of the city’s lavish nightlife – from finagling entry to private designer parties at Avenue Morumbi mansions to attending the exclusive rooftop lounge scene at the chic Hotel Unique – which all helped to inform the vibe of the Brancos' lifestyle. When not partying, or shopping down the upscale Avenida Paulista or Rua Oscar Freire (known as the ‘5th Avenue’ of São Paulo), the super-rich retire to swank multi-million dollar luxury condos in city areas like Jardins, Alto de Pinheiros and Cidade Jardim – or to sprawling mansions located in the suburban outskirts of São Paulo state as seen in some of the aerial photos above we snapped while surveying local views by helicopter.

Be sure to check out a related article from Joystiq that went up earlier today that contains additional images from our aerial tour and more:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/rockstar-explains-the-research-behind-the-posh-clubs-and-helipad/

Stay tuned for our next edition in the Rockstar Research series that looks into the making of the game, where we’ll reveal some of the local casting done in São Paulo to create many of the friends and foes you’ll meet in Max Payne 3…

Previously: Rockstar Research: The Weapon-Wielding Gangsters and Special Police Commandos of Max Payne 3
 

As we highlight the varied cinematic influences of Max Payne 3, from the franchise's nod to Hong Kong action cinema and film noir and neo-noir, to the specific reference points of Brazilian elite police forces and dangerous underworld criminals you'll encounter in the game - today, we highlight a history of some of our favorite sequences of rugged shootouts and intense standoffs as well as movies in general with scenes of exceptional gunplay. 

Certainly, Max as a character owes a debt to the great tradition of moviedom's brooding and softly-spoken action-heroes who walk softly and wield a big stick with uncanny precision. At its best, the experience of playing any Max Payne game, but especially this new and evolved entry in the franchise, is meant to take that passively vicarious thrill of seeing a cool and unflappable hero dispense justice and revenge – and turn it into an adrenaline-pumping first-hand sensation of action. Imagine the ante being upped with the prospective of going online to face off against a lopsided army of assailants in a multiplayer mode like Payne Killer, and you'll have a pretty good sense of how we're aiming to take inspiration from these sorts of classic shootouts and faceoffs into an epic videogame experience. 

Hit the jump to see over a dozen of our favorites, culled from over 50 years of movie history…

We recently highlighted John Woo’s “The Killer” as a particularly inspirational gem from the world of Hong Kong action cinema – today, we present the yang to that yin, some of our favorite guilty pleasures from the realm of ‘Bruceploitation’.
In 1973 when the legendary Bruce Lee passed, an entire industry of martial arts filmmaking coalesced around the void left by his untimely death, attempting to capitalize on the style and substance of the great artist - invariably failing miserably but producing a very surreal genre of opportunistic cult films and helping to reinforce that there was truly only one Bruce.
Check out this selection of trailers from just a few of the unbelievable imposter films that confused and often infuriated a generation of Bruce fans.

Bruce Li and Larry Lee in "Bruce Li in New Guinea" (1978)

Note they even intentionally misspelled his name as "Lee" in the title screen towards the end. Awesome unexpected usage of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in this.

Bruce Le in "Enter the Game of Death" (1978)

Gunning for the distinction of most shameless amidst a genre predicated on shamelessness - distributors of this one morphed the titles of two of (the real) Bruce Lee's most famous films "Enter the Dragon" and "Game of Death". Check out Le's replica Bruce Lee yellow-and-black tracksuit and the jacked-up-Michael-Winslow-looking villain he fights here.

Dragon Lee, Bruce Le, Bruce Thai and Bruce Lai (!) in "The Clones of Bruce Lee" (1981)

A self-aware holy grail of the genre, regarded as 'The Mount Rushmore of Bruceploitation Films.'
"These identical specimens of the late Bruce Lee are trained in all the martial arts through scientific technique."

Sammo Hung in "Enter the Fat Dragon" (1978)

Really. One of the few that at least attempts to present itself as parody.
 

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  

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
 

We would like to congratulate The Small Faces on their forthcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, happening this April – and formally express our gratitude for lending us “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” recently as the score to the first GTAV Trailer.

A truly well-deserved recognition for one of the music world’s most underappreciated and influential bands.

Congratulations to all the other inductees for 2012 as well including Grand Theft Auto soundtrack veterans Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses.
 

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.