Rockstar Newswire

Perhaps the most fast-paced of the Gang Wars' objectives in Max Payne 3 multiplayer, Delivery tasks both teams with transporting bags to drop off locations, earning points for each successful drop. As the location of both bags and drop off locations change throughout the round, and the carrier is only able to use a single one-handed weapon whenever the bag is in their possession, this round requires teamwork, good environmental awareness and of course a solid Loadout strategy.

As in our recent tips article where we demonstrated sound strategy for planting the bomb in "Short Fuse", we've laid out three roles that can be shared around your Crew to ensure that all bases are covered. Again, one of the keys to this strategy - employed by some of the deadliest players on the multiplayer development team - is the idea of complementary Bursts. In the Loadouts we've listed below, try and resist the urge to use Big Dog and Grounded until you've built your adrenaline to at least Level 2. It will be worth the wait, as the benefit will be shared throughout your team.

Bag Lady

The Crew member responsible for carrying bags is obviously the prime target for the opposition, so they need to be well protected but still light enough to get around the map quickly. Whenever you're in possession of the bag you'll only have one hand free, so the DE .50 packs enough punch to take out individual pursuers. What many don't realize is that at Levels 2 and 3, Sneaky Burst makes you appear as a friendly bag-carrier on your opponents' minimap, which can help you slip by unnoticed, providing you don't enter their line of vision. With a little Loadout weight left to play with, we've also equipped the Gorilla Mask, purely because our dev players like the idea of a bag transporting primate double act (more on that in a little bit).

Single Handed Weapon Slot: DE .50
Burst Slot: Sneaky
Item Head Slot: Gorilla Mask
Item Chest Slot: Heavy Body Armor
Item Gear Slot: Walkie Talkie
Item Gear Slot: Quick Holster

Baggyguard

The Bag Lady is a prime target whenever in possession of the contraband, so it's a good idea to employ some muscle to protect them from the other team. The key is to stay close to the carrier throughout, watching their back, and where needed, telling them via voice chat to take cover so that you and the other escort can attract and neutralize the heat. As stated above, we recommend saving your Big Dog Burst until Level 2, and then using it whenever your carrier is under fire and needs a health kick to make it to the drop off - just remember that you will need to have them in sight to share the health benefits at level 2.

Single Handed Weapon Slot: PT92 (with Gas Block)
Two Handed Weapon Slot: MD-97L (With Barrel Upgrade/Extended Mag)
Projectile Slot: Grenade
Burst Slot: Big Dog
Item Chest Slot: Medium Body Armor
Item Gear Slot: Vampire Fangs
Item Gear Slot: Quick Holster

Bag Thief

Like the evil alter-ego of our Bag Lady, the Bag Thief is there to sabotage the opposing team's efforts by intercepting their bags and, whenever possible, activating Grounded Burst at Level 2 or 3 to disrupt their intel. The Booby Trap item ensures that even their fallen corpse has a trick up its sleeve.

Single Handed Weapon Slot: M10
Projectile Slot: Tin Can
Burst Slot: Grounded
Item Head Slot: Gorilla Mask
Item Chest Slot: Heavy Body Armor
Item Gear Slot: Booby Trap
Item Gear Slot: Sneakers
Item Gear Slot: Autoinjector

If you've got any other tactics or techniques you've used to get the upper hand in Delivery, share them with us in the comments.

Update: The events have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined us.

This Thursday, August 30th, we're turning the last Social Club Multiplayer Event of the summer calendar (fall calendar to be announced very soon) into an epic double-header with a twin bill of events across all three platforms (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - with Rockstar Games developers, special invited guest players and you all shooting it out on the live-stream across Liberty City, Hoboken and the favelas of São Paulo.

Our first stop is Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition (playing multiplayer modes from the original GTAIV release and the Episodes, so you don't need to own the Complete Edition specifically to play) between 12-3pm ET / 5-8pm BST and then, after a very short break, we'll be jumping into Max Payne 3 between 4-7pm ET / 9pm-midnight BST. Both events will include a double live-stream and Rockstar hosted chat. With Max Payne 3, this is your first chance to play in a multiplayer event in the Hoboken Rooftops map of the brand new FREE Disorganized Crime Pack, plus be sure to keep watch of the event leaderboards over at the Social Club Multiplayer Events page.

We'll also have some special invited guests joining us at the Rockstar Rooftop that day for some Max Payne 3 multiplayer, a few NYC-area notable players that we're friends with on Twitter and here at the Social Club - including the inimitable Hard8Times. You'll be able to catch the Rooftop action live-stream on our Twitch page. We'll also have a pair of Sweepstakes, with two opportunities to win one of ten total Rockstar Prize Packs with collectibles and gear.

GTAIV: COMPLETE EDITION
Participating Gamertags/Online IDs for the event will be:

• PlayRockstar (PS3)
• GwRockstar2 (Xbox 360)
• GwRockstar3 (Xbox 360)
• GwRockstar4 (PC)

HOW TO FIND US
We'll begin the event in original Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer. To join, start the in-game Party Mode using the cellphone. Make sure that your in-game Party Mode team size is at least two people. Once ready, head to the chat to find out the mode we're beginning with, and type your Gamertag into the chat. Another way is just to send over a friend request to the Gamertags/Online IDs above. We'll do our best to get you in for a few rounds. More info on using Party Mode is listed below.

NEED A PARTNER?
Hit up the chatbox during the event or just post your Gamertag/Online ID in the Comments section below.

ABOUT PARTY MODE
Grand Theft Auto IV's in-game Party Mode is an easy way to get your group together and find matches. Here are the three quick and easy steps to get you up and running:

1. Save your current game. To get started, fire up the in-game mobile phone by pressing "Up" on the D-pad.  Select Multiplayer > Party Mode > Yes.
2. From here, open up your phone again and select the Friends option to invite your friends (you need at least one friend to play with Rockstar). 
3. Once your team is ready to roll, open up the in-game phone again and select a mode to find us in-game.

MAX PAYNE 3
Participating Gamertags/Online IDs for the event will be:

• MaxPayneDev1 (PC)
• MaxPayneDev2 (Xbox 360)
• MaxPayneDev3 (PSN)
• MaxPayneDev4 (Xbox 360)

HOW TO FIND US
Enter Max Payne 3 multiplayer and select the 'Social Club Multiplayer Event' playlist.

And if you want even more chances to play with us, follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Steam (for PC) pages to get the word when we're starting up an impromptu multiplayer session, just like these...

Recently in our Rockstar Game Tips series for Max Payne 3, we've presented several Loadouts used by expert players from the game's Multiplayer dev team to help illustrate which weapon, Burst and Item combinations are best suited for various game types and scenarios. But of course when it comes to ensuring your Loadout is ideal for your individual play style and preferences, one size never fits all and this is where the unique feature of Social Club Arsenals can be of crucial assist.

The Arsenal feature is one of the newer features available at the Rockstar Games Social Club for the game and can be found under the Multiplayer tab at your Max Payne 3 game stats hub. Arsenal lets you break down your personal stats by weapon, Burst and Item, giving you direct access to the Kill/Death Ratio (KDR), rate of accuracy and other helpful statistics for each of the components that make up a successful Loadout. To show you how it works, we've taken our own MaxPayneDev1's play data and analyzed how a tweak to the setup can make for an even more lethal performance.

MaxPayneDev1 already has an enviable KDR, win percentage and average lifespan, but with some insight from the Arsenals page, a tweak could be made to preferred Loadouts to push that KDR into 3+ territory. Looking at the list of most-used weapons, we can see that MaxPayneDev1 favors the MD-97LC overall, but can also wield the Sawn Off with devastating results. However, accuracy is actually tops with the FAL and, as the FAL is the lighter of the two, switching that may just improve KDR and free up a little Loadout weight for more attachments.

The Most Used Weapons stats also illustrate the effectiveness of equipping your Loadouts with multiple weapons so that you're packing the right tools to deal with a number of situations. Those who've joined us for a play session online or watched our event streams may know that MaxPayneDev1 is rarely without a Sawn Off in reach, and has the speed of thought to draw it whenever an opponent dares to come within range. Meanwhile, the M10 is a useful back-up at mid-to-close range and for when ammmunition is getting scarce after sizeable killstreaks.

You can check these stats for all of the weapons, Bursts and items you've used throughout your time in Max Payne 3 multiplayer at the Rockstar Games Social Club. Take a close look and you might find that your favorite Loadout isn't necessarily your most potent.

If you've got your game stats shared publicly to everyone, feel free to shoot us a mouthoff with your Arsenal stats page link and we're happy to have a look to see if we can make any recommendations for you - or share them in comments with others to see what your rivals may have to say...

Previously:
Max Payne 3 Pro Loadouts Part Three – Payne Killer
Rockstar Game Tips: Max Payne 3 Pro Loadouts Part Two - Deathmatch Variants
Rockstar Game Tips: Max Payne 3 Pro Loadouts Part One - Gang Wars

Wednesday, August 1st, our crack quartet of Rockstar devs took to PSN to exchange lead on PSN in Max Payne 3 multiplayer. We fought for three furious hours against some of the best players in the Social Club community many of whom stood toe to toe at the top of the event leaderboards with MaxPayneDev3 and MaxPayneDev2 finishing seventh and ninth respectively but bested by several elite players.

The event started with our two live-stream players, MaxPayneDev1 and MaxPayneDev2, paired together on the same team for a Gang Wars in the favelas of Nova Esparanҫa. Our devs got off to a difficult start, their team losing the first two rounds and coming up against another deadly duo in matthew700 and Kara-Kartal38. But they rallied their team and took the next round of 'Passage', with Dev2 activating a timely Level 3 Sneaky Burst to mop up all enemies surrounding the checkpoints while teammate smittie224 (of the Pyschopathic Rydaz Crew) worked tirelessly to capture them. It all came down to 'Survivor' and both teams fought a good match that came down to seven against one, with Dev1 playing the part of the mouse against seven hungry UFE cats. Our dev was picked off quickly by new nemesis, Kara-Kartal38 (PSN ID).

While MaxPayneDev4 was taking on all comers in Free Aim and Hardcore playlists, Dev1 and Dev2 headed into Docks, this time teaming up with with Kara-Kartal38, who finished with enviable stats of 36 kills and 14 deaths. As you might imagine, the trio lead their team to a comprehensive win.

As the event continued, our dev players separated to try and make their presence known in as many game modes as possible and Dev3 racked up the most impressive score with 69 kills for 28 deaths in Team Deathmatch, using a preferred Loadout of MD-97L, 608 Bull, Sawn-off and Sneaky Burst; and Items Quick Holster, Autoinjector and Sneakers.

For the final match, as has become customary in our Max Payne 3 Social Club Multiplayer Events, our four dev players Crewed up and equipped their game faces for a final Gang Wars in the Favelas. It began with a round of 'Last Man Standing' and Dev2 quickly fell to a headshot from dondormeo (PSN ID). It came down to Dev4 and Combe209 - with senses clearly sharpened from playing Hardcore mode earlier, Dev4 broke from cover to dispatch the opponent with a volley of shotgun shells. The next two rounds saw our devs comfortably win in 'Turf Grab' and 'Passage', and then it took Dev3 all of a minute to plant the bomb on the train tracks and send the team into 'Survivor' with a clean sweep of wins. They finished the match on top with Dev1 taking out bdkrevenge (PSN ID) for the final kill.

Extra special gratitude goes out to YouTube user and Social Club Multiplayer Event regular, ShenmueSaga, who once again captured the action and whose video you can see above.

The Grand Prize for this event included a Limited Edition Max Payne statue, Hawaiian shirt, bullet keychain and stickers - congrats to our lucky winner dingus76. Runners-up N9ne0sBaby, Mattx0x, sensationstation, Shockwave9 and treedee71 will receive a t-shirt, bullet keychain and stickers.

Hit the jump for the full roll call of everyone who joined us and make sure you check back in on the multiplayer events page for several more action-packed dates this month - including sessions for Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV (including the Episodes modes).

Update: The event has now ended. Thanks to everyone who joined us and look out for more Social Club Multiplayer Events in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday August 1, 12-3pm ET / 5-8pm BST, our squad of Rockstar Games developers will be heading into Max Payne 3 multiplayer on PSN. There'll be a live double-stream, Rockstar hosted chat, event leaderboard and Sweepstakes to win a deluxe prize pack, including Max Payne statue, Hawaiian shirt and bullet keychain, all over at the Social Club Multiplayer Event page. We've assembled an elite team for this particular throwdown, and we're going to be on the lookout for cohesive Crews and creative Loadouts as we discard casings across all multiplayer modes and maps, including those on the Local Justice DLC.

To join us, look for 'Social Club Multiplayer Event' on the in-game Playlists menu and keep an eye out for the following PSN IDs:

• MaxPayneDev1
• MaxPayneDev2
• MaxPayneDev3
• MaxPayneDev4

Also make sure you're following us on our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Steam (for PC) pages to get word of additional impromptu multiplayer sessions all summer long and beyond...

Recently, we brought you some of our choice Loadout options for Gang Wars, Max Payne 3's narrative driven, objective based multiplayer mode. Those Loadouts suggested directly by our Multiplayer developers were designed to be good all-around set-ups, flexible enough to give you the edge in those first weeks of competition. Now that we're starting to see more advanced strategies and a generally higher level of play online and in our Social Club Multiplayer Events live-streams, let's move the magnifying glass closer to the subject and take a detailed look at how the very best players from our development teams go about each objective, studying not only which Loadouts they equip, but how they work together to break through the toughest defenses.

How to Plant the Bomb in 'Short Fuse'

When playing as a Crew, it's important that you're communicating at all times and it's a good idea to assign each member a specific role for each objective. It's no good for the entire team to sprint carelessly towards the bomb site, as even average opposition will be able to swat this strategy away with relative ease. Similarly, if everyone is swarming around the map looking to increase their kill count, then the bomb site simply isn't going to blow up by itself. Below we have detailed three roles that we suggest delegating to specific members of your Crew before the match.

One of the keys to this team-oriented approach is the idea of complementary Bursts - not everyone on the team necessarily needs to be using Big Dog, for example, when one player can deploy it at Level 3 and share the benefit across the entire team. Better still, if all players all have different Bursts equipped, each boosting the whole team at Level 3, and are co-ordinated well enough to all deploy them at the same time, that adds up to a healthy team boost across a variety of attributes.

The Bomber

The player tasked with planting the bomb needs to be light enough to get to the target quickly and also well-armored to survive the crossfire when they get there. We recommend a single handgun to keep the Loadout weight down. This player's role is simple: use the Sneaky Burst to get close to one of the objective markers and plant the bomb. When that's done, switch to the Bodyguard Loadout (detailed below) and defend your good work.

Single Handed Weapon Slot: the PT92 (with Gas Block) provides lightweight personal protection
Burst Slot: Sneaky lets you slip through to the bomb site unnoticed
Item Head Slot: Helmet
Item Chest Slot: Heavy Body Armor
Item Gear Slot: Multitool is essential here as it enables you to plant bombs more quickly
Item Gear Slot: Sneakers will aid you in slipping through to the bomb site undetected
Item Gear Slot: Lockbox lets you keep your Painkillers after you die

Hit the jump for our Bodyguard and Sniper Loadouts...

In previous editions of the Crew Cut, we've looked at the ongoing tussles at the top of the Crew leaderboards, where players worldwide are fighting it out on Max Payne 3 multiplayer, earning precious XP to edge them closer to the top. However, that's not the only battle being waged: individual players within the larger Public Crews are putting in the time and talent to try and reach the top of their particular Crew leaderboard, and nowhere is this more competitive than in our largest Public Crew, the official Max Payne 3 Crew, Payne Killers.

Therefore, we'd like to offer special shoutouts to Fingerfinger, MrDixie and agent007marc - the top players in Payne Killers on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC respectively. If you're a Crew leader wondering how you can take your soldiers to the next level, you could do a lot worse than recruiting one of these guys...

RECREWTMENT

Still flying solo in Max Multiplayer? We’ve gathered some Crews that are actively looking for new members; hit them up - it could be the start of a beautiful, bloody relationship:

Facepalm, “where face meets palm” have launched a social media campaign to boost their numbers. Ten members strong and led by PintsizedMunkeh, they are looking to take on the leaderboards on both Xbox 360 and PS3. Newswire comments regular Sprunk95 recently brought GTA TOWN, a Grand Theft Auto community on Facebook, to Social Club, and GTA TOWN CREW is looking for a talented emblem artist. If you think you can compete with Sprunk95’s nifty Whiz Emblem, then this might be the Crew for you. The PS3 Crew Blood Money Rebels is now 25 members deep and looking for players to help in their ongoing Feud with the Public goliath Payne Killers Crew. Having won over 80 Feuds, these guys mean serious business. Finally, Infolady of Brazil - a longtime Rockstar fan who's also big on Red Dead - invites all to join her Crew Top Hand Legends. With Crew stats at 49% Win PCT, some new members may be just what this Crew needs to get in the black.

EMBLEMS DU SEMAINE 

As you will know if you checked out our interview with elite emblem designer YourTaxesAtWork, we're always on the lookout for eye-catching Crew art and this week we'd like to share two excellent emblems that perfectly suit the Crews wearing them. On the left below, we have a fearsome panther designed by Kaspofunk for his Battlecat Crew. The red border makes the image pop and those piercing eyes really tell you who's boss when they appear on a kill screen in Max Payne 3 Multiplayer. On the right, we have the mischievous, taunting calling card of The Faceless Knights designed by another prolific artist, ZeroFoxFK, whom we've mentioned in the Crew Cut before.

We're also pleased to confirm that the Social Club team has recently added more than 100 new shapes and templates to the Emblem Editor for emblem artists to work with, a small sample of which you can see below. Hopefully this should mean the next set of artworks featured here in the Crew Cut is even more impressive than what we've seen yet.

If you've seen an amazing emblem, or if there's a Crew you feel should be mentioned in a future Crew Cut, email us at mouthoff@rockstargames.com and we'll take note.

TEAM JASTA CREW

In the latest of our Rockstar Crew sessions here in NYC, yesterday we welcomed some of our esteemed friends from the world of metal - Jamey Jasta (TeamJasta on Social Club) of Hatebreed and his own eponymous band Jasta, along with radio personality Jose Mangin of Liquid Metal on Sirius XM and MTV2's Headbangers Ball and Seton O'Connor of The Dan Patrick Show. The dudes didn't get to enjoy the Rockstar Rooftop due to some gnarly storms over NYC, but still grouped up here in our HQ to kick off the launch of the official Team Jasta Crew at Social Club with lots of good times and bullets flying in Max Multiplayer live-streamed at the Rockstar Twitch page. The Team Jasta Crew is open for enrollment so sign up to wield heavy metal with like-minded fans. Look for more Rockstar Crew sessions in the weeks ahead by watching our Twitter feed.
 

Finally, look for a special competitive Crew event to take place in the coming weeks, which will be of particular interest to all international Crews playing with their compatriots while a certain sporting event takes place in London, England. We’ll have a first announcement about that right here at the Newswire in the next week or so.

Our latest edition of Rockstar Game Tips, inside pro tips straight from Rockstar developers, takes an in-depth look at Max Payne 3’s Arcade Modes - intense shootout challenges designed to test both your accuracy and your grasp of Max’s signature abilities, Bullet Time® and Shootdodge™. There are two Arcade modes to master: Score Attack, which unlocks as you complete chapters in Story mode; and New York Minute, which is available upon full completion of the Story and also comes in Hardcore flavor.

When you complete a stage, you’re awarded a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum rank depending on your performance - and your score will determine your place on the Global leaderboard. In-game, you can also view a Leaderboard of players in either your Friends List or your Crew. Reaching certain milestones in these modes will unlock character avatars for Multiplayer Deathmatch like Fabiana Branco, Passos and more.

To rack up a truly impressive score though, you need to take advantage of Hit Streak Multipliers and Action Multipliers. A Hit Streak is an unbroken succession of bullets successfully hitting enemies. If you miss, the Hit Streak ends and the multiplier is reset.  Points earned are multiplied by whatever your current Hit Streak Multiplier is at that moment, in addition to any Action Multipliers that are in effect.

For example, If you’re currently sitting on a 6 Hit Streak (X3) and you score a Headshot (100 points) while prone (X3) and with Bullet Time active (X2), that adds up to a X8 multiplier and you’ll get 800 points in total for that kill: 100 X (3 + 3 + 2) = 800

You’ll also want to avoid certain actions that will deduct points from your total as follows:

Kill: +5 seconds
Headshot kill: +6 seconds