Posted on July 20 2012, 5:00pm | Author: R* M | Filed Under: Social Club
HIGHLY ACCOMPLISHED
This week, we take a look at the Accomplishments section of Crews' profile pages to see which squads are working together to reach their targets. Ghostface_Killas Crew's roster of 92 players have clearly put the time and teamwork in as they recently racked up 5,000 Crew assists in Max Payne 3 Multiplayer on Xbox LIVE. With extra XP gained for acting as accomplice to a Crewmate's kill, it's no surprise they've also crossed the 5,000,000 threshold and gained an XP IV Accomplishment in doing so. As well has having a killer emblem, Los Santos Police Crew have an even more impressive Crew-members-to-Crew-Assists ratio. Their 45 members have crossed the 1,000 mark for assists, achieving the Solidarity III Accomplishment. These PlayStation Network players are currently recruiting, so if you fancy joining up with a Crew on their way up, talk to their leadership triumvirate of PUREOWNAGE760, jessejames26 and "main Boss" kenny_fromLV.
Ghostface_Killas Crew exhibit an impressive trophy cabinet of Accomplishments.
PC players looking for a talented and fun Crew to join could do worse than the CyberKillers. Not only do they have an awesome Daft Punk inspired emblem but their 14 players have put more than 1,000,000 points on the board, earning them an XP III Accomplishment. They are encouraging new users to "join today", so get involved. We also found one Crew who has set their own specific Accomplishment to target: Rampage Crew, led by FisFis, are out to "Kill 25 Crew members in 2 minutes!" Best of luck guys - let us know how you get on and who winds up serving as your foil.
MANGA & TOON EMBLEMS
We've come across two very nicely detailed emblems that pay homage to the Gekiga style of Japanese Manga drawing. The genre is characterized by gritty, bleak storylines featuring dangerous and often violent characters battling against dark demons both literal and metaphorical - an influence that some Social Club Crews apparently are finding apt to represent the mayhem and gunfire of Max Payne 3 Multiplayer. The pistol-wielding heroine on the left is an effort by ZeroFoxFK of The Faceless Knights Crew who we featured a few weeks back. The Faceless Knights gallery indicates that ZeroFoxFK is a keen tinkerer will go back and revise emblems, adding new layers to find the perfect combination. We particularly like the Faceless Knights initials tattooed onto his heroine's arm - nice touch. To the right, is an emblem designed by leonpoly for his Argentinian Crew, Leon De Monos. The boys from Buenos Aires are currently six-deep in membership, get in touch for your chance to sport this bad boy as your emblem.
Cartoons are also proving to be a prime source of inspiration for Social Club Crew emblems, with many users opting to strategically amuse their enemies into distraction and then follow-up laughter with pain. An impressive recreation of the beloved Towelie has turned up as the emblem for the high-minded Chronic Vengeance Crew, and despite several subsequent submissions to their gallery, quite rightly remains the Crew's active emblem. HitmanForum Crew make up for a woeful Feud win PCT with a retro and oddly pensive portrait of Sesame Street's mono-browed Bert, designed by Hungary's Nashoba. It seems that Mercs Inc Crew leader Time_Victim, featured previously on the Crew Cut, now has competition for title of best artist in Ponyville: the bronies of the 130-member strong Str8 Outta Equestria Crew have filled their gallery with various representations of Pinkie Pie et al. Check out their current active emblem, inspired by Twilight Sparkle, in the line-up below. Turning back the years are The Magoo Crew who we can only hope are mimicking Jim Backus' famous catchphrase over the comms everytime they notch another kill on Max Payne 3 Multiplayer: "Oh Magoo, You've Done it Again!".
Posted on July 19 2012, 2:23pm | Author: R* M | Filed Under: Social Club
Helping to set the standard for Crew Emblem Editor excellence at the Social Club is YourTaxesAtWork - the first Emblem artiste to be featuredtwice in our Newswire Crew Cut report. With a great vision and keen eye for proportion and color, he first made a name with his own Crew, Emblem Addicts ("Emblematic of Obsession") and soon found himself taking requests and becoming ubiquitous for joining Crews and blessing them with a fine custom creation. We decided it was about time we got in touch with YourTaxesAtWork to ask him about his work, and how he gets such incredible results with the editor.
Which of your works are you most proud of?
The Kong Whiskey emblem is by far my favorite. It really wasn't complete until I added the fly in the glass because it helps tell the story of Max Payne. The guy just can't catch a break.
How long does it take you on average to complete an emblem?
If I'm copying an image as I did for the Tupac and Bachelor Frog emblems, it takes about an hour because the idea is already in front of me. I don't have to imagine what it ought to look like. Shine Thugz took about 4-5 hours total, but most take 2-3 hours. Half of that time is spent getting the emblem within 90% of the finished product, but tweaking, correcting, and polishing takes up the other half. That usually takes place in 20 minute increments. I'll take a break, look at it with fresh eyes, have an idea, make the change, then walk away again. Rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied. In fact, I had to come back to Shine Thugz AFTER it was featured because part of the banner (Viva) was in Spanish, not French!
As well as your own Crew Emblem Addicts, you've created custom emblems for a lot of other Crews such as DOGS OF VVAR, Epic Ninjas and Bachelor Frogs. You must get a lot of requests. Why did you decide to do emblems for the Crews you did?
I get a lot of requests. It can be hard to keep up, but generally speaking I don't discriminate. It's just a matter of whether I have time or not, which I usually do. Sometimes I like to do them on my own then surprise the crew with the finished product. I'll do that for a crew like Sterling Cooper because I love the show Mad Men and it also relates back to Rockstar because of the Mad Men-inspired cast of L.A. Noire.
How do you get the minute detail like the unicorn being abducted in your version of Mona Lisa?
Detail is tough once your shape gets overrun by little blue squares but the ability to type in the value of your X and Y scale is invaluable. You can also do this to define the coordinates and rotation of the shape, which helps especially when you're trying to maintain a level of uniformity like in lettering.
If you press Escape while in the Emblem Editor it will remove those little blue squares while still giving you the ability to control the shape.
Thanks for the tip. I did not know that!
And now, in what may be considered his debut solo exhbition, we are proud to present a selection of YourTaxesAtWork finest emblems - all created from the ground up with the Crew Emblem Editor:
Posted on July 15 2012, 10:50am | Author: R* M | Filed Under: Games, Social Club
CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARDS
This week on the Crew Cut, we check in at the the top of the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer leaderboards to see if the veteran Crews are still holding firm, or whether any new young upstarts can upset the balance of power. We start with a special shout to Payne Capitale, a French Crew whose 7 Samurai we featured nearly two months ago for reaching 31st on the overall Xbox 360 Leaderboards (and 9th worldwide amongst Private Crews). Their head count has swelled to a still-modest 18 members but their combined XP is now more than the 1,500+ member GameSpot Crew - an extraordinary achievement. Not far behind them in 32nd place (11th amongst Private Crews) are the Ganja Outlaws Crew - whose leader DutchStoner demands total dedication, sacking anyone seen moonlighting with rival Crews. This firm hand ensures that not a single member is wasted - and such is their popularity that their numbers never drop below 290. If you don't want to wait in line to get involved the the Ganja Outlaws, join up with their open-enrollment sister Crew, K-Jah Rebels - the two Crews always roll together.
Manhunt07420 (PSN ID: IzYdOeSiT420) of theUnderground Thugs slays a Rockstar Dev during the July 6th Social Club event.
Soul Crushers are another Crew with ideas above their station; their 18 members currently sit at an admirable 28th worldwide (12th amongst Private Crews) on the PS3 leaderboards. Despite modest manpower, they are veterans of nearly 2,000 feuds and have more than 5,000 Crew assists in Max Payne 3 multiplayer - clear evidence that when they roll out, they roll deep. Elsewhere it seems the rise and rise of Underground Thugs Crew shows no signs of slowing down. They have stormed into 11th place worldwide and 2nd place amongst Private Crews, just two weeks after we featured them at 17th. The axis of power at the top of the PS3 leaderboards has been finally been broken, as the Thugs place between perenial top Crews Pro Kill You and Pick Your Poison. They've made the divide, now can they conquer?
On the PC Leaderboard, Dangerous Liaisons continue to reign as the top Private Crew there. There can be no resting on their laurels however as the troika of Russian Crews, the Russian Bears Team, Army of Red Fuel Can and RGRussia continue to snap at their heels. Recent Private Crew entrants to the PC top 20 are Bloods Crew - an all-French Crew who've racked up a fearsome 82% win percentage. With just 72 members they've room to grow and with a few solid recruits,it won't be long before they're knocking on the door of the top 10. It was the playful Adventure Time-inspired emblem of the Masters of Alchemy Crew that first caught our eye, but their 20th overall placing cannot be ignored. This 85-strong Crew currently have an open-door policy on recruiting, so join up now for a chance to be part of something big.
EMBLEMS OF THE WEEK
Our favorite Crew Emblems this week feature two familiar ladies that have graced loading screens in Grand Theft Auto games in the past. On the left, we have the unmistakeable Lollipop Girl from GTAIV, recreated by TKSINCERE for the Hot Clan Crew; while on the right, you'll find the poolside cover girl of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, as depicted by kmajik and adopted by the Rewind Crew. Which lovely lady is your pick of the two?
OFFICIAL OPIE & ANTHONY AND TROUBLE & BASS CREWS
Over the past week, we welcomed two more official friend Crews to the Social Club fray. On Tuesday, the boys from Trouble & Bass and Drop the Lime, who produced the awesome Trouble in Brazil DJ mix you hear during the Nightclub level in Max Payne 3, came by and had a hell of a good time getting down in Multiplayer here on the Rockstar rooftop. Thanks to everyone who answered the call on Twitter to get involved with the T&B Official Crew.
Update: Today's live-streaming Max Payne 3 Xbox LIVE Social Club has ended - thanks to everyone that joined in.
Now that you've stocked up on unlocked weapons, Bursts and Items over this past weekend's first Double XP bonanza for Max Payne 3, it's time to show and prove and put 'em to good use in the live stream during our next Xbox LIVE Social Club Multiplayer Event this Thursday July 12th. Rally your Crew or find a new one to roll with via our new Open Enrollment feature.
You'll be able to watch the live double-stream of the entire event right here on the official Social Club Multiplayer Events page; with a third player stream on our our Rockstar Twitch.tv page. You can also get down in the Rockstar-hosted live Social Club chat and enter the Sweepstakes for the chance to win hand painted Xbox 360 controllers bearing your Gamertag and Crew emblem, as well as t-shirts and sticker packs. As usual for our Social Club events, the MaxPayneDev Crew of Rockstars will be out in force to show 'em how it's done. Keep an eye out for the following Gamertags, as well as the RSG Crew dogtag:
You may recall the O&A crew joining in our Red Dead Redemption Myths and Mavericks Social Club Multiplayer Event last year, so we're excited to see how they do BulletTiming and Shootdodging through the battlegrounds of Sao Paulo and Hoboken streets in Max Payne 3 this year. For now, here's a list of Gamertags to look out for during the event (more may be added by Thursday) and look for the live stream right here and at http://socialclub.rockstargames.com/multiplayer:
Selecting "Open Enrollment" in your Crew's settings lets users find and join your Crew quickly and easily.
OPEN ENROLLMENT FEATURE NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE CREWS
To aid in recruitment efforts for private Crews looking to swell their ranks with a come-one come-all ethos, we've recently rolled out a brand new Open Enrollment setting which will allow anyone to join your Crew without you needing to approve or deny each member's request. Crew Leaders can toggle this Recruitment Status directly in their Crew settings - just select "Open Enrollment" from the dropdown. And if you're a lone wolf looking to join one such all-welcoming private Crew, we just launched an Open Crews filter area for you to browse through Open Enrollment squads - if you see a Crew you want to get down with in there, you can just click 'Join' on the Crew page and you're in - reaping XP benefits, rocking their Emblem in-game, able to Feud with their rival Crews and more.
REVERSALS OF FORTUNE
A few weeks back, we picked out The Italian Job Crew as a team who were proving themselves on the PSN leaderboards but couldn't handle the pressure of a Feud. Checking back in, we're pleased to see they've taken heed and pulled their Feud win percentage up from a meagre 45%, to a respectable winning ratio of 59%. Tracking well, but keep it up compagni. Conversely, Xbox 360 Crew Ten Knobs were previously highlighted for their prowess at Payne Killer, but have completely dropped off the pace - cascading from 27th place down the leaderboards and out of the top 200. They've gained a few more members in that time, but the Crew Leaders will need to incite the troops to make sure that the Ten Knobs are repping online to restore the team to glory. All Crew leaders could take a lesson from the Payne Stake Crew who are going for it, promoting themselves all over the internet: we particularly enjoyed this video they posted to YouTube in aim to recruit hopefuls to their strong fighting unit.
FAN COMMUNITY CREWS
We've recently found several Crews led by some of our longtime fans and fansite community notables. Dedicated Social Club member and Max Payne 3 ass kicker Scareface1970 has set up the Scared 7 whose motto is a bit of brutally simple advice: "Don't Be Scared and Kill". Amongst the roster, we spotted a few of the faces of Max Payne 3 Multiplayer: ElvisMarques and Twisted AZ who were selected from our Twitter Casting event earlier this year and can be found in the Multiplayer Avatars menu as Elvis and Nick respectively. (On that note, and as we just announced yesterday, don't miss your chance to be immortalized as a Multiplayer Avatar face in one or DLC packs later this year; read up on the details and schedule for special Social Club playlists to join online to be eligible.) Twisted_ AZ has his own Crew: the Twisted Tea Baggers. He's managed to recruit another Newswire regular, ChicagoEnigma. Big thanks to ChicagoEnigma for putting together this blog post on RockstarNetwork.com about Crews looking for new recruits, which provided much of the inspiration for this weeks Crew Cut. Finally, it would be remiss of us not to throw out a mention for Community stalwart Sprunk95 and his GTA Town Crew. Be sure to check out the Crew's Facebook page where Sprunk95 is hosting giveaways from his personal Rockstar sticker collection for Crew members.
EMBLEM EXCELLENCE
As ever, we've been keeping a sharp eye on your artistic emblem efforts both in-game and online. First up this week are The Clownz Crew. It was difficult to pick just one of RealDeathClown's emblems to display here, but the Crew's active Emblem inspired by the malevolent clown Pennywise of Stephen King's It just couldn't be ignored. See their gallery for the Sheperd Fairey-inspired "Clown" poster and many more besides. Dwindlebag has created a wonderfully detailed Emblem for his Crew Bad_Dude_Inc depicting Max Payne himself. Placing the image behind a mock TV, complete with analog fuzzy lines lends a great vibe to the image. The Drunken Senseis Crew have gone for a sweet, simple literal depiction of their Crew name, a bushido master with bottle-up against the rising sun flag. We sign off our emblem round up this week with a sexy and unforgettable emblem from the Global Assault Team. As the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard so brilliantly put it, "All you need...is a girl and a gun".
HOT 97'S OFFICIAL PUBLIC CREW
Finally, fans of New York hip-hop can join a new official public Crew formed by our friends at Hot 97. We've been allies with the pioneering hip-hop station (currently celebrating their 20th year since first adopting a "Where Hip-Hop Lives" programming format) for a long time now, and keen listeners to GTAIV's radio dial may know that they were good enough sports to let us parody them with The Beat 102.7 - borrowing some of their signature DJs and the iconic voice of the station, Eric Edwards. To kick off the launch of the Hot 97 Official Social Club Crew last week, we welcomed a few station DJs and rapper friends to the Rockstar rooftop to set things off with a public Max Payne 3 Multiplayer session - including DJ Bobby Trends of Funkmaster Flex's Big Dog Pitbulls DJ syndicate, serious gamer DJ Kast One of the Heavy Hitters, J. Medina who co-hosts DJ Mister Cee's radio show, plus Maino (aka Maino_HustleHard at the Social Club) known for "Getaway Driver" from the GTAIV Soundtrack and Uncle Murda (_Uncle_Murda_ at the Social Club) who did "Anybody Can Get It" also off the GTAIV Soundtrack. Known for their specialty in gun talk, Maino and Murda found most of the online shooters in Max Payne 3's virtual killing fields to be pretty overwhelmingly stiff competition, but wound up bodying the other guest players for bloody bragging rights as you can see in this highlight recap reel from the live-stream that Hot 97 posted on YouTube. Since the launch of the HOT Crew, it's now 60-deep with Social Club members showing and proving - shout to the top Crew leaderboard players by-platform horribletrade366 (Xbox LIVE), greenwzrd23 (PSN) and jpwilly (PC).
Stay tuned for more Multiplayer sessions hosted by the Official Hot 97 Crew featuring other soundtrack alumni as well as other special Rockstar friend Crew multiplayer sessions we're lining up for the weeks ahead including ones with Trouble & Bass from the Max Payne 3 soundtrack and with our longtime friends from the Opie & Anthony radio show very soon.
This is your last chance to get your mug into Max Payne 3, and this time we're looking for recruits directly from the online Multiplayer community: beginning tomorrow, and for all of July, we'll be hosting a series of Social Club Multiplayer Event playlists across all platforms and in both Soft Lock and Free Aim game modes. Twice a week, for the next four weeks, you will see "Social Club Event Playlist" appear in the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer menus (see full schedule below). Startup Max Payne 3 and select the playlist. Complete one full game with an account linked to Social Club, and you'll automatically be in consideration to have your face in the game.
Each week we will reach out via email to a randomly selected group of players who have participated and invite them to submit photos of themselves for consideration to be one of our new Gang Avatars. Those selected must respond with a picture within 24 hours to be considered. One person each week will be selected for casting. If you aren't initially picked, you can enter again the following week, simply by playing another session in the Social Club Multiplayer Event playlist.
Make sure you have your Xbox LIVE or PlayStation Network account linked to Social Club. If you haven't already set up a Social Club account, click here to do so. If you already have a Social Club account, click here to link your gaming network account.
Full details, along with terms and conditions can be found on our official contest page here. Any questions? Feel free to drop us a line at mouthoff@rockstargames.com and we'll be happy to answer. We'll see you online...
Posted on July 2 2012, 1:16pm | Author: R* M | Filed Under: Social Club
As June has come to a close, we look back on a month stocked with Social Club action in the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Events Series - having kicked off with a triple-header weekend in celebration of the game's PC launch, and flowing on with daily impromptu sessions through mid-June and live-streaming events on Xbox LIVE (June 14th) and PlayStation Network (June 23rd).
Thanks to everyone that took part in some truly awesome multiplayer matches with us, testing their mettle against Rockstar Crew members from our worldwide dev teams and the multiplayer community at large. Read on for a recap from each event accompanied by some choice screens and fan videos... and buckle up for much more all summer with Max Payne 3 Multiplayer live-streaming events into July and August and beyond.
FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd on PSN
Our most recent event last week involved four Rockstar devs taking on all comers on PSN. MaxPayneDev4 emerged victorious in a Hoboken Deathmatch, using a classic AK 47 to defeat John_SALEM of the two-man Tropa De Preto Crew, splendidgate2972 from the Cleveland/Detroit Crew of GameStoppers and Rhino-Soldier of the Soldier Boyz Crew duo. Hats off to DeadMaN_The_Poet of the Deadman Faction Crew who has seemingly become master of the melee kill, taking out MaxPayneDev4 on four separate occassions with a gun butt to the skull. MaxPayneDev4 also appreciated the vocal commentary and team tactics coming over the comms from MrRatatat’s headset, key to a 100% Gang Wars victory for the Cracha Preto in the Docks.
Stand-out players we saw included ZefirothX, awesomecurrent54 and Se-Xi-Chick-156 - the latter (from The Chosen 156 Crew whose motto is "Known for the Way We Kill....") with an incredible 81 kills vs. 18 deaths in a Favela Gang War. MaxPayneDev1 also picked out Brazil's Kennyloko as a worthy foe, after he camped out in the Favelas' high point with a sniper rifle to take out enemies one by one. As for the Crews, MaxPayneDev4 and MaxPayneDev1 bit off more than they could chew against members of DamnoKrat as they used positioning, organization and timing brilliantly to defend a checkpoint during a Gang War in the Docks. Congratulations to DIMALICIOUSX for placing top on the event leaderboard.
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Cheers toGM-Shenmuefor recording and uploading the streams from all of our events. Check out the action from June 14th above.
Hit the jump below for recaps of the rest of our June events, along with a full roll call...
Posted on June 25 2012, 10:51am | Author: R* M | Filed Under: Games, Social Club
It's now been just over a month since the dawn of the Crew age on Social Club. This week's Crew Cut checks in on the top of the leaderboards to see which private Crews have maintained the frantic pace of the opening exchanges. Sustained effort and savvy recruitment from LXG Crew, Dangerous Liaisons and Pick Your Poison has helped them hold on to their positions as best private Crew on their respective platform leaderboards. Their places are by no means assured however: the blood thirsty hordes chase them every day, motivated by glory and often times revenge. In particular, Pick Your Poison should be keeping a close eye on the Underground Thugs, who are making a bid to upset the status quo on the PSN leaderboards. They leapt from 20th place to 17th over the weekend and with an impressive 85% Feud win percentage show no signs of slowing down.
At the top of the Deathmatch leaderboards, American Most Wanted currently take the title of best lone gunmen among the private Crews on Xbox 360. On PSN, their standing is matched by the Royal Legends, one of only two Crews we've found with their own website. Elsewhere, Army Of Two's 32nd place position amongst PC Crews for Payne Killer may initially seem modest, but their Crew name is no lie - their two members pack some serious punch. Longtime Crew Cut favorites T Bagging Yo Moms and much more recent discovery SoldiersSpainKillers have both picked out Gang Wars on PSN as their specialist subject. The rivalry between these two is well established: SSK currently edge out T Bagging 15 to 13 on Feuds - total kills are currently at an incredibly close 238 to 225 - we're eager to see if either can gain a significant upper hand.
Specialist Crews are also out in force away from the multiplayer battlefields: Los Pollos Hermanos are proving to be no chickens when it comes to the New York Minute SP Game Mode; they currently dominate well over half of the Xbox NYM leaderboards. Meanwhile, Hearts and Spades "shineth into the Dark" on the PSN NYM leaderboards. They're facing some significant competition from a well-known duo around these parts: Niko and Roman (aka slave_oonnee and woitexxx12) clearly fare well under a time pressue, whether in Liberty City, Hoboken or São Paulo.
ROCKSTAR REFERENCES
Niko and Roman are far from being the only Crew to take inspiration from the Rockstar catalogue. Among the others are CousinLetsGoBowling - a Crew dedicated to one of the Bellic boys' favorite leisure activities in GTAIV - and a posse calling themselves the Bigfoot Hunting Club who are on the lookout for the elusive creature known as Sasquatch. Atxa02 has created a fantastic portrait of the Harwood Butcher himself, Vice City's Tommy Vercetti (complete with trademark threads) for The Vercettis. Still no sign of any Feuds with the Forelli Crime Family but we imagine that's only a matter of time...
Dedicated to the highest peak found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the well organised Chiliad Jumpers has its own Facebook page as well as prizes for members who hit XP milestones. They even have a specific schedule when they play, which is great for team practice and useful information if you're a rival Crew with some unfinished business. It's great to see that long running fansite WarriorsGang.com have set up The Warriors Gangto rep themselves in Max Payne 3. Although the Baseball Furies, Lizzies, Rogues, Hurricanes, and the Riffs and are all begging them to "Come Out To Play".
For Max Payne 3 to Grand Theft Auto V and beyond, Crews are groups of Social Club members who form persistent teams to compete and earn rewards in-game and on the Social Club website. Create a Crew or join one now - here are some Crews we've featured in the Crew Cut here at the Newswire:
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