Update: The multiplayer event has ended. Thanks to everyone that joined us. Get ready for our next Social Club multiplayer event happening Thursday Feb 7th. Check the Winter Calendar for info and stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the date.

This Friday January 25th, 11am-2pm EST / 4-7pm GMT, our latest live-streaming Social Club Multiplayer Event invades Liberty City for three hours of melees, mayhem, and mischief in Grand Theft Auto IV. Come look for our dev players in-game on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, or tune in to our double live-stream on the Social Club Multiplayer Events page. There you'll also find our Rockstar-hosted Social Club chat and the chance to win one of ten GTAV prize packs, each including the GTAV Logo Tee, GTAV Tee, and GTAV and Rockstar logo stickers, in our giveaway.

We'll play a mix of original GTAIV modes, as well as The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony multiplayer modes, and you don't need to own the Complete Edition to play in the event - you can join us whenever we're playing a mode that you have. Our devs will clear their friends lists beforehand, and you can enter the giveaway on this page under the Sweepstakes Entry tab.

Two of our devs will be streaming their GTAIV gameplay live on the Social Club Multiplayer Event page with a live chat, and a third video stream will run on our Rockstar Twitch page with a second hosted chatroom.

ROCKSTAR DEV ACCOUNTS

• PlayRockstar11 (PSN)
• GwRockstar3 (Xbox LIVE)
• GwRockstar1 (PC & streamed on our Twitch TV channel)
• PlayRockstar12 (PSN)

We'll accept as many invites as we can during the event, but we do recommend playing with Social Club members to make sure you get in on the action. Getting in a game with a dev is not a guarantee, but it is something we absolutely attempt to do for as many people as we can when we host a multiplayer event.

FINDING US IN-GAME
Want to know which multiplayer mode our devs are about to play? Pay attention to the live chat on the Social Club Multiplayer Event page. We'll begin in Grand Theft Auto IV in GTA Race, and later progress to The Lost and Damned in the second hour and The Ballad of Gay Tony in the final hour. Use the in-game cellphone to select the mode we're playing during the event.

NEED A PARTNER?
For team-based modes such as Team Deathmatch, gather your friends using Party Mode. You can also hit up the chat during the event or just post your PSN ID/Gamertag in the Comments section below.

ABOUT PARTY MODE
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. In single player, open the in-game mobile phone by pressing "Up" on the d-pad. Select Multiplayer > Party Mode > Yes.
2. Next, open up your phone again and select the Friends option to invite at least one person into your Party Mode game.
3. Once your team is ready to roll, open up the in-game phone again and select Games > GTA Race.

Previously:
Recapping the November Social Club Multiplayer Events with Fan Videos & More
Recap from our September Max Payne 3 and GTA IV Social Club Events
Recap from the GTAIV & Max Payne 3 Doubleheader Multiplayer Event (August 30)

Click the image above to see prizing in greater detail.

Update: The multiplayer event and Triple XP have ended. Thanks to everyone that participated.

The first Social Club Multiplayer Event of 2013 starts the year off with a literal bang - with three hours of live-streaming Max Payne 3 Multiplayer action and the chance to win two custom controllers or a badass high-performance PC gaming mouse - all emblazoned with the lucky winner's Crew Emblem and Gamertag / PSN ID. We will also be awarding prize packages to five runners-up, each including a Max Payne 3 t-shirt, bullet keychain and stickers.

With Friday's event, we'll also be unlocking the coveted Arcane Skull Mask and Demonic Skull Mask as seen above for all Social Club members. Come n' get 'em. The Arcane and Demonic skull masks are in-game and all you need to do to receive them is make sure you're linked to Social Club. On top of that, after the event finishes we will be awarding the Wedding Skull Mask (debuted at our last Max Payne 3 event) to members of the top 10 user-made Crews on the Event Leaderboards in each platform. Sound the war cry and get your team together to compete for this exclusive head item.

Oh yeah - and Triple XP starting with the event and active all weekend long until early Monday morning the 14th.

It all goes down this Friday January 11th as we jump online to play Max Payne 3 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Two of our devs will be streaming live at the Social Club Multiplayer Events page, with live Rockstar-hosted chat as well as Crew and Player Leaderboards to see who's showing and proving. You can also kick it with us and watch live video via a 3rd dev stream at our Twitch.tv page.

OFFICIAL MAX PAYNE 3 ROCKSTAR IDs
Participating official in-game Rockstar IDs will be:

• MaxPayneDev1 (Xbox 360)
• MaxPayneDev2 (PS3)
• MaxPayneDev1 (Streaming PC Live on Twitch)
• MaxPayneDev3 (PS3)

COUNTDOWN
Need some help figuring out when the event begins in your time zone? Have a look at the countdown on the Social Club Multiplayer Event page.

HOW TO FIND US IN THE GAME
Enter multiplayer and select the Social Club Multiplayer Event playlist. We'll play a mix of Soft Lock and Free Aim, primarily playing in the latest DLC, Painful Memories and Hostage Negotiation.

FUTURE PLAYSESSIONS
Follow us at our official Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Steam pages so you can get the word when we're going online for some impromptu multiplayer action. We don't schedule this gameplay time or announce it way ahead of time, so the only way you'll be able to find out that we're playing is by following.
 

Over the years, Vice City's Better Business Bureau has received complaints of a wide range of violations from embezzlement and rioting to bribery and intimidation. Oh, and murder and arson as well. Let's just say that there are quite a few members of the local VC business community with less than stellar reputations for ethical practices. 

With Vice City tourism in high season, we need you to be a good whistle blower and file a report to the VCBBB on which of these allegedly crooked operations stands out to you as the worst offender.

InterGlobal Films
While this local movie studio run by director Steve Scott has consistently run afoul of obscenity laws and been a bane of our upstanding family values congressmen, ever since they came under new management, matters may have gotten worse  as their business interests have reportedly branched out into blackmail and felony littering...

Shady Acres and Avery Construction
Originally from Texas, Avery Carrington is a successful Vice City based businessman with interests in real estate development and construction. Going big at all costs, word on the street is that his fortune was built less on hard work and elbow grease, and more on juking property values, bribery, intimidation - and perhaps worse...

BJ's Used Autos / BJ's Fit for Football
Heavily in debt to loan sharks, former Vice City Mambas tight end BJ Smith opened BJ's Used Autos with a promise to customers that he would deliver them the car of their dreams - even if it's not on the lot. Following his own inspiring story of weight loss all the way down to 300 pounds, BJ expanded his empire to include the BJ's Fit for Football fitness video series on Beta and VHS.

Pastor Richards Salvation Statue Organization
Pastor Richards is a respected man of the cloth who has led his faithful Vice City congregation for years, uplifting and inspiring them with his fiery sermons whilst shining a light on all degenerates, philanderers, liberals and other evil-doers. Most recently, Pastor Richards has started the Pastor Richards Salvation Statue Organization, a tax-exempt fund to help followers rid themselves of corrupting material wealth and instead invest in building a structure in his likeness to inspire and save generations to come. We've received complaints alleging misappropriation of funds but this one seems on the up and up?

The Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company
There are accusations that Maude Hanson's Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company with its landmark whipped-cream-and-cherry-topped factory in the heart of Little Havana is heavier on the ice than the cream. We have reports of people lining up around the block for a snow cone or some extra sprinkles at Cherry Popper Ice Cream trucks across Vice City...

Print Works
An elder statesman in the Vice City business community with a checkered past, old man Earnest Kelly is said to have the experience, knowledge and printing skills to handle any job large or small at his Print Works shop. Flyers, leaflets, or even novelty play-money replicated to look exactly like the real thing...

K. Rosenberg & Co.
This long-standing law firm founded by attorney Ken Rosenberg is located right on the Washington Beach beachfront strip. With a client list that reads like a who's who of shady characters - from Liberty City's reputed don Sonny Forelli to magnate Avery Carrington and others - we've received tips that he's also been spotted of late in the company of Liberty City transplant and ex-con Tommy Vercetti...

Café Robina
Cuban immigrants Umberto Robina and his father Alberto founded the Café Robina back in the 60s and are known far and wide for their tasty red beans and rice and boisterous hospitality. Recently however their reputation has been pockmarked by a nasty ongoing feud with neighboring Haitian gangs and reports of escalating violence...
 

Sun-kissed beaches, glamorous night spots, sprawling mansions, squalid ghettos and the various vehicles you use to traverse them...
Creating the world of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City called for tireless and meticulous City Design in making its ambitious level of architecture, locations and modes of transport possible. Today's concluding Part 3 of "The Lab" - a rare behind the scenes look at the design of Vice City through interactive displays originally produced nearly a decade ago for an exhibit at London's Design Museum - has some very special glimpses of the modeling, interior design, and 3D rendering that brought Vice City to life. 

• “Buildings”- Rare rendering videos that show the Cherry Poppers ice cream factory, the Malibu Club, and the Diaz Mansion from wireframes through to 3D models and fully rendered locations in the game world.
   
• “Interiors” - 360-degree video tours of the inside of the Ocean Apartments lobby and dining room, the Malibu Club's dance floor, and Ken Rosenberg's stately office.
   
• "City Wireframe”- Focused around the city's Downtown area with its hi-rises and landmark Hyman Stadium, see the city come alive from wireframes to final city render with a view to the south.
   
• "City Renders" - Render images of various parts about the city both interior and exterior - living spaces, work spaces, playtime and outside vistas.
   
• "Vehicle Design" - 3D models, wireframes, final renders and damage models for a variety of vehicle types in the game - the Box Ville truck, the Faggio scooter, Squalo speedboat, Sandking rover, Hermes vintage sedan, and the Maverick chopper.

Embed Code:

Previously:
Part One: Animation | Part Two: Sound

Part two in of our special three-part series in honor of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's 10th anniversary, "The Lab" - a set of interactive tours through the game's design elements that originally appeared nearly a decade ago as part of an installation recognizing Vice City at London's Design Museum - focuses on the painstaking work poured into the game's sound design.

From the attention paid to the Vice City radio dial which hosted an unprecedented soundtrack of licensed music from the 80s plus original 'talk radio' stations, to the intensive sound design that helped make the game's open world come alive, today's edition of The Lab has some glimpses behind the scenes that have never been published online til today:

• “Radio Stations”- Tune in to audio from all 9 original radio stations from the Vice City radio dial: Fever 105 (soul hosted by Oliver "Ladykiller" Biscuit), Radio Espantoso (latin hosted by Pepe), Emotion 98.3 (ballads hosted by Fernando Martinez), Wave 103 (new wave hosted by Adam First), Wildstyle Pirate Radio (rap hosted by Super Rockin' Mr. Magic), V-Rock (rock hosted by Lazlow), Flash FM (pop hosted by Toni) and talk stations K-Chat and VCPR. For the 7 music stations, you can hear snippet mixes of selected excerpts whilst for the 2 talk radio stations, "The Lab" contains the station audio in its entirety for a full streaming listen.
   
• “SoundFX” - A special breakdown of just one small element of Vice City's sound design - helicopter sound effects. As the section explains, the total amount of space available at the time for sound effects would hold less than 12 seconds of music from a CD, therefore all of the sounds created for the city needed to be very short. Each sound has to be produced in isolation so that it can be controlled independently depending on how the player interacts with the game. Listen to the various individual sounds used and then check out a video demo of the final product in action as Tommy Vercetti lifts off in the chopper.
   
• "Pedestrians”- Wherever you go in the streets of Vice City - from the beach to the shopping mall to the airport - you're sure to overhear tons of colorful dialogue from the city's resident peds. Strutting playboys, lecherous pervs, blue collar slobs, glamorous fly girls, and more - have a look and listen to a sampling of the vast audio recorded in populating Vice City's ambient world.

Embed Code:

Previously:
The Lab Part 1: Animation

Here’s a special treat from the archives. Nearly ten years ago, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was honored by London’s Design Museum as an annual design award nominee recognizing the ‘biggest contribution to design in 2002’ alongside such other newfangled technology as Apple’s iPod. Part of the award festivities included a special installation at the museum for which we produced an exclusive set of interactive kiosks to give visitors a glimpse of how Vice City was created – specifically focused on the game’s Animation, Sound, and City Design architecture. In honor of Vice City's 10th anniversary and release for Android and iOS, we’ve dug up the original files from this digital display not seen since the original museum exhibition and for the first time are publishing the entire three-part series online – starting with today’s Animation chapter seen above. Enjoy rare footage and sketches including:

• “Motion Capture”- a rare video showing a cutscene between Kent Paul and Tommy Vercetti going from motion-capture through to 3D model wireframe to finished product.
   
• “Sketch Book” - a progression of original character sketches through to final models and now-iconic illustrations of such folks as Lance Vance, Avery Carrington, Ken Rosenberg and more. 
   
• “Tommy Moves”- a set of clips showing the genesis of Tommy’s animations whether jumping into a Comet sports car, dive kicking a biker off his chopper or running with a chainsaw...

Embed code is provided below for anyone who’d like to re-post – and be on the lookout for Parts Two and Three quite soon.

Since last month's release of the second Grand Theft Auto V trailer, we've seen all sorts of fun original creations, analysis and other GTA-inspired madness popping up on the web and reliably featured by the faithful ring of dedicated fansites out there. Here's a roundup of just a few goodies worth checking out...
 

• The same day as the Official Trailer that Wednesday the 14th, quite talented fan artist Ferino Design from deviantART posted the above impressive motion graphics piece, "Grand Theft Auto V: Art in Motion" - which takes an assortment of GTAV illustrations and brings them to life over a nice vibey dusted out mélange of Gil Scott Heron and Ghostface Killah. Can't argue with that. Kudos to Ferino and special shout to the folks at GTAGaming for being amongst the first to bring it to our attention.
   
• A loyal attendee of our Social Club multiplayer events and longtime fansite community member, GermanScientist of RockstarBase.com created this sweet gallery of animated GIFs culling fan-favorite moments from Trailer 2. You can dial through them all at http://www.rockstarbase.com/grand-theft-auto-v-gifs to grab clips perfectly suited for Tumblr or forum use including such shots as the Three Wise Monkeys sequence, a slo-mo rendering of Trevor's brush on the railways, and the airborne bailout over Los Santos.

Via Rockstar24.eu, Grand Theft Auto V at the top, and 2004's GTA: San Andreas at the bottom.

• Polish fansite Rockstar24.eu recently showcased a fairly comprehensive comparison gallery of Los Santos pitting the city as it appeared in 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas against screenshots from Grand Theft Auto V that originally appeared on GTAForums. Strong work rounding up such spot on compositions in San Andreas. Have a look at the entire gallery at http://rockstar24.eu/portal/?p=255.
   
• Your reactions, commentary, analysis and speculation in the wake of Trailer 2 kicked off within moments of its release and are still ongoing whether on YouTube, here at the Newswire, or at fan forums around the web. Massive, massive thanks to GTA fans everywhere for the love you've shown for the trailer and for the awesome excitement and anticipation you've shown for the game this spring - believe that we're just as excited to get GTAV in your hands. Stay tuned for lots more to see and hear about the game in the new year, but of course also expect that as always we'll be keeping a good bit of info back as things for you to discover for yourself by experiencing them firsthand when GTAV comes out. In the meantime, here's some speculative fan recaps and analysis posts you can dive into at Rockstar Network, GTA Warehouse, the ongoing 'Mapping Los Santos' project at GTAForums and in polish at Rockstar24.eu. Feel free to share other cool ones in comments below.

Toronto's Brandon Arseneault recreated two of Vice City's most iconic ladies with a provocative pin-up girl twist.

• Brandon Arseneault on deviantART recently painted these striking homages to the ladies of Vice City below - namely the iconic Martini Girl complete with brilliant diamond shaped earrings and pink bikini, and adult film superstar Candy Suxxx in her signature patriotic swimwear - giving the original character concepts a provocative pin up girl twist.


• Ubiquitious Social Club member and avid YouTube broadcaster GTALAD4EVA aka Lewis recently put together a sweetly sentimental tribute to GTAIV that he calls Grand Theft Auto IV -  Goodbye Liberty City (Get Ready for GTA V). Nice one, Lewis - although of course there's still much action still to be had in the streets of Liberty.
   

• This one caught our eye a couple weeks back on YouTube. An impressively made live-action GTA fan film from director Gevorg Karensky.
  "Grand Theft Auto: RISE is about the birth of an underground hero. He is not the hero that we are used to seeing. He is submerged in his own internal darkness. He is a protagonist. People will fall, things will break, he will be left standing alone in a tunnel with no light at the end.
  This is a different take on the live action version of the world famous Grand Theft Auto IV."
  There's also a short 'making of' video showing some behind the scenes footage of how it all came together, and another clip posted showing a glimpse of the visual effects trickery used in post-production. Cheers once again to GTAGaming for being amongst the first to send it our way.

• Last but not least, and also in the vein of the throwback GTA comparison shot gallery mentioned above, this clever fan-created video above is an attempt at recreating GTAV Trailer 2 shot-for-shot using mimicked footage taken from Grand Theft Auto IV in Liberty City. Amazingly, the clip was completed in just three days, having been uploaded on November 17th. A shout to Social Club members d10nislaw, phaedra90731, KillerAssassin16, RamzHBK and zigeclolek - just a few of the fans who shared it here in the Trailer 2 Newswire comments.

Thanks once again to the entire GTA fan community for your amazing support and excitement. Stay tuned for more and of course if you've seen something great at the fansites or around the community worth sharing, or if you've created something you'd like to let us know about, we'd love to check it out - just drop us a line at mouthoff@rockstargames.com.