Rockstar Newswire

Big thanks to everyone that helped kick-off a full weekend of Triple XP for Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition with our Social Club Multiplayer Event held on PSN  Friday April 20th.

This was the last event on the Spring calendar before we properly inaugurate Max Payne 3 Multiplayer - complete with multiplayer Crews, Bullet Time® online, and non-stop Gang Wars and Payne Killer action beginning in just two weeks on Friday May 18th. In addition to that first live streaming weekend of official Social Club events, we'll also be online including players from all across Rockstar Studio and playing the game every day into June beginning on midnight Eastern of May 15th. We'll be announcing Gamertags and PSN IDs for that shortly beforehand - make sure you're following us on Facebook and Twitter for the word each day..

As for the Red Dead event on 4.20, each of our dev players got in there to mix it up with players in fan-favorite modes including Stronghold, Gang Shootout, Grab The Bag and Undead Overrun. Special shout to longtime Social Club multiplayer event participant ahetFIN who captured a great session of Grand Prix horse racing on video as you can peep in the below clip. Check the slideshow a bit later in this recap for a freeze frame from our vantage taken during the same race.

Later on, RedDeadDev3 was picking off enemies during Grab The Bag in Tumbleweed dishing out deaths to Easy--B, Mike_2472 and Koren-98-2011. But the reign on top didn't last long as JulianM44 came in and blasted the opposition away with some incredible gunslinger skills. Julian capped RedDeadDev3 with a Schofield Revolver a couple of times during this round, leading to agonied cries of defeat this side. Strong work there.

As the afternoon rolled on, we entered Chuparosa for some more Grab The Bag. RedDeadDev3 stepped in to save ol' ahetFIN by burying a few extra rounds into luis_arturo12. Least we could do, mate. By the way, everyone should check out LarsDK and ahetFIN's collab video post where they combined their perspectives to come up with a great video from a round in Thieves' Landing, viewable here. Also thanks to GTALAD4EVA for capturing the entire events page, to ferguson99 for this capture of gang match action and SOMETHINKDARK for this video showing some Grab The Bag. Thanks again to all of you that contribute these videos - they're always awesome to see.

• Shootout - MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/m6OPtqIVLZY
• Grab The Bag - Chuparosa: http://youtu.be/Rn3c09jwRBE
• Hold Your Own - Las Hermanas: http://youtu.be/Ozx9Vbg8luA
• Gang Shootout - MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/LTROW9R8CGI
• Stronghold - Thieves' Landing: http://youtu.be/5tVIa21hONk
• Gang Shootout - More MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/snBUDIK58C4
• Grab The Bag - Tumbleweed: http://youtu.be/1NOQ9a9S1Xs

SWEEPSTAKES WINNERS

From this event's giveaways, Josh Ward, aka The_Infection, is the big winner of our two customized Red Dead PS3 controllers and our 20 runners-up that will each receive a Rockstar t-shirt, Red Dead playing cards and stickers include Agamer2006, Averryy, Retsphe, Jimminy_Billybob, GuidoTKP, Kuya_Ed, Ninja_Legend_D, Marston_Bellic, longlyload, stnickbond, scareface1970, Bash_Thordstrom, Timmy458, alo1992, MissKitty5678, MLDCAproductions, KingSB, GTA313, xRSLxMuSiCmAn and JohnWayneReborn. Enjoy the gear, all. 

Check out some more moments we captured from the event here in the slideshow - and we hope to see you all in the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer events starting in just a couple more weeks!

Hit the jump for a full list of participants from the event on April 20th...

Update: The event and sweepstakes have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined us, and enjoy Triple XP all weekend.

Following up an afternoon with Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition on April 5th, we continue our month on PlayStation Network Friday April 20th with a Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition multiplayer event from 4-7pm Eastern, the latest in the Rockstar Games Social Club Multiplayer Events Series. Triple XP will be live for both consoles.

Next up after this event ends: a month with Max Payne 3. Beginning Tuesday May 15th, we'll be playing every single day into June, including several multiplayer events with live video, chat and big prizes. Have a look at the official Spring calendar for full details.

For Friday, head over to the Social Club multiplayer events page where we'll have a video stream and live chat, plus we're giving away two hand-painted Red Dead Redemption controllers. Additionally, 20 runners-up will win Rockstar prize packs, each containing a Rockstar shirt, Red Dead playing cards and stickers.

And for those of you playing, not to worry if you don't own the Game of the Year Edition. Any version of Red Dead or Undead Nightmare is compatible with Game of the Year Edition multiplayer.

OFFICIAL ROCKSTAR PSN IDs

Hit the jump for more details, including information on how to get in on a game with us...

GTA fans from around the globe joined in for the April 5th Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition Social Club multiplayer event on PSN - tearing up Liberty City online, watching the video stream and entering the sweeps to win coveted prizes.

The hundreds in Social Club chat witnessed lots of action via the session's live broadcast - with players in multiplayer modes from the original GTAIV, The Lost and Damned as well as The Ballad of Gay Tony. Thanks to all who joined us for some pretty awesome TDM, GTA Race and of course fan-favorite Cops n’ Crooks (special shout to Flight666, PlayRockstar10 and Dinobrunio for a particularly memorable car-flipping, and epic shootouts bit of C&C).

Check out fan-captured footage here of some Deathmatch shoot-em-ups courtesy of cahill7777 - a longtime Red Dead Social Club multiplayer vet who joined us for his first GTAIV event. Good stuff.

And some additional videos from the day captured by some other dedicated Social Club members:

• Lone Wolf Biker, GTA Races and Free Mode (GM-Shenmue)
• GTA Race with some epic bus-on-bus pileons (ahetFIN)
• Stars in Your Eyes (InsectOverlords)

Cheers to all that joined in (see the roll-call below), and congrats to all the winners in the sweeps. Each will receive a Rockstar T-shirt, GTAIV license plate and a selection of collectible stickers. The lucky winners include 1337Pilot, Cheezy-Duz-It, D.E.LB, DeathStreak_UK, GalaxyxD, Jchandler, madman_chadman, MCKing, MichaelK, N9ne0sBaby, Pike187, Rafioso, RestNP1eces86, scareface1970, Scottendo, SOULLESSGING3R, Spongerob, StuntmanSeth, WolfRogers and xRSLxMuSiCmAn.

Here's a collection of screens from some of great moments during the afternoon, and hit the jump for a list of those that participated according to our records...

Special shout to longtime Social Club multiplayer events veteran GermanScientist who captured and edited the Blackwater Stronghold match seen above from our March 23rd multiplayer event. Check it out and don't miss some great moments when GermanScientist works with his posse to defend the safe in Dutch's Gang and earns the 'Avatar of Death' Achievement for not dying in the second round. Plus some pretty amusing running commentary throughout from players scheming on the elusive RedDeadDev5.

The event kicked off a full weekend of Triple XP in Red Dead Redemption on Xbox LIVE and t'was awesome to see a lot of our dedicated Social Club legends (all names below) in the turn out in addition to all those on the multiplayer events page chatting, watching the live video broadcast and entering the sweepstakes. As with the previous event, GTALAD4EVA was kind enough to record the entire thing, and even captured snippets of the chat in the video. Nice one.

Also congrats to our sweepstakes winners lucky enough to have their names randomly drawn from all the entries, including Grand Prize winner Jchandler who will be receiving two custom hand-painted Red Dead Xbox 360 controllers, and to all 20 runners-up. They are Co2-UK, Fan1wwe, peteeee007, AAT71FALI, JuggaloMemnoch, AnimeGuy2308, Rollaw, Olsky1, B-Dawk, PyratRum, emilegoss, YMe369, XRatedLegend, treedee71, Dogbone7, UFG_KingRomulus, 100indecisions, bhgabe, Mannylude and cdman17.

While RedDeadDev3 was killing and being killed on the live video stream, our other Rockstars were scattered across several other multiplayer modes. Early on in the afternoon, RedDeadDev6 entered Myths and Mavericks Free For All Matches in Cochinay where ADX Scarlett took down everyone in the opening Standoff, but it was GGretski ANBU who dominated, winning the round. Also, props to TWLWeeperReaper for an epic win of Gold Rush and to all others that came out on top in matches throughout the day.

The next multiplayer event is happening next Friday April 20th from 4-7PM Eastern when we'll be playing Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition on PSN. Check out the Spring events calendar for more information, and as a bonus you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Steam to get the word when we'll be jumping online to play other than the ones we pre-announce...

Below check out a few screens from March 23rd...

And hit the jump for a full list of participants from the afternoon...

Update: The event and sweepstakes have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined in, whether you were watching, chatting, playing or just entering the sweepstakes...

The Spring calendar of Social Club multiplayer events heats up this month with a double dose for PSN, beginning Thursday April 5th with an afternoon of Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition from 4-7PM Eastern, and continuing in two weeks on Friday April 20th with Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition in the same time slot.

Hope to see everyone on both days, but first things first: the GTAIV event. We'll have a live video stream on the multiplayer events page, and you can also join in the chat and enter to win one of 20 prize packs. Winners will receive a t-shirt, GTAIV license plate and a bunch of stickers – all delivered to your doorstep.

We'll begin the event in GTAIV and later switch over to The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, about an hour for each. We recommend staying in the chatroom on the multiplayer events page while playing so you'll be able to let us know your IDs. Any version of GTAIV or the episodes will be compatible with us, so don't worry if you don't own the Complete Edition. PlayRockstar12 will be in original Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer for the entire event for those that don't have the episodes.

Read on for further details for the afternoon of GTA multiplayer action...

OFFICIAL ROCKSTAR PSN IDs
Participating PlayStation Network Rockstar Games IDs for this day will be:

• PlayRockstar10
• PlayRockstar11
• PlayRockstar12
• PlayRockstar13

Only add one PSN ID to your friends list to play. If you have a different version than the Complete Edition disc for Grand Theft Auto IV, no worries as you will be compatible with us.

Hit the jump for more details...

Hats off to the group of Max Payne fans over at NeoGAF who've been busy at work creating these action-oriented animated GIFs culled from shots taken from the Max Payne 3 video content released to date.
While of course a bit choppy as animated GIFs tend to be, they're a nice little distillation of some short-burst, explosive moments and details you may have missed. Here's just a few.
 

The pistol whip is another close quarters melee strike, setting up the kill. (Uploaded by JaseC.)

Kicking an enemy is just one of a few melee attacks, and is mapped to the shoot button so you have control during the finishing shot. (Uploaded by Social Club's own keltickennedy.)

Hit the jump to see a few more (caution to your browser as these get pretty heavy)

As promised yesterday, here's a barrage of hands-on previews of Max Payne 3's multiplayer that have hit the web today...

"You're pinned behind a bus in a São Paulo transit depot, with a half-dozen mercenaries ready to wipe you from the face of the Earth the second you peek your head past the headlights. You keep still, planning your next move, when out of nowhere some lunatic flings himself from a second-story window and manages to shoot every single one of those armed thugs before he even hits the ground. Immediately upon impact, he pops up as if to say, "I'm good!" and then proceeds to loot each of his victims like a ravenous hobo. Right now that guy might look like the craziest man on the planet, but he's also your teammate. And he just saved your life. Welcome to the delightfully chaotic world of Max Payne 3 multiplayer." - GameSpot

http://www.gamespot.com/max-payne-3/previews/spending-bullet-time-with-friends-max-payne-3-multiplayer-6368622/

"I had gone into my multiplayer hands-on session expecting an amusing ancillary mode to Max Payne 3's single-player campaign, but what I found was something as robust as any other multiplayer shooter in the genre. If Max's return was a big deal before, it should now be a lot bigger." - Vox Games

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/29/2909581/max-payne-3-multiplayer-bullet-time-boosts-and-crews-explained

"The battles in Gang Wars are tied to key story moments, offering additional color to plot points in Max Payne 3's story, fleshing out what might have happened before or after Max Payne visited the favelas or docks in the game's version São Paulo. There's fiction and even voiceover woven into this multiplayer pillar of Max Payne 3, which may be enlightening to those who get sucked into the drama of the campaign." - GameTrailers

http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/2012/03/29/max-payne-3-multiplayer-hands-on-rockstar-brings-bullet-time-bursts-of-brilliance-to-deathmatch/

"When it comes to Rockstar - kings of the story game - there's never any compromise. Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV - these were two of the biggest, best story games of a generation and they're both complemented by genuinely innovative, genuinely different multiplayer modes. So it is with Max Payne 3." - CVG

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/341930/previews/max-payne-3-4-hours-with-rockstars-seriously-impressive-multiplayer/

"Rockstar is on to something truly interesting here... you’ll almost certainly be shoot-dodging across your couch to get into a Payne Killer or Gang Wars match as quickly as possible." - Official Xbox Magazine

http://www.oxmonline.com/max-payne-3-multiplayer-hands-preview

Of course, we'll keep you updated on more previews as they hit.

We kicked off the brand new multiplayer events calendar in style on Friday March 8th with an afternoon of Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition on PSN. Thanks to everyone that entered the sweepstakes, played in-game and hung out on the Social Club multiplayer events page to chat and watch the live video stream.

Social Club member The_Duckmaster is the Grand Prize winner from the event, who will soon receive two hand-painted, custom Red Dead PS3 controllers. And congrats to all 20 runner-ups who will each get a Red Dead t-shirt, deck of playing cards and an assortment of stickers: gabe2121, Darkk_Desperado, Musicman5150, Illusion24, lewis74, icg665, enricky559, DC6100355, hellofahat, Sepeli, SAV-UK, Pat723, chaseoquinn, SmellyBadger, 1337Pilot, alleykt123, UltimateWatson, MarTechnologies, RUSTYAVC and Thunder_Passion.

Cheers to everyone who played online in a day full of action - including an epic Free Roam session when RedDeadDev3 led a posse into a Gang Hideouts battle, filling the area with bloody gunfights, explosions, and absolute annihilation of the enemy bandits (thanks to posse members Kingz4Life04, Christobell46, vince_123, beastfin, alex2071, Brink-2-Chaos, GM-Shenmue and others). You can see that particular posse in effect at around the 17-minute mark in the below video. Also a shout to marcopius, X_P_KILLER___ and  jakeman143 who duked it out with RedDeadDev3 over who got to push the mine cart during the Walton's Gold cooperative mission. Good stuff.

A special thanks goes out to longtime Social Club multiplayer event participant GM-Shenmue for his capture of over 40 minutes of gameplay from the event for everyone to enjoy on YouTube:

And GTALAD4EVA even recorded the entire event stream if you'd like to watch how it all went down. Thank you as always for the support, guys.

Have a look below for a few screens we put together to show off some of the memorable moments from the afternoon:

Again, check out the Spring calendar of multiplayer events for a look at what's to come, including the first dates for Max Payne 3, releasing this May for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In addition to the scheduled multiplayer events that have a chat, video stream and sweepstakes, we also play multiplayer games about once a week, and the only way you'll know when we're getting online is to follow us on Google+, Twitter or Facebook. . If we're playing on PC we'll obviously also let everyone know on our new Steam profile page.

Hit the jump for a full list of the brilliant people that participated in the multiplayer event on March 8th.