Rockstar Newswire

***Update: Now that Instagram has officially launched web profile pages, you can find us at instagram.com/rockstargames.

Everyone on Instagram, you can now find and follow the official rockstargames account.

Look for us to be posting original photos such as today's first shots of the printed edition of the Max Payne 3 Marvel comic, Issue #1: "After the Fall" (shipping out to prize winners now) - and pics of some all-new Rockstar brand gear that will be going on sale at the Warehouse this month. We'll have pics of everything from event photos to sneak peeks of collectibles and products being produced and much more.

Also make sure to tag all your #MaxPayne3, #RedDeadRedemption, #GrandTheftAuto and other #RockstarGames photos so we can find and like 'em easily.

For those of you not on Instagram, you'll always be able to browse our photo library there easily online at www.pinstagram.co/rockstargames.
 

After the success of the first casting for Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Avatars, we are giving you one more chance to have your likeness appear as a member of a new Gang of Max Payne 3 Avatars, to be released as part of one of our Max Payne 3 DLC packs this Fall.

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...

The Rockstar Warehouse has just been updated with an all-new range of custom gear in our Max Payne 3 Collection. Today's line-up features a custom built, premium-grade stainless steel Magazine Flask that holds 7oz. of your favorite chug as well as the high-end heavy duty Tactical Duffel - and more.

 
The start of the Category 2/3 Men's race in Marcus Garvey Park.

Thanks to everyone that came out to Marcus Garvey Park this past Sunday as well as to all who tuned in to the live stream to experience the 39th Annual Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Our congratulations to all the day's race winners, including the victor of the National Criterium Calendar and the dynamic USA CRITS main event, Jake Keough.

The points races then began with Michael Anderson winning the Cat 4 Men's Points race, and Gerard Yeates and Anthony Taylor winning the Masters 35+ and 45+ races respectively. Chase Goldstein won the Cat 2/3 Men's race and Laura Van Gilder, a longtime top-rider on the professional circuit, took the Pro 1/2/3 Women's race, setting the stage for the main event - a stop on both USA Cycling’s National Criterium Calendar and the dynamic USA CRITS circuit - the David Walker Memorial Elite Men's Professional race, an event that attracts some of world’s finest racing talent for an unparalleled display of speed, power and skill on the iconic streets of Harlem. 

As technology continues to progress and hurtle ever-forward, it's easy to forget that everything digital is a discrete combination of 1s and 0s - mind-blowing.
Similarly, all the millions of colors in the pics and flicks you see on your TV, computer, phone, etcetera are constructed from pixels, which are in turn built from combinations of red, green, or blue subpixels. The Rockstar RGB series pays homage to the building blocks of digital graphics in a series of three macro photographs.

You can download these lite, bright renditions of the Rockstar logo now at www.rockstargames.com/downloads in a range of sizes for desktop, mobile, social and avatar use.

R

GB

RB

Previously:
Textile Series
Light and Shadow
Comic Strip Series
Chronos Series

With the original Max Payne now available on both iOS and Android devices, here's a nostalgic look and listen at a direct by-product of that first game's release from over a decade ago.

In 2002, the trend of the hip-hop street mixtape was in full swing - inexpensively mass produced and released on CDs (no longer commonly available on cassettes and not yet made obselete by the Internet). DJs like Clue (heard on the radio in Liberty City Stories), Kay Slay, and Queens-based DJ Whoo Kid ruled the scene with releases chock full of rap exclusives and original freestyles. To up the showmanship and excitement around each of these CDs, DJs would often enlist high-profile hosts and theme up the mixtape with a homage or parody of popular sporting events or hit movies of the time like Final Destination, Unbreakable and more.

Owing to his own videogame obsessions and to his friendship with Grand Theft Auto III's DJ Stretch Armstrong, Whoo Kid was the first DJ to theme up popular rap mixtapes around our games - starting with Grand Theft Auto: The Mixtape (hosted by Capone of CNN) in early 2002 - and followed up shortly thereafter with this blockbuster Max Payne mixtape hosted by both N.O.R.E. and Baby aka Birdman of Cash Money and filled with then-heavily-anticipated remixes, freestyles and dis records.

Today, you can hear a crisp digital rip of this decade-old gunshots, Max Payne samples, and BulletTime sfx-laden mix at mixtape site DatPiff.com - a nice, nostalgic treat for both hardcore Max fans and fans of early aughts street rap.

A few highlights to check out in there: 

• Tracks 2, 18, 26 - Original samples from Max Payne 1 ripped by Whoo Kid from his PS2 copy of the game.
• Track 7 - Lil Wayne's "Max Payne" - made custom for Whoo Kid specifically for this mixtape, a pre-YMCMB Wayne freestyles over Nas' "Ether" instrumental with lines like "They call me Bad Wayne / And I'm like Max Payne / The sickest shit to hit since anthrax came ... I come through and do my Grand Theft thing / my cran-ap, tan cap, slant back thing...".
• Tracks 8, 15 - Some seminal G-Unit street cuts, hitting as part of 50 Cent's mixtape world domination before he would explode later that year as the hottest new rapper out (50 would host Whoo Kid's Max Payne 2 mixtape later that year, pre-dating the game's sequel itself).
• Tracks 9, 16, 29 - The Lox aka D-Block have been mixtape staples since the heyday, and Whoo Kid made sure this mixtape had them present in full force. Keen GTA soundtrack fans may remember some vintage late 90s Lox mixtape freestyles licensed for an appearance on DJ Clue's Liberty City Stories radio station mix. Some of the most serious gamers and down to earth guys in the rap biz, we're still good friends with The Lox to this day and they've made cameos and soundtrack appearances in many of our games from The Warriors to GTAIV.
• Track 27 - Big Noyd's "Maximum Payne" - the Mobb Deep affiliate rapper is responsible for a few street classics himself, and here blessed Whoo Kid with a little custom freestyle all about gunplay and bullet-time.

http://www.datpiff.com/DJ-Whoo-Kid-Max-Payne-The-Official-Mixtape.300322.html
 

Update: The race has ended. Thanks to everyone that came out to Harlem and to all those that watched the live video stream here on our website.

This coming Father's Day Sunday June 17th, we're very proud to once again present the annual Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, NYC with a live stream of the David Walker Memorial Race to be broadcast right here at the Rockstar Newswire and on our official event page at www.rockstargames.com/skyscraperclassic. 

The highlight of the festival for serious cycling enthusiasts, the David Walker Memorial has been awarded national status this year and is one of only four races nationwide named to USA Cycling's National Criterium Calendar for 2012. With some of the world’s finest professional riders taking part, including two-time Tour de France stage winner Léon van Bon of Holland, it promises to be an exciting and highly-competitive event.

For those in New York City, the race will also be televised live on NYC Life TV, Channel 25 in New York City - but we hope to see you there in person for this day-long celebration of cycling filled with competitive, high-speed racing and family entertainment - as we'll be on-hand with Rockstar-branded gear to give away near the start and finish lines.

For more details, including a schedule of events check out www.rockstargames.com/skyscraperclassic or the event's official site at http://www.skyscraperclassic.com.

“Hoboken Blues”, the second chapter in the Max Payne 3 comic series produced by Marvel, is now available to read in its entirety and additionally downloadable as a PDF at www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne3/comics.