Rockstar Newswire

With Max Payne 3 hitting shelves around the world this week for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, here's a starter edition of our Rockstar Game Tips series for Max Payne 3 to help you easily get into the game and start Bullet Timing® and Shootdodging™ your way to 100% glory. And look for many more Game Tips to come throughout the summer - including an overview on basic targeting and other options later  this week plus some pro tips and tricks from our in-house Multiplayer experts and much more later on.

Difficulty settings: The Max Payne 3 Story can be played at five difficulty settings that can be adjusted on the fly and provide varying levels of challenge as follows:

• Easy: Increased Health and Bullet Time® Rewards. A satisfying challenge
• Medium: Moderate Health and Bullet Time Rewards. A stiff challenge
• Hard: Low Health and Bullet Time Rewards. A real test
• Hardcore: Minimal Health and Bullet Time rewards. Very challenging
• Old School: Last Man Standing is disabled.

Medium is the default setting for all - so you can start the game and decide from there on the fly whether you'd like to adjust your difficulty for more of a challenge or an easier go as you play.

Easy and Medium settings feature dynamic difficulty which provides access to extra painkillers to help you pass particular parts of the game if you've died repeatedly. On Easy and Medium settings, when you die at a checkpoint, you restart the checkpoint with at least one full magazine of ammo in each gun (except grenade launchers) and the number of painkillers that you started with. For every three times you die at a checkpoint, you get one extra painkiller. So if you started a checkpoint with 2 painkillers, and died 3 times, on each subsequent retry of that checkpoint, you'd start with 3 painkillers.  If you died 3 more times (6 total), you'd start with 4 painkillers on each subsequent restart.  On Easy and Medium, this can continue until you are respawning with a full 9 painkillers.

On the Hard setting, there is also dynamic difficulty however it is intentionally much more limited to ensure a tougher go. On Hard, if you die 5 times, you will get a bonus painkiller on subsequent respawns, and if you've died 10 times, you can get one more. However, it will never give you bonus painkillers that make your total go above 2. So if you started a checkpoint with 1 painkiller and died 5 times, you'd start with 2; but if you died 5 more times (10 total), you would not get an extra - you would continue to respawn with 2. Likewise, if you start a checkpoint with 3 painkillers, you would never get a bonus painkiller in Hard mode.

Hardcore and Old School modes are unlocked by beating the Story on Hard difficulty.

There are just a few basics on how to tailor the experience to your skill level – shout in Comments or shoot us a mail directly at mouthoff@rockstargames.com with any other questions about getting started with the game.

Further Reading:
Crew Up - A beginner's guide to creating and joining Crews
Social Club - An introduction to the Max Payne 3 Social Club features

In Max Payne 3, the Assault Rifle class of weaponry serves as the backbone to Max's arsenal; the G6 Commando, MD-97L, FAL, and AK-47 all deliver powerful long range accuracy while still being agile enough to handle enemies at shorter distances with their rapid rate of fire, and high-capacity magazines.

In Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, you can create up to five complete player Loadouts that can be customized to make sure you're equipped with the perfect set of Weapons, Bursts, Items and Projectiles for every battle and to suit your playing style. So before heading into Gang Wars, Payne Killer or Deathmatch - you can tailor Loadouts for use with a personal, powerful and strategic combination of weapons and special abilities to switch between on the fly.

Hit up www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne3/multiplayer/loadout and prep yourself for the battle that begins this week, previewing a taste of the over 80 items at your disposal - from Bursts like Trigger Happy, which drops high powered hardware into your hands when and where you call for it - to Items such as the Gas Mask, which protects you from the effects of Tear Gas (also a Projectile that you can equip your Loadout with).

The Loadout page also shows how each Item and weapon will impact both your stamina and the speed at which your character replenishes health - so you'll have to equip wisely to decide whether you're going to go in with heavy firepower and armored up and armed to the teeth - or equip a lighter-weight Loadout for a nimbler soldier with faster health regen. You'll also find a breakdown of Burst Tiers, showing examples of how individual Bursts ramp up in effectiveness as your adrenaline increases from racking up kills and looting fallen enemies - plus a selection of all-new screens of Loadout Bursts and Items in action.
 

 
Bullet Time®, the signature gunplay mechanic of the Max Payne series, makes its way into Multiplayer.
 

Previously:
CREW UP: Register and Rally Your Crew Now at the All-New Social Club
Watch the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Gameplay Series Video Part Two
Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Video Part 1
Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Hands-On Press Round Up
Kotaku Praise Max Payne 3 Multiplayer as 'Essential'
 

To help you be among the first to get your hands on Max Payne 3 this week, select GameStop, Best Buy and Walmart locations across the US and EB Games, Best Buy and Future Shop stores throughout Canada will be open at midnight tomorrow night Monday May 14th so you can secure your copy ahead of the masses on May 15th. For those of you in our hometown of NYC, you should also keep an eye out for our Rockstar Max Payne 3 vans making stops at various stores citywide to hit off faithful fans waiting on line with gear.

And to usher in the first players returning home from the stores and jumping straight into Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, we'll be jumping online ourselves on PSN & Xbox LIVE to set it off with Gang Wars, Payne Killer and Deathmatch action. Stay tuned for our PSN IDs and Gamertag info tomorrow.

Fans in the US or Canada can check out the Max Payne 3 Midnight Launch Locator below to track down a participating retail location near you.