Original Grand Theft Auto V Artwork: Friends. And Family.

Posted on July 4 2013, 8:09am | Author: R* Q | Filed Under: Games

On this 4th of July holiday, we stop in on to two Los Santos residents respectively choosing to spend their leisure time indoors gaming and outdoors car "shopping".

This pair of official widescreen artwork releases from Grand Theft Auto V features Franklin's partner-in-crime Lamar caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar and a charming family portrait of Michael's progeny, Tracey and Jimmy - the latter of which you may have seen earlier this week gracing our special GTAV edition of Asked and Answered.
 
 
Get them in all the requisite downloadable art sizes including desktops, backgrounds, Facebook Timelines, icons and avatars over at www.rockstargames.com/downloads and look for more GTAV artwork releases soon.
 

July 4th Multiplayer Weekend: Four Days of 3XP in Red Dead and Max Payne 3 Plus Sunday Live-Stream Play Session

Posted on July 3 2013, 10:35am | Author: R* Y | Filed Under: Games, Social Club
 
Update: Triple XP and Sunday's multiplayer event have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined in, whether in-game, to watch the stream and chat or just dropping by to enter the sweepstakes!
 
Four days of bonus XP begins our Independence Day multiplayer Social Club weekend starting at midnight on Wednesday evening Eastern Time July 3rd in Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. Then on Sunday the 7th from 12-4pm Eastern, we'll be live-streaming and playing Grand Theft Auto IV, Episodes from Liberty City, Max Payne 3, Table Tennis, Midnight Club Los Angeles and Red Dead Redemption with a Rockstar-hosted chat for four hours both on Social Club and at our Rockstar Twitch page - and giving away 20 Grand Theft Auto V prize packs of tees and stickers.
 
The times below show our live-streaming schedule, and you can expect us to also hop into some Table Tennis matches and Midnight Club races throughout the afternoon. Gather your Crew mates as Max Payne 3 leaderboards will be live with the Social Club Multiplayer Event playlist.
 
Live Streaming Schedule
  • 12-1pm Red Dead Redemption
  • 1-2pm Grand Theft Auto IV
  • 2-3pm Max Payne 3
  • 3-4pm Episodes from Liberty City
 
20 GTAV Prize Packs — Enter Thursday- Sunday!
If you're interested in winning a GTAV t-shirt and stickers, this weekend is your opportunity as 20 prize packs will be up for grabs. Enter anytime Thursday through Sunday for the opportunity to receive a GTAV Logo Tee, plus some GTAV stickers and a package of various Rockstar logo stickers. To enter, visit the Social Club multiplayer events page and fill in your details under the "Sweepstakes Entry" tab. Be sure to click "Confirm". Winners will be randomly selected and contacted on Monday.
 
Gamertags and IDs to look out for during the afternoon:
  • PlayRockstar (PS3 / Xbox 360 / Max Payne 3 on PC and Mac)
  • PlayRockstar2 (PS3 / Xbox 360)
  • PlayRockstarPC (GTAIV on PC)

 

Asked & Answered: GTAV

Posted on July 2 2013, 8:59am | Author: R* K | Filed Under: Games
 
Here’s a special edition of Asked & Answered addressing just a few of the frequently asked questions we’ve seen out there from fans recently. Of course we’re aware that there are many more questions and curiosities out there about GTAV, so do stay tuned for more to be revealed about the game in due time. Meanwhile, you can always feel free to drop us a line via mouthoff@rockstargames.com where we’re glad to have a look at what you have to say and help out wherever we can.
 
 
“So can you switch characters? Trevor Michael and Franklin - can you play all of those guys? And everybody has their own missions???!” @GTAVISBEST
"How is changing between characters going to work during missions?"HIBMFL
“Do you have to switch characters constantly?”killer772
 
Michael, Franklin and Trevor have their own separate lives with their own sets of friends and acquaintances, and even their own preferred ways of spending their free time. When you’re not on a mission, you can freely switch in real-time to any of the three characters to drop in and out of their lives letting you see what they’re up to. And because they have their own schedules, you’ll never know what they might be doing – you might drop in on Michael in the middle of a family dispute, interrupt Franklin chatting up some ladies, or Trevor on the run from the law – or whatever else these guys do in their free time... How and when you switch between characters when you’re not on a mission is completely up to you.
In addition, each of the guys has their own missions and side jobs. There will be times on a mission when you play as one character, or as combinations of two of them, and sometimes as all three, always being able to switch between the characters mid-action.  Off mission, it’s up to you. You can play as one character on his own or hang out with either of the other two or both of them, or you can switch between any of them.
 
 
"If I play as Trevor, can I zoom out, find out where Michael is, and then go and kill him while playing as Trevor? #GTAV" @GTALAD4EVA
 
In the open world, the characters are meant to be living their own ongoing and unpredictable personal lives, so understandably it’s not always easy to track one of them down in the vast city of Los Santos or the many towns spread about Blaine County at any given moment, but you will be able to find them. Having found them, (or simply after calling them up and arranging to meet them), you’ll certainly be able to hang out with them, annoy them should you choose, and maybe even assault them, but you won’t be able to kill them. They all have remarkable powers of recovery and good health insurance. The game is based on playing all sides of these three characters’ interwoven stories rather than having generic, interchangeable leads, so permanently killing a major character in that way wouldn’t make sense. If a player is determined enough though, they may well find a way to badly injure one of the characters and switching to that character would just put you in the hospital to continue where you left off.
 
 
“Hello, I noticed that the Special Edition of GTA V includes a large "blueprint" of the map. I was wondering if the Standard Edition of GTA V will include the traditional folded paper map that, as far as I can recall, has always been included with GTA games.”received via Mouthoff
"Will a GTA V poster be included when the game is purchased?”@ny718kid
 
As in all previous Grand Theft Auto games, we’ve made a point of including a map of the world to aid players in navigating the city. In all versions of GTAV, the game disc will accompany a map with all the details players will need to navigate the world.  One big change though with this game is that with a world of this size, we created a double-sided map based poster to make sure players have all the information they might need to discover and explore the world. The blueprint map in the other editions does contain plenty of additional information and secrets on it.
 
 
“My name is Pedro and I have a doubt. When are you going to release the pre-order links of the Special Edition and Collector's Edition of Grand Theft Auto V on Brazil?”received via Mouthoff
 
Hi Pedro, we’re working hard to make the Special Edition and Collector’s Edition available for pre-order in Brazil as soon as we can. We’re currently waiting on some customs issues to be resolved before retailers in Brazil can start accepting pre-orders. To all others who have questions about whether and where the Special Edition or Collector’s Edition is available in your particular country, we’ve been maintaining the www.rockstargames.com/V/preorder page to be as up to date and accurate as possible for all territories shown – if you have additional questions beyond that, feel free to hit us up at mouthoff@rockstargames.com and we’d be happy to investigate for you.
 
 
“Would you be able to tell me to what extent are weapons and vehicles customizable?”@kieranmgklaceup
 
Without going into detail just yet, we can tell you that both will be very customizable – with a range of weapon upgrades as well as some very deep car customization. Stay tuned for more very soon.
 
 
“Rockstar, how many discs will the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game have? I am asking because I am just conscious of how many discs I will have to install onto my Xbox 360 HDD.”cj67890
“Hi R*, as you said GTAV will be the biggest game that Rockstar ever created, normally it should be the biggest in size too. So how you are going to solve Xbox 360 disc limit issues? I mean will GTAV have many discs (on Xbox 360 platform)…?”youtubos
“If we install GTAV on Xbox 360 do we have to insert other discs or not?”Persian-boy1995
 
Grand Theft Auto V is the largest and most ambitious game we have yet created, and takes full advantage of every ounce of processing power available in the current generation of consoles. In order to provide the best possible experience for such a massive and detailed world, the game will have installation requirements on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 systems. For Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto V will ship on two discs; Disc 1 will be used for a one-time mandatory install and Disc 2 will be used to play the game. After the install, players will be able to enjoy both Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online without any need to switch discs.
This initial install will require an Xbox 360 Hard Drive or an external 16GB USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free space. If using a USB flash drive it must be at least USB 2.0 with a minimum 15mb/s read speed and formatted for Xbox 360 use. A new USB flash drive is recommended to ensure optimum performance.  For PlayStation®3, the game ships on one disc and will install content as soon as you insert the game. The install is roughly 8GB, and players will be able to play as soon as the install is complete.
 
 
“Will we ever see some GTA V gameplay?”  – @ASTR4Lx
 
Yes. Soon (or in September if you don’t want to see it before you play it… it’s up to you) – the first Official Gameplay Video is on its way...
 
 
“Hey Rockstar, I'm curious whether you are planning on releasing GTA V on the PC...” received via Mouthoff
“You've probably been asked before, but is GTA V coming for next gen consoles also?” @tomtoon2010
 
The only versions of the game that we have announced are for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 which are set for a September 17th worldwide release. We don’t have anything to share about the possibility of a next-gen or a PC platform release at this time and we are completely focused on delivering the best possible experience for the consoles people have right now.
 
 
“When will we get information on GTA V multiplayer?” @camronbnl3
 
Expect to hear some first details soon – it’s called Grand Theft Auto Online and we’re very excited to unveil it for you sometime this summer.
 
 
“A healthy GTAIV multiplayer game is really hard to come by nowadays. By healthy I mean players play for good clean fun. Every time I join a game it's either modded or hacked. When I create a custom game, some abusive d*ck joins my game and ruins everyone's fun game. I can't just kick him out unless everyone votes. Do something about this in GTAV, Rockstar.”received via Mouthoff
 
Ever since Grand Theft Auto IV was released, we’ve continued to integrate newer and stronger methods of cheat detection and prevention for each of our games. While we have yet to reveal specifically what new anti-cheating measures we have planned for GTAV, rest assured that we’re focused on creating as level a playing field and as fair, fun (and healthy as you say) an experience as possible for everyone. There will always be some people who want to cheat but we are going to do our best to stop it. We have spent a lot of time and effort making an incredible Online experience and proper support is part of that package.
 
 
“Hello Rockstar, I have a question: how much difference will there be between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game?”received via Mouthoff
 
Players can expect the same great gameplay experience on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms as they have both been developed in tandem.  Like all of our games, trust that we’re committed to making sure Grand Theft Auto V looks and runs as great as possible regardless of whether you pick it up for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, and we are excited for fans on both platforms to experience Grand Theft Auto V this September. We expect any visual differences to be completely negligible.
 
 
“I smell a delay...” SanViceCity
“Hope R* will release this game on September 17th. HOPE it will no be delayed AGAIN.”creed_20103
 
There’s nothing to worry about, so we aren’t quite sure what you’re smelling!  GTAV will be available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 17th.
 

Max Payne 3 Now Available for Mac

Posted on June 20 2013, 1:51pm | Author: R* Q | Filed Under: Games

Apple Mac users yet to experience the cutting edge shooting mechanics, precision gunplay, and dark and twisted story of Max Payne 3 - your wait is over. Today Max Payne 3 arrives for Mac. This seamless and highly detailed, cinematic experience features advanced Bullet Time® and Shootdodge™ effects, plus full integration of Natural Motion’s Euphoria® Character Behavior system.
 
Max Payne 3 is now available from the Mac App Store and on Steam for Mac.

Rockstar Game Tips: Get Good, Real Good, at The Warriors

Posted on June 17 2013, 11:53am | Author: R* K | Filed Under: Games

A real live bunch they may be, but getting The Warriors back to Coney is no cakewalk, not with 60,000 Flashed-up street soldiers baying for retribution. Here are our tips to surviving the night - and remember that The Warriors is now available to download from PlayStation Store as part of the PS2 Classics collection.
 

  • Stay tuned, Boppers: Pay close attention to the tutorial at the start of the game, as this will teach you the combat basics that will get you through the tougher stages later on. If you do forget anything, head to Controls > Tutorial from the Start menu.
     
  • The Chicks are packed: Many of the objects littering the streets - bottles, trashcans, wrenches etc. - can be used as weapons. Generally, these weapons inflict more damage than a single hit, but you do lose the ability to string together combos and to defend yourself from the rear and side. In the frenzy of a mass brawl, you may find it better to rely on the weapons you were born with.
     
  • Hit everything in sight: Rage Mode can be the difference between a pretty face and a smashed one. Attacks are more powerful with Rage and you are immune to damage for its duration. All basic attacks fill your Rage meter somewhat, but some do more than others. Check the Style Points table below to see which actions really get the blood boiling.
     
  • Real tough: Some boss enemies have powerful melee attacks. In a one-on-one, keep your distance and throw any weapons you find at them. Not only will this wear them down, it will fill your Rage meter. When it's full, get up close and wreck their punk ass.
     
  • Who are The Warriors?: Know your allies - each member has different physical attributes and skills, and playing these to your advantage may be the edge you need to beat a difficult mission.
     
  • I want them all: Whichever character you're controlling, the rest of The Warriors have your back, so use the Commands to your advantage. If a rival gang has one particularly strong soldier (maybe they're carrying a weapon), then lock onto them and issue the 'Wreck 'Em All' Command to have them battered before you've even thrown a punch. If you're short on time and cash, shout 'Mayhem' in a store to have it emptied quicker than a Flash dealer's overcoat.
     
  • Come out to play: Coney Bonus Missions are timed challenges that are gradually unlocked as you play through the game's Story Mode. To find them, exit the Warriors Hangout and look for the purple mission icons on your radar. Complete these as soon as they become available, as the rewards will help you in the more difficult later stages.

 

Hit the jump for more tips including a breakdown of which actions yield the most Style Points.

Check It Out: A Crossroads at The Southbank Undercroft

Posted on June 14 2013, 1:53pm | Author: R* K | Filed Under: Rockstar

We've had our own affection for the historic Undercroft at the Southbank Centre in London going back long before we featured it as one of the skateable spots in our 1999 PS1 title, Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

Southbank has attracted skaters from all over England since the 1970s, becoming a focal point for the community and a powerful barometer for local talent. While their Californian counterparts were blessed with sunny skies and an abundance of empty swimming pools, Southbank's smooth concrete banks, stair sets and ledges proved to be just as full of potential for first wave freestylers and cruisers as they still are for modern street skating. The combination of covered all-weather skating and clear open space alongside the River Thames made the place ideal not only to skate, but also to just be a part of the scene.

There's always been something perfect about this small pocket of clattering boards and graffiti tucked defiantly beneath some of the city's key arts landmarks, such as Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward Gallery. The Undercroft brings skating right into the cultural heart of the city, now as much of a tourist draw as the postcard destinations above it and a reminder of just how far board (and BMX) culture has come.

Sadly, its future is uncertain. The Southbank Centre has announced plans to take over the space as part of its expansion, swapping the banks for a series of retail units. You can read about those plans in full at www.southbankundercroft.com and if you like, sign the petition to help sustain a major piece of British skating history.
 

Event Recap: The Rockstar Multiplayer Memorial Day Weekend

Posted on June 13 2013, 11:16am | Author: R* L | Filed Under: Games, Social Club


These guys came dressed for the occasion with rides done up in honor of Rockstar and MDW for the Midnight Club LA portion of the day's proceedings.

Here's to all the Memorial Day Weekend warriors who came out in full force both to soak up three full days of Triple XP in Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3, but also those who partook in the live-stream Social Club community event we hosted smack dab in the middle of the weekend on Saturday May 25th. It was six epic hours of action playing a cavalcade of Rockstar online modes from across Grand Theft Auto IV, Episodes from Liberty City, Max Payne 3, Table Tennis, Red Dead Redemption and Midnight Club Los Angeles with other Social Club members and with some of us here at Rockstar as well. Thanks as well to all who tuned in to the broadcast at the Social Club Multiplayer Events page and over at the official Rockstar Twitch page keeping the color commentary flowing. Here's a breakdown of just some of the action we saw.

Beginning the day's journey in the mean streets of Liberty City on PS3 with a bit of Team Deathmatch, Team One's LarsDK and MagicShadowZ had the inaugural snuffs on the stream, at the expense of Team Two's Walisson-_-Game and StephanRask1970 (PSN ID), respectively. Our PlayRockstar tried to set the bar high and went hunting after two of the early standouts on Team Two: Nissan_GTR2012, who was impressively mowing down everyone in sight and southparkmayor who turned the tables and straight Kenney'ed us. Seconds after our teammate and Newswire regular ferguson99 deaded kalanchoe88 and LarsDK, that pesky Nissan_GTR2012 stepped out and shut us down. On the upside, it was right at the doorstep of the hospital - thanks for the courtesy. Moments later, Nissan_GTR2012 got a bit of a comeuppance when Walisson-_-Game machine gunned 'em down. With a minute left and desperately trying to catch up, Team Two's jay-bolty (PSN ID) appeared from out of the shadows to ventilate MagicShadowZ. But it just wasn't enough and Team One wound up taking the match, with vince_42069 and LarsDK getting 13 kills apiece and southparkmayor contributing 9. Team Two's top player was good ol' ferguson99 with 7 kills.

A few seconds into a Deathmatch in The Lost and Damned on Xbox LIVE, our PlayRockstar took a pretty ugly shotgun blast to the face, courtesy of gamefreak23228. Inspired and thirsty for redemption, we copycatted that kill on Stormkiller1122. CreepyEyeball then went on a sick tear, taking out gamefreak23228 and plasticboy199 once and Stormkiller1122 and our guy two times a piece - all in what felt like a heartbeat. More than three minutes into the match, we were desperately trying to add to the one lonely kill to our credit, but that was to be delayed when Stormkiller1122 took us down from behind their ride over by Big Bad Al's. In a period of crossfire down under the Broker Bridge, CreepyEyeball took out Stormkiller1122 and plasticboy199, but not before the latter put us out of our misery. With a little under two minutes to go, we unloaded into Stormkiller1122's vehicle trying to get him with a barrage, but wound up having to open up the car door and fire one from close range to finish the job. Hard target indeed. CreepyEyeball crushed everyone to win the match with 22 kills and $2,332, gamefreak23228 came in second with 8 kills and $842 and Stormkiller1122 came in third with $629 and six kills, many of them unfortunately and painfully at our expense.
 
In the next Deathmatch, this time on PC and at Francis International, we came with RPGs a blazin'. GTAplayer2508 blasted sadlybadlyy (GT) and flashgta10 blew up MawericK19 to open things up, but PlayRockstarPC soon atomized GTAplayer2508 to get on the board. There was a quick succession of brutal violence - GTAstorm took out Seco94, IH8GTAmissions executed msever, AceSeven rocked IH8GTAmissions - as MawericK19 pointed out, "THAT escalated quickly." Halfway through the match, it was just one blast after another - QuAd205 was leading with $2,307, our guy was in second with $1,521 and an apparently avowed free-roamer and multiplayer IH8GTAmissions (GT) was right behind with $1,483. Nearly face to face with Seco94, PlayRockstarPC did not stand a chance, getting absolutely decimated at close range. Soon after, Seco94 also knocked off Rafioso, making a slow climb upward in the standings. With two minutes left, Seco94 had moved up to fourth, with QuAd205 still in first with $3,742, GTAstorm in second with $2,742 and flashgta10 now in third with $2,246. Not letting up, QuAd205 continued to hit one player after another - getting msever, Rafioso and GUSSI111 within seconds of one another. The relentlessness paid off - QuAd205 wound up winning the match with 42 kills and $4,479. With 30 kills and $2,959, flashgta10 was able to get second, inching past GTAstorm, who had 31 kills and $2,868.
 
Big thanks to ShenmueSaga for faithfully capturing the entire event.
 
We kicked off Max Payne 3 on PS3 with a Deathmatch in Nova Esperança, taking on 7 members of the prolific Murda Squad Gang Crew (MSK1). With a little help from Crew leader MURDA_SQUAD_LOVE, we broke our kill cherry on MURDA_SQUAD_BADZ. Immediately after, MURDA_SQUAD_LOVE dealt with showmestate in an epic faceoff volley of bullets, shooting through doors, walls and ladders - jumping in on the alley-oop we took out showmestate ourselves, by way of a trusty M10. After offing MURDA_SQUAD_ BADZ again with two minutes to go, the Vendetta against us was on. In the meantime, thembones928 emerged to gun us down with an LMG .30 and MURDA_SQUAD_FUNK rocked us with the 608 Bull. Not afraid to shed some blood, Murda Squad lived up to their name, taking the top five slots. MURDA_SQUAD_LOVE, using Weapon Double Dealer and donning a Bomb suit, finished in first with 24 kills. MURDA_SQUAD_FUNK came in second with 23 kills and showmestate was right behind with 22.


Hit the jump for much more including recaps of Social Club community action in Table Tennis, Red Dead Redemption and Midnight Club LA. Plus more video, screens and the roll call of attendees.
 

New GTAV Screens

Posted on June 11 2013, 1:27pm | Author: R* Q | Filed Under: Games
 
The GTAV splash page has been updated with the 9 new screens that you might have noticed during Sony's E3 press conference last night.
 
For details on the custom GTAV-branded Pulse Elite Headset for PS3 and the exclusive PlayStation 3 Grand Theft Auto V bundle available at launch that comes with a Standard Edition copy of the game, visit the PlayStation Blog.
 
 
Previously:

Social Club Crews

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:

Rockstar Warehouse

Rockstar on Instagram

Follow us on Instagram (rockstargames) to see original photos including events, sneak peeks of collectibles and much more.