Lots of new insight into HEALTH's making of the Max Payne 3 original soundtrack and score can be found in this short film just released by The Creators Project, as seen below. Via interviews with the band as well as with Rockstar, you'll get the backstory on how the game's original music came together and the technical approach to its unique dynamic scoring...

Previously:
Watch HEALTH's Official Music Video for "TEARS"
Max Payne 3: The Official Soundtrack - Now Available on iTunes

Looking back on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the occasion of its recent mobile release is a pretty powerful double-hit of nostalgia for us. Not only are we here at Rockstar taken back to that wild year of 2002 when we labored to take the groundbreaking 3D GTA experience pioneered in the previous fall's Grand Theft Auto III into a direction that no one at the time expected - but it's also a time to revisit the fascination with 1980s pop culture that inspired Vice City in the first place. From coked-out debutantes, suave and in-control hit men, hot-blooded drug kingpins, egomaniacal movie directors... the larger than life attitudes of that "me" decade as served up in the films of the era served as perfect inspiration for the stories, characters and scenery that drove the world and vibe of Vice City...

Scarface (1983)

But of course. Largely dismissed at the time as an overblown, needlessly and gratuitously violent and profane remake of Howard Hawks' 1932 gangster classic - it has now, of course, transcended all of that and become one of the biggest and most enduring cult hits of all time - defining what a modern crime epic should be. An absolute top favorite of ours, we started paying homage to the film's legacy in GTAIII with Flashback 95.6's Scarface soundtrack heavy playlist and the casting of Robert Loggia as the sciatica-plagued Ray Machowski - but it goes without saying that Vice City owes much of its inspiration to the vivid characters, style, scenery and music of De Palma and Pacino's 1980s Miami gangster masterpiece.

Less Than Zero (1987)

Hands down the darkest movie of the 'brat pack' genre, this Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy-starring movie is a stylish adaptation of the disturbing Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) novel. A morality tale of excess following rich Beverly Hills yuppie kids caught up with living life in the coke-fueled fast lane of the 1980s social scene. Incredible style, music and oddly prophetic to the drug troubles that would plague Downey himself in the years to come.

Hit the jump below for the rest of our selections and be sure to recommend your favorites in the comments.

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.
 

"The Trunk"

Happy 2013 everyone. By popular fan demand, the downloadable digital collection of official Grand Theft Auto V artwork has now been updated to include all of the original illustrations released to date - including "The Trunk", "Franklin and Chop", "Stop and Frisk" and "Vinewood" as seen here. You may have seen these pieces over the past couple months at local game stores, or in various previews around the web - and you can now download any and all of them as desktops, Facebook covers, buddy icons and as Social Club avatars. You can also check out a complete repository of all GTAV screenshots released to date over at www.rockstargames.com/V.

Stay tuned for lots more ahead, including more artwork and the unveiling of the game's official cover later this month.

"Stop and Frisk"

"Franklin and Chop"

"Vinewood"

Now that both the Max Payne 3 Hostage Negotiation and Painful Memories DLC packs are out in the wild (get the full lowdown here and here in case you missed them) we've been checking out how the best players in the community use the new Bursts, weapons and Loadout Items to their advantage. Taking this into account, along with input from the top players at our dev studios, here's our tips on how to make the most of your arsenal.

The M24 is the first bolt-action sniper rifle in the game and provides impressive stopping power at long range for those accurate enough to wield it. We recommend equipping the Supressor to mask its distinctive sound and protect your position, even though that slightly impairs the range.

The IA2 AR is one of the most powerful and accurate assault rifles in Max Payne 3 multiplayer, and it's best used to keep enemies at bay from around mid-range. While it's fire rate means it not as efficient up-close, you may want to consider a punchy side-arm like the Sawn-off or the 608 Bull for those intimate encounters.

The UAR-21 is a good all-round assault rifle with a particularly fearsome fire rate that makes it more effective up close than some others. However, that does mean you're going to get through plenty of ammunition so we recommend adding the Extended Mag attachment, along with the Barrel Upgrade and Gas Systems kit if you can spare the Loadout weight.

Highly accurate across mid to long-range and with plenty of ammunition in reserve, the IMG 5.56 is a solid choice for those large, open maps like Canal De Panamá and New Jersey Cemetery.

Hit the jump for some tips and strategies on how to utilize the new Bursts and Items from both packs.

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...
 

As Old Man Winter tightens his icy grip outside, Social Club Crews have continued to keep warm with regular southbound trips to the hot and hazy multiplayer grottos of São Paulo in Max Multiplayer. To celebrate the season and in the spirit of giving, we've hooked up all members of Social Club with a little stocking stuffer in the form of the awesome new Human Skull, accessible via the Head Items section of your Loadouts. After this past Saturday's Max Payne 3 Social Club Multiplayer Event, we also introduced Event-specific Crew leaderboards for the very first time on the Social Club Multiplayer Events page, alongside our usual individual Player leaderboards. The chance to unlock another skull, the fearsome Wedding Skull, by placing in the top 10 private Crews brought the best of Social Club Crews out in force, with everyone allowed to join in all the games. We'll have more chances to unlock these skulls coming in January. This week on the Crew Cut we take a look at who the winning Crews were in our second Social Club Winter Calendar Event, and which squads are catching our eye for the very first time with performances that left their opponents strung up like fairy lights. We've also rounded up some fine and festive seasonal Crew Emblems we found further below.

Makavell from Slaughterhouse sent in this pic of him preparing for his nuptials. Ah, romance.

DEATH AND MARRIAGE

With the awesome Wedding Skull to fight for, Crews were repping hard to cement their place at the top of the leaderboards. The Ice Cold Assassins Crew impressively snuck into the top 10 private PS3 Crews with just five members. This came as no surprise after the plucky Free Aimers proved themselves admirably in a recent bout against the Rockstar Dev Crew, showing us the speed and accuracy with which they maintain their 90% Feud win percentage. However the most astonishing performance in the entire event was by two-man Crew Black Shadow. This deadly duo worked harder than Saint Nick on Christmas Eve to finish 10th overall on the PC Crew Event leaderboards; respect to leader BermsBertDualShk for also finishing eighth on the PC Player leaderboards.

Black Shadow are just one of a host of Crews who have not yet received the recognition that they clearly deserve here in the Crew Cut report. Two more Crews that have never been featured are Kung Foo Fighters and Dixie Gaming League, coming in 8th and 9th respectively on the Xbox leaderboards during the event. Kung Foo Fighters Crew recently snuck into the top 20 of all Xbox Crews worldwide, and are making a play for the big dogs. Meanwhile the Dixie Gaming League's vocal leader, MONSTRO1988, shouts out his "heritage, not hatred" Crew faithfully here in comments on the Newswire. Monstro is a professed Loadout connoisseur and strong opponent to the current trend towards dual-wielding amongst Max Payne 3 players. The tactic seems to be effective as Monstro himself placed 9th on the individual leaderboards. Solid work, there.

TIS THE SEASON

With Christmas just around the corner, we're pleased to see a few Crews getting in the spirit already with well-placed Santa hats giving a festive feel to some classic Social Club emblems. The YRA and S-13 Brasil are committed not only in their Emblem Editor practice but in their Social Club Events performances as well, with both of them earning their right to sport the Wedding Skulls over the Holiday Season. The YRA Crew's British Bulldog can show off his new mustache proudly after they finished top of the PS3 private Crews during the Event. Meanwhile, the S-13Brasil Crew's emblem cries reddened tears for the fallen, but the 2,465 Kills they racked up during the event proves every word of their cerebral motto: "Nenhum obstaculo e tao grande se sua vontade de vencer for maior" ("No obstacle is too great, if the desire to win is greater"). 

We leave you this week with an awesome rendition of the GTAV "Beach Weather" girl by ErnestoRock2 given a suitable Christmas twist by Sweeeet55 for Consumer Products Crew. Not only do they have a sweet emblem, but as the only Crew on Xbox to beat the 121,000 strong hordes of the Payne Killers Crew members, Consumer Products were top of the tree on the Xbox Event leaderboards. With well over 4,100 Feuds won, it should come as no surprise. Sons of GTA didn't make it onto any of the Event leaderboards, but we must give respect for the holiday-themed version of their emblem featuring the men of GTAs past. You'll have to make room for three more in there next year, lads!

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New music from Brooklyn's Joey Bada$$ with a jazzy sample that may be familiar to Rockstar fans...

A shout as well to our friend and soundtrack alumnus Statik Selektah on the scratches and cuts on this.