Rockstar Introduces Crews for Max Payne 3

The evil geniuses at Rockstar Games have announced a prominent feature for their upcoming shooter Max Payne 3. The heavily detailed multiplayer modes will utilize a new, cross-title feature called 'Crews'.

Starting with Max Payne 3 and continuing with Grand Theft Auto V and "future appropriate titles", Crews will allow you to join a large community of many other gamers or create a private group for just you and a few friends. Combined with the Rockstar Social Club, their version of Halo Waypoint or Call of Duty ELITE, full stat tracking across all Crew-enabled games will be available for you and your friends to follow along to. You can start Crew Feuds with rival Crews and you'll get updated stats on who's doing what and who's winning the turf war.

The implementation of Crews represents Rockstar's effort to deepen the total multiplayer experience of their library of games going forward. Here's Rockstar explaining one of the many features of Crews in their own words:

One major way will be with Feuds. In multiplayer games we have a feature called Vendettas – if someone kills you twice, you can initiate a vendetta against them, which lets everyone know that you’re out to get that person. For you, a special X marks their blip when they’re visible to you on the map. If you take that person down, you get extra XP. If they survive your vendetta though, they get that XP.

Crew Feuds are essentially Crew Vendettas: impromptu skirmishes between crews that can spring up in multiplayer matches that quickly spawn a first-to-10-kills battle. You can be playing any team-based game with a completely new set of players, but if you spot two or more members of a crew you’re feuding with on the opposite team, any kills you get against them will count to the overall feud so rivalries will spring up automatically - and when they do, you’ll be notified and the grudge will come to the forefront of the game.The full purpose of the feature is to promote a user-generated narrative where Max Payne 3 and future games evolve more than the run-shoot-die-respawn nature of most multiplayer games. If you join a lobby and other members of your crew are in the same lobby, you will have the option of automatically being teamed up together. Other features like customizable emblems will be available to make your Crew stand out. There's no cap on the number of people who can join a public Crew, and there are plenty of XP you'll receive just by reaping the reward of other Crew members.

In other Max Payne 3 news, a new weapons-focused trailer has been released that shows off the many SMGs in the game available to dual-wield and unload on your foes.



Max Payne 3 is due out on May 15th in North America and May 18th elsewhere.