How do you define cheating? Or perhaps more pertinently, how does Rockstar define cheating? We've just been playing Max Payne 3 as a floating AK-47, completely invisible to the other players. Winning rounds is as easy as gliding ethereally up to other players, jabbing the melee button and watching their final confused moments as their corpse slumps to the ground.
And what nefarious exploit - what arcane combination of button presses - did we use to gain a competitive advantage this potent? Well, we deviously fired up the game, duplicitously downloaded the new Local Justice DLC and deceitfully headed into a game of Payne Killer. Check out the brief video below, to see why even Max and Passos couldn't touch us.
Based on our tests, while we were able to duplicate the bug on two separate consoles and profiles, the exploit seems to have been plugged already. Either that or simply restarting the console fixes the problem. Either way though, it raises questions about the player-powered cheater reporting system, because while we technically cheated, it was entirely by accident that we ended up invisible, rather than an intentional hack or exploit.
We couldn't help but be amused at the befuddled behaviour of other players who would tumble over, seemingly without warning, as we clonked them on the skull with the butt of our hovering rifle. We'd defy anyone presented with this glitch not to at least spend a few minutes being a nuisance as a heavily armed poltergeist.
The thing is, the players we were playing against - whose multiplayer game was probably ruined by our mirth - would be absolutely justified in reporting us to Rockstar's dedicated email address for smacking down cheaters: maxpayne3.banhammer@rockstargames.com. It's entirely possible our Gamertags have already been dumped into what Rockstar is calling the 'cheater pool' which matches dishonest players with each other to keep things clean for the rest of the player-base.
But ultimately at what point should you be permanently branded a cheater? If you've intentionally taken advantage of an exploit, that's one thing, but what if that exploit was literally forced upon you on loading your very first deathmatch. Where would you draw the line?
Interestingly, while there are several specific cheats mentioned on the cheater pool FAQ on Rockstar's site, this invisibility glitch isn't listed as one of them. It's entirely possible that it's a new problem caused by the introduction of DLC and the fact that we dived straight into the DLC playlist without first setting up our character or playing a regular game.
We'll be forwarding this article to Rockstar's email address too - after all it asks for descriptions of how these exploits occur as well as the names of the damned. Perhaps by reporting our findings we'll escape retribution.
So what do you think? Are we dirty cheating scum? Is it ever right to take advantage of an exploit, even just for a laugh? What would you do if you had the opportunity to experiment with this glitch? Let us know in the comments.
6 comments so far...
msbhvn on 17 Jul '12 said:
While you technically didn't do anything wrong, you would still ruin the game for the other people. Although wouldn't quitting straight away cause ructions too? Haven't played MP3 online, as shooters aren't my forte, ask anyone who played Gears with me.
Decent_Jam on 17 Jul '12 said:
I think there comes a point when it becomes less messing around and more malicious, though I'm not sure where the line is.
In this instance I would say after a round or two of endlessly killing innocent people you should probably give it up.
I do like a good glitch occasionally though, there used to be some crackers on Halo 3 Big Team Battle when the host left but the game didn't notice and so everything completely broke at the same time, some fantastic scenes.
Lancer Armstrong on 19 Jul '12 said:
I'm just going to re-post what I wrote in the Max Payne 3 Review comments yesterday. It should sum up how I feel about this horrible game:
"Jesus Christ, my hatred for this horrible excuse of a game has just increased tenfold.
I finish the first disc, get the message to insert the second disc, insert the second disc, select Story, then select Continue... and guess what, the piece of shit tells me I have to enter the first disc and finish the last chapter on there (Chapter 6), which I've already done! I insert the first disc (again) and finish the last bit of chapter 6 (again) and it tells me to enter the second disc (again!).
I do that and it tells that I can't continue and have to insert the first disc (AGAIN!!). After doing this back-and-forth for about a half a dozen times, I finally decide to select NEW in STORY MODE, hoping that might work. Guess what, it overwrites all my campaign progress and now I have to replay the entire first half of the f**king game!!!!!
And what's the point? Even if I do that, it will probably still give me the same problems. No matter what I do, I just can't unlock Chapter 6. I access Chapter 5 in Chapter Select, play it halfway and then it simply stops and goes back to the main menu.
This game is completely F-U-C-K-E-D!!!!
I HATE MAX PAYNE 3, more than I've ever hated any game in my life. This is the biggest piece of shit I've ever "played". F-U-C-K Rockstar Games. I'll never buy anything from them ever again."
Lancer Armstrong on 19 Jul '12 said:
Oh, and here are my initial thoughts on the game, re-posted for your reading pleasure:
"Yeah, I'm not having any fun with this game.
It's frustrating. The kinda game that invites you to do something and then punishes you for it. It encourages you to jump through the air guns blazing all John Woo-style, but rewards you with almost instant death the moment you leave cover. It encourages you to explore and look for painkillers and collectables, but if you take a second too long it cuts to a shot of your partner dying, followed by "YOU FAILED! f**k YOU, LOSER." and then restarts from some far off checkpoint.
Gameplay is pretty repetitive, with very little variety, and the camera is annoying as hell. The reticule constantly switches from the one shoulder's side to the other, meaning I have to constantly reset it. Word of advice to all Third Person Shooter developers: Keep the damn reticule over the character's right shoulder. That's the standard. With First Person Shooters, the gun stays on the lower right corner of the screen. With Third Person Shooters, the character stays on the lower left corner of the screen. Simple. All the great shooters stick to this simple rule. Why? Because it f**king works.
As for the look of the game, the cutscenes look like they were edited by some MTV hack who's been banished to Direct-to-Video hell. If you seriously think it looks anything like Fight Club, then I sure as hell don't have a lot of faith in your film knowledge or taste. It looks more like some Tony Scott-directed acid-flashback mess like Domino. Empty, annoying, tasteless. The developers obviously watched Man On Fire a lot. "Ooh, look how the words appear of the screen. Edgy."
Sorry to say it, but Third Person Shooters have become much better than this. We have great games like GEARS OF WAR, DEAD SPACE and VANQUISH now. I know that Max Payne 3 is aiming for some kind of nostalgia-driven fan service, but there's a reason this kind of gameplay died with titles like Stranglehold and Wet.
Wish I could get my money back."
DemonicNogger on 25 Oct '12 said:
Hey. I bought the game yesterday and I wanted to play some multiplayer. So I first went in and downloaded all the free dlc and add-ons from the xbox live marketplace. Then I started a ROOKIE TEAM DEATH MATCH. When the game started, it was the same problem as in your video. I just saw my AK-74, but not my character, I could kill my enemies, but they could not see me. I thought maybe it was something wrong with what I have downloaded so I threw all the add-ons and dlc. tried again but the same error. Restarted my Xbox but still the same problem. I did not care about it more and waited to play until today, but still the same problem = (People began to send the message that I cheated, but I have not done anything wrong. How can I fix this? It's not fun to run around invisible. Please can anyone help me or does anyone know how I can solve this problem?
Clanger67 on 25 Oct '12 said:
From what i know about and have read about it it is a cheat MOD.Although from some other things i have read it is a MP glitch,although you would have thought if that was the case they would have patched it by now.