After some investigation, I found that the reason Max Payne 3 crashes when attempting to make a Dead Men Walking lobby on Hoboken Alleys is in fact an erroneously high score on the leaderboards. Someone hacked in a >1 billion score value and we all have to suffer for it.

But no more!



I have created a mod package that disables the leaderboard display while playing Dead Men Walking, allowing players to select either map and play them seamlessly in co-op, no need to swap around files when you want to switch levels, and no fear of crashing at any point. This has been tested thoroughly, both in a private solo session as well as online with a friend via Social Club, but if you find any bugs, please let me know!

This will only work for the Steam version of the game! The Rockstar Games Launcher aggressively checks for file differences and replaces anything that does not match, therefore overwriting the files of this mod.

If you have the RGL version, or you're just squicky about replacing game files, there is an alternate solution by ThirteenAG called FusionFix[github.com]! It mods the game with an ASI loader, forcing the game to load mod packages like DLC instead of editing the originals. It also seems to include a couple additional smaller quality of life features. I have not tested this solution, so your mileage may vary!

The mod package is hosted on Nexus Mods here: https://www.nexusmods.com/maxpayne3/mods/30/

It requires OpenIV to install, which can be found here: https://openiv.com/

• Extract the .oiv file somewhere, inside the game's directory is recommended.
  
• Run OpenIV and select Max Payne 3. Follow the instructions if it can't find the game.
  
• Click on Tools -> Package Installer, and browse to the .oiv file.
  
• Install and enjoy!

Needless to say, I have already reported the exact issue to Rockstar so we can only hope this guide is eventually obsolete, but in the meantime please do not harass any developers to get this issue fixed. Not only is such behavior counterproductive, but we already know Rockstar looks down on modding, this sort of fix could easily be detected and become a bannable offense if they so desired.

I simply hope this helps to revitalize the co-op mode as it's great fun, I would love to see communities form around the mode, feel free to spread the word!