Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

It seems like fans finally got the explosive ending (I mean that quite literally) they were waiting for in this Grand Theft Amazing of a finale of the fourth series.

Luiz Lopez our final macho-man is it seems the Hugh Hefner of Liberty City - making the last two protagonists look like nuns. He also seems to top them style-wise, issue-wise, weapon-wise and about every other wise you can think of. He is loyal partner / bodyguard to 'Gay' Tony Prince, owner of two glitzy glamorous nightclubs in the otherwise mundane outside world.

Obviously being considered a critically acclaimed game you won't be bouncing every night until 'Story Complete' pops up. Instead expect a damn right brilliant story you can sink your teeth into, full of the usual yet still refreshing and more enjoyable tale of backstabbing, jealousy, Russian rockers and Yusuf Amir. This character has to be given particular praise for his bad dancing to 'Arab Money' and hilarious conversations with Luis, calling him every name under the offensive sun.

Like the two previous mass murdering characters, Luis isn't a cheery fellow (despite being a rampant rabbit) and it's roughly ten minutes before everything goes guns up and he actually has a reason to be unhappy. If Tony isn't calling him for help it's his mum in trouble, if his mum isn't in trouble it's Yusuf wanting to show off his 'bling'. But it seems Rockstar has listened to the fans about returning to it's beloved San Andreas roots and made one the most fun, challenging and volatile GTA's to date.

The parachute is back. Tanks are back. Well I say tanks, I mean a single tank which is the most unstoppable machine on wheels, so unless there is a twenty meter wall of steel or a basket of puppies in your way, it's unlikely nothing except will power is going to stop this bad boy. Weapondary has also seen some relentless improvements such as the terrorist friendly sticky bombs and a M249 SAW which packs a bigger punch than Rocky.

So, GTA fan or not this is certainly a near perfect DLC the fans, fanboys and fanatics have needed, to break out of the serious side of Liberty City and start diving and gliding out of whatever the hell they want to and enjoy how much fun there is still to found in this timeless series. DLC of the year? Most definitely, there's unlikely to be a more entertaining experience.

This installment jacks the GTA: San Andreas ambiance and imports it to Liberty City, with new features & mini-games (top-down golf, sky-diving, dancing, club bouncing) some of which get tiresome semi-quickly and are only worth pursuing for the odd achievement. All that out of the way, there's a reason why this is one of the most celebrated entries in the franchise - essentially coming off as a quasi take on Bret Easton Ellis' 'Glamorama', this lights-flashing, dance, dance, raining-confetti-but-the-confetti-are-bullets, the-party-never-stops, glitz'n'glamour high-life after-hours side of L.C. pumps up the volume on the over-caffeinated city that never sleeps (or quits coughing up blood). Missions include rampaging thru town in a S.W.A.T. tank, hijacking a train car, an assault on a yacht via attack chopper, and for the finale, catching a flight that ends up going down in flames while you parachute to safety. It's a rave you won't want to quit anytime soon.

I started playing this game for a while and it is a lot of fun! This is one of the best GTA games. 10/10. Any GTA fan has got to play this game if they already have not.

Years ago I played a top-down view GTA game on my old PC. The graphics were basic and the idea was simple. Years later I picked up GTA4 after it had been out for a while, having not taken part in the other versions since my PC days. I really loved the scale of it and the story and, once my tenth prestige on Modern Warfare 2 was achieved, I picked up a disc with the two downloadable chapters on it. The first of these was good but it had some problems. The base for your character was the island playing the part of New Jersey – a terribly dull and grey place in the game. The gang wars were cool but required biking it for long distances. The Xbox achievement points were mostly down to "finish the game" and not spread out and generally the game seemed to be trying to be gritty and downbeat, while still allowing you to run amuck like in the main game. I liked it as an add-on but there were things about it that could have been better.

I almost wish that I had played Lost & Damned when it came out, because then i could convince myself that Rockstar listened to me. Sadly, as it was my comments came long after both chapters were released – which is a shame because The Ballad of Gay Tony is a massive improvement and pretty much everything I had pause over in Lost & Damned is addressed in this second download. The home base locations are all on Manhattan and, although you cover all of the boroughs and Jersey, it is great to be mostly around this area. The story is one of club lifestyles, drugs, wealth and excess – we still have junkies but now they are very wealthy as opposed to infected and waiting for death like they were in Lost & Damned. The weapons are souped up (AA12 and of course the wonderful sticky bombs), the vehicles are generally better and of course the buzzard and the tank being available makes "messing around" a lot easier and more fun. The parachute was new to me and I did find the base jumping challenges very hard but generally they were fun.

The cage fighting and drug wars are just two other extra things to be done outside of the main story and wisely the game achievement points have been spread across all of these so that they are more than just side activities but necessary to 100% the game. Even the dancing has achievements associated with it – an activity that I hated until I understood the instructions then I loved it – doing the bus stop was great fun. Back to the main story though. As before, it dove-tails into part of GTA4 in regards the theft and repeated theft of the bag of diamonds. This is good stuff and is satisfying to see things come together. The alternative view on Brucie is an example of the story being pretty clever and I did respect it for working with that character a little. Luis is one cool character and I enjoyed playing that role a lot. Of course in terms of characters all come second to the addition of Yusuf Amir, who is hilariously over the top and very well voiced by UK comedian Omid Djalili. His cut scenes are among the best and his missions are generally the most outrageously over the top (stealing a subway train and airlifting it out of the city!!). All of the missions are fun though and most of the cut scenes get the balance right between being entertaining and instructional while not running too long to make you feel like you're not being allowed to play the game! The Ballad of Gay Tony is not only a great downloaded extra, but it is easily a great game if you pick it up for itself. The many little distractions give it life, while the exaggerated action and glitzy characters give the game a real sense of OTT fun that the Lost & Damned didn't manage. Even after all the time I'd spent in Liberty City by the time I started this game, it still managed to be fresh, fun and entertaining.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is the best DLC in history for me The DLC story may not be as compelling as the original game story, but it has a high overall quality The gameplay is really amazing, the variety of stages is extremely high and can keep the player busy for hours. Side activities are really fun too The variety of weapons has also increased and we are seeing a lot of weapons The movements of the main character have also become smoother, although I liked the character control system in the main game more A new type of helicopter has been added to the game, which is really attractive A parachute has also been added to the game and its control has become much better and lighter compared to SAN ANDREAS The technical and artistic graphics have not changed from the main game and are still of high quality In general, the quality of this DLC is extremely high, be sure to try it !!