Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

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.

A tier, 8/10. Definitely a breath of fresh air from the bleak realism of the rest of the GTA 4 saga, much more light hearted than either of the other two stories.

It definitely feels like they looked at the complaints about GTA 4 and catered towards them. The lighting is much brighter, the missions are much more fun and whislt being a bit too crazy are still really refreshing and enjoyable. With the exception of an awful helecopter mission and having to loose wanted level after nearly every mission. It's better than in the other parts but having to losing your wanted level ends up being more of a fustration. It doesnt detract from the missions to much but is still incredibly fustrating.

The story and characters are much more over the top and it doesn't feel as high stakes as the other stories. The game definitely has that GTA 5 energy with the same kind of tone and humor. It is very refreshing and different but I definitely prefer Niko's story as the best.

The atmosphere at the clubs always feels so bright, compared to the bleakness of the city l. Seeing characters from the other storys appear was just as great as in the lost and the damned. Roman is just so good.

The mission checkpoints are kept here which is still great. The new weapons are even more over powered than in lost and the damned. The special combat shotgun thing is literally and instant kill. The p90 is such a great assault rifle. Probably my favorite selection of weapons out of any GTA game.

The new dance mechanic in the club is fun and teh music is still as great as the rest of GTA 4. The vice city radio definitely fits this DLC really well.

A great and very different experience to the other parts of GTA 4. The actual missions are much better in general even if the story is a bit weaker than the main game. Definitely spent allot of the game thinking about a tv show with Robert Downey Jr as Gay Tony. Out if all the GTA games GTA 4 would easily make the best tv show.

In short a very different and refreshing story, definitely worth playingif you are a fan of GTA 5.

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.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is where GTA IV stops being so serious and finally has fun. It brings back the chaos, the style, and the over the top missions that made earlier GTA games a blast. Luis Lopez is a solid lead, cool, grounded, and stuck juggling nightclub life, crime, and family drama. The missions are wild, with everything from skydiving to tank battles, and the writing hits that perfect mix of funny and ridiculous. Yusuf Amir, Tony, and the whole cast are loud, flashy, and unforgettable.

The city feels alive again, clubs bumping, cars flying, and everything just dialed up. It's a perfect contrast to the gloom of the base game. If GTA IV felt too heavy, this is the fix.

I have always perceived the "episodes from Liberty City" duology as two great DLCs, but each in their own way. The Lost and Damned is pretty much a perfect story DLC, which adds even more depth to the narrative themes established in GTA IV, while The Ballad of Gay Tony further improves on the gameplay by adding many things that fans have been asking for since the release of GTA IV (like parachutes, a much bigger variety of weapons and vehicles, better outfits etc.)

The story is not as amazing as in the original GTA IV or TLAD, but it's still nice to take a break from gloomy crime dramas and just immense yourself in more lighthearted "Guy Ritchie-esque" criminal shenanigans with many new gameplay features.

All in all, a great standalone DLC.