Gay Tony puts the 'fun' back into GTA IV. Gone are the long, narrative driven car rides of Niko's adventure, and in their place are ridiculous, explosion-filled helicopter gun fights and the odd sexual favour in a nightclub toilet.
When GTA fans complained than the next-gen titan had lost some of the reckless abandon of San Andreas, Rockstar North was clearly listening. Within a few hours of the latest episode you'll have leapt off the top of a skyscraper, shot helicopters out of the sky with the world's most powerful assault rifle and persuaded clubbing totty to put their legs over your shoulders.
Luis Lopez is this episode's protagonist, all-round arsehole and right hand man to notorious Liberty City nightclub mogul, Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince. The episode's plot, while clearly not as complex or in-depth as the threads in GTA IV and to a certain extent, Lost and Damned, is humour-packed and just like Gay Tony's gameplay does a brilliant job of keeping you entertained.
Tony - who's a surprisingly well-rounded and detailed character for a videogame homosexual - has gotten himself into some trouble with the mob. Instead of countless knock-off Soprano cut-scenes, this means we're out to cage fight and explode our way into their favour, which is fine by us.
Like the rest of the episode, the tools you use to solve your mafia plight are totally over the top, which for GTA fans looking for one last excuse to rampage through Liberty City is good news.
Tony's troubles will have you wielding shotguns that take down helicopters, as well as high-calibre magnums that sound like rocket launchers.
One of the stars of Gay Tony's arsenal though are the remote-detonated sticky mines, which Luis can lob with extreme precision - even from car windows.
At the centre of the madness is another eccentric character, Omid Djalili-voiced billionaire Yusuf. With all the money in the world, a six pack of Stella and a night in with X Factor just isn't cutting it for Yusef, and you're constantly tasked with keeping his incredibly spoilt self entertained.
This results in a mission chain of blowing up yachts and base jumping from exploding buildings. Driving cousin Roman to the internet café seems a bit tame now, doesn't it?
In one mission he asks you to literally steal a Subway train to send to his father as a souvenir. After driving to the bridge crossing the train tacks and jumping down onto the roof of the speeding train, it's an epic shoot out with armed police and helicopters until your own chopper hooks on to a carriage and lifts you off to safety. Few missions in the original GTA were this bonkers.
Another highlight has Luis and Tony hooking up with an abusive internet blogger - a dead ringer for Perez Hilton - and taking him for a helicopter tour of Liberty City. The 'tour' has been arranged to make peace after the offending blogger put doctored pictures on the internet of Luis and the boss getting it on.
Of course Luis and Tony's real intentions are far less civil, and you end up flying the vindictive blogger far above the clouds (the sky box has been largely extended), slapping him around the face and lobbing him out, before jumping out behind, catching him and gliding his now poo-ey self down to safety on the ground.
A hardly genre-breaking but welcome change to the mission structure has a score awarded for each completed task, with difficult secondary objectives on offer for those who decide to replay missions at the end of the game. On top of Lost and Damned's established mid-mission checkpoints, Gay Tony's single-player meat is better defined and definitely less frustrating than the original.
Liberty City itself - now notably having lost some of its visual sheen since 2008 - has also been expanded with new interiors, mini-games and of course, Tony's arsenal of nightclubs. As his right hand man Luis can enter the club and take on a "management" role, which basically means bowling it around the club looking for people to throw out and seducing party girls.
This is just one of the admittedly enjoyable distractions on offer in the second episode. Golf, which is executed with a simple power bar set-up, is surprisingly engrossing. Cage fighting and Drug Wars too do well to rekindle to spirit of San Andreas - that 'fun over fiction' stance that guarantees a third dose of GTA IV doesn't just feel like more of the same.
And while we're at it, multiplayer too steps the mayhem up a gear by including all of Gay Tony's absurdly powerful weapons, the Buzzard attack chopper and base jumping modes are sure to become hot fan favourites.
Gay Tony offers something not just for GTA IV fans looking for one last Liberty City hurrah, but the promise of unrealistic but brilliant escapades - less phoning up your mates for a chat and more mowing down pedestrians in a tank - even if some of the narrative is killed in the process.
Unlike Lost and Damned which suffered from an overly familiar missions structure, the second 360 exclusive episode manages to rekindle the highs of GTA IV's greatest missions (we're thinking Four Leaf Clover) and in sheer absurdity leapfrogs them entirely.
Can't wait to download this tomorrow.Love GTA4,put the 360 through your home cinema and take in the sights and sounds of the City Rockstar have created,simply stunning. Just hope the next GTA isn't set in London,i always shoot the c**kney pedestrian from GTA4 in the head,charmless tw@!
Anybody know how big the download is? + If I delete TLAD, I will still have free acces to download it later, right? (not that I'll have to, just a thought)
Superb, I'll be getting this tonight. I can never understand the criticism the original GTA4 gets. I thought it was a masterpiece with the star of the show being the city.
I prefer the setting based a little closer to reality but this will still be an awesome addition. Well done Rockstar. Still no.1.
This looks like the game I was hoping for when GTA 4 came out. I liked that game but it did lose alot of the fun of San Andreas because it took itself too seriously. If I have any money left after MW2 and AC2 then I'll probably pick this up.
Downnloading now. Totally agree with the first poster. Through a surround sound system and an a largish tv this game is absolutely amazing just to exist in.
Whack the sound up and just experience a thunder storm, it's truly spectacular.
Anyway, Forza will too have to wait for me, even though it hasn't had a look in since I got Borderlands the same day. It's one of those games that I'll play over a longer period of time though so it's all good.
I read with disappointment that through a combination of DLC size restriction and the need to pad out the disc release (which doesn't have access to GTAIVs full soundtrack) the new "Vice City FM" with Fernando Martinez is not available on the DLC version, and is a disc exclusive.
Bit of a kick in the teeth for loyal downloaders - counter intuitive in driving DLC...
Even so, I'll probably pick up a disc copy 2nd hand when the price goes down and get the best of both worlds!
I'm looking forward to the PC version of both episodes of GTA IV, I must buy it! Please, Rockstar, I sure episodes perform better on PC, and there is a ideal profit as well!
I was actually looking at trying to pick up a cheap xbox for this :/
Stupid PS3
Can anyone tellme - can I play this on an arcade or do i need a hard disk in it to work? I really don't want to have to spring for the full wack of a 360 when all I want is these two DLC's
Was gonna download this tonight, but my HD's full of episodes of The Guild. Have to watch some tomorrow to free up space. Got it in the queue ready though.
started playing it for a bit last night, and its crazy, definately reminds me alot of the more OTT parts of San Andreas. Being chased by mobsters in a golf cart. genius!
Then again i liked the more subtle humour of GTA IV. the opening still rates as one of my favourite funny intos to a semi serious game.
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