[Official] GTA4 - The Ballad of Gay Tony

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Gonna start off a topic with the latest hands on impression from EuroGamer :) Really looking forward to this DLC after the trailer (Y)

Developer: Rockstar North

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Distributor: Take-Two Interactive (retail), Xbox Live Marketplace (download)

Series: Grand Theft Auto

Engines: RAGE & Euphoria (motion engine)

Native resolution: 720p

Platform: Xbox 360

Release date: October 29, 2009

Genres: Sandbox, third-person shooter, action-adventure

Modes: Single-player, multiplayer

Hands On by Christian Donlan

I'm going to miss Johnny Klebitz, the troubled anti-hero of The Lost and Damned. I'm going to miss his weary presence, miss the reassuring outline of his oddly noble nose, and miss his fatherly way with a sawed-off shotgun. New GTA IV DLC means that old friends move back into the shadows while former bit-parts step forward to take centre stage, so Klebitz and his biker gang have ducked out, making way for Liberty City's party class: big-spending, coke-powered low-lifes whose days pass in a neon blur of turbulent excess.

Although the forthcoming episode is called The Ballad of Gay Tony (the comments sections of a handful of American websites already show a certain segment of Rockstar's audience struggling manfully with concerns that their favourite developer might have returned all of its Mickey Spillane paperbacks to the local library and checked out Armistead Maupin's back catalogue instead) you won't be playing as the eponymous night club magnate in this instalment. Instead, the developer has cast you in the more conventional GTA role of Luis Lopez, Gay Tony's trusted assistant and sometime business partner.

Lopez is extremely likeable - he stands in a kind of half-slouch, one foot cockily forward, arms down by his sides like a gunslinger and, compared to Klebitz, he seems distinctly carefree. But it's a bit of a shame, really: if anyone could induce bible belt teens to pick up their controllers and experience the life of a gay disco impresario, it's probably Rockstar, and you can't help but hope the world would be a more understanding place afterwards. I should know: I was deeply prejudiced against anyone with a silly little under-mouth goatee until I picked up Gears of War for the first time. That's the true power of games.

The Lost and Damned came with the kind of content and construction that most developers would be willing to push out the door as a sequel, and there's no reason to believe that won't be the case here, but there are also significant differences between the two episodes. As with Bellic's story, Johnny Klebitz' Liberty City adventure was marked by a rather brooding tone. Sure, you could do a wheelie off the roof of an airport terminal while firing a rocket launcher into the cool blue sky, but the narrative at the game's centre was a tense, often claustrophobic tale of betrayal and madness. Gay Tony, however, seems to be something of a return to the knockabout days of San Andreas: it's loud and cheerfully blood-splattered, and even if Rockstar isn't about to let you loose with a jetpack, you feel it might at least come fairly close this time around. So while the plot itself seems tinged with worldly desperation - Gay Tony's up to his elbows in all kinds of trouble, and needs Lopez to keep the worst of it at bay - the pace and detailing is pure action cinema.

Continues...

Will keep adding to this over the weekend.

[Stu89]

Arrrgh i want to get it now thanks for the info =D

[.KICK]

I really need to play GTA4 more before I get this and the other DLC. Looks good though from the trailer (Y)

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

New desktop wallpapers over at R*'s download section

http://www.rockstargames.com/downloads/#/d...aperSeries/4091

[Brad.]

looks awesome, so much better than TLAD (Y)

[what]

They're starting to go back to the insanity with this episode which is good to hear. Should mean GTA V will be a cracker right from the start.

[lnmnky]

PC or Xbox...... hmmmmm....

I have GTA4 vanilla for 360 and this is standalone.

How will a 8800gt run this? High settings? :s

edit: sheets! It's exclusive to 360.

[Jimmy0]

New video ? GTA 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony

[Ironman273]

Here's the link to the Breaking News video: http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/#/video:164

Edit: I'm confused. Will you still be able to download only TBoGT if you already have TLaD? I only see the Episodes from Liberty City thing which comes with both.

Edited September 17, 2009 by Ironman273

[Remysaus]

yeah, you can either download either seperately or buy the set which will include both. (probably cheaper if you don't have tLaD yet)

[neoadorable]

so has GLAD already files a complaint with the ACLU over this?

will have to re-buy GTAIV, gave it away...plus the two add-ons. But i'm confused again, is Gay Tony a standalone game or do you need the GTAIV disc?

[what]

/headdesk

You can either download Gay Tony as an add-on for the original game, so you'll need a copy of vanilla GTA IV or

You can buy a standalone disc ("Episodes from Liberty City") which contains both Gay Tony and Lost and Damned and doesn't require a copy of the original game.

You don't need LaD to play BoGT.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

^ just save that to your clipboard man, countless more people are just going to keep asking without reading :laugh:

[neoadorable]

so do you need a copy of GTAIV to play any of the add-ons? :s

thanks for the info, will just get the extra content disc then.

[ck2k01]

I loved TLAD, and considering Rockstar never fails to impress, I can't wait for this as well.

[V-99 ODST]

I'll be getting this on episodes of liberty city (dvd). I haven't played the lost & damned yet but I heard good things.

[lnmnky]

So how will the achievements work? I thought that for a standalone disc, (which this now is) They have to have 1000 gamerpoints.

But if you get it as DLC, it's only 250 per add-on.

How are they going to reach the 1000 gamerpoints on the disc?

[V-99 ODST]

So how will the achievements work? I thought that for a standalone disc, (which this now is) They have to have 1000 gamerpoints.

But if you get it as DLC, it's only 250 per add-on.

How are they going to reach the 1000 gamerpoints on the disc?

You mean to tell me you don't get game updates whenever you slide in a new game?

[what]

So how will the achievements work? I thought that for a standalone disc, (which this now is) They have to have 1000 gamerpoints.

But if you get it as DLC, it's only 250 per add-on.

How are they going to reach the 1000 gamerpoints on the disc?

Well it isn't a full retail game with a full retail RRP. Bethesda did it with Shivering Isles.

[lnmnky]

You mean to tell me you don't get game updates whenever you slide in a new game?

Not really sure what you mean. But the post below might explain it.

Well it isn't a full retail game with a full retail RRP. Bethesda did it with Shivering Isles.

So it doesn't have to have 1000 points because it's cheaper. Is there an official page detailing the rules over achievements and gamerpoints?

[what]

So it doesn't have to have 1000 points because it's cheaper. Is there an official page detailing the rules over achievements and gamerpoints?

I dunno. All I know is it's been done before so it can be done again. Not really much else to look for in that, really.

[lnmnky]

"Bethesda did it with Shivering Isles."

Was that standalone? Completely standalone?

(I think you had to validate with the old disk.)

[what]

"Bethesda did it with Shivering Isles."

Was that standalone? Completely standalone?

(I think you had to validate with the old disk.)

I don't know if you had to validate it, I always thought it was completely standalone. So I may be wrong. But I really can't see Microsoft stopping Rockstar doing it after shelling out $50 million for exclusivity rights.

[Dane]

So this will be DLC?

Is it free? Or will it cost points?

Sorry I am just now getting back into Xbox 360. And Xbox live.

[what]

So this will be DLC?

Is it free? Or will it cost points?

Sorry I am just now getting back into Xbox 360. And Xbox live.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...#entry591598764

1600 points...