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- Jan 2, 2007
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- 1,067
Review time!
Story
Believe it or not, Gay Tony actually isn't the main character. In many ways his role in the game is much like Dr. Strangelove's in... well, Dr. Strangelove. He may not appear as often as other characters, but he is one of the most idiosyncratic of the main players and hes a key cog in the scheme of things for making most of what happens possible. The main character here however is Luis Lopez, Gay Tony's partner and a bouncer/manager at The Maisonette 9, a club owned by Gay Tony for a straight demographic (He also runs Hercules, which is for the gay demographic) that is popular but seeing hard times financially. At first I found Luis to be a little too deadpan, but as the story progressed, he became a much more interesting character and is a very likable character. He doesn't have the inconsistencies in character that Johnny did, and like Niko he can grow on you although I actually found myself liking him even more than Niko but it would be hard to explain why. The writing is top notch, as one would expect from Rockstar North, and so is the voice acting. The story is great and also trumps Johnny's story, its not quite as good as Niko's but then again that plot was pretty hard to top. Either way, its yet another great addition to the GTA Mythos.
9.4/10
Graphics & Audio
Although some aspects of the visuals are starting to show their age, I still think the game looks great and Liberty City is still impressive. It seems that R* has again pushed the draw rate a bit, but its hard to really tell. Some textures seem sharper as well.
The voice acting is superb, all the weapons new and old still sound great, and the licensed soundtrack is still awesome. I haven't noticed many new tracks, but at the same time, I only really listen to Liberty Rock and the talk stations and I've heard that most of the new tracks are on stations like ElectroChoc, which isn't really my thing. On the subject of Talk Stations though R* has heard my prayers.... there's new Lazlo material in this pack! :w00t: All the talk stations have been given some new content which was sorely lacking in TLaD.
There's not much else to say about the audio and visuals since save for a few tweaks, they are largely unchanged from the base game. Granted, that's a good thing, but anyone whose played the base game doesn't need me to remind them what it looks/sounds like.
9.0/10
Design
Like TLaD, Rockstar has actually put time and effort into this pack. When DLC started becoming more common and talked about, this is the sort of thing I imagined DLC should be. Downloadable expansion packs, but sadly the gaming world has proved that companies would rather add 3 maps to your game and charge you 10 bucks rather than deliver true honest to god new content. The Ballad of Gay Tony packs in even more content than TLaD did. There's a drove of new missions that will last you a good while and new side missions and challenges, the best of which are the base jumping challenges. Although they've been done before in other games such as the recent Prototype, I think that R* has provided us with the best of them all as they are a little more challenging here and at the same time, you REALLY feel the vertigo as you drop down. This also meant that the first time I did a base jump I was cowering like a little girl (I have severe vertigo) but it was still a cool experience and it feels realistic. The base GTA IV formula is still here and its still great, and some new weapons and vehicles spice it up a bit. My favourite of the new weapons is by far the auto-shotgun with explosive shells. Not only will it reduce your foes to a shiny red paste, its EXTREMELY useful against heavy vehicles such as police helicopters and considering that RPGs only go straight, it becomes an invaluable tool for taking down targets like that with precision aiming. There's an RCP90 in here too, but sadly, its realistic which means that the accuracy and range is awful and you'll switch back to the default SMGs pretty quickly. There's a new helicopter in here which packs a nasty punch, but sadly the HORRID helicopter controls mean that its no fun to use it. The mission its introduced in requires you to take down 4 boats, one large 3 small. Of all the missions in this game, that one took 15 tries because the controls kept landing me in the drink or failing because its impossible to FRIGGEN AIM while fiddling around with what has to be THE WORST helicopter controls EVER. There's a new feature here for completionists, which tracks stats in every mission and has goals and a completion percentage. You can upload these stats to your Social Club account and you can now replay missions to improve your stats or if you just want to revisit a mission without replaying the whole game, which is a nice addition. You can't upload stats if you fail a mission and have to repeat it, but if you replay the mission using the replay function after beating it, it will let you upload stats again.
9.4/10
Gameplay
As mentioned before, the base gameplay isn't really changed all that much but when its as good as it is, that's not necessarily bad. Combat is still satisfying and the superb design makes the gameplay 10x better. Luis is a little slower and has the shortest health bar of the 3 protagonists, but he makes up for being much stronger and better with weapons. During fight club side-missions or melee combat in general, Luis can really screw you up. His aiming seems to be a little better too. Beyond that, the gameplay isn't that much different, which once again means that I can't say much more about it. The gameplay is still great, there's really nothing more to it.
9.5/10
Conclusion
Did you like GTA IV? Yes? Well, then get The ballad of Gay Tony. This is a superb DLC pack that adds hours upon hours of new missions and side missions that will keep you occupied for a long time, and give you reason to return to Liberty City. This is easily the best DLC pack ever released for any game, and a superb finale to the GTA IV anthology. Thanks to the ability to replay missions at your leisure and getting better scores as well as the numerous side missions means that it has much more replay value than the base game and TLaD which is always a great thing. At the price that this DLC pack is being offered, its practically a steal and you will get 1,000 times more bang for your buck. If you don't have TLaD yet, or don't have an XBLA account/desire to use microsoft points, then you can get this and TLaD in the "Episodes from Liberty City" standalone pack. I wouldn't say buy that pack if you already own one of the DLC packs already or have enough points to download them, but if you don't have the packs and don't have/want points, then you should get that pack as it will give you plenty of content. Whether its DLC or on the standalone disc, this pack is incredible and worth every penny.
9.7/10
Story
Believe it or not, Gay Tony actually isn't the main character. In many ways his role in the game is much like Dr. Strangelove's in... well, Dr. Strangelove. He may not appear as often as other characters, but he is one of the most idiosyncratic of the main players and hes a key cog in the scheme of things for making most of what happens possible. The main character here however is Luis Lopez, Gay Tony's partner and a bouncer/manager at The Maisonette 9, a club owned by Gay Tony for a straight demographic (He also runs Hercules, which is for the gay demographic) that is popular but seeing hard times financially. At first I found Luis to be a little too deadpan, but as the story progressed, he became a much more interesting character and is a very likable character. He doesn't have the inconsistencies in character that Johnny did, and like Niko he can grow on you although I actually found myself liking him even more than Niko but it would be hard to explain why. The writing is top notch, as one would expect from Rockstar North, and so is the voice acting. The story is great and also trumps Johnny's story, its not quite as good as Niko's but then again that plot was pretty hard to top. Either way, its yet another great addition to the GTA Mythos.
9.4/10
Graphics & Audio
Although some aspects of the visuals are starting to show their age, I still think the game looks great and Liberty City is still impressive. It seems that R* has again pushed the draw rate a bit, but its hard to really tell. Some textures seem sharper as well.
The voice acting is superb, all the weapons new and old still sound great, and the licensed soundtrack is still awesome. I haven't noticed many new tracks, but at the same time, I only really listen to Liberty Rock and the talk stations and I've heard that most of the new tracks are on stations like ElectroChoc, which isn't really my thing. On the subject of Talk Stations though R* has heard my prayers.... there's new Lazlo material in this pack! :w00t: All the talk stations have been given some new content which was sorely lacking in TLaD.
There's not much else to say about the audio and visuals since save for a few tweaks, they are largely unchanged from the base game. Granted, that's a good thing, but anyone whose played the base game doesn't need me to remind them what it looks/sounds like.
9.0/10
Design
Like TLaD, Rockstar has actually put time and effort into this pack. When DLC started becoming more common and talked about, this is the sort of thing I imagined DLC should be. Downloadable expansion packs, but sadly the gaming world has proved that companies would rather add 3 maps to your game and charge you 10 bucks rather than deliver true honest to god new content. The Ballad of Gay Tony packs in even more content than TLaD did. There's a drove of new missions that will last you a good while and new side missions and challenges, the best of which are the base jumping challenges. Although they've been done before in other games such as the recent Prototype, I think that R* has provided us with the best of them all as they are a little more challenging here and at the same time, you REALLY feel the vertigo as you drop down. This also meant that the first time I did a base jump I was cowering like a little girl (I have severe vertigo) but it was still a cool experience and it feels realistic. The base GTA IV formula is still here and its still great, and some new weapons and vehicles spice it up a bit. My favourite of the new weapons is by far the auto-shotgun with explosive shells. Not only will it reduce your foes to a shiny red paste, its EXTREMELY useful against heavy vehicles such as police helicopters and considering that RPGs only go straight, it becomes an invaluable tool for taking down targets like that with precision aiming. There's an RCP90 in here too, but sadly, its realistic which means that the accuracy and range is awful and you'll switch back to the default SMGs pretty quickly. There's a new helicopter in here which packs a nasty punch, but sadly the HORRID helicopter controls mean that its no fun to use it. The mission its introduced in requires you to take down 4 boats, one large 3 small. Of all the missions in this game, that one took 15 tries because the controls kept landing me in the drink or failing because its impossible to FRIGGEN AIM while fiddling around with what has to be THE WORST helicopter controls EVER. There's a new feature here for completionists, which tracks stats in every mission and has goals and a completion percentage. You can upload these stats to your Social Club account and you can now replay missions to improve your stats or if you just want to revisit a mission without replaying the whole game, which is a nice addition. You can't upload stats if you fail a mission and have to repeat it, but if you replay the mission using the replay function after beating it, it will let you upload stats again.
9.4/10
Gameplay
As mentioned before, the base gameplay isn't really changed all that much but when its as good as it is, that's not necessarily bad. Combat is still satisfying and the superb design makes the gameplay 10x better. Luis is a little slower and has the shortest health bar of the 3 protagonists, but he makes up for being much stronger and better with weapons. During fight club side-missions or melee combat in general, Luis can really screw you up. His aiming seems to be a little better too. Beyond that, the gameplay isn't that much different, which once again means that I can't say much more about it. The gameplay is still great, there's really nothing more to it.
9.5/10
Conclusion
Did you like GTA IV? Yes? Well, then get The ballad of Gay Tony. This is a superb DLC pack that adds hours upon hours of new missions and side missions that will keep you occupied for a long time, and give you reason to return to Liberty City. This is easily the best DLC pack ever released for any game, and a superb finale to the GTA IV anthology. Thanks to the ability to replay missions at your leisure and getting better scores as well as the numerous side missions means that it has much more replay value than the base game and TLaD which is always a great thing. At the price that this DLC pack is being offered, its practically a steal and you will get 1,000 times more bang for your buck. If you don't have TLaD yet, or don't have an XBLA account/desire to use microsoft points, then you can get this and TLaD in the "Episodes from Liberty City" standalone pack. I wouldn't say buy that pack if you already own one of the DLC packs already or have enough points to download them, but if you don't have the packs and don't have/want points, then you should get that pack as it will give you plenty of content. Whether its DLC or on the standalone disc, this pack is incredible and worth every penny.
9.7/10
