The final expansion pack (or episode) for Grand Theft Auto IV has been released in the form of The Ballad of Gay Tony. You assume the role of Luis, nightclub owner Gay Tony's right-hand man who must handle his dirty work across Liberty City.
The Ballad of Gay Tony can be downloaded via Xbox Live (for $20) or in a $40 disc form (called Episodes from Liberty City) which also includes The Lost and Damned, GTA IV's first additional episode.
We've had sometime with the final version of the game and here are our thoughts:
(Credit:
Gamespot)
Jeff:
First thing's first. If you haven't downloaded The Lost and Damned, go out and buy Episodes From Liberty City. It's tough to recall such a great value in gaming prior to this double pack, and Xbox 360 owners don't need a copy of the original GTA IV to jump right in. There is an incredible amount of gameplay value here; it's like getting two full $60 games for less than the price of one.... Read more
On Sale Now: $29.75 - $39.99
View the latest prices for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (Xbox 360)
The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second of the two episodic expansion packs for the Xbox 360 version of the Grand Theft Auto IV. The game follows the exploits of Luis Fernando Lopez, a member of the Northwood Dominican Drug Dealers, and bodyguard for Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince.
Rockstar Games will unleash this new adventure in Liberty City on October 29.
GTA goes gay for the holidays.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)This isn't an April Fool's gag. The next installment of Grand Theft Auto is on its way, and like The Lost and Damned and Chinatown Wars, it's still set in the massive world of GTA IV. Rockstar has unleashed a surprise announcement with The Ballad of Gay Tony coming this fall for $19.99, or 1600 Microsoft Points.
The character in focus this time is Luis Lopez, an assistant to Gay Tony, or Tony Prince, Liberty City's premier nightclub entrepreneur. The glitz-addled world could be a little dose of Vice City-style mayhem. According to Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser, expect a "focus on high-end night life." And, according to the press release, expect "uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price."
Also announced was the release of both The Lost and Damned and Gay Tony episodes in a single standalone disc-based game called Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. At $39.99, it will cost the same as both DLC (downloadable content) episodes, plus it will have a physical disc and box, and will not require GTA IV to dig into its seedy pleasures.
Together, those almost add up to a GTA IV sequel. Perhaps this really is the future of game publishing: build a world once and populate it many times over. On a side note, we wonder if this bit of pre-E3 info is a sign of E309 to come. Will the lousy economy equal more DLC and less standalone content? We shall see soon enough.
Over at our sister site, Gamespot, Wednesday, the eagle-eyed Guy Cocker noticed that Rockstar Games has officially announced its mega-hit, Grand Theft Auto IV, is coming to the PC.
Originally available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the game, which had sold more than 8.5 million copies through early June, will be available on PCs--though not Macs, apparently--on November 18 in North America and on November 21 in Europe.
This is a big move for Rockstar Games because it opens up GTA IV to an even bigger audience than could already play it. And that likely means many more millions of units sold to players who feel they simply don't want to put down the cash for a next-gen video game console like the Xbox or the PS3. And just in time for the holidays.
Further, it means that PC gamers, who have been able to play previous versions of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, will be left behind their console-owning friends no longer. All of which means more bins full of cash for Rockstar and its Take-Two owners.
According to Rockstar, the PC version of the game will feature an exclusive multi-player version. And one wonders if that could lead some players who already have the game for the Xbox 360 or PS3 to buy it for the PC as well. Again, more riches for the publisher.
Rockstar Games took the wraps off the teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV yesterday afternoon, giving gamers their first look at the highly anticipated sequel. While only about a minute long, the trailer offers some key details about the new game. The graphics have gotten a big next-gen upgrade, the setting is clearly a skewed version of New York City, and the game puts you in the shoes of an Eastern European protagonist. Tor Thorsen over at GameSpot offers some additional details, but the big news is that all of the footage in the trailer was captured "in game" running at 720p high-definition. In other words, it's not a prerendered cinematic cut scene; the game should look exactly as shown when it hits the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 16.
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