The Lost and Gay! Brought to you by Sprunk.
The Lost and Damned
Review score-4.5/5
The motivation behind seasoned bike, Johnny Klebitz's moral ridden stride through life.
Johnny is the rough, tough and unhygienic Vice-President of The Lost Motorcyle Club.
With their fearless, and probably fear inducing, leader incarcirated. Johnny took the position to lead the gang to reliable financing and in a life of harmony, sort of, with truces abound between other gangs with the only thing on their to-do list to simply enjoy living life as the rebels of society that they are.
However Billy Grey is to be released by the beginning of the story and thus the story starts with the gang only going downhill from there.
Already you can sense alot of tension between Johnny and Billy, with their conflicting views on just about everything, the war they seem to create between themselves is just as destructive as the wars Billy creates with everyone else around him.
From the very start, Billy breaks the truces Johnny set up and basically looks for any reason for carnage rather than any type of solution that would benefit the future.
The conflict between Johnny and Billy fills a good amount of the story focus throughout but whenever it happens to stray from it, it'll feel lazy in comparison and will have you wishing you could just get more of the Johnny vs Billy antics.
The story itself is still brought to life with incredibly voiced characters and characters who are also a joy to love, hate and laugh with or at. Johnny himself, like Rockstar stated, is a very different character from Niko. Still one for always getting into violent mess' you can still tell its not quite how he had planned to live his life. He enjoys his position as a leather clad rebel but not quite to the extremes it will bring him. Billy however, seems to be quite the opposite who seems to lust for more bloodshed and reasons to go crazy.
The voice of reason, Angus to the slightly insane road captian Clay, theres a good variety of personalities throughout with some old favourites even making an a few appearances at that.
The storyline that the characters populate, unfortunately, isn't quite as fresh or engaging as what GTA4 gave you. The heat that is between Johnny and Billy could of been enough to pull the story through to its end, or at least they could of stretched the side plots a little to give more meaning to them such as the relationship Johnny has with drug haddled Ashley.
Also I have to show some annoyance to the storyline, in game and out, having a distinct lack of Malc, one of the new characters introduced. Anyone whos completed the
Its easy to look past though with how easy it is just to enjoy the strong personalities, but going by the amazing standard of GTA4's epic, its a shame The Lost and Damned couldn't of come with a mini-epic to match with its shortened story-mission list.
What it may lack with its story motivation, its gameplay that which it presents you with is definatley a positive to help contrast. Its largely the same to the original GTA4 but of course thats hardly a bad thing. The same brilliant physics engine now with added weapons and improved bike handling, its GTA4 made more convenient.
The weapons themselves also add atmosphere to the game with biker trademarks such as sawn of shotguns to pipe bombs to something a little more extreme with the Street Sweeper, automatic shotgun.
The highlight, for me, definatley goes to the grenade launcher with its much more flexible accuracy and versatlity with it possibly being used on occasion for shooting it through windows or just getting a good reach against a crowd more so than a standard grenade would get.
There is even a half a pole cue added in as an extra melee weapon, though thats strictly for the biker theme and doesn't give much use to the overall gameplay. Least they could of done was given it a unique attack set instead of shoving it in there as just a baseball bat skin.
Ignoring the ever pointless new cars, the added bikes are definatley welcome and give Johnny some sweet variety with how he wants to ride around shooting his sawn off over the handlebars.
To even further the atmosphere, a plethora of new music tracks are added into the mix with a great deal of rock/metal variety to be found with oddly enough, even a few rap songs shoehorned in there aswell.
While so far, all thats been listed is generally more of the same, what the L&D does at least bring with it to add something fresh to the formula is the gang itself, The Lost. You won't actually be controlling or managing your gang but your least given the liberty to ride around with them and during a good amount of the story missions, can fight alongside a sizable group in some very hetic firefights.
Whats more, each gang member you have, story character and random gang-member alike, can actually grow in experiene and toughen up. Each battle they fight in and happen to survive through will make them better at practically everything. More health, better accuracy and for 2 key members infact, can even upgrade their arsenal.
Its a neat idea and one that would have you really trying to keep your gang alive. However their usually moronic AI doesn't give much choice in wether they happen to survive or not.
Which is definatley evident in one of the games side missions, the Gang Wars. Along with 6 other members, you are too ride around on the look for a rival gang to well...commence a war with. Its generally fun and also has some heavily equipped scum to go against instead of just relying on fighting the police for your brutality requirements. Again though your gang AI is downright stupid and it'll come down to luck as to wether they survive. Key characters won't ''die'' but the lesser gang-members will instead be replaced with a newbie member, right back at the start of his leveling ladder.
You can't give out orders to your gang and thus they'll usually end up just riding right up to the enemy and being shot down before they even get off their bikes. Its clumsy and breaks alot of the immersion of being apart of a gang, or at least being apart of a compotent gang.
Non the less the gun battles are still as fun as they were back in the original GTA4 and now with more flare with the added weapons and with you usually always having backup to tag along.
The overall presentation of the game is still pretty solid and it definatley nails a very different atmosphere to Niko's story. A grain filter to give the game a somewhat dirty look, to The Lost and Damned's own gothic font for mission text and such, it really does give you a different outlook on Liberty City.
The graphics have still held up well to this day and you'll have a hard time trying to find a currently released sandbox-crime game with graphics to rival.
The character models still have the same zombie look during gameplay, especially when talking which they still sometimes look like ventriloquist dolls with how their mouths move. The City itself is as vibrant as ever and with more detail added to certain areas like the exterior of The Lost's own clubhouse.
Outside of the single player, there of course exists the multiplayer, which definatley had as much attention as the single player experience with its new modes. Its largely the same as GTA4 but still brings with it some fun alterations to some of GTA4's classics such one that has one team of players escorting a bus of witness' of a crime with the other team as The Lost gang aiming to make sure that there exists no witness' to confirm any crime they may have committed.
Another highlight is the Chopper vs Chopper mode which has one player on a motorcyle while another in an annihilator. Simple design of bike survive against helicopter for as long as possible but incredibly tense when your the biker and just as intense for the chopper firing away with the obvious up-side of things. Its a strong component thats got alot of decent content to keep people happy after the single players 20 or so hours it would take for 100% completion.
The Lost and Damned may have actually brought light to some of the original GTA4's issues even more so, but with its meaty amount of added content and entertaining storyline, all at its budget price, people can learn to judge accordingly. To which The Lost and Damned is simply put, a defining piece of DLC and one to hopefully inspire in the future.
The Ballad of Gay Tony
Review score-5/5
The Ballad of Gay Tony gives you the final ending to a long line of Liberty City stories. Starting with the tale of a cynical and fearlessly loyal immigrant who sadly was groomed through life experiences to become a cold blooded gun for hire, to then playing as a misguided member of a biker gang who was always for rebeling against what he thought was wrong and not afraid to cause some damage in the process.
The setup is very similair but the execution is much more louder and definatley with a bigger bang than anything to what Niko and Johnny had to crawl through.
''Gay'' Tony Prince, Luis' boss, friend, mentor and father figure, is in some serious debt with alot of undesirables. Tony was initially a well respected figure among the nightlife scene but as the years went by with his age ever growing along with his paranoia, Tony would resort to drugs and bad debt from bad people to help fund such bad habits.
Its upto Luis to help sort out Tony's problems and help fill in what needs to filled to get all this debt off Tony's case once and for all. There is abit of story, going off track, concerning Luis' mother and his old hoodlum homies but they really act as an after-thought and the sole focus will be on Tony and just how quick he keeps falling from his throne.
The storyline as a whole is very enjoyable but mostly through the amazing characters and equally amazing writing for them to deliver their personalities to the screen. The story arc itself is fairly predictable with you probably already making accurate guess' as to whos going to betray whom and probably even how most of the storys situations will end. Not like that degrades any of its enjoyment with this infact being one of my favourite GTA storylines thus far just for the fantasically hilarious characters Luis will cross among his story.
While seeing some of the old faces from Niko and even Johnny's storylines is a real treat, just to have more of them and to see from a different perspective at that, the highlight goes to some of the newer characters introduced. Tony Prince for starters is hard to dislike and can't help but pity for just how nothing seems to go right for the poor guy. He's not a gangster or mob boss and is much more legitimate with his business than what contacts the GTA hero's usually get work from. His relationship with Luis too will help strengthen his likablity, with Luis' own father abandoning him (Even more bad rep for fathers in GTA4) Tony replaced the void and as Luis states throughout, is a real inspiration and is definatley one of the reasons for his success in life.
Then you also have such characters as Yusuf Amir, who is just a raving riot with always something hilarious to say and
Luis himself is also a fantastic protoganist. He's lacking in morals per usual of the GTA hero's but he still keeps alot of humanity within him. He's not evil and while he admits that he sometimes enjoys killing for money, the satisfaction is usually down from him knowing how hes helping someone he cares about in life. Much like Niko and Johnny before him, Luis certaintly deserves to take place as one of the greatest GTA protagonists to date and is definatley a character I'm hoping to see more of, down the GTA timeline.
So TBoGT brings with it a new story and new set of characters, no surprise there, but equally as expected it also brings with a whole host of new features to which may almost make you feel sorry for Niko and Johnny to what they've missed out on.
Sure the game still revolves around shooting and driving usually in combination of each other, but theres now so much variety with that scheme that repetition hardly features in The Ballad.
New weapons galore for starters add a whole new coat of fresh and explosive paint over GTA4. From the seemingly pointless addition of a new sniper-rifle to what will hopefully will become a GTA standard, the AA12 shotgun complete with
explosive rounds
! While the original GTA4 basically set you up with a less than expansive set of weapons with no real choice of which weapon to leave home with besides the better of the two, TBoGT now has such an extensive set that theres easily a playstyle for just about everyone.Obviously not as game altering as the weapons, but a very hefty amount of new cars makes it through the transition from eastern immigrant to Dominican hotshot. Returning favourites from GTA-SA, The Bullet is one of the many new sports car Luis can cruise around in.
An agile helicopter, however, that can shoot an unlimited amount of missiles and an explosive turret equipped APC certaintly add even more explosive potential to The Ballad.
Whats more is parachuting has now made a return and with GTA4's still high quality physics, is now as fun as its ever been.
That lists some of the much more notable features that have been generously added into the GTA4 experience, but then there is still smaller additions such as Club Management and dancing minigames. Though they really act as slight diversions rather than anything for you really sink some time into.
Much like you'd expect with such an OTT arsenal of equipment for Luis to mess around with, the story missions themselves are riotiously broad and chaotic but always the good type. Dog battles between attack choppers and diving of helicopters infiltrating skyscrapers, the missions are hardly ever boring to play through again and again ((thanks to the better late than never replay mission mechanic)).
Some missions though certaintly aren't all too engaging to undertake and while would of been acceptable in say a full fledged GTA story like the original, with all the smaller missions there just to bridge storylines and such, for TBoGT and its still reasonably long storyline of 26 missions, you would of hoped each one would be as action packed as the next. To which is close to the mark, but some missions are still rather dull and seem like a waste of what could of been just as fun as the majority.
From base jumping missions to helping out your homies steal drugs to even still just hanging at your clubs dancing and drinking the night away, theres a good deal to get yourself distracted with.
As mentioned earlier, TBoGT also features a mission replay option, to which once you complete the storyline can then replay any mission you so desire, just to go through the frantic fun once more but to also improve your score you now gain from each mission regarding your gun accuracy, damage taken and some miscellenous concerning the mission itself.
Replay value has never been stronger for GTA4 and TBoGT is definatley the best choice of story to go with for all your random rampaging needs.
Of course even besides the single player, TBoGT has its own exclusive multiplayer component. It doesn't have any new modes and doesn't bring along anything from the Lost and Damned. It rathers centred on the basics of deathmatch, races and the ever popular free mode. What sets it apart from the original GTA4 and the L&D is of course the addition of all the wonderful new toys for you and your friends to cruise, kill, parachute from and destroy whatever you wish.
Moving on the presentation of it all, thats definatley where the game falters, but only by so little fortunatly. The game still looks and sounds great and infact thanks to the new additions to the radio stations, has one of the best licensed soundtracks to come across that isn't a music-game. Whats more, with the EFLC disc you also have access to 3 new music stations in total, including the surprising addition of a Vice City FM station complete with even more of the 80s most catchy tunes.
Graphically it still holds well and with it now having a much more natural look over L&D with its filters, it now looks better than ever with its clear skys and general illuminious atmosphere its created. The character models do look better surprisingly but still seem rather robotic mid gameplay. Cutscene graphics can look a little jagged too at times but frankly this is still one of the best looking sandbox-crime games to be found.
The voice acting is your usual GTA quality, as in its phenomenoul with every character you meet really giving you the exact emotion Rockstar are wanting you to feel. Intimidation from the husky Bulgarin, pity for the unlucky in...everything...Tony and respect for the ever loyal and immensly helpful Armando and Henrique.
The new weapons brought into the fold too all sound appropiate and the AA12 shotgun+
explosive rounds
is always sadistically satisfying to listen to.The Ballad of Gay Tony far from reinvents what GTA4 is known for. Theres still alot of shooting and driving and still does lack the huge variety of say San Andreas. Everything that is here, however, has to be admired for its evident attention to detail and its overall top quality. TBoGT is so fantastic, as DLC and as a GTA game in general, it could probably bring forth the cynics who left GTA from GTA4's realistic approach and gritty down to earth asthetic.
Speaking for GTA4 fans alone, TBoGT is undoubtely a must play to finish off loose ends of both past storylines and just to be able to experience GTA4's gameplay at its finest.
