The GTA IV saga closes out with The Ballad of Gay Tony, an over-the-top, explosive $20 downloadable episode. Like the first episode, The Lost and Damned, you'll need a copy of GTA IV to play the downloadable version of The Ballad of Gay Tony. For those without Xbox Live (for shame!) or who no longer own GTA IV, you can purchase GTA: Episodes from Liberty City from your local games store. The $40 disc contains both GTA IV episodes, but not the main game itself.

The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (a.k.a. “Gay Tony”), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price. The second and last Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content episode was called Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony [15] and was released on 29 October 2009. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a compilation pack released for the Xbox 360 at the same time as The Ballad of Gay Tony. The Ballad of Gay Tony is the perfect way to close out the GTA IV saga. Finally, we know what happened to the diamonds stolen in the main story a year-and-a-half ago.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, you take on the role of Luis Lopez who works for the title character. Where GTA IV star Niko Belic and Lost and Damned anti-hero Johnny Klebitz are men of little means attempting to rise up in the world, Luis has already made his transition from rags to riches. Tony Prince, owner of the biggest straight and gay nightclubs in Liberty City, took Luis under his wing and made him something. The Ballad of Gay Tony isn't about living in squalor. You live well and you work for the richest men in the city.
You might be wondering why this episode isn't called 'The Ballad of Straight Luis.' There are two reasons for this: a) Rockstar's smart enough not to give a downloadable episode a terrible name and b) This is Tony's story viewed from Luis' perspective. Luis' rise to the top happens before the beginning of Gay Tony and just about every action he takes in the game is tied to Tony's story, not his own. Gay Tony is more about the side characters -- who are wonderfully outrageous -- than it is about Luis. This makes for some entertaining cutscenes, but the story itself (which follows the trail of the stolen diamonds from GTA IV to its conclusion) isn't very compelling. Luis is uninteresting, overshadowed by the big personalities that surround him.

Many of the missions take place in Algonquin, Liberty City's version of Manhattan. Though there are a few early missions that tie into Luis' old life, they are throwaways and very quickly the story focuses on the problems of Gay Tony. The missions are jobs for some of the most unstable people in the city, including Tony, the ridiculous Yusuf Amir, and the bat-s*** crazy Russian mobster, Bulgarin. While there are still the standard crop of 'these guys just betrayed you, shoot your way out' GTA missions, there are a number of others that are more over-the-top than anything in GTA IV or The Lost and Damned.
Bulgarin, for example, is obsessed with owning Liberty City's hockey team, the Rampage. So much so that he sends Luis on a few missions to strong-arm the owner. And I mean strong arm in the GTA sense -- out a window. At one point, you leap out of a helicopter and parachute onto a rooftop, wax some guards, throw an innocent man out a window, then take a leap of faith from 20 stories up. Don't worry, you have a second chute you can pull as you make your escape, landing in the back of a moving getaway truck.
The real star of Gay Tony, though, is Yusuf. This guy is lovable but completely nuts. He just wants his Arab Sheik father to be proud of him. What do you get for the man who has everything? How about stealing an attack chopper or a subway train? Or maybe you construct the tallest building in Liberty City? Money is no object to Yusuf and Luis has no objections to killing for cash. The two make an excellent team.

Gta 4 Ballad Of Gay Tony Product Key

Of course, bigger jobs mean bigger toys to play with and The Ballad of Gay Tony is packed with weapons that give a big bang. Helicopters play a larger role, which is both good and bad. It's certainly faster and easier to travel in a chopper and the new ones are stocked with weapons, but mid-air battles are still a challenge. Why does Rockstar include a lock-on for guns when you're on foot but not when you're in a helicopter? There are a few missions that require you to do battle in the air and all are a challenge simply because it's difficult to target enemies. The high-flying elements are a welcome part of the Gay Tony storyline, but they should have been refined.

Gta Ballad Of Tony