Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony - Xbox 360

Rockstar Sends GTA IV Off In Fabulous Style

Matt Bertz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

At the beginning of Grand Theft Auto IV, Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic starts his pursuit of fame and fortune at the bottom of the social ladder. It’s only fitting that Rockstar Games ends its latest impressive run of open world masterpieces at the other end of the spectrum. The Ballad of Gay Tony is Rockstar North’s song of excess, showcasing Liberty City’s drug-addled trust fund elite, promiscuous socialites, nitro-fueled luxury sportscars, and military-grade weaponry.

New protagonist Luis Lopez may roll with the elite, but he certainly isn’t one of them; the Dominican ex-convict grew up pulling off petty crimes in the rough neighborhood of Northwood until legendary nightclub owner Tony Prince took him under his wing. Lopez quickly finds out that a two-bit corner boy and a personal assistant to the rich and famous aren’t so different. As Gay Tony’s once-powerful nightclub empire spirals out of control due to his excessive drug use and outstanding debt to shady loansharks, it’s up to Lopez to do the dirty work and keep the clubs afloat.

Rolling with the rich has its benefits when it comes to crime. Forget the slow progression to explosive weapons most Grand Theft Auto games follow, Lopez has almost immediate access to the finest arms dealers have to offer – attack choppers, APCs, explosive shotguns, sticky bombs, and my favorite, the P90 assault rifle. The creative new missions Rockstar North crafted put these destructive new toys to good use; one minute you’re sinking a luxury yacht with the missile-launching attack chopper, and the next you’re parachuting from 10,000 feet to infiltrate the high-rise offices of the crooked Russian owner of the Liberty City Rampage hockey team. The outlandish nature of most of your missions almost always attracts the attention of the cops, guaranteeing more thrills than your typical GTA fare.

Throughout the story, Luis is torn between his allegiance to the lavish new lifestyle Tony provides him and the family and friends he’s left behind in Northwood. Players won’t feel as bad leaving his disgruntled mother and hoodrat friends in their wake. The drug war shootouts Lopez gets into with his childhood friends may be made from traditional GTA bread and butter, but I found myself ignoring them in favor of the more explosive missions from Gay Tony or spoiled Arab playboy Yusuf Amir.

Luis may feel conflicted hanging in the old neighborhood, but he’s clearly in his element when the drinks are flowing and the dance floor is bumping at the nightclubs. In the clubs, players can remove troublemakers, do shots with bartenders, shower friends with champagne in the VIP room, and dance with the ladies on the dancefloor. Show her all the right moves and she’ll likely show you hers in the bathroom stall. Make sure you work at least one management shift at the nightclub as well; your office employee in the short skirt will make it worth your time.

When Luis isn’t taking orders and doing favors for his out of control friends, players can indulge in the fantastic base jumping and cagefighting side missions or go on a rampage with the attack chopper or APC. The multiplayer also gets new content to amp up the action; the frantic GTA races now feature nitro boosts, and the new deathmatch maps focus on close quarters combat.

While I preferred the tight-knit story of brotherhood and betrayal in The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony delivers more explosive weapons, death-defying missions, and off-the-wall characters. Don’t miss your chance to close out the GTA IV experience in style.

New Ballad Of Gay Tony Screens Show Off Multiplayer

Jeff Cork — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Rockstar has revealed more details about Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony's multiplayer modes, including a batch of new screens. Players will earn cash bonuses for kill assists and breaking other players' streaks, and new weapons such as sticky bombs and explosive shotguns will make it easy to do so. Like the parachute? You can bring it along in multiplayer for aerial assaults. There are also a host of new levels, including the museum shown above.

What do you think? Have you had your fill of multiplayer GTA? Are you still playing? Will these new enhancements be enough to lure you back online?

Rockstar's Latest Expansion Defies Expectations

Andrew Reiner — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:58:00 GMT

From the hot coffee sex scandal to alleged virtual hate crimes against Haitians, Grand Theft Auto is no stranger to controversy. With the next entry in the series bearing the name The Ballad of Gay Tony, some might expect the Stonewall Riots to head east toward Rockstar’s Noho office. While Rockstar’s satirical views of society are strongly conveyed, nothing we’ve seen in our hands-on demo with The Ballad of Gay Tony should drum up controversy. If anything, Rockstar deserves kudos for presenting a gay character in a non-stereotypical way.

Our hands-on demo with the game consisted of three missions that focus on the new playable protagonist, Luis Fernando Lopez, a Dominican-American born and raised in Liberty City’s Algonquin borough who serves as Gay Tony’s bodyguard and business partner. Unlike GTA IV protagonists Niko Bellic and Johnny Klebitz, Luis is on the other side of the velvet rope – he runs with the upper class. This hierarchy shift affects every aspect of the game. Luis undoubtedly finds himself taking out the trash in the same way Niko and Johnny do, but the demands of the people around him are of a much higher billing.

When he’s not keeping Tony’s creditors at bay, Luis works with Yusef Amir, a real estate mogul who isn’t afraid to flash his money and is up front about his desire for more. He literally wants to own all of Liberty City. This crazy idea includes snatching one of Liberty City’s trains. In this mission, Luis finds himself riding on the roof of Liberty’s red line, shooting grenades and new explosive shotgun rounds at helicopters. If Luis times his ability to cling to the train’s roof precisely, players are treated to a cinematic slow motion sequence of Luis ducking a chopper. This mission concludes in style, with Luis detaching a train car, and a transport helicopter swooping in to steal a precious piece of Liberty City.

Each mission ends with a new ranking system that intricately details your performance, such as damage taken, shots fired, and time taken to complete the mission. Like Chinatown Wars, players can freely replay missions with the hope of getting 100 percent. Certain performances are rewarded with bonuses that appear in Luis’ safe house.

Along with an assortment of new cars that reflect Luis’ standing in the world (think Bentley), Rockstar North has implemented new TV shows, songs, DJ chatter, websites, and a slew of new weapons ranging from sticky C4 to an enhanced sniper rifle. More exciting yet, this game also marks the return of San Andreas’ parachute. We used this handy item as much as any of Luis’ firearms. One mission concludes with Luis knocking a target out of a skyscraper window, then fleeing the scene by base-jumping from this window and landing on the flatbed of the getaway truck. Over a dozen base-jumping challenges are littered across Liberty for players to put their skills to the test. Additionally, if you perform well in these challenges, a parachute appears in your safe house, meaning you can use it at any time.

Airplanes are still not a part of this GTA experience, but tank-class vehicles of destruction make a comeback. This APC doesn’t have tank treads, but it packs just as much of a wallop as previous series incarnations and should be an integral part of Luis’ campaign, as well as multiplayer carnage. All of the new vehicles and weapons are available for competitive matches.

We’ve only seen a small fraction of what The Ballad of Gay Tony offers, but it’s clear that Rockstar is going to great lengths to make this experience dramatically different than anything you’ve seen in the series before.