Now this is an expansion.
| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.30 |
| Overall | 9.30 |
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This review of Episodes of Liberty City will be split into two parts, one for each game. Cause they share many of the same elements the next paragraph will be added to both reviews as it covers the similar elements. The Episodes still play just like GTA4, it is just an expansion so the city and controls are the same. Years after GTA4 the graphics and feel of the game is a bit dated. Third person shooters have been getting better and better, the cover and auto aim mechanics of GTA4 feels a bit clunky in comparison. It's still better than a lot of other open world games but for the next GTA hopefully they rework it. Driving vehicles is as fun as ever and this time bikes are reworked so that they feel like they did in the PS2 GTA's, they are fun to ride once again. The Episodes add a whole new soundtrack to the game, one that I feel is better than GTA4's selection. There are all new TV shows to watch, including new episodes of Republican Space Marines and the new Princess Bubblegum which is hilarious. While it is nice to see new content of the entertainment around the city, it sucks that the city is identical, not one new area to explore. The cell phone is back and it handles the same way. Thankfully friends rarely call you to hang out with them in these expansions,it's almost always your choice. I believe that alone helps the flow of the game. Both expansions are missing the classic side missions like cop car missions, ambulance, fire trucks, deliver cars, rampages, assassinations, it's all gone. Each expansion has their own set of side games but it sucks not having those usual staples of the GTA experience. Both expansions take about 20 hours if you do all side missions as well, basically 1/3 of a GTA game. The Ballad of Gay Tony is all the very best of GTA4 concentrated into pure awesome. While LaTD played it safe, Gay Tony is all out balls to the wall insanity from start to finish. The story revolves around Luis Lopez a business associate of the club czar Gay Tony. Gay Tony owns the best night clubs in Liberty City but he recently made deals with the wrong people. It's your job to clean up the mess. The setting alone fits GTA far better, it allows for a tale of sex and drugs with a Hollywood twist. You deal with ridiculously rich people and made up celebrities, it's like being a part of the Liberty City elite. The best part of a GTA game should be it's missions, this is where Gay Tony excels. Within the first 4 missions you will be doing things you never did in GTA4. Epic golf cart chases, hijacking a military helicopter in the middle of the sea, having a shoot out on the top of the Empire State Building before jumping off and parachuting your way to safety. That is basically nothing, the variety in the missions is staggering. There are new vehicles and better yet new weapons. You will LOVE the explosive shotgun rounds, it makes blowing up vehicles easy as pie. I don't think I ever drove a boat in LaTD. You will be in a car, boat and helicopter in the first hour of Gay Tony and the variety never lets up. It makes full use of every vehicle as each mission tries to out do the last. There are still plenty of basic shootouts but even these seem to be on a larger scale than usual. I would say the worst part of the missions are the long drives to and from a destination, there are conversations during these drives but they need to shorten these trips. Thankfully there are mid mission checkpoints so no need to worry about doing a boring drive twice. TBoGT introduces a brand new mission scoring system. After each mission you get scored on how well you did in terms of health, time, accuracy, head shots and any mission specific goals. Each mission has a certain goal to reach like stay under 10% damage, if you complete it you get a checkmark for that goal. If you pass all goals you get 100% on the mission. Once you beat the game you can replay any mission you want to get 100% on all, believe me it is not easy. The worst part about this is that you cannot die during a mission or it won't count and you can't use taxi's. So all those boring drives I mentioned before, prepare to do them over and over again. At least it offers a load of replay value after the game is over. Believe me you will want to replay many of these missions. In terms of side missions you have base jumping which is basically jumping off of huge buildings and using the parachute to land on a target. Simple but fun. There are drug war missions which is the equivalent of the gang war missions in Lost, again it's randomized missions of which you need to complete 25 of them. These missions have better variety than the Lost ones as there are boat missions and even helicopter ones. There is a cage fighting arena that you can take part in, it actually gives a purpose to the hand to hand combat this game rarely seems to use. There are races that are like a triathlon using parachutes, boats and cars. There is a new golf mini game to play with friends and it is used in a genius way in one mission. Overall there are a lot more things to do this game over LaTD. At night Luis can manage one of Tony's clubs. You basically go to different spots in the club and look out for anything suspicious. For the most part it is very boring and repetitive but after about 3 minutes it starts up a mission. These missions involve celebrities and their night club hi-jinks, easily some of the funniest missions of the game. Many of them require lots of driving but they are entertaining. For instance one of them has you escorting a mega famous rapper out of the gay club, you need to avoid paparazzi but without harming them. For some reason the game doesn't keep track of how many of these club missions you do, I will let you guys know that there are 8 of them. I know getting to the mission part can be tedious but it's worth it. The story is a bit disjointed as it seems like TBoGT is more focused on showcasing interesting characters than making any sort of dramatic story arch. It is more lighthearted and flat out funnier than either LaTD and GTA4. Wait till you meet Yusif and Mori, all time classic characters. The Ballad of Gay Tony is everything I love about GTA in a small package. Sure there are only 26 missions but they are some of the very best missions GTA4 has produced. I wish GTA4 was more like TBoGT as I feel it would have made for a far more interesting game. If you plan to buy only one expansion make it this one. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 18 May 2010 20:29:00
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Will get back to this in a couple of weeks. Need to play more.
Base jumping is awesome.
Helicopter controls are not.
I was putting these off, but since I just got both of them for $20 I guess I'll have to finish the original. Damnit Ihate the mission I am stuck on.