Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (XBL)

Rockstar's been great to us gamers for years. These guys brought us Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto, the RAGE game engine and... ok, so that's about it. But the fact of the matter is that they created a massive in game universe where everything tied in and worked well with on and other, much better than most other developers. Games like Manhunt and Bully take place in the same universe as Grand Theft Auto and make awkward appearances throughout the GTA games through easter eggs and news reports in game.

So, it's no surprise that The Ballad of Gay Tony (TBoGT) is a very beautifully written and developed episode of the GTA experience. The game begins much like any other GTA game, with a video montage introducing us to our new protagonist and a vague descriptor of the main architecture of the game. Luis, the new lead character, is someone you'll recognize instantly and quickly fall in love with. It's true that he doesn't have the tragic issue that Niko Bellic exposed us to or the internal strife of Carl "CJ" Johnson (of San Andreas), but he is a well rounded and written character.

The issue with Luis, though, is that his story is almost comically formulaic. His dad walked out on the family, his single mother doesn't have the money to keep her house, he spent time in jail and his friends berate him for getting a job "Downtown" with Gay Tony. Tony is a character that truly emulates the meaning of the GTA games, at least the deeper meaning, I'm not willing to say anything more about Tony. He's a character that is everything you don't expect from the name, but fits the GTA formula perfectly.

This game reintroduces the over the top sexual comedy and situations that were recognized in earlier GTA games and Luis' race helps to bring to light humorous racial tensions, especially between he and the Arab Yusuf Amir. At first this language was gritting and offensive, but quickly became hilarious. The game does well to invoke the meaning and humor of San Andreas without rehashing it verbatim. There are several times during TBoGT that I found myself saying "this is like San Andreas!" and my girlfriend even asked if I was playing San Andreas when she saw Luis on screen.

There's really no reason to discuss the gameplay, but I do have to admit that the new weapons and cars were kind of cool, nothing fantastic, though. The new activities were very reminiscent of San Andreas, as well. Rockstar reintroduced the parachute and base jumping, gave us air hockey, drug wars, dancing, drinking games and golfing. The activities weren't as varied or awesome as San Andreas and I wished that they kept all of the activities from the base game and Lost and the Damned and rolled them all into one of the episodes. They also didn't keep the weapons or new vehicles from Lost and the Damned, either. It made the game slightly smaller than I was anticipating.

I thoroughly and whole heartedly enjoyed the game, but I was very let down by the amount of content. It took me about one day of playing to work through the main game and another few hours to complete most of the activities. I don't think it's truly worth the $20 pricetag, it definitely wasn't nearly as large as Liberty City Stories, but still cost the same $20.

I'd recommend this for anyone looking for more of a GTA fix and who have played through the entirety of the series already. If you haven't played through Vice City or San Andreas and don't mind the graphics difference you'd be better off buying a cheap used versions of them instead of spending $20 on a one day long game, even Saints Row would be a better choice than TBoGT, to be honest

Pros: Great graphics, great characters, great gameplay, great fun, calls back to San Andreas a few times.
Cons: Too fucking short, not a ton of things to do in town compared to other GTA games, too expensive.
Overall 7/10
Buy if you like: GTA games and like clones
Don't buy it yet if you haven't played: The entire GTA library since III, just not worth it if you still need to play any other GTA games.