Alex's Adventures on the Infobahn - gta

Review: The Ballad of Gay Tony

2010-05-27T10:34:00+01:00

We finally reached the limit on the PS3's hard disk a few weeks ago. Although I had the option of reformatting the hard drive to reclaim the 10gb after Sony disabled OtherOS* it seemed a lot easier to get a newer more spacious disk. A quick trip to Amazon later and a very simple backup and upgrade and my PS3 was wallowing in a spare 300gb of internal storage which should be enough for all the DLC we can afford for a while.

The Ballad of Gay Tony has finally finished it's exclusive stint on the Xbox360 and is now available on the PS3. Being a long time fan of the GTA series I forked over my hard earned cash for the ~2gb download. When you first start GTAIV again it detects the presence and offers you a chance to start a new TBGT based game complete with a new disco friendly loading sequence.

Although the game takes part in the same expansive world of Liberty City it involves a brand new set of characters and a new protagonist in the form of Luis Fernando Lopez who is the titular "Gay Tony" Prince's right hand man. The story line is what you expect from GTA although being DLC skips a lot of the build up from the main game dumping you almost immediately into the sort over the top gun battles and movie inspired chase scenes that are the GTA's forte. Refreshingly your character starts tooled up for the job without having to start at the bottom of the equipment tree like Nico does. A couple of other gameplay tweaks are also evident including the ability to restart sections of the mission (although you lose trophy bragging rights if you do) as well as rudimentary targets to aim for in each mission. A few new mini-games are also introduced including golf and the ability to take a more proactive role in managing Tony's night clubs.

The game benefits a lot from the solid foundation created by the GTAIV rendition of the living detailed Liberty City. Even after finishing the original game I found there is still a lot of discovery possible. Given the amount of effort invested in building the city simulation the DLC model should prove lucrative for Rockstar providing the story, characters and acting keep up to the high standards expected of the series. So far for me TBGT has done exactly that, it's just a shame I had to wait so long for it to turn up on my platform of choice.

* Brief aside: Yes I'm pissed off at Sony for removing OtherOS but realistically I never really used the functionality as the core operating system support for media and streaming is already very good. It does provide yet another salutatory lesson on how we don't really control our modern consumer hardware anymore though.

On the Subject of GTA

2008-07-01T12:53:00+01:00

So despite my obvious desire for the game I haven't mentioned much about it since I got it. Some times it makes sense to comment on things with a little perspective that time can provide.

Well the first thing to note is I'm a fan of the GTA series and the general concept of free roaming dynamic world environments. As an example of the genre GTAIV does take it to another level with the amount of detail the cram into the living, breathing Liberty City. The next-gen bling has certainly been applied to city and everything looks really nice. The dynamic weather is pretty stunning and a great improvement on what SA supported. You quite often want it too rain because things look a lot shinier :-) The animation has also benefited from the increased horse power offered with the Euphoria engine offering a lot more realistic responses by the random characters. The first time I dragged a police officer along the road as he tried to stop me stealing a random car was pretty impressive. As far as looks are concerned I think the game has it pretty much nailed.

Controls however are more of an issue. I have managed to balls up a mission more than once due to the switching of the "fire" button between foot and vehicle mode. Also the cover system for combat while useful still occasionally grates and gets in the way. It could be I just don't play enough games to have developed a context sensitive control re-mapper in my brain. The ability to re-try a mission directly from the phone does help though although they could have given a little thought to the distance between brief and start location. There are times I swear at the rush hour traffic as I try and get back to the start of the mission. I have to say I think the control system is probably the weakest aspect of the game, however I don't think it's an area the GTA series has been especially strong at anyway. Still who cares about the controls, what about the game?

The main plot is very well thought out. The central character, Niko is probably my favourite GTA protagonist so far. The script, setting and feel is all very well done. The replacement of San Andreas' annoying keep fit system with a more nuanced friendship system for keeping up with all your contacts is an improvement. It remains to see if the morality choices will keep you coming back for replays of the main plot line, as far as I can tell the main plot doesn't branch too much. As you would expect Rockstar have done an excellent job with the satire of modern New York. Little details like dynamic radio news reports (the stations are no longer 60 minute loops) and TV coverage add a lot of colour to game. You can even kick back at a comedy show , or bizarrely watch it on the TV at your home!

I think there are less side missions than previous games. While you can pull taxi journeys I don't think you can just nick a yellow cab and get on with it. You can actually take taxis but I generally avoid it as the AI of the driver is (deliberately?) worse than mine, even in "drunk" mode. There is a sub-way system as well but having ridden it once I don't see it becoming a regular event, unless perhaps it makes escaping cops easier. These issues aside though there are plenty of places to see and I suspect given the scale of the city I will have enough to do if I just want to idly cruise the game.

The multiplayer is a new addition to the game. Unfortunately it's not as slick games like CoD4. When you join a game the system should hurry things along, filling the game up and getting it running as fast as possible. The customisations the game offers offer the promise of depth but so far getting playing has seemed too much of chore to have explored this option much. The free-mode looks intriguing but I suspect that will wait for when some other friends suggest some wacky challenges to meet up complete on-line.

All in all it's a pretty solid addition to the series. I'm not sure it's worth all the 10/10's is has received but I suspect a lot has been due to anticipation and relief when it delivered. It's still a solid addition to any console gamers collection, certainly a must have for fans of the series.

Guilt, but not much

2008-05-23T18:38:00+01:00

You feel slightly guilty as you sit back and play GTAIV while people potter around your house and pack stuff into boxes. However the feeling passes after a while, it's certainly how a plan to move next time :-D