At last I thought when I picked up my copy of the game, finally its on the ps3. Originally the idea was to not release either of the dlc on the ps3 & to keep it exclusively on the xbox 360, in the end though much to the delight of ps3 owners that plan fell apart. So without going into too much detail (I’m trying to keep my reviews short these days) here’s my review of the game/dlc. The map of the game is entirely identical to gta iv except for a few minor changes in buildings, such as clubs but the changes are really only because of certain characters or occurrences in the game world. Other changes in the game include a selection of newer weapons such as grenade launchers & remote detonated explosives. One of the main guns in lost & the damned is a sawn-off shotgun which can be fired from the lead characters bike to take down enemies. With the ballad of gay tony more sophisticated high powered weaponry is available such as machine guns & shotguns, in-fact any time you are low on ammo or guns you can make a quick call to your buddy & they will show up offering you a vast stockpile..for a price of course.
If like most GTA fans you felt let down by the music in the last game then you will be pleasantly surprised by what’s on offer this time around. To match the gritty world of the lost biker club rocking tunes are provided by bands like sepultura, bathory & even cannibal corpse. The ballad of gay tony goes for a more glitzy glam feel with tunes by bands like don omar ( I love virtual diva) prefab sprout, hall & oates, even waiting for a star to fall is on there, of course any time it would come on I’d pause the game & listen to the song..even during a mission!.
The stories in both games are fun in both respects but the lost & the damned is definitely darker than tbogt & a bit more plain. Tl&td follows a gang of bikers who use brute force to make their way up the ranks of the biker underground. The missions were entertaining & the voice acting flawless as usual but I had much more fun with tbogt. Bikes are the main form of transport for the lost mc so there are a bunch of new bikes added to the game. With tbogt we are treated to new cars that seem to handle better than a lot of the vehicles in gta iv, perhaps the developers wanted an overhaul on the vehicle handling, whatever they did it works. Perhaps one of most fun features is the inclusion of a parachute, using the parachute is straight forward enough & there are plenty of mini-missions & challenges to get to grips with it. The multiplayer & online games are some of the best I have seen in any game, the modes are very similar to gta iv but there is more depth & tons of fun to be had. The game pack is not a full game but rather an add-on, however for the value packed in it would easily sell as a stand-alone game. All in all I really enjoyed both games but it’s a shame some of the new weapons could not be imported into GTA IV itself. For anyone that had any doubts about the dlc being worth the price tag I can say it more than met my expectations.
