Story:
Much like its predecessors TBOGT is a well written story full of laughs and gasps, but mostly laughs. TBOGT puts you in the shoes of Luis Lopez, a ex-con turned business partner with “Gay Tony” Prince, who is Algonquin’s resident night club tycoon.  Although your business partners with Tony, you more or less act as his bodyguard, and believe me does this man ever need a bodyguard. In an effort to keep the review as spoiler free as possible I won’t get into the crazy trouble you and Tony experience but I will say it truly is you and tony against the world. Or rather you, Tony and Yusuf against the world, which brings me to notable new side characters.  For me Mori Kibbutz and Yusuf Amir are the new notable side characters. Mori is Brucie’s egotistical older brother, who your forced to help via Tony’s money owed to him. Hanging around Mori really puts in to perspective why Brucie acts the way he does and you’ll come to find that the old Brucie is a pretty regular guy, who wouldn’t be a pain in the ass to hang around with. Yusuf Amir is officially my new favorite GTA character, everything that the guy says cracks me the fuck up. Yusuf is the son of a wealthy middle eastern real estate bigwig, who sent Yusuf to Liberty City in the hopes that he can run the American side of the business. Yusuf is all play no work, and goes around spending what one could call his “Arab Money” on everything from gold plated machine pistols to hookers. As expected GTA IV ties into the story line, and just like The Lost & Damned they do it seamlessly and coherently.

Gameplay:
The gameplay stays true to what we expect from GTA IV, with a couple new additions to keep it fresh. Finally the missions have in game checkpoints, so no more need to replay the whole entire mission if you fail. That aspect of GTA IV was a pain in the ass especially if it was a long mission. Parachutes make their way back into the game, and really add to the variety of missions through out the game, especially in a mission dealing with a blogger personality like Perez Hilton, if you hate gossip blogs as much as I do you’ll love that mission. TBOGT also features a golf driving range, this mini game works much like the bowling and darts mini games and also like its predecessors its just ok, nothing to jump up and down about.  Since you co-run 2 night clubs one of your duties is to look after the places, this consists of kicking people out and helping celebrity clientele. When off duty you can also use your clubs to dance and drink.

Graphics:
I think everyone by now knows the quality of GTA IV’s graphics, so a explanation is rendered useless. I will say since TBOGT is DLC,  graphic quality in today’s market won’t effect the score, because as you all know this was one of the nicest looking games of 08.

Sound:

As always GTA’s sound tracks are the best in the biz and TBOGT adds even more awesome music and talk shows. People who get the Episode’s From Liberty City retail disc will get a bonus station, Vice City FM. Vice City FM features all the classic 80’s hits, that we heard previously in GTA: Vice City and Vice City Stories.

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer stays the same with the addition of BASE jumping tips, a variation that can be found only in free mode. BASE jumping tips is a competition between players, you guessed it, base jumping.

In conclusion, TBOGT is another great GTA game/DLC, for 20$ you can’t get any better then this. With a great story, solid gameplay additions and graphics and sound we all know and love, GTA: TBOGT gets 5 out of 5.

(5/5)

Gamer Grammar:

TBOGT: The Ballad of Gay Tony.