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Product Description
Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
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Product Description
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City for PS3... Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City includes two complete games - The Lost and Damned & The Ballad of Gay Tony - together on disc for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows. In The Lost and Damned, experience Liberty City as Johnny, a veteran member of The Lost, a notorious biker gang. Johnny has been creating business opportunities for The Lost in Liberty City but his first loyalty must be to the patch he wears on his back and to Billy Grey, the club's President. However, when Billy returns from rehab hell-bent on bloodshed and debauchery, Johnny finds himself in the middle of a vicious turf war with rival gangs for control of a city torn apart by violence and corruption. Can the brotherhood survive? The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (a.k.a. "Gay Tony"), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PLAYSTATION 3|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It took forever and a day, but PS3 owners finally have access to the two outstanding "Grand Theft Auto IV" expansions on one reasonably-priced disc. As is custom for the GTA series, the game includes a small booklet and the ubiquitous full-size fold-out poster. In addition to the disc version, the Playstation Store has both expansions available for download as well. This is an option of convenience or useful if you only want one of the expansions.
Buying both, however, is the same price or more than the disc, so you might as well buy the disc. You'll get the nice poster and booklet in addition to the hard copy you can either sell or give to a friend when you're finished. The poster has an image of a party girl in a pink dress on one side and a detailed map of Liberty City on the other. The booklet contains brief paragraphs outlining the premise of each expansion, a full list of the radio songs, and the game credits.
Both "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" are amply sized and playing through both took me around twenty hours, and this is considering I ignored much of the many interesting diversions and side-quests (everything from arm wrestling, gang wars, bike races and more) present in both. A very dedicated player could easily spend forty to fifty hours completing all the side-quests and obtaining all the trophies, making this disc a nearly mandatory purchase for PS3 owners who enjoy a good sandbox-style romp.
Of course, both games are rife with the bizarre hallmarks of the GTA games. The nudity is particularly bizarre, including a scene of full-frontal male congressman nudity, which is ostensibly intended to be amusing but only elicited a furrowed brow from this gamer. This sort of thing is nothing new to the franchise or even the genre, so I'm not complaining, just making note. The language is often coarse but I wouldn't have it any other way. It lends atmosphere to the storyline, and after all, we're dealing with a biker gang and a bodyguard/drug dealer. Speaking of which, it's amazing to me how many parents complain about the content of games when specific ratings are provided on each title's sleeve and detailed content descriptions of games can often be found online. But that's another story entirely.
Unfortunately, much as in GTA IV, the AI scripting for your teammates is rather weak. Occasionally they can even become a hindrance, as they get in the way during chases, and even with relatively high attributes are often unable to hit their targets (particularly if the enemy is behind cover). Another slight mark against these expansions are those missions that frankly don't even make much sense. For instance, during one mission on "The Lost and Damned", your character is to ride his motorcycle to find three rival gang vans driving around Liberty City. Once you find a van, you're to throw pipe bombs at the van until it's destroyed, all while the heavily-armed crackshot gang members are leading you with semi-automatic weapons. To be fair, the mission can be completed without resorting to the pipe bombs (I stood in the street and used a rocket launcher instead), but I just couldn't shake the feeling that Johnny Boy had taken too many knocks to the skull. Well, no one said biker gangs were very bright to begin with, right?
This is admittedly a small complaint. Besides, I appreciate that Rockstar tries to add a bit of variety to the missions so that each one isn't simply a full-throttle shootout. At least no mission on these expansions is as ridiculous as that one in "Vice City" where you had to plant bombs using a very unwieldy remote-controlled helicopter! Story-wise, however, neither expansion disappoints in any way. "The Ballad of Gay Tony" is colorful, amusing and more characteristic of a typical GTA storyline. As far as mission variety is concerned, "TBOGY" wins hands down. One moment you'll be piloting a high-tech aircraft, the next you're in a speedboat chase, and before long you're parachuting from a skyscraper to escape the police.
My personal favorite storyline, however, was "The Lost and Damned" which features a darker, more involving plotline. It's nothing terribly complex, mostly a series of drug deals gone awry, mixed with gang wars and internal conflicts within your own gang, but Johnny Klebitz (the player character) is my favorite of the entire franchise. This is due in large part because, despite the limited and somewhat dated graphics (keeping in mind GTA IV was released almost exactly two years ago) I'm always impressed with how solid the acting is. The voice acting and scripting are top gear, but what really sells the cutscenes is the dead-on body language and gestures from the characters.
The numerous multiplayer modes add nearly endless replayability to the title and are often a source of great amusement. My favorite multiplayer games include: "Chopper VS Chopper", where one player rides a motorcycle through a series of checkpoints while another player in a helicopter tries to destroy the biker, "Lone Wolf Biker" where every other player is trying to kill the one who is tagged the 'lone wolf', and "Witness Protection" where one team is trying to destroy a bus full of witnesses while the other team is trying to protect it. There are also a multiplayer motorcycle race mode, a "Club Business" mode where the players act together as a team to carry out various tasks, and a "Own the City" mode where the players attempt to take over the city piece by piece.
My personal favorite addition is the mission checkpoint system, which really cuts down on wasted playtime after a failed mission (i.e. having to take a ten minute drive back to the mission site after every mission failure). I hope this becomes the norm on every subsequent GTA title. All things considered, it was well worth the wait. For the modest price this title typically averages, it's highly recommended, and a great way to stave off the waiting for the next GTA title (or, in my case, the upcoming "Red Dead Redemption").
Buying both, however, is the same price or more than the disc, so you might as well buy the disc. You'll get the nice poster and booklet in addition to the hard copy you can either sell or give to a friend when you're finished. The poster has an image of a party girl in a pink dress on one side and a detailed map of Liberty City on the other. The booklet contains brief paragraphs outlining the premise of each expansion, a full list of the radio songs, and the game credits.
Both "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" are amply sized and playing through both took me around twenty hours, and this is considering I ignored much of the many interesting diversions and side-quests (everything from arm wrestling, gang wars, bike races and more) present in both. A very dedicated player could easily spend forty to fifty hours completing all the side-quests and obtaining all the trophies, making this disc a nearly mandatory purchase for PS3 owners who enjoy a good sandbox-style romp.
Of course, both games are rife with the bizarre hallmarks of the GTA games. The nudity is particularly bizarre, including a scene of full-frontal male congressman nudity, which is ostensibly intended to be amusing but only elicited a furrowed brow from this gamer. This sort of thing is nothing new to the franchise or even the genre, so I'm not complaining, just making note. The language is often coarse but I wouldn't have it any other way. It lends atmosphere to the storyline, and after all, we're dealing with a biker gang and a bodyguard/drug dealer. Speaking of which, it's amazing to me how many parents complain about the content of games when specific ratings are provided on each title's sleeve and detailed content descriptions of games can often be found online. But that's another story entirely.
Unfortunately, much as in GTA IV, the AI scripting for your teammates is rather weak. Occasionally they can even become a hindrance, as they get in the way during chases, and even with relatively high attributes are often unable to hit their targets (particularly if the enemy is behind cover). Another slight mark against these expansions are those missions that frankly don't even make much sense. For instance, during one mission on "The Lost and Damned", your character is to ride his motorcycle to find three rival gang vans driving around Liberty City. Once you find a van, you're to throw pipe bombs at the van until it's destroyed, all while the heavily-armed crackshot gang members are leading you with semi-automatic weapons. To be fair, the mission can be completed without resorting to the pipe bombs (I stood in the street and used a rocket launcher instead), but I just couldn't shake the feeling that Johnny Boy had taken too many knocks to the skull. Well, no one said biker gangs were very bright to begin with, right?
This is admittedly a small complaint. Besides, I appreciate that Rockstar tries to add a bit of variety to the missions so that each one isn't simply a full-throttle shootout. At least no mission on these expansions is as ridiculous as that one in "Vice City" where you had to plant bombs using a very unwieldy remote-controlled helicopter! Story-wise, however, neither expansion disappoints in any way. "The Ballad of Gay Tony" is colorful, amusing and more characteristic of a typical GTA storyline. As far as mission variety is concerned, "TBOGY" wins hands down. One moment you'll be piloting a high-tech aircraft, the next you're in a speedboat chase, and before long you're parachuting from a skyscraper to escape the police.
My personal favorite storyline, however, was "The Lost and Damned" which features a darker, more involving plotline. It's nothing terribly complex, mostly a series of drug deals gone awry, mixed with gang wars and internal conflicts within your own gang, but Johnny Klebitz (the player character) is my favorite of the entire franchise. This is due in large part because, despite the limited and somewhat dated graphics (keeping in mind GTA IV was released almost exactly two years ago) I'm always impressed with how solid the acting is. The voice acting and scripting are top gear, but what really sells the cutscenes is the dead-on body language and gestures from the characters.
The numerous multiplayer modes add nearly endless replayability to the title and are often a source of great amusement. My favorite multiplayer games include: "Chopper VS Chopper", where one player rides a motorcycle through a series of checkpoints while another player in a helicopter tries to destroy the biker, "Lone Wolf Biker" where every other player is trying to kill the one who is tagged the 'lone wolf', and "Witness Protection" where one team is trying to destroy a bus full of witnesses while the other team is trying to protect it. There are also a multiplayer motorcycle race mode, a "Club Business" mode where the players act together as a team to carry out various tasks, and a "Own the City" mode where the players attempt to take over the city piece by piece.
My personal favorite addition is the mission checkpoint system, which really cuts down on wasted playtime after a failed mission (i.e. having to take a ten minute drive back to the mission site after every mission failure). I hope this becomes the norm on every subsequent GTA title. All things considered, it was well worth the wait. For the modest price this title typically averages, it's highly recommended, and a great way to stave off the waiting for the next GTA title (or, in my case, the upcoming "Red Dead Redemption").
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By P. Taegel
Platform for Display:PLAYSTATION 3
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't get me wrong. GRAND THEFT AUTO IV is a great game, but the lack of checkpoints and the wonky driving mechanics slow the pace and make missions tedious to retry (eg. Do I really need to steal another car and spend 5-7 minutes driving across the city again just to retry a mission? Argh!)
That being said, my grievances with GTA IV were all fixed in EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY. The driving mechanics, especially the motorcycles, have been smoothed out. Driving in the game has now actually become fun, and it is now easier to handle a motorcycle than a car. Also, when you get killed on a mission, the game will take you back to the start of the action. These two changes alone radically change the gaming experience and make EPISODES one of the most fun video games I've ever played. I literally didn't want it to end.
The stories are compelling and fast-paced. If you've played through GTA IV, you'll notice and appreciate some intersections with that story, but by and large these are standalone story lines. And the characters are quite a lot more fun than the rather dour Niko Bellic of GTA IV. I won't give away any more than that.
The main point I'd like to drive home is that if you haven't played GTA IV, I strongly recommend skipping to this game, Episodes from Liberty City. If you have played GTA IV and are on the fence about getting Episodes, don't even think twice. Make this your next game. You won't regret it.
That being said, my grievances with GTA IV were all fixed in EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY. The driving mechanics, especially the motorcycles, have been smoothed out. Driving in the game has now actually become fun, and it is now easier to handle a motorcycle than a car. Also, when you get killed on a mission, the game will take you back to the start of the action. These two changes alone radically change the gaming experience and make EPISODES one of the most fun video games I've ever played. I literally didn't want it to end.
The stories are compelling and fast-paced. If you've played through GTA IV, you'll notice and appreciate some intersections with that story, but by and large these are standalone story lines. And the characters are quite a lot more fun than the rather dour Niko Bellic of GTA IV. I won't give away any more than that.
The main point I'd like to drive home is that if you haven't played GTA IV, I strongly recommend skipping to this game, Episodes from Liberty City. If you have played GTA IV and are on the fence about getting Episodes, don't even think twice. Make this your next game. You won't regret it.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By E. Clarke
Platform for Display:PLAYSTATION 3
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite how it's taken so long for this to be released on PS3, I cannot understand, but after the long wait, you won't be left disappointed.
Although the game plays exactly like GTAIV (there was never going to be a major upheaval on this front), there are enough additions to make the two included games feel new. Plenty of new, more fun weapons (grenade launcher anyone?), and a sprinkling of new vehicles around the streets.
Liberty City is opened up completely from the start, and a lot of the weapons you may have taken several days to earn in GTAIV are available within half an hour of playing this one. But that's a good thing; I imagine most gamers buying this will have completed GTAIV, so there is no need to go through the same process of slowly earning better weapons as you progress.
If you're like me and you love the radio stations on GTA games, you'd be pleased to hear a totally new radio soundtrack to complement the game. My favourite by a country mile would be Vice City FM - being an 80s music fan, I am of the opinion that Vice City had the greatest soundtrack to a game ever. Fernando Martinez hosts, and hearing an excellent selection of not-so-obvious 80s tracks playing in Liberty City just brings back a little bit of that "Vice City feeling" when playing this one.
The Episodes are notably shorter than GTA, with around 25 main story missions each. Looking on the bright side of this, you won't end up with the ridiculous unspendable amounts of money Niko had in GTAIV, which I suppose makes money a little more valuable.
Difficulty wise, there doesn't seem to be much difference between IV and the Episodes; I would say the Episodes are maybe slightly more challenging (the harder missions naturally come along a lot quicker with there being fewer missions overall). The missions themselves offer more variety to the gameplay, you'll have heard about the parachuting etc in Gay Tony for example. For those who like this sort of thing, missions interweave with Niko's progression in IV, adding depth to the original plot and providing interesting background to some of the tasks you carried out as Niko.
All in all, Episodes from Liberty City are two superb games if you loved GTAIV, and whilst not entirely new games, they are just new enough to be well worth the money.
Although the game plays exactly like GTAIV (there was never going to be a major upheaval on this front), there are enough additions to make the two included games feel new. Plenty of new, more fun weapons (grenade launcher anyone?), and a sprinkling of new vehicles around the streets.
Liberty City is opened up completely from the start, and a lot of the weapons you may have taken several days to earn in GTAIV are available within half an hour of playing this one. But that's a good thing; I imagine most gamers buying this will have completed GTAIV, so there is no need to go through the same process of slowly earning better weapons as you progress.
If you're like me and you love the radio stations on GTA games, you'd be pleased to hear a totally new radio soundtrack to complement the game. My favourite by a country mile would be Vice City FM - being an 80s music fan, I am of the opinion that Vice City had the greatest soundtrack to a game ever. Fernando Martinez hosts, and hearing an excellent selection of not-so-obvious 80s tracks playing in Liberty City just brings back a little bit of that "Vice City feeling" when playing this one.
The Episodes are notably shorter than GTA, with around 25 main story missions each. Looking on the bright side of this, you won't end up with the ridiculous unspendable amounts of money Niko had in GTAIV, which I suppose makes money a little more valuable.
Difficulty wise, there doesn't seem to be much difference between IV and the Episodes; I would say the Episodes are maybe slightly more challenging (the harder missions naturally come along a lot quicker with there being fewer missions overall). The missions themselves offer more variety to the gameplay, you'll have heard about the parachuting etc in Gay Tony for example. For those who like this sort of thing, missions interweave with Niko's progression in IV, adding depth to the original plot and providing interesting background to some of the tasks you carried out as Niko.
All in all, Episodes from Liberty City are two superb games if you loved GTAIV, and whilst not entirely new games, they are just new enough to be well worth the money.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
game
I got this for my grandson, I guess it is pretty good because he plays it constantly. The price was right.
Published 6 days ago by Geri
5.0 out of 5 stars
good
love it and useful
excellent quality, still being used like new 2 years later, i would recommened this product
thanks
excellent quality, still being used like new 2 years later, i would recommened this product
thanks
Published 11 days ago by Hello
5.0 out of 5 stars
AWESOME
This pack is a really sweet two pack. Despite being the inferior version now that these to add ons are bundled with four there still great games if you beat four but havent played... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Deric Aidan Murillo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome
Great game, be a biker in one game then be a thug in the other game. Although the games are shorter there are 2 and it's normal awesome GTA.
Published 1 month ago by James W. Moesch Jr.
1.0 out of 5 stars
OK
I already had grand theft auto 4 and i thought this would be an upgrade so i got it and i was really far into the original game when i played this and then wanted to go back to the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ian
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought it for the Boys
I have teen boys and they love this game. I think it's a bit graphic, violent and a little true to "the life" but I see it as entertainment. They are very entertained. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ballad of Gay Tony
Oh yea, there is a biker story too, but I found it very dull, perhaps my inner Hells Angel is just not pronounced enough. But Ballad of Gay Tony or BOGT for short, is awesome. Read more
Published 1 month ago by digitil
4.0 out of 5 stars
more
The game is more or less what my particularly did not like much but the drama is not bad, you have to be a fan to like
Published 2 months ago by Jaiker Quevedo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great game
I enjoy this game it has lots of shooting nd driving an action an u can go to the club an all so overall it's great an it came in great condition
Published 3 months ago by M. Com
5.0 out of 5 stars
this game is amazing
the story was good but the skydiving was really good and lots of fun in that game and new weapons new cars it was really fun even butter than iv and tow stand alone games new... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Saif ELNasr
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Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
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