X’09 PREVIEW
The Ballad of Gay Tony
By Shaun Hatton - October 1st, 2009
Rockstar Games was at X’09 this week to give show-goers hands-on time with their upcoming disc release, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. The game includes the previous DLC content of Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned and adds in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. The upside to the disc release is that it doesn’t require a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV to play, however The Ballad of Gay Tony will still be available as DLC for those that do have GTAIV.
The demo I was walked through had the protagonist, Luis Lopez, starting out on a helipad. The object of this particular level was to jump into the copter, take it as high as it can go (and the vertical limit of the map is pretty damn high), then jump out of it to land on a building below. What happens to the helicopter once you plunge out of it, seeing that you’re the only person in it? Who fucking cares!
On the way down, there’s some time to enjoy the free fall but the parachute should be manually deployed at some point soon or else Lopez, the bodyguard, confidant, friend, and business partner of Tony Prince AKA Gay Tony, ends up being a splatter on the sidewalk or wherever else he lands.
Successfully flying the chopper takes some getting used to, as there’s a delicate balance between flying forward and flying upward. Pink rings mark key points in the sky that you must fly through, and upon reaching one of them, another appears higher up and a short distance away. Sailing downward with the parachute can be tricky, but the left and right triggers come in handy as they help you turn faster to help get you lined up for the perfect drop.
Once inside the building, the goal is to assassinate the head honcho behind a hockey team. Getting to him involves a fair bit of henchmen death, including some intense firefights in narrow corridors. Parts of the environment can help by offering cover (and the cover mechanic is pretty solid here) but an even cooler aspect is that shooting certain pipes can result in jets of steam forcing your foes out in the open and ready for a quick kill.
After completing the hit, it’s time to take to the skies again, only this time by jumping out of a window. Again, the parachute must be deployed, only this time you land on the back of a truck to escape. Sadly, because I am not that good at video games sometimes, I didn’t get away in time and had to go through another intense firefight. But rather than make use of cover, I opted to go into the fray, firing away until it was over.
Missions end with score screens, and they can be replayed (as introduced in Chinatown Wars) so you can try to top your and your friends’ scores. Though my time with the title was relatively short, it was still an exciting experience and was a hell of a lot of fun. It’ll be cool to experience the rest of the story when the game hits stores on October 29, 2009.
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