October 29 4:43 P.M.
What's in a name? If it happens to be "Grand Theft Auto," plenty. The controversial franchise has been cited repeatedly by lawyers and politicians as an influence for violent behavior, and GTA: San Andreas' hidden mini-game, "Hot Coffee," triggered a recall and cost publisher Take-Two Interactive millions.
But while the name GTA stirs the pot, the name of its latest expansion could cause it to boil over.
Launching Thursday exclusively on Xbox Live, the latest and last downloadable episode to the landmark GTA IV, "The Ballad of Gay Tony" lets players work for a flamboyant club owner trying to reclaim his lost fame. It'll court some of the same gamers who are violating Xbox Live terms of service when using the word "gay" in their own Gamertags. You have to hand it to Rockstar -- they know how to push buttons.
At the moment, however, there's a startlingly scarce amount of outrage out there, and if "The Ballad of Gay Tony" performs half as admirably as the previous episode, "The Lost and the Damned," Rockstar will be laughing all the way to the bank.
And now that the reviews are in, it's official: Critics are having a gay old time.
IGN starts off the lovefest for Gay Tony by declaring it “the perfect way to close out the GTA IV saga” with "a lot of hilarious moments and ludicrous missions that will please GTA fans." The over-the-top missions are attracting the majority of the buzz, with 1UP giving the game an A-, stating that "GTA IV's final expansion sends itself off in style in some of the most ridiculous ways possible." Game Informer follows suit, saying that it “delivers more explosive weapons, death-defying missions, and off-the-wall characters” than the last episode.
GamePro also likes "The Ballad of Gay Tony," but wonders why many of the lingering problems still evident in Grand Theft Auto IV weren't fixed. The site even goes so far as to recommend the episode to "GTA-fanatics who are willing to gloss over the still persistent faults" and telling gamers that have moved on from GTA that they "won't find anything here to change their minds, so save your MS points for something else."
Universally, the word is that any fan of GTA IV should give "The Ballad of Gay Tony" a tour, as it offers lots of action and outrageous new missions (base jumping and attack helicopters?), and marks a fitting end to the Grand Theft Auto IV saga. For those who've yet to try either chapter, both downloadable episodes are also available at retail in the Episodes from Liberty City bundle.
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Posted: 29 Oct 2009
