The Lost and Damned

Considering Rockstar hadn’t exactly delved into the world of DLC prior to The Lost and Damned you’d be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft’s $50 million deal for 2 exclusives was some what of a gamble. The big question is has it paid off ?

To be quite honest it’s hard to see how anyone could class it as a failure. With the 1600 MS points needed to purchase the extra content (equivalent of £13) you’ll be hard pressed to find a full retail game that delivers what TLAD does.

The extra content focuses around Johnny Klebitz and other members of Liberty City’s biker gang The Lost. The story starts as Chapter leader Billy is being released from rehab and you as Johnny along with the rest of the gang are riding out to pick him up. In Billy’s absence Johnny has tried to run the gang sensibly striking up truces and deals to keep The Lost financially secure. However Billy’s sociopathic tendencies soon send The Lost back down a road of running battles with rival gangs and send Johnny headlong into a power struggle with Billy. Do Johnny and the Lost sound familiar? So they should. Johnny appears twice in the original GTA 4 missions. The first time alongside Niko and Playboy X in the drug deal that was a police sting and again as Niko attempted to sell Ray’s stolen diamonds to the Jewish dealers in the old museum. TLAD doesn’t forget any of these crossovers in story and in fact embraces them fully with said missions being tackled from Johnny’s perspective while references to things you did as Niko are a constant undertone while you progress through the surprisingly lengthy story.

So what has changed? Well on the plus side being content focused solely around a biker gang the bike physics have had a dramatic tweak. Bikes are now far more responsive and running over a twig no longer sends you flying over the handlebars and rolling half a mile down the street. Rockstar have also added a whole stash of new bikes both Hogs and sporty and all of this combined actively encourages you to ride instead of drive. I’ve both heard and read a number of people both “experts” and gamers mention how you will still get into the habit of hailing cabs and quick travelling while this may be true of some players it totally defeats the object of the content. With missions now seemingly marked off at each cutscene as a checkpoint there is no reason to fast travel at all other than to hit a safe house to save at short notice, also with the decreased amount of crashes sending you flying off your ride (to the point that I had played through a good 75% of the story before taking my first tumble) why waste good in game money on a cab ride when you can spend it on some of the new weaponry and reign down lead death in a whole new way.

That’s right NEW weaponry. Not only do you now have a whole host of new bikes and a small handful of new cars a couple of handy and extremely satisfying new weapons are also available. Whilst all the old items are still available in the gun stores a quick call to Terry and up rolls a van with a few new options. (Same idea as the call for guns made to Little Jacob) In addition to the regular handgun an automatic version is now available, as well as pipe bombs and my personal favourite the assault shotgun. The later is a TOTAL beast, quick fire and able to annihilate any vehicle in no time at all you’ll find yourself using it over and above most other guns in the game. The range of uses has also been tweaked. While in 4 you where restricted to handguns and smgs while driving TLAD allows the use of sawn off shotguns while riding so we can all fulfil our Arnie Terminator 2 fantasies.

On top of new physical items the ambience has also received a tweak. Most radio stations now have a handful of new songs that are slotted in randomly so after a short time they feel as if they have always been there. A number of new adverts and DJ chatter have also been effortlessly blended in to keep the comic touches that are now part and parcel of a Grand Theft Auto title. Speaking of comic touches WKTT now has a completely new segment “The Martin Serious Show” which is a not so subtle spoof of the shock jock culture…or is it more of a blatant finger point at the self proclaimed “King of all Media.” Add to that more TV content and a special Split Sides appearance of one of my personal favourite comics in Frankie Boyle and it becomes clear that despite it being merely DLC Rockstar have still given it an incredible amount of detail.

There is however one minor down point. In seemingly an attempt to give TLAD a grittier feel than GTA 4 the visuals have a grainy film effect filter placed over both cutscenes standard play. While I can understand why it was done it does the game no favours at all and makes the Liberty City that wowed us a year ago a very bland feel. This effect can easily be removed though through navigating the pause menu and removing the “noise” filter.

As a solo play title in itself TLAD certainly stands up extremely well to criticism. For a relatively small download story wise you are treated to a solid 8-10 hours of extra gameplay. The missions consisting of the regular drive, chase, shoot that you come to expect from GTA. The story itself isn’t as full of comic touches that GTA 4 was but it is however still engaging. Also the way in which certain parts of Johnny’s story tie in nicely to Niko’s give the player a whole new perspective on GTA 4 which may or may not make Niko seem less likable. Side missions take the shape of bike races done in the style of Road Rash as you ride and whack rivals with a baseball bat and gang wars which involve you riding with The Lost and trying to take down other gangs. Completing these unlocks more bike varieties that can be delivered to you with a simple phone call. “Dates” are still available but are no longer an annoying must but rather riding out with other gang members will over time boost their stats and make them far more effective in combat.

Multiplayer modes have not gone untouched either while certain modes are just revamped versions of multiplayer modes we all know from other titles each mode is done well and feels a part of the title rather than a hastily thrown in mode to appease multiplayer fans. Three modes especially stand head and shoulders above the rest ;

Gang War -

Kind of like a tug of war. The city is split into zones guarded by NPC’s Taking out said NPC’s and any enemy gang members captures the territory. When a certain percentage of territory is captured or the timer runs out the gang with the most area captured wins. Simple principal but it translates brilliantly to GTA.

Chopper vs. Chopper

Easily the most insane mode available. A straight 1 on 1 battle one player on a bike trying to hit checkpoints while the second player controls an attack chopper and tries to stop him. A great test of skill but great fun with it.

Witness Protection

Carnage by the bucket load. Two teams one controlling N.O.O.S.E the other controlling The Lost. The N.O.O.S.E team protects a prison bus that is dropping off people at Police Stations around the map while The Lost throws everything at taking out the bus and it’s witnesses. Utter mayhem but again awesome fun.

So in closing TLAD is an awesome addition to the franchise and well worth the 1600 MS points for download regardless of whether you are a solo play or multiplayer fan. It’s unlikely to convert those of you out there that don’t like GTA games but for those that do it is certainly worth the purchase and has now set a benchmark for DLC that other companies must surely be cursing. (TAKE NOTE EA)

Due to TLAD effectively being an update it would be unfair to score it on individual categories but I would HIGHLY recommend picking this up if you haven’t already

GTA 4 The Lost and Damned First Impressions

As you can well imagine for the last couple of days I’ve been diving head first back into Liberty City to enjoy the debut of GTA 4’s first ever DLC The Lost and Damned. A full review will be forthcoming once I’ve fully tested the new multiplayer modes and of course you are all welcome to join me while I do it ( gamertag Bensonrecon) but what are my first impressions?

Firstly I have to mention I’ve noticed on a number of gaming forums people complaining about the grainy graphics effects used on TLAD as well as the text size on the mobile phone. Granted while it should have been made more obvious on how to do it both of these issues can be dealt with in a matter of seconds through the pause option menu and the mobile phone menu respectively. Personally I don’t mind either, you have to keep in mind that Rockstar are striving to make the player feel like it’s a grittier installment then Niko’s struggle so to me the scratchy look for the mini map as well as the grainy camera feel right at home when cruising round LC on a custom built hog. As for the phone, well I can’t help but feel that most of the complaints about the text size are only there down to the fact that The Lost phone wallpaper doesn’t lend itself brilliantly to a standardised mobile phone text colouring. However for me the complaints seem like little more than nitpicking.

The new bike physics are a TOTAL godsend. While some of the realism of bikes has been removed from GTA4 this is by no means a bad thing. When playing as Niko I would actively avoid bikes wherever possible. Not because I couldn’t ride them but solely down to the fact ,whether I be cursed with bad luck or not, when trying to make a quick exit or avoid the police I would always seem to find traffic coming across my route at every junction, resulting in Niko performing cartwheels down the tarmac. In TLAD the bikes just feel right. In the solid day I spent completing the story I can count the times I saw Johnny cart wheeling over the handlebars on 1 hand. Evading the cops while harder on a slower chopper doesn’t feel like the hairy skin of the teeth bike getaways that I would curse out on many occasions playing through GTA4. As a result apart from missions that demanded car use I spent a good 95% of my time cruising round on Johnny’s bike.

Also to close I have to tackle the biggest talking point so far on forums and message boards across the internet. While I’m sure everyone already knows what I am going to talk about, for those who wish to have NO knowledge of what happens in a certain cutscene relatively early on in the game then please take my advice. Stop reading this blog now and keep yourself away from Youtube and any forum till you have reached it yourself…you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there…..

Right for those of you still reading, one word, Politics. For those of you who still aren’t sure what I‘m talking about, two words, male nudity. I really cannot understand the big fuss that has been kicked up, not by Jack Thompson and his anti GTA campaign, not by politicians (real life not steam room, massage loving politicians), not even by mother’s groups but by gamers themselves regarding this cutscene. Seriously folks it’s 2009 and it’s a Rockstar game! Rockstar love to shock and I for one applaud what they have done. Considering how many GTA players out there will just walk around and randomly murder Liberty City’s pedestrians without rhyme or reason and in all types of ways I’m amazed by the shock shown at a pixelated penis. For me that whole scene is SUPPOSED to be awkward. Rockstar tease the “will you or won’t you see it” throughout that whole scene with the old comedic use of camera cuts and scenery blocking to make each of us think “no way will they.” You watch as Johnny looks more and more uncomfortable and then WHAM! The teasing stops with Stubbs’ umm “stub.” With the game rated 18 here in the UK (same as you mature rating for any North Americans reading this) I find the complaints to be little more than people just wanting to talk about penises, if Stubbs was a woman character and was naked would there be half as much in the way of comments?

Oh well back to Liberty City keep an eye out for the review both here and You tube ,oh and for those who have asked me on Youtube I will indeed be working on a seagull guide at some point in the near future once I found them all myself.