Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Preview

by Andy Burt
September 28, 2009 00:00 AM PST

Gay Tony packs more over-the-top action movie mayhem than most full games even attempt to do.

Rockstar has a knack for shape-shifting their flagship series. They conjured up the 80's drenched Vice City, the thug life-themed San Andreas, the "bikers gone wild" The Lost and Damned, and most recently The Ballad of Gay Tony. Though all these titles build on GTA games that came before, they've managed to stand on their own as great additions to the series, and its pretty clear now that episode numero dos for GTA IV is no one trick Tony... err, pony.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Preview

The vacationers on this boat are forced to stop eating their shrimp cocktail to get a face full of shrapnel.

Have Parachute, Will Travel

The protagonist of The Ballad of Gay Tony is actually not Gay Tony, but his business partner/friend/bodyguard Luis. The people Luis works for are some of the richest mofos in Liberty City, and as such have very extravagant ways of getting around, and more importantly, getting their dirty work done. The helicopter-to-parachute-drop combo was used in the first mission I played, which tasked Luis with taking out the owner of local hockey team. To put the drop on the owner Luis had to sky dive out of a moving helicopter and parachute down onto the top of the hockey team's business headquarters. After fighting my way through hordes of security guards I finally found the owner. The cut-scene that followed involved Luis kicking the owner out of a nearby window to his death, jumping out the same window (with parachute in tow, of course), and landing on top of a moving big rig to get the hell out while cops stormed the building.

By far the most entertaining mission I played through involved navigating across a speeding train, attaching a helicopter rigged with a crane-like tool to one of the train cars, and flying off with it. I wasn't kidding when I said this episode is straight out of an over-the-top action flick. As you'd expect it wasn't as easy as it sounds, with hordes of thugs attacking Luis from every direction. The moments before the helicopter pick up were so epic that I'll leave it for you guys to find out, but suffice to say The Ballad of Gay Tony will whet your appetite for action. This also marks the first time Rockstar will allow gamers to replay completed missions, as they've snuck in a heaping spoonful of mini-achievements for the perfectionists.