After all- Microsoft has paid for something fairly rigid- whilst the first DLC was bordering on revolutionary in its scope- I guess it’s no surprise that something has been released that is very similar in terms of size and scope for the second episode.

 

Graphically, the last episode at least tried to do something new with a film grain effect. However, for TBoGT, Rockstar decided to leave everything alone. I’m not sure that this was the best decision.

 

 

Whilst the menus and loading screens have a brighter air to them, I think the city itself would have benefitted from some sprucing up too. To be perfectly honest, the engine is no longer as impressive as it once was, and certainly from an animation perspective, is starting to look a little dated. Cut-scenes still look brilliant, but out in the game world, there are now many better looking games out there.

 

Sound thankfully does not date as easily. The voice acting in the game is still superb, and all of the new characters are brilliant, larger-than-life people that really had me chuckling at times, particularly Yusuf, the Arab who wants to take over the whole city.

 

There’s also some new music, and whilst less obvious than the biker music found in Jonny’s episode, fits in nicely, and expands the radio stations enough that they now really do feel like proper radio as songs hardly ever repeat.

 

As always, Rockstar have made some upgrades to multiplayer. There’s some new maps, and a couple of new modes, of which base-jumping will be the most interesting to people. There’s also some new upgrades such as kill streaks as well. However, GTA multiplayer was never really for me personally- and that’s certainly still the case after all of this time.

 

 

If you liked it, there’s probably enough here to keep you interested for another few months, but if you weren’t a fan, the upgrades are certainly not enough to get you playing again.

 

If the story and missions here were stuck into a new engine, "The Ballad Of Gay Tony" would be an absolutely fantastic game. As it is, the GTA IV engine is already starting to creak around the edges, with some aspects of both the graphics and gameplay not really stacking up against other games released in 2009 or even late 2008.

 

It’s weird to think that Rockstar are in genuine need of updating the engine so soon, considering their last effort lasted across an entire generation- but if they don’t, then I think any further content in this engine would be even harder to recommend.

 

As it stands, as a relatively cheap piece of content for what you get, TBoGT is still easily worth a purchase for GTA fans.

 

 

 

 

+ More humour
+ More explosions
+ More outrageous