Each Grand Theft Auto has a film antecedent: Vice City's neon-bathed beach metropolis harkens Michael Mann and '80s cop procedurals; San Andreas' hard knock SoCal is a pastiche of John Singleton's early work along with other '90s gang dramas; and both GTA IV and its episodic expansion The Lost and Damned features the gritty, paranoid New York of Scorcese's '70s. (Even if it takes place in modern day.)
The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second of the two part episodic expansion to GTA IV, sticks to the trend. Call it the Tony Scott Period; Rockstar's take on the modern action flick.
The Scott comparison's particularly apt when you consider one of the missions Rockstar showcased at a recent demo featuring hero Luis Lopez surfing a subway, picking off a dozen or so helicopters with a shotgun and a seemingly infinite amount of explosive shells. It was as if they were little more than mosquitos, and his shotgun, a 6 foot fly-swatter. For the climax, Lopez wedges free a car from the train, latches it to a cargo helicopter and rides it into the horizon.
To recap: You steal a subway car with a helicopter.
Listen. You hear that? It's the sound a thousand high-pitched squeals emanating from the mouths of old school GTA fanboys who, after turning their back on a franchise that had become a little too serious, now have reason to pick up the joy pad. Wine glasses are cracking. Dogs are yelping.
And old school fanboys, it only gets better.
There's base jumping. Military grade helicopters. Night clubs. Even score boards. This feature, which allowed you to replay any mission of your choosing to pursue a high score, was first brought to the franchise in GTA Chinatown Wars (the other GTA that returned to its roots), and will finally be made available on consoles with Ballad of Gay Tony.
To boast these features, Rockstar also demoed two other stages.
The first, a shoot-out. Lopez, in a quest given him by the Russian mob, interrupts the board meeting of a minor league hockey team to assassinate the CEO. But plugging him raises some obvious suspicions, setting off an alarm system. Buzzers sound. Sprinklers drench the floor. And guards storm the room. So, Lopez escapes via the window. From 40 or so stories up.
With the help of the parachute -- making its triumphant return to the franchise -- he glides to safety on the back of a moving flat bed truck.
The other mission, Grand Theft Helicopter. Lopez hijacks an attack chopper off the back of a yacht. Not knowing the gents he stole from were particularly unsavory crooks, he pulls a U-y back to the ship and leaves no man behind. Taking down a yacht and a handful of speedboats is no biggie thanks to an endless supply of missiles and machine gun artillery.
I think Rockstar's episode experiments paid off. They've created a little something for everyone. It's easy to imagine a GTA V featuring many smaller stories -- a half-dozen episodes. Rockstar's take on Tarantino.
The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available on Xbox Live as a downloadable expansion for those that already own GTA IV. It will cost $20. It will also be available as one half of Episodes from Liberty City, a boxed game that includes it along with The Lost and Damned, for $39.99. Unlike the downloadable version, EFLC does not require GTA IV to play the content. Both will be available on October 29th.
