GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony

[miffy495]

We'll see. Tuesday afternoons have seemed to be the most convenient time for my honours supervisor to meet with me this term, so whether or not I'm able to make a GTA game has unfortunately been quite dependent upon what time works best for him for our meeting. I've lucked out the last two weeks, but will have to wait and see for this one.

[Nachimir]

Did anyone else catch the taxi driver reference?

Just after Luis throws a guy off the Empire State, the driver whose cab he lands on is saying "This town is full of degenerates".

Also, yes, the explosive shotty makes the last few missions fairly easy. Thanks for the tip, probably wouldn't have got out of the club without trying that. somehow managed to get through every following bit of the mission on just a tiny sliver of health.

[miffy495]

Oh man. This is San Andreas, GTAIV style. How I've missed you, crazy parachuting. All they need to do is throw in some back country and stunt planes and I'd be the happiest little gamer in the world.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Man, getting 100% on missions is HARD HARD HARD.

Edited November 11, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[toblix]

So, what now? Next, they're going to have to either announce some more expansions or a sequel. I'm not sure what I want the most.

I'd really like to see what sort of engine they could come up with for a sequel. Even if they didn't rewrite it, I'm sure there are some great improvements to be made for a whole new game. I'd probably be willing to sacrifice some Euphoria integration for tighter control of the main character, for example, but I'd like to see more Euphoria overall. The little touches like people dropping their cups, stumbling down stairs and grabbing on to cars are really awesome.

[toblix]

Gay Tony's multiplayer is the dumbest shit. They might as well have called it Grand Shoes Auto, because running around and shooting seems to be the thing they're going for. They've added tons of interiors for running around and being bored in, and then they've reduced GTA race to only a handful of really sucking vehicles. The APC is the biggest joke. Either everyone has one or nobody does, so there's really no point. The nail in the coffin is that they've removed the helicopters from the airport in GTA races. Another nail was that they even managed to shit up the parachuting thing, only making it available in the shitty free mode, and then only in a non-organized way, so there's no competition or anything. I think I'll skip any future Gay Thumb Autos, as this was really terrible. Hopefully the expansions aren't an indication of future GTA multiplayer stuff, but it really seems like it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

So, what now? Next, they're going to have to either announce some more expansions or a sequel. I'm not sure what I want the most.

I thought that thing you posted pretty much proved it was bye-bye Liberty City? (Next stop, mountain ranges?)

[Chris]

Gay Tony's multiplayer is the dumbest shit. They might as well have called it Grand Shoes Auto, because running around and shooting seems to be the thing they're going for. They've added tons of interiors for running around and being bored in, and then they've reduced GTA race to only a handful of really sucking vehicles. The APC is the biggest joke. Either everyone has one or nobody does, so there's really no point. The nail in the coffin is that they've removed the helicopters from the airport in GTA races. Another nail was that they even managed to shit up the parachuting thing, only making it available in the shitty free mode, and then only in a non-organized way, so there's no competition or anything. I think I'll skip any future Gay Thumb Autos, as this was really terrible. Hopefully the expansions aren't an indication of future GTA multiplayer stuff, but it really seems like it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, I saw Toblix had written that... kind of a different reaction to the rest of you guys!

[Wrestlevania]

I've played about 4hrs now and, to be blunt, I'm not enjoying The Ballad of Gay Tony very much at all.

The missions often seem very repetitive, making you do exactly the same thing (e.g. fly a helicopter around) immediately after you've just done that in the previous mission a moment ago. And when it's not lazily recycling the same theme or mechanics, it's irritatingly awkward, and has caused me to replay a number of the later missions at least once. The map being littered with uninteresting side-missions/mini games - like sky diving or triathlon events - just adds more noise and obscures the main game.

TBoGT's design often seems to deliberately exploit the sluggishness of GTA IV's controls, keeping fast-moving targets at the very edge of the camera's limited movement (during car chases, for example). All this succeeds in doing is proving that GTA IV's vehicles really aren't that good under pressure--particularly the helicopters, which remain unwieldy and maddeningly inaccurate, even given the focus they receive in this episode. The N.O.O.S.E. tank is also pretty dull and seemingly quite fragile in certain situations, contrary to what it's name implies and what other characters would have you believe.

I'm also not liking any of the cast much any more; there's no development, they just mostly seem to be either swaggering, smart-mouthed blaggards or extremely douchy jocks. Yusuf provides little comic relief either, having done the same dumb visual gag twice in adjoining missions. In contrast to Jonny Klebitz, I'm finding Luis to be annoying, robotic and having a bland, "gangsta" response to everything any other character says. I've caught myself a number of times hovering over the 'A' button to skip these boring cut scenes, because it's immediately apparent how most of them will progress within moments of seeing the setup.

In summary: I'm bored and annoyed and unexpectedly glad this is the end for GTA IV now.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow, I'm surprised to have had completely the opposite experience. Although the missions are a little weird, I figured they were just trying to do something new (and extreme) with all the options they had. There's a ton of other types of missions in GTAIV and LATD, but with BGAD I think they thought, "fuck it, let's have some real fun here". I appreciated that.

The missions are also a lot harder than before, which for me meant they had me as a player in mind. GTAIV is just SO goddamn easy once you've gotten good at it -- which doesn't mean it's still not fun, but I appreciate how they tried to put up a harder challenge this time.

The missions may be a little uneven, but I was glad to have the opportunity to do all the things I always wanted to (train surf, parachute, nitro boosts, explosive shells, drive a tank, etc.), even if they weren't quite as fun as I probably imagined they would be.

I also really liked the characters. I found Louis to be pretty UN-gangster myself and lo, if GTA didn't actually manage to have a gay character that wasn't 100% stereotype (not a big feat, to be fair).

I was glad to be part of a world that wasn't so seedy and grimy as the other two games and I felt it was a good capper to the series. It's not perfect, sure, but I really enjoyed it.

[mikemariano]

I just beat Gay Tony tonight. It had its moments, but I am now thoroughly sick of "Rockstar Logic."

I'm tired of sitting through cutscenes that approach Metal Gear-levels of length and indulgence—Roman and Brucie from the first GTAIV have an entire cutscene to themselves that has no impact on the mission you have to watch it for.

The stupidest moment in Gay Tony came during two missions. In the first, instead of fighting through a building full of angry Russians, you are meant to jump out a window and parachute to the street below. It's actually impossible to fight your way through the building because there's no way to walk down.

In the very next mission, you are on a rooftop and are meant to fight wave after wave of enemies. But if you try to parachute, you'll find that it's been removed from your inventory—you aren't allowed to do the same exact thing you did in the previous mission. You have to sit through cutscenes announcing the arrival of a helicopter you must destroy.

Is Red Dead Redemption like this? I really don't want to play it if I have to deal with more of this aggravation.

[Chris]

I just beat Gay Tony tonight. It had its moments, but I am now thoroughly sick of "Rockstar Logic."

I'm tired of sitting through cutscenes that approach Metal Gear-levels of length and indulgence—Roman and Brucie from the first GTAIV have an entire cutscene to themselves that has no impact on the mission you have to watch it for.

The stupidest moment in Gay Tony came during two missions. In the first, instead of fighting through a building full of angry Russians, you are meant to jump out a window and parachute to the street below. It's actually impossible to fight your way through the building because there's no way to walk down.

In the very next mission, you are on a rooftop and are meant to fight wave after wave of enemies. But if you try to parachute, you'll find that it's been removed from your inventory—you aren't allowed to do the same exact thing you did in the previous mission. You have to sit through cutscenes announcing the arrival of a helicopter you must destroy.

Is Red Dead Redemption like this? I really don't want to play it if I have to deal with more of this aggravation.

I completely agree with your complaints about in-game inconsistency. It's extremely aggravating.

[miffy495]

Just beat it myself about 5 minutes ago. I enjoyed it, but I think I'm ready for what Rockstar wants to do with GTA next now. I'm feeling sorta done with Liberty City and the people in it. I really want, more than any other thing they might be working on, a return to San Andreas now. They proved they can do huge outdoor expanses with Red Dead Redemption (different teams, I know) and to have people doing back country of that quality with cities like the islands from GTAIV would be incredible.

Anyway, the consistency is indeed frustrating. I think the saddest thing about the whole experience though was realizing that GTAIV is more than 2 years old now and that open world games have kept evolving. Gay Tony felt dated. Much as I had fun with it, it felt dated. Having finished Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption both earlier in the year, I feel like the crazy open world and serious open world have both been done better between the two of them. I've got my closure on the Liberty City story now, so I'm ready to start waiting for what's next.