Title: Gta 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Developed by: Rockstar North
Completion Time: 6 hours
Storyline: With this being the 2nd game of the Episodes of the Episodes of Liberty City it ha a very similar similar look and feel to Tlad and the main game. The opening scene starts with the main character walking through Liberty City after being caught in a bank job. The first clip shows cameos of both Niko and Johnny before introducing us to Tony. A couple things are different compared to Tlad, the first is that each mission will have objectives that will add up to your total score, these can range from time you too, to player/vehicle damage and so on. In this game, you will get more advanced weaponry compared to Tlad. You also get more of a backstory of your character, such as he was a former US Marine and he went to prison for drugs related crimes. You can also change his clothes into 5 different outfits. In the first actual mission you see Billy arranging to have Johnny and Jim killed in the cutscene, this leads back to the point I made in the review of Tlad, to fully grasp everyones storyline, you need to play both side games Tlad and Tbogt and watch their cutscenes. If you enter the cage fighting as a challenge, you will be fighting 3 guys per round for about 5 rounds or so. Depending on your fighting skills it can be easy or hard, especially when the challengers come in with actual melee weapons such as knives and baseball bats after the 3rd round, but they are not to be underestimated as knives can do lots of damage quickly, baseball bats aren't as much of a threat as they can do damage, but they are also a lot slower to fight with. The only way you can describe Yusuf is that he is an Arabian guy trying to act black, but it falls flat like a white guy trying to act like a black gangster. His missions will generally consist of you having to steal expensive or odd things for him. But for all his annoyances he comes in handy in the final mission. His first mission will have operating an attack helicopter, a word of advice for all helicopter missions is to make sure you can do them during the daytime, this will make them so much easier. Tony buys diamonds with borrowed money and needless to say they get robbed, but thankfully you're able to find out where they are being held and you're able to get them back. In the later missions you have to help Yusuf steal APCs and Subway trains, these are very good missions for getting cash rewards, so they are recommended if you want to buy weapons, but they generally involve a lot of killing and shooting, so bulletproofs and plenty of ammo is generally required. In the last mission for the Bulgarian you will have to go to a building to protect Timur, but once you get there you will find the decapitated head of the guy who sold you the diamonds, turns out the diamonds belonged to the Bulgarian and now he's angry. So this guy then turns into the antagonist for the last section of the game along with Rocco partly who wants his money but escapes before the Bulgarian's hit-men arrive. But in the end you are able to find Timur and the Bulgarian and kill them before they can escape the country and ruin your lives even more. But ironically the diamonds you spent most of the game trying to get back fall into the hands of a homeless man who uses them to buy wealth at the end of the credits.
Overall Feel: The thing which makes this game better than Tlad is the fact that the missions have more variety and are more interesting, while Tlad was more believable and realistic as GTA games can be, it lacked most of the enjoyment that you get with Tbogt. You get a lot better weapons in Tbogt as well, such as silenced P90 which still attracts attention regardless, automatic shotguns with exploding shells and LMGs. I do feel slightly cheated that the Silenced P90 doesn't stop you from getting caught, but you can't have it all. Speaking of which, the silenced weapons in GTA5 barely do their job regardless. My only complaint which isn't really a complaint is that it requires more to plot out the story of Tbogt compared to Tlad as Tlad had 1 simplistic storyline which you veered off slightly at times but stayed on for the rest of it. The health related challenges work off your current HP so even if you make it through a mission without losing any HP you will still lose any health challenge because your health was below what they wanted. So it pays to find hospitals/health packs alongside bulletproof vests Regardless of the general things wrong with GTA 4, if you want the best game out of GTA Tlad and Tbogt is it hands down Tbogt, mainly because its story is a lot more interesting and has characters you can actually care about unlike Tlad, the missions are much funner and varied in comparison as well. Isn't as realistic, but it is worth it. Best to play Tlad first though as if you play Tbogt first you will feel underwhelmed in comparison. The GTA series have their problems, but these are two games which you can waste a day or so on and not feel like you've wasted your money.
Developed by: Rockstar North
Completion Time: 6 hours
Storyline: With this being the 2nd game of the Episodes of the Episodes of Liberty City it ha a very similar similar look and feel to Tlad and the main game. The opening scene starts with the main character walking through Liberty City after being caught in a bank job. The first clip shows cameos of both Niko and Johnny before introducing us to Tony. A couple things are different compared to Tlad, the first is that each mission will have objectives that will add up to your total score, these can range from time you too, to player/vehicle damage and so on. In this game, you will get more advanced weaponry compared to Tlad. You also get more of a backstory of your character, such as he was a former US Marine and he went to prison for drugs related crimes. You can also change his clothes into 5 different outfits. In the first actual mission you see Billy arranging to have Johnny and Jim killed in the cutscene, this leads back to the point I made in the review of Tlad, to fully grasp everyones storyline, you need to play both side games Tlad and Tbogt and watch their cutscenes. If you enter the cage fighting as a challenge, you will be fighting 3 guys per round for about 5 rounds or so. Depending on your fighting skills it can be easy or hard, especially when the challengers come in with actual melee weapons such as knives and baseball bats after the 3rd round, but they are not to be underestimated as knives can do lots of damage quickly, baseball bats aren't as much of a threat as they can do damage, but they are also a lot slower to fight with. The only way you can describe Yusuf is that he is an Arabian guy trying to act black, but it falls flat like a white guy trying to act like a black gangster. His missions will generally consist of you having to steal expensive or odd things for him. But for all his annoyances he comes in handy in the final mission. His first mission will have operating an attack helicopter, a word of advice for all helicopter missions is to make sure you can do them during the daytime, this will make them so much easier. Tony buys diamonds with borrowed money and needless to say they get robbed, but thankfully you're able to find out where they are being held and you're able to get them back. In the later missions you have to help Yusuf steal APCs and Subway trains, these are very good missions for getting cash rewards, so they are recommended if you want to buy weapons, but they generally involve a lot of killing and shooting, so bulletproofs and plenty of ammo is generally required. In the last mission for the Bulgarian you will have to go to a building to protect Timur, but once you get there you will find the decapitated head of the guy who sold you the diamonds, turns out the diamonds belonged to the Bulgarian and now he's angry. So this guy then turns into the antagonist for the last section of the game along with Rocco partly who wants his money but escapes before the Bulgarian's hit-men arrive. But in the end you are able to find Timur and the Bulgarian and kill them before they can escape the country and ruin your lives even more. But ironically the diamonds you spent most of the game trying to get back fall into the hands of a homeless man who uses them to buy wealth at the end of the credits.
Overall Feel: The thing which makes this game better than Tlad is the fact that the missions have more variety and are more interesting, while Tlad was more believable and realistic as GTA games can be, it lacked most of the enjoyment that you get with Tbogt. You get a lot better weapons in Tbogt as well, such as silenced P90 which still attracts attention regardless, automatic shotguns with exploding shells and LMGs. I do feel slightly cheated that the Silenced P90 doesn't stop you from getting caught, but you can't have it all. Speaking of which, the silenced weapons in GTA5 barely do their job regardless. My only complaint which isn't really a complaint is that it requires more to plot out the story of Tbogt compared to Tlad as Tlad had 1 simplistic storyline which you veered off slightly at times but stayed on for the rest of it. The health related challenges work off your current HP so even if you make it through a mission without losing any HP you will still lose any health challenge because your health was below what they wanted. So it pays to find hospitals/health packs alongside bulletproof vests Regardless of the general things wrong with GTA 4, if you want the best game out of GTA Tlad and Tbogt is it hands down Tbogt, mainly because its story is a lot more interesting and has characters you can actually care about unlike Tlad, the missions are much funner and varied in comparison as well. Isn't as realistic, but it is worth it. Best to play Tlad first though as if you play Tbogt first you will feel underwhelmed in comparison. The GTA series have their problems, but these are two games which you can waste a day or so on and not feel like you've wasted your money.