Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
Encyclopedia
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two episodic expansion packs
developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto IV
, developed by Rockstar North
. It was first released for the Xbox 360 on 17 February 2009 and on PlayStation 3
and Microsoft Windows
on 13 April 2010. It is the third expansion pack
game in the Grand Theft Auto
series (the first since Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961, released in 1999), and the twelfth release overall.
The Lost and Damned features a new protagonist, Johnny Klebitz, who is a member of Liberty City's biker gang
The Lost, a gang which is featured in missions throughout the course of Grand Theft Auto IV. Dan Houser, vice president of creative development at Rockstar Games, claims the episode will show "a different side of Liberty City". Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, has said that the episodes are experiments because they are not sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the Xbox 360. Take-Two Interactive's Chief Financial Officer
, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
A combined standalone disc-based package titled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
, which does not require the original Grand Theft Auto IV game to be played, was released and contains both The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
.
The Lost and Damned otherwise features similar gameplay to Grand Theft Auto IV. Additions to the game include new weapons, such as a H&K-69 40mm grenade launcher, a CZ-75 automatic machine pistol, half of a pool cue and pipe bomb
s, as well as a sawn-off shotgun
and an American variant of the Armsel Striker known as the Streetsweeper, and new vehicles, such as Johnny's custom-made motorcycle. However, his way of handling vehicles is less proficient than the way he handles any motorcycle. The player is able to telephone various members of the Lost to provide assistance. Terry, for instance, will drive to a location near to Johnny and sell him weapons and armor, while Clay can deliver a bike of the player's choice to him directly.
Another addition to The Lost and Damned is gang wars. Once the player has completed a certain amount of them, weapons spawn in either the clubhouse and/or safehouse depending on how far the player has progressed in the story, and every subsequent 10 gang wars up to 50, a new weapon will spawn. During some missions and gang wars, Johnny is accompanied by a team of bikers. As each biker takes part in more missions, they will gain fighting experience. If, at any time, a biker is killed in a mission or gang war, they will be replaced by another in the next.
In an interview with IGN
, the president of Rockstar North
stated that the Lost and Damned would have a third of the number of missions as Grand Theft Auto IV, placing its length at approximately 10–15 hours, depending on how focused the player is on the storyline.
The multi-player modes are:
, the main character of Grand Theft Auto IV
, swears at a passer-by on the street as the gang drives past.
Johnny is the vice president of the gang, but has been the acting president for a year because the club's president, Billy Grey, has been in court-ordered rehab after being arrested for narcotics possession. As leader, Johnny has established The Lost throughout Liberty City by making truces and deals after suffering several financial troubles, mainly caused by Billy's poor leadership. The most notable truce is with The Lost's rivals, The Angels of Death, which has allowed The Lost to operate their drug deals and gun running operations more freely.
On being released from rehab, Billy immediately reverts to a life of crime and tensions quickly grow between Billy and Johnny, who believe the gang should go different ways. Johnny wants to keep the gang running smoothly, deeming war with other gangs as immature and bad for business, whereas Billy prefers acts of random violence and mayhem. As such, Billy quickly leads the Lost to assault the Angels of Death Clubhouse, beginning a gang war against the Angels of Death, which serves as the main backdrop for the game.
Meanwhile Johnny does business with drug dealer Elizabeta Torrez and import bikers Malc and DeSean. He is also entrapped
and contacted by Congressman Thomas Stubbs III to commits several assassinations and planting a bug in the car of Deputy Mayor Bryce Dawkins (which is given to Niko Bellic by Bernie Crane soon after). The same Congressman will make controversy because of a mission where his penis can be fully seen.
From time to time Johnny is led to help his ex-girlfriend Ashley, a drug addict who constantly gets herself into trouble, including saving her from a group of thugs and paying off her debts to Dimitri Rascalov by kidnapping Roman Bellic.
Eventually, Billy is arrested after a failed drug deal with the Triads and Johnny takes over as President of The Lost. This immediately sparks a civil war within the gang, one side with Johnny, the other with Brian Jeremy, who is still faithful to Billy and believes Johnny to be responsible for Billy's arrest. Brian stages a coup against Johnny in which most of the Lost are killed. Johnny and his friends manage to come out on top, but Brian escapes. Soon after mafia capo Ray Boccino sells Brian's location to Johnny in the interest of stabilizing his business with the Lost. Johnny goes to the safehouse and kills Brian along with the last of his goons, putting an end to the civil war.
After killing Brian, Johnny repays Boccino by stealing him $2 million worth of diamonds from Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince, killing Tony's boyfriend Evan Moss in the process. When Johnny tries to collect his share of the diamond money he becomes part of the infamous diamond deal seen in Grand Theft Auto IV, and manages to steal all of the $2 million that Bocinno was to receive for the diamonds. Johnny gives the money to the Lost's treasurer Jim Fitzgerald. Soon after both Jim and Johnny are held captive by Boccino, but fight their way free and are pursued by Boccino's men. Johnny leads his pursuers into an ambush in Alderney. However, when he returns to the Lost Clubhouse Johnny learns from Ashley that Jim has been killed (by Niko Bellic).
Shortly after, it is revealed that Billy is planning to testify against the Lost, pin all its crimes on Johnny, and enter Witness Protection Program. Johnny leads the remaining members of the Lost in a daring raid on the state prison in Alderney, where Billy is being detained, and personally executes him. With Billy dead, the surviving members of the Lost return to their clubhouse, where it is revealed that the only surviving members are Johnny, Clay Simons, Terry Thorpe and the paraplegic Angus Martin. With their club and brotherhood destroyed, they decide to burn the clubhouse to the ground. The last shot is of them watching it burn, contemplating what comes next. Ashley promises Johnny that she will enter rehab, with Johnny wishing her the best.
At several points throughout the course of the game, the plot intertwines with events from Grand Theft Auto IV and is seen and played out from Johnny's perspective. These include Elizabeta's drug deal gone awry, and Ray Boccino's diamond operation (both of which were played from Niko's perspective in the main game). It is revealed that it was Johnny who kidnapped Roman Bellic and took him to the warehouse in Bohan where Niko eventually rescued him in the main game. It is also revealed that a seemingly random biker that Niko killed for Ray Boccino in the main game was actually Johnny's best friend, Jim Fitzgerald. Also, Niko's killing of The Lost member Jason Michaels under orders from Mikhail Faustin is blamed on The Angels of Death by Billy Grey, who uses it as an excuse to re-ignite the gang war between them. The ending movie shows key points in the original story line, such as Niko and Roman finding their home and cab business destroyed, and Niko executing Vlad, with The Lost riding in the background. One of the missions also involves Tony Prince from The Ballad of Gay Tony and provides Johnny's perspective to the first piece of plot to the expansion's storyline.
, several new tracks were added to the radio stations in the expansion. LCHC - Liberty City Hardcore and Liberty Rock Radio saw the biggest addition of new tracks, to go with the expansion's overall biker/rock theme. LCHC also got the addition of a new radio show dedicated to extreme metal
hosted by Max Cavalera
(ex-Sepultura
, Soulfly
and Cavalera Conspiracy
).
Additional tracks were added to the rotation of The Beat 102.7 (with DJ Statik Selektah
& Funkmaster Flex
) and Radio Broker as well as a new radio show on the talk station WKTT; The Martin Serious Show (a parody of Shock Jock
style radio programs, in particular The Howard Stern Show). Some of the new tracks include songs from the Australian hard rock heavyweights, AC/DC, along with Deep Purple, The Doors and Bon Jovi.
's 2006 E3 press conference on 9 May 2006. Peter Moore, the then-head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division described downloadable content as "epic episode packs", and not just an extra car or character. A press release during the conference said that the packs would add "hours of entirely new gameplay" to the game. On 20 February 2008, it was initially announced that the extra content would be introduced starting August 2008. As part of its second quarter financial reports Take-Two announced that the downloadable content had been delayed and would be released during the first quarter of its 2009 financial year (November 2008–January 2009). On 13 November 2008, Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick warned that while they were aiming to release the first episode pack by January 2009, the date may have had to change to the second financial quarter of 2009 (February–April) depending on the completion date. The 17 February release date was eventually announced one week after Zelnick's warning.
, the former being a noticeable problem in the original game.
. The source of this problem is not yet known, nor has Rockstar Games officially responded. Slashgamer.com has recently published an article summing up the extraordinary number of message-board threads devoted to the topic.
Episodic games
An episodic video game is a video game of a shorter length that is commercially released as an installment to a continuous and larger series. Episodic games differ from conventional video games in that they often contain less content but are developed on a more frequent basis.Such a series may or...
developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
, developed by Rockstar North
Rockstar North
Rockstar North is a British video game developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland, best known for creating the Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings franchises in its earlier guise as DMA....
. It was first released for the Xbox 360 on 17 February 2009 and on PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
on 13 April 2010. It is the third expansion pack
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
game in the Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
series (the first since Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961, released in 1999), and the twelfth release overall.
The Lost and Damned features a new protagonist, Johnny Klebitz, who is a member of Liberty City's biker gang
Outlaw motorcycle club
An outlaw motorcycle club is a type of motorcycle club that is part of a subculture with roots in the post-World War II USA, centered on cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals celebrating freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the...
The Lost, a gang which is featured in missions throughout the course of Grand Theft Auto IV. Dan Houser, vice president of creative development at Rockstar Games, claims the episode will show "a different side of Liberty City". Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, has said that the episodes are experiments because they are not sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the Xbox 360. Take-Two Interactive's Chief Financial Officer
Chief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
A combined standalone disc-based package titled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a standalone compilation of the downloadable content episodes for the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Created by Rockstar North in the United Kingdom, it contains both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc...
, which does not require the original Grand Theft Auto IV game to be played, was released and contains both The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second of the two episodic expansion packs available to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, which was developed by Rockstar North and first released for the Xbox 360 on 29 October 2009. It was then released for both...
.
Gameplay
Perhaps the biggest new feature in The Lost and Damned is the availability of mid-mission checkpoints. The player is thus spared repeated trips to a given location in order to trigger a failed mission again — an often criticized aspect of the Grand Theft Auto series. However, The Lost and Damned expansion does not add this functionality to the main game. Checkpoints are only available by retrying the mission after it has been previously failed — going to the mission start point begins the mission from scratch.The Lost and Damned otherwise features similar gameplay to Grand Theft Auto IV. Additions to the game include new weapons, such as a H&K-69 40mm grenade launcher, a CZ-75 automatic machine pistol, half of a pool cue and pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
s, as well as a sawn-off shotgun
Sawed-off shotgun
A sawed-off shotgun also called a sawn-off shotgun and a short-barreled shotgun , is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel and often a shorter or absent stock....
and an American variant of the Armsel Striker known as the Streetsweeper, and new vehicles, such as Johnny's custom-made motorcycle. However, his way of handling vehicles is less proficient than the way he handles any motorcycle. The player is able to telephone various members of the Lost to provide assistance. Terry, for instance, will drive to a location near to Johnny and sell him weapons and armor, while Clay can deliver a bike of the player's choice to him directly.
Another addition to The Lost and Damned is gang wars. Once the player has completed a certain amount of them, weapons spawn in either the clubhouse and/or safehouse depending on how far the player has progressed in the story, and every subsequent 10 gang wars up to 50, a new weapon will spawn. During some missions and gang wars, Johnny is accompanied by a team of bikers. As each biker takes part in more missions, they will gain fighting experience. If, at any time, a biker is killed in a mission or gang war, they will be replaced by another in the next.
In an interview with IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, the president of Rockstar North
Rockstar North
Rockstar North is a British video game developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland, best known for creating the Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings franchises in its earlier guise as DMA....
stated that the Lost and Damned would have a third of the number of missions as Grand Theft Auto IV, placing its length at approximately 10–15 hours, depending on how focused the player is on the storyline.
The multi-player modes are:
- Witness Protection - One team is The Lost biker gang and they must try to eliminate a bus carrying witnesses while the other team is NOOSE who try to protect the bus as it delivers the witnesses to police stations around Liberty City.
- Races - Racing on bikes with racers carrying bats and smashing each other, similar to the video game Road RashRoad RashRoad Rash is the name of a motorcycle-racing video game series by Electronic Arts, in which the player participates in violent illegal street races. The game was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, but was ported to several other systems. Six different games were released from...
. - Lone Wolf Biker - Free for all style mode where one player is the Lone Wolf and all other players must chase and kill that player to become the Lone Wolf. At the end of the game, whoever was the Lone Wolf for the longest time, wins.
- Own the City - Try to gain control of the city section by section, based on San Andreas' gang wars.
- Club Business - Like the original Mafia mode in GTA IV, but with a total of 8 players riding together as one gang. The player receives calls from Angus who tells you to carry out certain tasks for The Lost.
- Chopper vs. Chopper - Helicopter vs bike. Bike rider tries to get through checkpoints while the helicopter tries to stop the biker.
Plot
The story begins with Jonathan "Johnny" Klebitz and all the members of the infamous biker gang, The Lost Motorcycle Club, driving through the streets of Alderney at night. In a brief cameo, Niko BellicNiko Bellic
Niko Bellic is the main protagonist and playable character in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. He is a 30-year-old former soldier from Eastern Europe who moved to Liberty City to escape his troubled past and pursue the "American Dream"...
, the main character of Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
, swears at a passer-by on the street as the gang drives past.
Johnny is the vice president of the gang, but has been the acting president for a year because the club's president, Billy Grey, has been in court-ordered rehab after being arrested for narcotics possession. As leader, Johnny has established The Lost throughout Liberty City by making truces and deals after suffering several financial troubles, mainly caused by Billy's poor leadership. The most notable truce is with The Lost's rivals, The Angels of Death, which has allowed The Lost to operate their drug deals and gun running operations more freely.
On being released from rehab, Billy immediately reverts to a life of crime and tensions quickly grow between Billy and Johnny, who believe the gang should go different ways. Johnny wants to keep the gang running smoothly, deeming war with other gangs as immature and bad for business, whereas Billy prefers acts of random violence and mayhem. As such, Billy quickly leads the Lost to assault the Angels of Death Clubhouse, beginning a gang war against the Angels of Death, which serves as the main backdrop for the game.
Meanwhile Johnny does business with drug dealer Elizabeta Torrez and import bikers Malc and DeSean. He is also entrapped
Entrapment
In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...
and contacted by Congressman Thomas Stubbs III to commits several assassinations and planting a bug in the car of Deputy Mayor Bryce Dawkins (which is given to Niko Bellic by Bernie Crane soon after). The same Congressman will make controversy because of a mission where his penis can be fully seen.
From time to time Johnny is led to help his ex-girlfriend Ashley, a drug addict who constantly gets herself into trouble, including saving her from a group of thugs and paying off her debts to Dimitri Rascalov by kidnapping Roman Bellic.
Eventually, Billy is arrested after a failed drug deal with the Triads and Johnny takes over as President of The Lost. This immediately sparks a civil war within the gang, one side with Johnny, the other with Brian Jeremy, who is still faithful to Billy and believes Johnny to be responsible for Billy's arrest. Brian stages a coup against Johnny in which most of the Lost are killed. Johnny and his friends manage to come out on top, but Brian escapes. Soon after mafia capo Ray Boccino sells Brian's location to Johnny in the interest of stabilizing his business with the Lost. Johnny goes to the safehouse and kills Brian along with the last of his goons, putting an end to the civil war.
After killing Brian, Johnny repays Boccino by stealing him $2 million worth of diamonds from Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince, killing Tony's boyfriend Evan Moss in the process. When Johnny tries to collect his share of the diamond money he becomes part of the infamous diamond deal seen in Grand Theft Auto IV, and manages to steal all of the $2 million that Bocinno was to receive for the diamonds. Johnny gives the money to the Lost's treasurer Jim Fitzgerald. Soon after both Jim and Johnny are held captive by Boccino, but fight their way free and are pursued by Boccino's men. Johnny leads his pursuers into an ambush in Alderney. However, when he returns to the Lost Clubhouse Johnny learns from Ashley that Jim has been killed (by Niko Bellic).
Shortly after, it is revealed that Billy is planning to testify against the Lost, pin all its crimes on Johnny, and enter Witness Protection Program. Johnny leads the remaining members of the Lost in a daring raid on the state prison in Alderney, where Billy is being detained, and personally executes him. With Billy dead, the surviving members of the Lost return to their clubhouse, where it is revealed that the only surviving members are Johnny, Clay Simons, Terry Thorpe and the paraplegic Angus Martin. With their club and brotherhood destroyed, they decide to burn the clubhouse to the ground. The last shot is of them watching it burn, contemplating what comes next. Ashley promises Johnny that she will enter rehab, with Johnny wishing her the best.
At several points throughout the course of the game, the plot intertwines with events from Grand Theft Auto IV and is seen and played out from Johnny's perspective. These include Elizabeta's drug deal gone awry, and Ray Boccino's diamond operation (both of which were played from Niko's perspective in the main game). It is revealed that it was Johnny who kidnapped Roman Bellic and took him to the warehouse in Bohan where Niko eventually rescued him in the main game. It is also revealed that a seemingly random biker that Niko killed for Ray Boccino in the main game was actually Johnny's best friend, Jim Fitzgerald. Also, Niko's killing of The Lost member Jason Michaels under orders from Mikhail Faustin is blamed on The Angels of Death by Billy Grey, who uses it as an excuse to re-ignite the gang war between them. The ending movie shows key points in the original story line, such as Niko and Roman finding their home and cab business destroyed, and Niko executing Vlad, with The Lost riding in the background. One of the missions also involves Tony Prince from The Ballad of Gay Tony and provides Johnny's perspective to the first piece of plot to the expansion's storyline.
Soundtrack
Apart from the original Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrackGrand Theft Auto IV soundtrack
The soundtrack to the game Grand Theft Auto IV, like the previous games in the series, is mostly made up of in-game radio stations. These radio stations can be listened to when driving various vehicles in the game, or at the start menu...
, several new tracks were added to the radio stations in the expansion. LCHC - Liberty City Hardcore and Liberty Rock Radio saw the biggest addition of new tracks, to go with the expansion's overall biker/rock theme. LCHC also got the addition of a new radio show dedicated to extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
hosted by Max Cavalera
Max Cavalera
Massimiliano Antonio "Max" Cavalera is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the heavy metal band Sepultura, before forming Soulfly in the late 1990s...
(ex-Sepultura
Sepultura
Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...
, Soulfly
Soulfly
Soulfly is a heavy metal band formed in 1997 based in Phoenix, Arizona. The original lyrical content revolved around spirituality and religious themes, with later albums encompassing other themes including war, violence, aggression, hatred and anger. Soulfly is led by former Sepultura frontman Max...
and Cavalera Conspiracy
Cavalera Conspiracy
Cavalera Conspiracy is a Brazilian heavy metal band founded by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera , along with American guitarist and bassist Marc Rizzo and Johny Chow. The band originally formed in 2007 as Inflikted but changed its name for legal reasons...
).
Additional tracks were added to the rotation of The Beat 102.7 (with DJ Statik Selektah
Statik Selektah
Patrick Baril better known as Statik Selektah, is an East Coast-based DJ, Producer and CEO of Showoff Records.-Biography:...
& Funkmaster Flex
Funkmaster Flex
Aston George Taylor, Jr. better known as Funkmaster Flex is an American hip hop DJ, rapper, musician and producer on New York City's Hot 97 radio station and host of the hit MTV show Funk Flex Full Throttle....
) and Radio Broker as well as a new radio show on the talk station WKTT; The Martin Serious Show (a parody of Shock Jock
Shock Jock
Shock Jock was an Australian television comedy series, broadcast on TV1.The series lasted for two series and was created by comedian Tim Ferguson...
style radio programs, in particular The Howard Stern Show). Some of the new tracks include songs from the Australian hard rock heavyweights, AC/DC, along with Deep Purple, The Doors and Bon Jovi.
Development
The content was first announced during MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's 2006 E3 press conference on 9 May 2006. Peter Moore, the then-head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division described downloadable content as "epic episode packs", and not just an extra car or character. A press release during the conference said that the packs would add "hours of entirely new gameplay" to the game. On 20 February 2008, it was initially announced that the extra content would be introduced starting August 2008. As part of its second quarter financial reports Take-Two announced that the downloadable content had been delayed and would be released during the first quarter of its 2009 financial year (November 2008–January 2009). On 13 November 2008, Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick warned that while they were aiming to release the first episode pack by January 2009, the date may have had to change to the second financial quarter of 2009 (February–April) depending on the completion date. The 17 February release date was eventually announced one week after Zelnick's warning.
Reception
The game was well received by critics who cited its improved motorcycle mechanics in comparison to the previous games, quality voice acting, addictive multiplayer component and other new content which added many hours of game time. Complaints with the game have included auto-aiming issues and weak gang AIArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, the former being a noticeable problem in the original game.
Controversy
Parental advisory group Common Sense Media issued a public warning about the expansion pack due to a full-frontal male nudity scene during one of the cut scenes. They claimed the game was "more controversial than its predecessors" because it featured "full frontal nudity". Many players reported "freezing" issues subsequent to download from Xbox LiveXbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
. The source of this problem is not yet known, nor has Rockstar Games officially responded. Slashgamer.com has recently published an article summing up the extraordinary number of message-board threads devoted to the topic.
External links
- GTA IV: The Lost and Damned on Grand Theft Wiki