System: X360, PS3, PC	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Rockstar North	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Rockstar Games	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Apr. 13, 2010	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Mature	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

A Criminal's Story
by Robert VerBruggen

New York is a big city, and Grand Theft Auto IV was perhaps the first video game to truly capture that. Even GTA IV, though, only captured the city's size geographically. It's taken two expansions, The Lost and Damned and now The Ballad of Gay Tony, to flesh out the Big Apple's various cultures and classes. In that sense (and most others), The Ballad of Gay Tony is an almost perfect end to this GTA iteration.

This isn't obvious right away; at first glance, The Ballad of Gay Tony is just more GTA. Players take control of Luis Lopez, who has a fair amount in common with his predecessors, Niko Bellic and Johnny Klebitz. Like them, he is a cold-hearted killer who's just a little bit more sensible than the people around him. Also like Niko and Johnny, Luis has a troubled past and a present situation that requires him to break the law; he grew up poor, recently spent time in prison, has friends and a mother who lure him into criminal mischief, and works as a bodyguard/assistant for a man nicknamed Gay Tony.

All of these elements play about equal roles in the game's first few hours, but thereafter Luis's past falls off the radar and the Gay Tony story takes precedence. Tony is what makes this game different. Tony owns some of the city's most popular high-end nightclubs, but he's struggling with business problems and drug addiction. Through Tony, players get a glimpse of the New York high life, something GTAIV has so far stayed far away from.

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Tony and his spoiled-brat friend Yusuf Amir dole out many of your missions. Tony's goals are to keep his head above water, stave off the various criminals he runs into trouble with, and keep his traction in the nightclub industry. The playboy Yusuf, meanwhile, is trying to prove to his father that he can make something of himself. The story in part follows the diamonds that got stolen in GTA IV - those jewels are the main element tying the three stories together - but if you look and listen closely, you'll see lots of indicators that you're living in the same world that Niko, Johnny, and their supporting casts inhabit. Maybe you'll run into some bikers in Burger Shot, or hear a commercial from Brucie on the radio.

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