Microsoft paid $50 million for the first 2 episodic contents to be exclusive to the Xbox 360. After paying that kind of money everyone thought that it would be an exclusive deal forever. A year later it turns out that it was a timed deal and being released on PS3 and PC after all. Was the DLC really worth $50 million or did Sony save themselves a fortune?

The Lost and Damned

In the Lost and Damned players enter a world of American Choppers and leather jackets, through the eyes of Johnny Klebitz. He is a part of a motorcycle gang called ‘The Lost MC’ and been a member for countless years. Unlike Niko Bellic (GTA IV protagonist) he knows the road off the back of his hand.

Johnny is old school he’s all about brotherhood, good old rock music and talks like he’s stuck in the 70’s or 80’s. Generally all the gangs’ nature is like this and most of the conversations in cutscenes are about brotherhood. It does get pretty old quickly and you might find yourself skipping a few cutscenes.

Apart from that you’ve got a bunch of varied missions to tackle with some new weapons you’ll have a blast with. The automatic pistol is quick, accurate and effective for almost any scenario. Others weapons include a sawn off shotgun which is irresistible to use, especially on your bike for drive bys.

In The Lost and Damned your phone will be used a lot, either for requesting a bike or dialing for backup. The handling of bikes has vastly improved, you can crash as many times as you like and guarantee Johnny’s butt will be glued to the seat.

Apart from the campaign there are other activities you can engage in, such as the biker gangs take on motorcycle races. Pressing a button during races allows you to clobber competitors around the head with a baseball bat.

There are also side missions to be completed such as gang wars, which are scattered around the map as explosion icons. There are 25 gang wars with The Angels of Death to complete.

Another side activity includes 10 motorcycle export missions to be completed at your leisure. By calling up your fellow gang member Angus, a mission can be activated and reward you with modest amount of cash.

Compared to the missions with Niko, the campaign in The Lost and Damned isn’t particularly interesting. It might be short but compared to other DLC offered out there this is more than you can chew.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

Say goodbye to the gritty side of Liberty City and hello to the fame and fortune of night clubs and not so glitz and glamour life of Tony Prince. Gay Tony likes to party like a Rockstar and is very easily persuaded down the path of drugs.

This might have been alright in the 80’s but these days the clubs don’t profit as much as they used to. His drug habits and inconsiderate use of money has put his clubs and life in danger.

He owes money to the mob and various other scums, which you have to work for. Players take control of Luis Lopez, a long time associate of Tony’s who has a father/son relationship with him and a stake in the clubs. When he’s not solving Tony’s problems, Luis tries to balance out time for his childhood friends Armando and Henrique.

Peer pressure in the past has led Luis to Jail and he doesn’t want history to repeat itself or find his friends dead dealing drugs. Hanging around with Tony his friends often make remarks of him being soft and gay. You can definitely sense a bit of jealousy between the friends especially when they talk of Luis’s success with Tony and him leaving the hood.

To prove he’s loyal to his friends you’ll carry out a few interesting mission, one of them being world war against the police. Later on there is optional side missions called drug wars, which involves you stealing a bag of drugs.

Rockstar does well to show Luis’s playboy/hired gun image through intimate cutscenes and booty calls with the ladies, especially on the dance floor. The night clubs are fantastically portrayed with the dancing mini games, champagne battles and club management side activity.

The Ballad of Gay Tony puts the fun factor back into the series with the introduction of parachutes again. Utilized in missions to escape and make dramatic entries into buildings.

Missions are manic with objectives from stealing a subway train to chasing a plane and diving out of it. That’s not even scratching the surface of what TBOGT has to offer. These missions are the best I’ve played in the series and feel epic when you have the option to replay them.

If you thought the weapons in The Lost and Damned weren’t enough wait until you get a load of this. The Ballad of Gay Tony offers you sticky bombs, new pistol, gold Uzi, P90, explosive shotgun, M249 saw and a DSR- 1 sniper rifle.

Episodes from Liberty City offers you more bang for your buck and sets an example of what downloadable content should be like. When you put GTA’s DLC in comparison to others, both TBOGT and TLAD put them to shame. It might have taken its time to reach the PC and PS3 but it’s worth every penny.

9/10