Just In: 'The Balad Of Gay Tony' Coming To GTA IV
Put on your thievin' boots and get ready to ride shotgun in The Ballad of Gay Tony, boys! That's the title that Rockstar has just announced for the second episode of DLC content for Grand Theft Auto IV.
First the 'Over the Rainbow' achievement in Bully and now our very own gay-titled DLC episode? Have gay gamers managed to charm their way into Rockstar's heart, or is it the love of controversy that beats beneath Rockstar's ample bosom?
The sequel to "The Lost and Damned" is the tale of Tony "Gay Tony" Prince, a nightclub impresario whose nickname may or may not be based upon his actual sexual proclivities. Playing as Tony's bodyguard Luis Lopez, players will "struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price."
Rockstar's own Sam Houser explains it for us:
"Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we've created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way ... The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode's focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities."
The Ballad of Gay Tony will begin sometime this fall for $19.99 or 1600 MS points. Or, for those of you who might not have downloaded "The Lost and Damned," Rockstar is issuing an Xbox 360 exclusive: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City will bring the two episodes together on one disc that consts $39.99 and will not require a copy of the original GTA IV to play. That's a bonus to gamers who might not own GTA IV but still want to investigate Gay Tony's alleged gayness.
Is Gay Tony homosexual or just stuck with an ironic street name? Thoughts? Excitements? Concerns?
Read the full press release after the jump.
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony And Episodes From Liberty City Coming This Fall
Rockstar Games is proud to announce the fall release of both the second episode of Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony - exclusively for download on Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network, and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, which will include both episode one The Lost and Damned, and episode two The Ballad of Gay Tony together on a single disc exclusively for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
"Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we've created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode's focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities."
Grand Theft Auto IV's second downloadable episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka "Gay Tony"), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City delivers two games on one disc - the all-new episode The Ballad of Gay Tony and the first episode, The Lost and Damned - together on disc for the first time - for Xbox 360 for $39.99 and will not require a copy of the original Grand Theft Auto IV to play.
The Ballad of Gay Tony will release on Xbox LIVE this fall for $19.99 or 1600 MS points and requires players to have Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE membership to download.
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Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 26 May 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: dlc, gay tony, gta iv, rockstar, the ballad of gay tony, tony
What can I say?Rockstar amazes me over and over!GTA4 is always coming back to my ps3... And probably Tony is really gay.For those who like to know stuff about mobsters: Vito Arena, was a homosexual mob associate in the Gambino crime family. So it´s not impossible that Rockstar was a bit influenced by that. And they got enough balls to use that in a videogame.
Reads more like another bait for some outrage by the media.
Rockstar seems to be back to more controversial themes!
(See Bully (Gay Kiss), Coffee-Mod (GTA SA) (Hidden Sex), Manhunter 1+2 (Murder) etc.)
Rockstar could/should really pull it off, to create a story about a gay character, but I doubt that.
They could make "Luis Lopez" or "Gay Tony" a gay character like "Omar Little" (The Wire).
In the worst case scenario "Gay Tony" will end up like the gay gangster in "The Sopranos".
Correct me if I'm wrong. But aren't all GTA characters of any given race, a blatant stereotype of said race?
It'd be nice to see Gay Tony at least somewhat realistically portrayed, but what are the chances?
I'm rather pleased about this. Despite the fact that Niko's old army buddy in GTA 4 turned out to pander to quite a few stereotypes, but despite this, Niko's relationship with him if followed through turned out to be rather meaningful.
On Virtual NYC, I was a little weirded out that the city I'd gotten so used to wandering around in reality didn't have a very realistic depcition of Chelsea and the Village. Maybe the new characters "Gay Tony" and "Luis Lopez" give us a slice of the hard knock life from that bit of neighborhood? One thing's for sure, its New York City. If we're going to tell a realistic story about the craziness and diversity of the people there, there are PLENTY of gay men and women there. Its awesome that there's going to be regonition of that instead of having us disapeared with all the other minorities in "Friends".
I just hope that this time around they allow us to use whatever add-ons (like weapons) in the Niko game.
I mean, it's seriously retarded that they only added the improved motorcycle physics (and guns) to just that part of the game. probably why I didn't buy it. I'll buy this if Gay Tony is actually gay and doesnt turn out to be some screaming queen like Niko's army buddy.
Wasn't Gay Tony in Lost and Damned? He was the obvious stereotype buying the diamonds, if anyone remembers.
Gay Tony was briefly mentioned/chased in GTAIV if I recall, and was definitely in a The Lost and Damned cutscene, where you proceeded to kill his alleged boytoy (which also showed up in the online newspaper).
And the both of them were definitely a little flamboyant in that, and I'm guessing we'd be playing the straight guy who had enough of them idolizing the diamonds before The Lost showed up for the heist.
Well, I don't know how this is gonna play out but I'm glad they'll put both DLC on a DVD.
Ohter than that I'm not pissed off by the stereotypical gay in GTA4. If you stop and think for a second EVERY character fits a stereotype in that game. You can't take it too seriously, I know I'm not.
What´s the problem if the gay character is flamboyant? St8 people usually don´t like effeminate gay guys(they kind of tolerate the "gay macho"), so if you have a game that shows that the "pansies" are cool guys too (and not just the butch type) in my opinion it´s a win. When I first saw Niko´s army buddy, I was a bit worried, but there´s a mission where you have to kill gay bashers in a park... and what a nice way to put st8 homophobics doing that in a game!