Not so much a makeover, but a whole new story from a different perspective, with the main character Niko Bellic replaced by Johnny Klebitz, a member of The Lost biker gang featured in several missions from the main game. With new vehicles, new missions, and new multiplayer modes, is The Lost and the Damned worth downloading, or are some stories better left buried deep within this naked city?

Let's ask the toughest gang on the internet - the game critics.

Eurogamer
Although Rockstar may not be adding much to the footprint of Liberty City with The Lost and Damned - conjuring a fresh island out of the muddy rivers, or laying down a fine spray of new skyscrapers, flyovers, and dockyards - the company has been hard at work building stories; sculpting new characters, fabricating dense relationship networks of cause and effect, and plumbing in a buried system of deadly motives and smouldering resentment.

1UP
Don't assume that because your character is billed as being part of a biker gang that you're immediately a badass for hire. For the first-half of this expansion, you do ordinary errands: go here, deliver that, and steal this. Missions start to feel repetitive and lack innovation; an issue the series has struggled with throughout its history. Nine times out of ten they end in a familiar firefight or car chase. Johnny only comes into his own later in the story, but by then the eight-hour adventure has already started to draw to a close.

Computer and Video Games (CVG)
If you make sure your buddies survive a gunfight by assisting and saving their arses, they'll become better shots and generally less rubbish. You can also boost their abilities by initiating conversation during bike convoy sequences, which reward you for staying inside a Lost emblem projected on the road with a health boost and dialogue. The team dynamic is at its most useful when you start picking up the phone and calling your Lost brethren for assistance and backup. Getting on the blower to biker buddies Terry or Clay will have them deliver weapons, bikes or even assist you. Your Lost mates can and will save your arse on numerous occasions, which adds to the whole gang feel.

TeamXbox
GTA fans of course expect a great story and they get one. Or at least a really really good one. New weapons and vehicles are also a necessity of any downloadable expansion, and those are here too. But there are many other aspects of a GTA game that are thankfully included here to round out the experience. There are new songs and DJ chatter on the radio stations, new TV shows and websites to explore on the fake internet and new minigames to engage in like arm wrestling and air hockey. There is a ton of new content for you to enjoy and explore, and Rockstar isn't letting anyone down with The Lost & Damned.

TotalVideoGames
This is DLC for the initiated. There's plenty of content here to keep even the most skilled GTA gamer happy for a good number of hours. We can't see any players being disappointed in the DLC's value for money and even though the missions weren't quite as varied as we would liked them to have been, the ingeniously woven parallel storyline is more than enough to keep things interesting.

Kotaku
As a side story that's a third the length of IV's, The Lost and Damned's tale of violence and friendship simply isn't as epic or satisfying as the struggle of Niko Bellic. Despite that, The Lost and Damned gameplay experience is ultimately fulfilling, if only for the new weapons, new adventures and the peculiar attachment one begins to feel for the game's motorcycles, choppers you'll feel almost obligated to ride throughout. After all, what self-respecting member of the Lost would be caught dead in a Blista?

Sounds like a damned fine expansion.

LA Weekly's Nikkie FInke reports on her blog that a settlement prohibits Rockstar from making a movie based on Grand Theft Auto, which is the same name as a 1977 film whose rights are owned by Fox. The settlement also prohibits Fox from making any video game based on that movie. I've never seen it, but considering all the crappy adaptations done out there, obviously this settlement was more about protecting Fox's copyrights than Rockstar's.

Interestingly, the Grand Theft Auto film in question got an updated box right around the time the original GTA craze hit (above), and you can see the similarities in the typefaces. Not sure if this was part [or provocation] of the settlement or not.

All About the Grand Theft Auto Movie [Nikkie FInke's Deadline Hollywood Daily, via Shacknews]

“Some people on the team didn’t like the music/mobile phone idea for various reasons, but they went back and forth on the idea until the very end,” Rockstar spokesperson Darlan Monterisi explained in an e-mail on Tuesday. “This is VERY common. We do it in every game we make. We still prefer the balance of music in car and the ambient world’s noise on foot, but we are constantly reviewing this stuff.”

I wonder how much having a mini-stereo with you at all times would have changed the experience? It must have been something that the Rockstar folks thought would have had quite an impact to remove it. Why else would they cut the thing entirely instead of allowing gamers to go out and buy a phone with the feature in game?

Actually, I'm still surprised at the limit of phone tech in the game. I was expecting that the phone, because it plays such an important role in the game's interface, would come in a lot more flavors and that at least one of the was going to support video capture. Maybe next time.

GTA IV Cutting Room Floor [MTV Multiplayer]

UK newspaper The Sun is trying their best to drum up some British outrage over Grand Theft Auto IV's inclusion of a child pageant site on the game's faux internet.

In GTA IV a little exploration at the game's cyber cafe yields LacySurprisePageant.com, when you visit the site a message pops up that it has been shut down by the game's police and that your IP address has been "cataloged" for possible future investigation. A visit also instantly maxes out your wanted level.

When I first noticed this, while playing through the game, I had a pretty good laugh, but at least one South Wales man was offended. And you know what they say: One person pissed off equals a story in The Sun.

Jason Deschoolmeester, 23, of South Wales, said: “I was looking on the internet for cheats and the name of this caught my eye as my daughter is called Lacey. This crosses the line. The makers have obviously sat around and discussed putting this in, and it’s not on. What will they do next?

“It’s disgusting. It could lead people to indulge in things like that. It is totally sick. I won’t play it again.”

While The Sun does go out of its way to point out that the game doesn't allow you to act out the role of a pedophile, they never explain how a single complaint by a gamer morphed into a story with the headline: A HIT computer game has sparked outrage by featuring a spoof paedophile website.

A HIT computer game has sparked outrage by featuring a spoof paedophile website. [The Sun]

Normally the lack of instructions wouldn't bother me because I never read them, but the nuances of matchmaking and party formation can be a little confusing in GTA IV. Fortunately, Rockstar must have realized that they left something out in their instruction manual because they've recently published a PDF dedicated just to multiplayer gaming.

The guide is filled with interesting tips and info. For instance, they explain how Party Mode work, something that has been driving me crazy since the launch. Turns out that when playing team modes, the game tries to find a similarly sized party to match you up with. In competitive modes it just fills up the slots with people and gets you going.

There are also plenty of usefull tips in the guide, like using blip settings to tweak your difficulty setting, and how auto-aim is an "awesome feature" that is often misunderstood and absolutely doesn't level the playing field.

Hit the jump for the full guide.

Basics
• To access multiplayer in-game:
1) Press Up on the directional pad to access your mobile phone
2) Toggle to Multiplayer and press ( for PS3 or for Xbox 360) to accept
3) Choose from Player Match, Ranked, or Party Mode
4) Select from one of 14 multiplayer games and press ( for PS3 or for Xbox 360) to enter the multiplayer lobby
• The lobby is the meeting point for all players before starting a multiplayer game. Here you can see a list of who is playing and change your mode and character model options.
• To invite friends to multiplayer, you use your in-game mobile phone to look them up and then call them. (For Xbox 360 users, you can also select and invite friends via Xbox LIVE.)

Game Mode Descriptions
• Player Match – Results here do not count towards your GTA IV multiplayer ranking. There are separate leader boards for these modes. With Custom Matches, players can host matches where they can reserve spots for friends. Players can be invited into games in progress.
• Ranked – In ranked games, the more player cash a player wins, the higher their rank increases. After gaining a rank, the player unlocks more clothing options for their character. Players cannot invite friends into ranked games.
• Party Mode (2-8 players) - Players can invite their friends to a party mode by using the in-game mobile phone. (For Xbox 360 users, you can also select and invite friends via Xbox LIVE.) The players spawn in a “party area”. After the host, or “party leader”, selects a game mode, all players in the party will join that game mode. In team modes, the party will play against another party. In competitive modes, the game will be played as normal – but only players in the party will be involved, with other people allowed to join the mode until all slots have been taken.

Lobby Information
• The lobby system will only proceed if the host AND at least half of the players in the lobby are readied up. If you want to wait for more players stay un-readied in protest.
• Half of the lobby will need to manually boot a person in order to kick them from the game. In the lobby, you will be able to tell how many people have voted by the flashing icons next to their name. You can also choose to boot people in-game using the phonebook in your mobile phone.
• If you do not want any strangers to join your team then you and your friends should enter games via party mode. This mode restricts teams to only people that are in your party. Party mode will also only allow you to play with other parties of similar sizes.
• All players can invite their friends to join them. This can be done in the lobby or in the middle of games by using their mobile phone. The only exception to this is in Party Mode or in Xbox LIVE Ranked Matches.
• Custom match allows you to reserve private spots for your friends. You can also use this to ensure that you are the host of the match by selecting private slots to be > 0.

Settings
• Auto-aim is an awesome feature that is often misunderstood. It is intended to speed up the game by focusing aiming to a smaller area. It WILL NOT level the playing field. Turning this off will slow the pace of the game down and make melee combat, drive-bys, and sniper action more effective.
• If you are new to GTA multiplayer requesting that the location setting be restricted to the smaller areas (Prison, Docks, Charge Island, Colony Island, Airport, and Bohan) is the best way to go. The larger areas can be very overwhelming for new players.
• Blip settings are another great feature players can use to tailor their GTA online experience. Changing these from All to Leader, Near, or Far is almost like increasing the difficulty setting - we advise using a time limit over a point limit when using the latter two.
• We advise using the proximity voice chat setting to combat against players attempting to dominate the in-game chat with their loud family members, TVs, and music. If you need to talk trash to someone across the map with this on you can simply call them up on your in-game mobile phone.

Tips and Highlights
• All of the non-Cooperative game modes are money based. Only a team or a player can win. The one with the most money will always be the winner. In time limit games, the winner will be the one with the most money when the timer expires. In point limit games, the winner will be the one who reaches/surpasses the point limit first.
• There are 10 levels of achievement. Achievements allow you to unlock more options for clothing and characters.
• Taunts – players can press (L1 for PS3 or LB for Xbox 360) to perform a context sensitive taunt directed at the other players.
• You can talk to your friends on headsets during the modes. You can even have a one to one conversation with a friend by calling him/her through your in-game mobile phone.
• In Player Match mode, you can vote on what the next game will be using the in-game mobile phone.
• Players can set waypoints for other teammates in vehicles.
• A player’s gamertag will disappear whenever that player crouches or uses cover.

Rockstar Games just confirmed that they have released a patch for the Playstation 3 version of GTA IV which was causing issues with online play.

Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

Looks like Microsoft's prep work for the game mostly paid off.

My Dad has been visiting since late last month and his arrival happened to have coincided with the arrival of another important thing in my life (these days): Grand Theft Auto IV.

Dad was, at one time in his life, quite a gamer. He introduced me to the glory of Donkey Kong on the TRS-80 (or was it the CoCo), looking as delighted as I was when he first loaded the game up with a tape player and sat me down to play it on a bulky keyboard.

His was the first computer upon which I ever played a flight sim, some early military flight sim on an 8088, I think. We played countless games of Doom together, logged hours of strategy gaming, but as gaming become more complex and my interests in console gaming slowly evolved our gaming lives drifted apart.

He tried to stay by my side, or the side of my avatar. He bought an Xbox, we played plenty of Ghost Recon together, but the speed of the game and his slowing reflexes, the caustic nature of online gamesmanship and Live chat slowly wore him down until he retreated from the Xbox to, of all places, Second Life.

It's there that I still find him, almost nightly, when I call, or when I walk down the stairs to say good night these recent weeks.

But something changed when GTA arrived. Maybe it was all of the time he heard me talking about it, the interviews, working on the stories, the reviews. Maybe it was one last attempt by him to reach out to me, to find that old connection of games. But he was intrigued, so I sat him down in front of the television and booted up the Playstation 3. Handing him the controller, a controller he had never seen, let alone held, I walk from the room.

That first day passes quietly and quickly. Me upstairs working, him downstairs playing. He slowly works through the game's controls, quickly grasping the concepts, but not so quickly perfecting the movements.

After his first day in Grand Theft Auto IV his only comment is on the driving: It just doesn't feel right.

It's the thumbsticks, I tell him, he's not used to such small movements. He grunts his agreement.

The next day he watches me for hours as I play online, shooting and getting shot, in endless matches of GTA multiplayer.

It looks just like every other game I've ever seen, he says. How's it different.

It isn't, not really. It's like baseball, or maybe watching a rally race: The field, the track, the players change, but the same basic rules of the game never do. What happens within those rules between the beginning and the end of each match is what makes it worth doing.

His second day on the game is much longer, he plays it well into the night, the morning I suspect. He's starting to get it, I can see it in his pale hazel eyes, his red-rimmed pale hazel eyes. He's starting to like it.

I catch him the next day, after another marathon session, talking to my step-dad, who is also visiting the house with my mom. He's trying to explain to him what's so fun about the game, how it's different, but not really. Sure it's another game, but it has such detail, so many little things worth seeing.

My step-dad is intrigued too. His interest lasts about ten minutes before it turns to boredom, and he falls asleep next to my dad... who sits by my side as I zip through a handful of missions on the Xbox 360.

After another day of gaming my dad is asking me about consoles, specifically about the Playstation 3. How much is it? He wants to know. Which one should I get? He asks. Why a PS3, why not an Xbox 360? I ask. I had an Xbox, he says, I want to see what the Playstation is like this time around.

His addiction, now seems full blown. He laughs as he works his way through the missions, gets the jokes, likes the humor found in the dialog, the radio stations, the advertisements. I even catch him laughing at Weasel News, despite his affinity for the real world's Fox News.

I asked him this morning what he thought of the game, is it enjoyable? Enjoyable, he says, isn't the right word. It's interesting... challenging. I like the graphics, the animation is amazing, but the story is what keeps me playing. I just can't beat some of the missions and that gets frustrating.

He's still, he says, thinking of buying a Playstation 3 and if he does it will be just to play this game.

Grand Theft Auto IV has found an unexpected fan in my father, a man who once gave up on games because they felt as if they had left him behind. Despite it's roots in hardcore gaming, I've come to realize that GTA can be every bit as attractive to casual gamers, to the Second Life set as it is to those who live and breath 360 and PS3.

Now to work on getting dad back online.

What’s the name of the Age of Conan-themed porn made by the creators of World of Whorecraft?

Last night the New York Times let slip that Grand Theft Auto IV pulled in more than $500 million in its first week, selling an astounding 6 million copies globally, 3.6 million of them on the first day alone. This morning Take-Two confirmed the report, adding some well-deserved back-patting to the numbers.

To put it in perspective Halo 3, the previous record-holder, earned $300 million in the first week.

"We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player's experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two.

"Rockstar's goal is to make each new title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise even better than those that preceded it, and Grand Theft Auto IV is a smashing success on that score. Grand Theft Auto IV makes full use of the power of next generation technology, and offers players an experience unique in the interactive entertainment medium. This game sets a new standard in the industry, with critics hailing it as both an artistic and technological masterpiece," said Ben Feder, Take-Two's Chief Executive Officer.

The real question now is what this record breaking, Halo 3-smashing game will do to the EA/Take-Two talks.

Target knows, the ad says, that you're spending all of your time playing GTA, but don't forget Mother's Day. That's right: GTA and Mother's Day in the same sentence. Classy.

The Must Reads
Grand Theft Auto IV Review: Life, Liberty City And The Pursuit Of Happiness

Which Version Of GTA IV Should You Buy? We Compare The PS3 and 360 Versions

GTA IV Multiplayer Impressions: What You Should Play First, Last And For Forever

A Round Up of GTA IV Hyperbole




In The "Real" Liberty City, GTA IV Might Be Cathartic




The Problems
Rockstar Support: Fix for GTA IV Could Be Any Minute or in Days




Rockstar Support: No GTA Freeze Fix in Sight




GTA IV Multiplayer Down For Some PS3 Players




Our Interactive Game FAQ
Everything You Wanted To Know About GTA IV (So Stop Asking!)




Cheats/Easter Eggs
How To Visit The Beating Heart Of Liberty City

This time through I talked to a person who walked me through a much longer list of things I should check to make sure it wasn't effecting my gameplay:

Did my harddrive have enough space?
Do I have the latest firmware?
Is my screen saver turned off?
Is vibration turned off?
Are my video settings turned to 720?
Is Autosave off?

If none of those work, I was told, than I need to call back later to tech support to see if they've come up with a solution. The person I spoke with said they haven't heard a thing about a patch coming, but that the problem has been bumped up to their "second level" and a "fix" could arrive in a matter of minutes or three to four days. This elite team is "working around the clock" on a solution, I was told.

"It's like the cure for cancer, people have been working on that for 40 years," they said.

Unlike Rockstar's rapid response to the problems that plagued Bully for the Xbox 360, their reticence to address the issues arising with Grand Theft Auto IV leaves everyone wondering how many people it effects and how serious it is or isn't. Perhaps it's only a small, vocal portion of those who bought the game, perhaps it's much more, but without Rockstar's direct input we have no way of knowing.

[Thanks to JaKE Hoss for the image]

Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players have to drive drunk. Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.

I've contacted the organization to point this out to them and seek a comment, but have not heard back. I'll make sure to update this post if and when we do.

If you're interested in joining in on the conversation head on over to the link at noon.

Chat with me [Rocky Mountain News]

For them, the game was freezing up during the introductory cut-scene, something that neither I nor Mike experienced during our time with the game on both systems. To be clear, we have no idea how widespread the problem is, but it's certainly on Rockstar's radar and making the rounds both in our tips line and on forums.

Rockstar declined to comment on the issue officially, so I went to the phone and called up Rockstar Support to see what they had to say about the problem.

A very friendly, and obviously unhappy, fellow answered the phone who, after thanking me for not yelling at him and apologizing profusely for the problem, spilled quite a bit of beans on the issue:

The man told me that the problem is apparently only effecting the 60 GB version of the Playstation 3, but that it didn't matter than my particular console was a launch console (Yes, I told a little white lie and said my copy was locking up.) He said the problem is not across the board for the 60GB PS3s but rather only impacts some, so their tech folks are working around the clock to try and figure out what is causing the issue.

He did ask me to make sure that my harddrive wasn't full and that I had the latest firmware update, but confessed that that really isn't what's causing most of the problem. He also said that the Xbox 360 is having the "exact same problem," which has further stumped their tech folks.

I asked him if wiping the harddrive and reinstalling the PS3 version would help, as seen on the PS forums, he said I could try but that he hadn't heard of it helping a single person.

He ended the call by saying that they really have no idea when a fix will be coming because they can't figure out what is exactly causing the problem and then once more apologized.

"I feel terrible about this."

If only more support folks were as empathetic and genuinely concerned about the problems their customers are going through.

When Mike told me that he didn't like the SIXAXIS controls for the game, and wasn't even able to complete the tutorial, I chalked it up to some innate hatred of the PS3's motion controls on his part. In fact he did admit that he doesn't really like the PS3 games that use SIXAXIS motion sensing, but there are several that I quite like (Warhawk comes to mind), so I decided to give it a whirl.

After playing through GTA4 on the Xbox 360, I swapped seats with Mike and settled down to get to the bottom of his SIXAXIS hatred. A few minutes into the tutorial I figured out what the problem was. The special SIXAXIS controls for this particular game suck, they're absolutely abysmal.

I suppose with some time I could master using the bike, in fact it wasn't that hard, and maybe one day I would fly the helicopter, but that's not the point, the point is there's no benefit using the motion sensing in Grand Theft Auto IV.

The in-game tutorial for the controller, which is an annoyingly permanent option on your in-game cell phone, walks you through the four ways you use the special controller in the game. Here's the break down and my thoughts:

Reload Weapon: Instead of having to mess around with, you know, pushing a button, the SIXAXIS lets you snap the controller back toward you to reload. Very easy to do, but absolutely no benefit.

Motorcycle: This was by far my favorite of the lot, allowing you to steer your bike by tilting side to side. Unfortunately, it also allows you to lean forward on the bike or do a wheelie by tilting the controller forward or backward. It's unfortunate because if you're leaning forward as you play, or sitting back in the chair, it forces you to hold the controller oddly.

Power Boat: The steering works quite well and while this also lets you tilt the controller forward and backwards to adjust the trim, its not as problematic because doing so really doesn't have much of an impact on the controls.

Helicopter: Whooo-boy, this is what prevented Mike from wrapping up his tutorial training. It took me a good three or four tries to pass it as well. Not only do you have to worry about the pitch problem seen with the motorcycles and boats, but the helicopter is much touchier than the other two vehicles. I also seemed to notice a lag issue with the controls that had me overcompensating and, twice, turning my copter so far sideways it would slam into the ground. It was an exercise in frustration and made me want to throw the controller across the room in frustration. Fortunately, you don't have to fly using it.

Final Thoughts: I'm not sure why Rockstar decided to include SIXAXIS motion controls in GTA IV, maybe they had to, but I'm sure happy they don't force you to use them. Not only can you override the motion controls at any time with the sticks and buttons, but you can turn them completely off preventing it from really flawing this fantastic title. Now if I could only remove the SIXAXIS tutorial option in the menu I might be able to stop fiddling.

Check here for a detailed comparison of the 360 versus PS3 versions of the game.

Ed's note: While the SIXAXIS does include the ability to use aftertouch, that function was not included in the tutorial written about above.

Our GTA IV review is going live tomorrow morning, 9 AM Pacific/12 PM Eastern in the easy-to-read Kotaku style. After that, expect a handy platform comparison, in which we talk about how GTA IV performs on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Yes, I've played both quite a bit, so I hope you'll find my nitpicking informative. See you tomorrow!

Our coverage is live:
Grand Theft Auto IV Review: Life, Liberty City And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Which Version Of GTA IV Should You Buy? We Compare The PS3 and 360 Versions
SIXAXIS Brings Nothing to GTA IV (But Frustration And Burning Helicopter Chassis)