Kotaku: the ballad of gay tony

Princess Robot Bubblegum Saves Humanity - By Sleeping With It

Mike Fahey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:40:00 MDT

Liberty City finally gets some decent anime in Princess Robot Bubblegum. Only an hyper-sexualized nerd fantasy can save humanity - by sleeping with it.

Princess Robot Bubblegum is part of the new television lineup coming in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, the standalone compilation of The Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost and Damned downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. Princess Robot Bubblegum is my new hero. She fires rockets out of her chest, and mutters mistranslated nonsense, and...sleeps with plants?

Why do I get the odd feeling that I am writing one of Ashcraft's posts?

Five New Screens to Get You Ready for Gay Tony

Owen Good — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:40:00 MDT

We're three days and and five new screens closer to the release of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and, more specifically, The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Rockstar put out these five, foreshadowing what you can expect in the expansion. Luis scaling the Rotterdam Tower; flashing the Advanced MG machine gun, the titular Tony Prince and rival boss Yusuf Amir, and some shady deals going down under the overpass.

New Screenshots from The Ballad of Gay Tony [Rockstar]

Get Sprunked With The Ballad Of Gay Tony's Xtreme(!) Base Jumping Mode

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:40:09 MDT

I'm not normally one for the more xtreme pursuits, like base jumping from skyscrapers or drinking lemon-lime flavored soda, but there's something about the prospect of parachuting into a convertible while avoiding bazooka fire that appeals to me.

And while I haven't played Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer mode for months—not since The Lost and Damned, really—I'm fairly certain I'll be playing Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, just to see how good I am at such a thing.

Here, Have Some Ballad of Gay Tony Screens

AJ Glasser — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:30:00 MDT

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony hits Xbox Live and store shelves (along with Lost and Damned) October 29, 2009. Let's look at some screens.

Meet Your GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Achievements

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:20:00 MDT

Rockstar Games' second downloadable expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV hits in just a few weeks. The Xbox 360 Achievements for The Ballad of Gay Tony, however, hit today.

A total of 250 new Gamerscore points can be yours upon the release of Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City or the downloadable episode, which follows the adventures of Luis Lopez, the man employed by the eponymous Gay Tony. If that's all you care to know about the expansion, tread carefully. The full list of Achievements is potentially spoiler-filled.

(Thanks to Philip for the heads up!)

Gone Down - 5
Complete all base jumps.

Diamonds Forever - 5
Complete the Trinity.

Four Play - 10
Hit a flag with a golf ball four times.

Bear Fight - 15
Win the L.C. Cage Fighters championship.

Catch the Bus - 15
Dance perfectly in both Tony's nightclubs.

Snow Queen - 20
Complete 25 drug wars.

Adrenaline Junkie - 25
Freefall for the longest possible time.

Maestro - 30
Finish the Ballad.

Past the Velvet Rope - 45
Score 80% or above in all missions.

Gold Star - 80
Score 100% in all missions.

Episodes From Liberty City: Meet Armando, Enrique, And Brian

Mike Fahey — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:20:00 MDT

Rockstar's latest clip for GTA: Episodes from Liberty City acquaints us with The Ballad of Gay Tony's dynamic duo, Armando and Henrique, with a shot of The Lost and Damned's Brian on the side.

While Armando and Henrique seem like a couple of nice guys, they aren't the type of folks I'd run into in the social circles I travel in. Brian, on the other hand...well let's just say I wouldn't be surprised to walk into my living room and find Brian or a reasonable facsimile thereof sacked out on my couch.

Introducing Mr. Yusuf Amir of Liberty City

Owen Good — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:00:00 MDT

Meet Yusuf Amir, who's a ~~successful businessman~~ gangster and rival of Gay Tony. Yusuf enjoys dancing in his tightie-whities, but that's not why this is NSFW. Huge F-bomb about 10 seconds in; it might rupture your chaste workplace speakers.

Rockstar's news release accompanying this video describes Amir as "The affable, cutthroat real estate and construction kingpin of Liberty City. Yusuf's vast wealth fuels his over-the-top lifestyle and desire for women and expensive toys, two of the Arab-born's unquenchable vices."

Powerful New Weapons Plague Liberty City

Mike Fahey — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:00:00 MDT

Sticky bombs, advanced sniper rifles, automatic shotguns, exploding bullets, and a rocket-equipped military grade helicopter known only as "The Buzzard", all in this special news report from Liberty City's Weazel News.

These new weapons are coming to Grant Theft Auto IV by way of the Ballad of Gay Tony and the Episodes from Liberty City standalone DLC compilation. I don't know about you, but there is something amazingly compelling about walking the streets of Liberty City equipped with sticky bombs.

GTA: Episodes From Liberty City Box Looks Like This

Mike Fahey — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00:00 MDT

Here's the final box art for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, the stand-alone versions of Grand Theft Auto IV's first and second doses of downloadable content.

Rockstar sure has been busy this weekend, releasing a set of screenshots for The Ballad of Gay Tony, announcing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Beaterator for the iPhone, and now we get our first look at the box art for Episodes from Liberty City. You'd think they'd just take the rest of the week off, but no - tomorrow they release the trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony. Then they take a richly-deserved nap.

Fansites Get the First Gay Tony Screens, and They're Fabulous

Owen Good — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:00:00 MDT

I don't see much differentiation in these four screens versus the rest of Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA4Net got these, and IGN says fansites were given them first. Looks like you'll have a gay old time blowing up lotsa crap.

First Gay Tony Screenshots [GTA4.net]

Rockstar, Obama Put Latinos Front And Center

Stephen Totilo — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:20:25 MDT

While it's unlikely that the White House coordinated with the makers of Grand Theft Auto, the two parties managed to make May 26, 2009 a significant date for Latinos.

Today saw the announcement not just of the first Latino protagonist of a Grand Theft Auto adventure but the nomination by President Barack Obama of the woman who could be the first Latino Supreme Court Justice.

The newly-announced Ballad of Gay Tony, coming this fall, will star Luis Lopez. His presence as the episode's lead will further the diversification of the series' string of white and black protagonists that most recently saw the inclusion of its first Asian lead, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars' Huang Lee. (Full list here.) Lopez is believed to be of Dominican descent.

Obama's nomination of judge Sonia Sotomayor for the United States' highest court, also announced today, would, if confirmed by the Senate, give America its third female supreme court justice in its history and the first of Hispanic descent. Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican heritage by way of New York City.

We're not saying whether anybody should or shouldn't play their games or think about their Supreme Court Justices with regard to what ethnicity those people are.

But the parallel milestone announcements, coming in the same day, can't be ignored.

GTA IV Fabulously Expands With The Ballad of Gay Tony

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:20:19 MDT

Your Liberty City adventures will continue this Fall on the Xbox 360, as Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony as the game's second downloadable episode.

In contrast to Grand Theft Auto IV's seedy biker gang expansion The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony is said to focus on the glitzy "high-end night life" of Liberty City. The second Xbox 360 exclusive episode will put players in the role of Luis Lopez, confirming previous rumors, as his part-time hoodlum duties are supplemented by full-time work for nightclub impresario Tony "Gay Tony" Prince.

According to the official announcement, "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: The Ballad of Gay Tony is slated to release on Xbox Live this Fall for $19.99 USD or 1600 Microsoft Points.