Rockstar announced today that the second downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV - “The Ballad of Gay Tony” - will release worldwide on the Xbox 360 on 29th October.

The downloadable content will sell for 1600 Microsoft points, which is around £13. If you don’t want to download it, or you haven’t played the previous episode “The Lost and Damned“, Rockstar is releasing both episodes on a disc packaged as Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City.

As I mentioned previously the DLC will concentrate on the “glitzy high-end night life” of Liberty City. That doesn’t mean you’ll be the dancing the night away as you will be doing all the dirty work for Tony “Gay Tony” Prince.

I STILL haven’t played “The Lost and Damned“, but let me tell you a short story surrounding that. I recently bought 2100 Microsoft Points so I could buy Fallout 3’s “Broken Steel“. After buying that I went to look at how much I had left so I could possibly buy “The Lost and Damned“, since I already had some from a previous purchase. I had 1550 points, and the content was 1600, which was highly annoying. It seems that Microsoft structures the point system in a way in which you have to buy another big chunk just so you can get 50 extra points.

I wish they would just use real money like PSN, but of course that would mean that Microsoft couldn’t easily overcharge us.

(Image source: Kotaku)

Related posts:

• GTA: IV’s Next DLC - The Ballad of Gay Tony

Forget about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars being exclusive to the Nintendo DS because Rockstar have now confirmed that they’re porting it to the PSP in time for autumn.

The PSP will reportedly take advantage of the PSP’s more powerful hardware, meaning a graphical update and new story missions. Rockstar will also offer a downloadable version for the PSP Go!, alongside the regular UMD release.

“Rockstar’s work with the GTA series has been an enormous part of the success of PlayStation platforms,” said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We’re excited to welcome the critically acclaimed Chinatown Wars to the outstanding line-up of great games headed to the PSP platform this fall”- Kotaku

I think Chinatown Wars is an amazing game, and it’s probably the best game available on the DS, but maybe the DS wasn’t the right platform when it comes to mature games as the sales seem to reflect that. These poor sales have obviously prompted Rockstar to look to other platforms to make a profit, or maybe they were planning this all along - who knows? Whatever the case it’s good news for those that only have a PSP, but I’m curious about whether or not the touch screen mini-games will lose their appeal with you obviously not being able to use a touch screen.

Shouldn’t every post begin with an ass shot? No? Just me then I guess.

Here are a few new screenshots (click to see them at full size) of the upcoming first-person shooter/RPG Borderlands fresh out of E3. You may remember that the art style for the game took a drastic change in direction since the initial reveal, with many saying that the game was now ‘cel-shaded’. Gearbox president Randy Pitchford was quick to deny this in saying “No, Borderlands is not cel-shaded — it’s a gritty and serious world after all,” (Source). While he may be technically correct in saying that Borderlands isn’t cel-shaded it has far more in common with Crackdown then, say, Fallout 3.

To be honest I’m loving the new art style, just as I loved the art style in Crackdown. The new screenshots look like something I would see if I opened a well-drawn comic book, until I remember that these screenshots will actually translate to motion. Hopefully we will see some gameplay video pretty soon.

Head on over to Kotaku if you want to read some hands-on impressions of the game. Apparently it’s a cross between the shooting elements of Fallout 3 and “Diablo-esque looting and weapon generation” with four player co-op thrown in.

Borderlands is coming to PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and has planned release date of later this year.

UPDATE: Gearbox has told Shacknews that they’re planning an October release date.

In case you haven’t guessed from the title of this post (and the video lying above this) Rockstar have released the first official trailer of GTA: Chinatown Wars. Unfortunately there are only a few glimpses of actual gameplay, but what we can see still looks pretty interesting. The main thing is not to blink.

So, from what we can gather from the trailer (being that it pretty much tells you in the trailer), you will play as Huang Lee. Lee is out to avenge his father’s death and restore his family’s honour, which means that Rockstar just stepped even further into the realm of cliché storytelling.

Whatever the case GTA: Chiantown Wars is looking like a must buy for the DS; a handheld that has a distinct lack of anything remotely violent and adult rated. Oh, and there’s always the fact that Rockstar may cause the usual controversy by allowing the player to deal drugs.

Sounds like a great game to me!

The downside to being a videogame blogger is that you have to play as many games as you possibly can if you want to keep on top of your niche. Now, you may be wondering why I’m complaining about being able to play so many games, but bear with me here. The problem is that you can’t really spend as long as you would want to on a single game, and sometimes this means that you can’t fully appreciate just what that game has to offer. There’s just not enough time in the day, and as much as I’d like to I can’t spend all my time playing video games. Sure, you can spread the love equally between games but every once in a while a game comes along that you just have to dedicate all your spare time too, even if it means falling behind on the stacks of other games that have recently been released. Do I care? Not a bit, as Fallout 3 is totally worth spending all my time with.

This post was partly inspired by an entry over at Girls & Gaming. Elysium wrote a love letter to Fallout 3 - which finally made me break down and go out and buy the game - but I’m going to go one step further and slip a ring on to the meaty finger of Fallout 3. Now ‘meaty’ may seem like a strange word to use when describing a loved one, but Fallout 3 has so much to offer that I can’t honestly think of another word that could apply to it. Fallout 3 has so much to give, and puts so much passion into its splendid offerings, that I’m going to be terribly upset when it all comes to an end. Right now I will not allow my mind to dwell on such a prospect as I seemed to have barely scratched the surface of what is possible in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Washington D.C. When you first escape from Vault 101 - and after your eyes have adjusted to the sudden glare on irises that have been subjected to years of artificial lighting- you may wonder how such a devastated and morbid landscape can offer much in the way of excitement. You’d be wrong; however, as such a devastated landscape has never before placed such opportunity into the player’s hands.

From the moment you step of Vault 101 you are presented with a choice. There is nothing forcing you to follow the main storyline right there and then, but the burden of sudden choice on the player made me do as I was told and head to the nearby settlement of Megaton. Don’t like the sound of that? Well, do what you want and ignore the main storyline altogether for the moment. The world of Fallout 3 is an absolute delight to explore, with every nook and cranny holding something of interest or an insight into what the world was like before the bombs dropped.  Posters are strewn across half-collapsed walls, advertising underground vaults to protect against the threat of nuclear war. Checking in the mail box of what used to be someone’s home may present you with a letter from Vault-Tec saying that the householders application to join one of the vault’s has been rejected. It is only when you look in a nearby bathtub that you discover what really happened to the occupants. Computer terminals may have a diary from someone who is desperately holding out against a mob of fire breathing ants, while another will tell of upcoming museum exhibitions that were never held, and never will be. All this paints a very vivid picture of the background to the Fallout 3 universe, and the society that the player will never see but will have nevertheless partly experienced. Of course, it may look it but this bleak landscape isn’t entirely dead and it is the Capital Wasteland’s occupants that really bring the world to life. Whether they be hopeless wastelanders, psycho raiders, gigantic super mutants or ghastly ghouls; there’s still plenty of life remaining in what was once the beating heart of US democracy, even if it isn’t all friendly.

So, what do you do? Do you go to Megaton and try to disarm the bomb sitting in the middle of the settlement? Or do you activate the bomb instead and watch the settlement wink out of existence? Do you ignore the settlement altogether and visit an old hotel where people are trying to live in luxury, their only complaint about the outside ghouls whose only threat is their unfortunate zombie-like appearance? (This quest reminds me a bit of the plot to Land of the Dead) Or do you help out a town that is being plagued by daily attacks of a gang that act like vampires? I do not wish to spoil the game for you, but this is just a slice of what you can expect from Fallout 3. What you do is entirely up to you, but make it last as long as possible. Once you finish the game you will only begin to miss what is one of the most detailed, varied - and certainly excellent value for money - video games ever created.

Oh, plus there’s always V.A.T.S; and you don’t want to miss the ability to blow every limb off an enemy with the push of a single button. Let’s not also forget that once you’re done with hours of your life being taken up by Fallout 3’s post-apocalyptic wasteland you’ll be pulled right back in with the advent of the game’s DLC.

If you call yourself a gamer then you cannot afford to miss this. While you go and put down the cash I will be continuing to carry Fallout 3 over the threshold of the new home in my heart.