With the release of this week’s second Grand Theft Auto IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, the game’s developer has decided to update the online multiplayer statistics tracking in order to reflect the new multiplayer game types. The addition of “BASE Jump” to the mulitplayer as well as “new, tighter Deathmatch arenas” helped spur the leaderboard overhaul, according to the developer blog. The various new additions being made due to the DLC will even get their own section on the Rockstar Social Club, presumably for the four of you tracking your new GTAIV DLC stats after Modern Warfare 2 releases in a couple weeks.
We’d thought the Grand Theft Auto franchise had taken us to lovingly rendered simulacra of every metropolitan city-type known to man, but apparently, we thought wrong. In the back of the GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City manual, a fake advertisement points to the series’ “Next Stop” (seen above). Of course, the destination being teased is quite obviously the lovely town of Clip Artington, Minnesota. Surely you’ve heard of Clip Artington! It’s renowned for its apple butter festivals.
On the off chance the teaser is pointing to a different city, we’ve … we’ve really got no idea. Looks like a desert, though, right? And a mountain? And some conical, obsidian monoliths? What? Trees? Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. We’d love to hear your speculation in a well-written, thought-provoking comment! There’s a place for those right after the jump, you know.
Rather than offer interesting social commentary or moody atmospheric tone, the just-released Ballad of Gay Tony teaser instead teaches us that Luis Lopez is not a joking around kinda guy. He takes shots, tosses dudes off buildings – he even goes to the driving range!
In case it weren’t already glaringly obvious to you, the second Grand Theft Auto IV expansion will be taking itself quite a bit less seriously than the first digital release. Thankfully, the wait is nearly over and we can find out for ourselves tomorrow just how much Rockstar Games has twisted its latest opus.
Grand Theft Auto has always been heavy on satire, making exaggerated observations about the world for the sake of a few cheap yuks. It’s readily apparent on the in-game radio programs, which poke fun at both extremes of political talk radio. The in-game TV programming does much the same (if you haven’t, we suggest you make time to watch “Republican Space Rangers“). It looks like The Ballad of Gay Tony will continue the tradition with “Princess Robot Bubblegum,” an anime parody to be featured on the in-game CNT channel. The show will serve as part of the new TV lineup in the upcoming expansion.
In Rockstar’s own words, “Princess Robot Bubblegum” features the hallmarks of more than a few animes: “Incomprehensible narrative, wretched dialogue and creepy, misogynistic sexuality.” See it all in the trailer above.
Rockstar revamps Social Club’s online leaderboards and stat tracking for Gay Tony originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
