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Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is now 16 years old.
This was the second expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV. Breaking the PlayStation streak, this came to Xbox 360 first on October 29, 2009. It then released on PlayStation 3 and Windows in 2010.
A Genuinely Unique Story From Rockstar
Matching Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony did not have any clear influences from movies or other media.
This Liberty City is part of Rockstar’s HD universe. As such, it is a reboot of the world seen in previous games.
Rockstar decided to rebuilt this parody/ode of New York to better fit the story they made for Niko Bellic. And so, this expansion also has a unique story that builds upon Bellic’s story.
You don’t actually play Anthony Prince, AKA Gay Tony, but his right hand man, Luis Fernando Lopez. Gay Tony successfully runs two nightclubs, but is on the hook for money with the Ancellotis and Mori Kibbutz.
Throughout the game, Luis has to help keep Gay Tony’s world together, by keeping company with Tony’s friends, making new alliances, and also protecting Tony from his own self destructive tendencies.
This expansion comes with all manner of offensive characters and situations. One of Luis’ contacts, Emirati real estate man Yusuf Amir, keeps using the n-word on him.
As you can imagine, there’s a scene where Gay Tony gets called every slur Rockstar thought they could get away with. But Dan Houser seems to have learned how to strike the odd balance to make his characters sympathetic.
Tony isn’t written to be some exceptional LGBTQ character, but also turns out to be likable in the end. Luis, who cracks jokes and knows his way around the ladies, turns out to be a more likable protagonist than Bellic himself.
The Real Appeal Of Gay Tony
If you’ve actually played this expansion, you know that the real appeal comes in the game’s crazy missions. Rockstar’s imagination goes wild with the crazy scenarios they came up with for players to experience.
That includes faking bombing a construction site, taking down an entire police force, a few shootouts with different crime families, etc.
One memorable mission involves threatening a Perez Hilton stand in who spread slander about Luis and Tony by throwing him off the plane and catching him before he hits the ground, to make him soil his pants.
Today Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is in limited availability. It is available on the Xbox Store thanks to Xbox’s Backwards Compatibility Program, but not on PlayStation Store for PlayStation 4 or 5. It should still be on the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3, but your best option is probably the PC version. But this version is only on Rockstar’s store, as part of Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition.
After Grand Theft Auto: Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, it’s unlikely that Rockstar will remaster or rerelease this any time soon. Which is certainly a shame, because it’s still a memorable experience in their oeuvre.
