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So, the long awaited expansion for GTA IV, Lost and the Damned is out. Being the owner of a PS3 I'll probably never get a chance to play this, , and was wondering if any of my esteemed compatriots here have any experience with it.

I've opened the thread to spoilers, please feel free to discuss at length, as I will be entertained by this expansion either way.

TheMuffinKing wrote:So, the long awaited expansion for GTA IV, Lost and the Damned is out. Being the owner of a PS3 I'll probably never get a chance to play this, , and was wondering if any of my esteemed compatriots here have any experience with it.

I've opened the thread to spoilers, please feel free to discuss at length, as I will be entertained by this expansion either way.

As far as I know, it has full frontal male nudity and controversy abounds.

I've played only a very little bit of it, but it feels more interesting than GTA IV by virtue of having your main character not being a whiner. Well, not as much of a whiner.

That said - the combat mechanics are still shit for any indoor missions which is why I stopped playing after rage-quitting it last week.

I'm having a good time with it so far, on the Prison Bus stealing mission at the moment.

Not as engrossed as with GTAIV vanilla, but that's mostly because it's all much of a muchness, story is still interesting though.

weemadando wrote: That said - the combat mechanics are still shit for any indoor missions which is why I stopped playing after rage-quitting it last week.

What the hell is wrong with Rockstar and their terminal incompetence at coming up with a decent control scheme?

Enigma wrote:

TheMuffinKing wrote:So, the long awaited expansion for GTA IV, Lost and the Damned is out. Being the owner of a PS3 I'll probably never get a chance to play this, , and was wondering if any of my esteemed compatriots here have any experience with it.

I've opened the thread to spoilers, please feel free to discuss at length, as I will be entertained by this expansion either way.

As far as I know, it has full frontal male nudity and controversy abounds.

How do you think Stubbs got his name?

As for the game, I think that the new weapons and features are a major improvement on the vanilla game. The sawed-off shotgun is a killer during bike races, the automatic pistol gives you another automatic for your inventory, and the grenade launcher is a good choice for flushing people out of cover (though not much else, due to the fuse length). I haven't gotten a chance to use the auto-shotgun yet, but they did reskin the old automatic shotgun to what I believe is a Benelli M4 Super 90, giving it a much more stripped-down look.

The bike races are fun, but I constantly end up outstripping my opponents and never getting a chance to bat them in the face. Still, it's always fun watching someone tumble down the road after taking a bat to the face.

And Johnny is definately a much better protagonist than Niko. He spends less time complaining and more time growling sarcastically and screaming obscenities as he shoots people.

The multiplayer modes are pretty fun, though it's idiotic that you can only access the new modes in TLAD. Chopper vs. Chopper always seems very one-sided in favor of the Annihilator pilot unless the pilot is the worst in the world, especially with the new explosive cannons. At least they make the Annihilator useful, instead of a light show. Lone Wolf is a nice twist, but I don't like the Club Business mode. While the convoy concept ensures that the better team players will get better scores, having only one team removes any competitive element, and having to keep returning to the club hideout after each job is fucking annoying, especially when you don't get the next job until that idiot in Algonquin stops doing doughnuts on the highway and crashing and gets his ass back to the gang.

Peptuck wrote:What the hell is wrong with Rockstar and their terminal incompetence at coming up with a decent control scheme?

I don't really have a problem with the GTA control scheme. I can move, maintain SA and headshot fools just fine. I prefer the SR2 layout though.

Stark wrote:

Peptuck wrote:What the hell is wrong with Rockstar and their terminal incompetence at coming up with a decent control scheme?

I don't really have a problem with the GTA control scheme. I can move, maintain SA and headshot fools just fine. I prefer the SR2 layout though.

I really only have a problem with it in the really confined spaces - where it decides that instead of attaching to the wall that you are standing right against, you want to sprint across the open space with the SWAT guys ready to light you up and attach to the wall on the other side of the hall.

And that's without mentioning the persistant auto-targeting issues (alleviated by turning it off) where you try to lock onto the guy in the open in front of you, but noooo, the game wants to lock on to the guy behind cover off to your right.

Maybe you jsut suck at the game ando, I never noticed any of the problems you describe.

I have to admit I never have that problem, Ando, are you point your control stick away from the wall or something?

Zac Naloen wrote:I have to admit I never have that problem, Ando, are you point your control stick away from the wall or something?

No, I think it's just that I suck at those particular sequences and try and be TOO smart. After all, I learnt in GTA4 that the best way out of any firefight is to just mash A and run like a motherfucker through the ambush.

Personally I get myself into cover and head shot everybody...

I can do that and not get shot once. I went into the cop ambush mission with practically zero health and came out unscathed last night.

I just suck at the driving missions. Me in bus vs police = fail

If you don't want to mess up the auto-targeting, you can just hold the trigger/shoulder button lightly. I've started doing it anyway and I have to force myself to squeeze the trigger to auto-target. It also leads to fewer problems when someone comes up behind your cover and starts shooting and you need to turn and fire, but doesn't sacrifice the advantages of auto-targeting (oftentimes if I want to scan an area for enemies, I'll use auto-target to lock onto an enemy I never saw, or quickly move my aim to pull a snap-shot on a fleeing target without having to actually aim).

Definitely worth the $20, though I wish the new weapons had been added to the regular game.

Flagg wrote:Definitely worth the $20, though I wish the new weapons had been added to the regular game.

Yeah, if they'd rolled all this stuff into the main game it would have been cool.

That said - I love the sawn-off. Rolling up next to the rival gang (especially when they're in a car) and then poking the sawn-off in the window and lighting them up? That's fucking awesome.

Auto-pistol is fun, but it's no DEagle. Combat shotgun = ASSRAEP. Pipe-bomb = relabelled grenade (why couldn't it be control detonated?). Grenade Launcher = goddamn brilliant fun.

weemadando wrote:No, I think it's just that I suck at those particular sequences and try and be TOO smart. After all, I learnt in GTA4 that the best way out of any firefight is to just mash A and run like a motherfucker through the ambush.

Oh jesus. 'I can't shoot for shit so the game is a buttonmash fest'? Yeah, you're so smart you broke the game!

Stark wrote:

weemadando wrote:No, I think it's just that I suck at those particular sequences and try and be TOO smart. After all, I learnt in GTA4 that the best way out of any firefight is to just mash A and run like a motherfucker through the ambush.

Oh jesus. 'I can't shoot for shit so the game is a buttonmash fest'? Yeah, you're so smart you broke the game!

I must have tried that shoot-out in the abandoned hospital a dozen times and failed every time due to fucking up my aiming/cover somehow - this included multiple approaches and multiple ways of going through it. Then I just went: "fuck it" and sprinted straight through the SWAT ambush, out the door, past the police picket and to the nearest car and didn't even lose half my armour. It's a tactic I used to great effect throughout the rest of the game when I ran into other bullshit.

That said in the U/C cop mission in L&D I finally got it down and blasted my way out with no issues at all. It's funny how it all works out when you come back after a few days...

I want to get this game. I'm curious to see the geek interpretation of the 1%er culture they are using.

weemadando wrote: I must have tried that shoot-out in the abandoned hospital a dozen times and failed every time due to fucking up my aiming/cover somehow - this included multiple approaches and multiple ways of going through it. Then I just went: "fuck it" and sprinted straight through the SWAT ambush, out the door, past the police picket and to the nearest car and didn't even lose half my armour. It's a tactic I used to great effect throughout the rest of the game when I ran into other bullshit.

That said in the U/C cop mission in L&D I finally got it down and blasted my way out with no issues at all. It's funny how it all works out when you come back after a few days...

The game having laughably low lethality is pretty funny; outside of about 10m nobody can hurt you fast enough to do jack shit unless you stand still or are unlucky. The combat is just so easy I enjoyed headshotting everyone with pistols while totally immune to attack in cover.

Hey Hav didn't they put a 'try to overtake truck in rain by railroad tracks' level?

Stark wrote:Hey Hav didn't they put a 'try to overtake truck in rain by railroad tracks' level?

Sig'd...

I've finally gotten round to getting GTA IV, I love most of it, and I've also completed most of the story missions for Vice City Stories. The best idea of semi-sequels to either buy or download is an updated Vice City (that is in a greatly expanded map that includes the spoof version of Florida and the Caribbean), southeast England (which encapsulates London, Essex, a big chunk of English countryside, and the Channel coastline), and southeastern coast of Australia (which could continue the running gag of the Australian-American War and have an offbeat soundtrack that may include Mental As Anything's "Live it Up").

The Holy Grand Theft Auto Grail for me is the map size and terrain variety comparable to what was seen in San Andreas and a consistant pop soundtrack that is in vein of Vice City's dynamic music selection, only shifted more towards the 1990s and early 00s.

We've had the discussion on the best setting for a new GTA before (use the search because I'm lazy). I'd just prefer to see them continue to release content that fills out Libery City more and more and more. Each time adding new characters, expanding existing ones and opening up more and more buildings.

Sorry guys, 360 games get 1 DLC release. Only Ace Combat and Burnout buck this trend.

Stark wrote:Sorry guys, 360 games get 1 DLC release. Only Ace Combat and Burnout buck this trend.

Except Rockstar has a 2 pack exclusive DLC deal with MS. So there's at least 1 more coming.

Oh wow, TWO WHOLE DLC PACKS.

DLC support on 360 is so damn good! Ironically by the time that comes out Burnout will have probably seen all the currently announced stuff and several free patches, and then they'll just make GTA4.5 DETROIT LOL.