Anyone who enjoys Grand Theft Auto IV should get it.įrom a business perspective, 2009 may be shaping up as the year when downloads become a viable path to develop and release significant console games if so, “The Lost and Damned” will be leading the way. But there is no question that it is the most fully realized, thoroughly produced and substantial downloadable add-on yet released for a console game. “The Lost and Damned” suffers from a few curious and unfortunate design decisions players often have less freedom than in the original that will probably prompt most to return to the original game after completing the new episode’s main story. Like the original, the new episode conveys a humor, wit, intelligence and sense of cultural satire that, although sophomoric at times, at least never takes itself too seriously. While dystopian, this vision is not nihilistic. This week, Rockstar is releasing the first additional episode for the title as a $19.99 download available only for the Xbox 360 via Microsoft’s Xbox Live Internet service (it is not available at retail stores).Ĭalled “The Lost and Damned,” the new episode is set in the same dark, vibrant, often hilariously sarcastic version of the metropolitan New York area that provided the backdrop for, and was the most compelling element of, the original game. Grand Theft Auto IV and its tale of the Balkan immigrant Niko Bellic were a revelation last year. A scene from the new episode of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Gta iv lost and damned