Rockstar games has announced the next downloadable story for Grand Theft Auto IV. "The Ballad of Gay Tony" is for the Xbox 360 and will be released this fall for $19.99.

According to Rockstar, "The Ballad of Gay Tony" lays on the "glitz, guns and grime," as players will take on the role of  Luis Lopez, hoodlum assistant to nightclub owner "Gay" Tony Prince. Plotwise, gamers will "struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price." Okay, that doesn't say much of anything about the plot, but I'm still sold. Rockstar secures their place in the pantheon of awesomeness with their decision to put "Gay" right in the title of DLC that is ostensibly geared toward "hardcore" gamers. Way to keep shaking things up, Rockstar!

That's not the only Rockstar news though: The company is releasing both pieces of DLC in fully independent disc form for the 360.  Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City will contain "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" on one disc that does not require Grand Theft Auto IV to play.

"The Ballad of Gay Tony" will release on Xbox LIVE this fall for $19.99 or 1600 MS points.

Rockstar Games' Twitter page has teased information on the second set of downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. The tweet stated:

It's cool to see Rockstar using modern social-media tools to promote its goods, though it's hardly surprising, as it has always been one of the most forward-thinking companies in the business.

Are you anxious for more GTAIV DLC? What do you think of Rockstar's use of Twitter? A lot of you were coming down on the service yesterday, but don't you think it's interesting that companies are using it as a tool to connect with fans?

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I can't be alone on this one. 44 mission into Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and I can't break old habits from dozens of hours with Grand Theft Auto IV. In GTA IV, players made Niko run by annoyingly tapping the X or A button, depending on your console. You don't have to do that in Chinatown Wars…but I do.

In Chinatown Wars, Rockstar Games wisely ditched the tapping requirement and only asks players to hold down the B button to run. If you run for more than a few seconds, however, your character runs out of breath -- but you can keep him sprinting by tapping B. Reasonable compromise, right?

Except Rockstar has already trained Grand Theft Auto players the other way around. My muscle memory keeps me tapping B like a maniac, even though my brain keeps shouting "you don't have to do that, idiot!" Hours later, my thumb's throbbing with pain and it's time for a break.

Like I said, though…44 missions in and I haven't broken the habit yet. Am I alone?

When it comes to the Grand Theft Auto franchise, success has never been an issue. The games fly off shelves and, basically, print money for Rockstar and Take Two. Just to toss a rough estimate your way for the sake of argument, 2008’s GTA IV has currently sold over 13 million copies. Given that GTA IV brought in around $500 million in its first week of sales (off around six million units sold), the fact that the game has now topped 13 million units sold, that means this single game has generated over a billion dollars in sales. However, not everyone is quite so doe eyed when it comes to the gaming juggernaut. 

CNBC has an article running now that takes a look at GTA’s “slowing” success and attempts to figure out what might be causing it. The article sets its sights on the rather disappointing sales numbers of the GTA IV DLC The Lost and Damned and GTA: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. No official numbers have been released for L&D, but CNBC claims that experts have predicted the number sits close to the million-unit mark.

CNBC rightly points out that this should be seen as a bit of a disappointment, especially given that Call of Duty 4’s Variety Map pack topped a million units sold in just over a week. Of course, with more downloadable episodes on the way for GTA IV on the Xbox 360, there’s no telling what kind of revenues the game will generate down the line.

The father of a 12-year old boy purchased used copies of two Grand Theft Auto games for his son from a Gamestation shop. He was shocked to find ecstasy tablets in the manual. According to Telegraph UK:

Richard Thornhill, the father, was outraged:

It's certainly terrible that this happened and Gamestation should be chastised. However, a lot of people are going to miss a very obvious point. While Thornhill is justifiably angry with Gamestation, the fact remains that he purchased two Grand Theft Auto games for his 12-year old son. That's just bad parenting.

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It seems that biker gangs still have their appeal in this day and age, because GTA IV's first piece of downloadable content, The Lost and Damned, has already raked in $18 million in online sales. Interestingly enough, retail stores are selling codes to download the episodic content. According to Jesse Divich at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, the in-store sales for the TLatD in February are expected to be less than $3 million.

This is a 6-to-1 ratio between online purchases and retail sales which Divinich expects to increase moving forward.

Is digital distribution the delivery method of the future? Will we get entire games this way? As long as it gets me that sawed off shotgun, I'm in.

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Microsoft is incredibly happy with itself for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion The Lost and Damned. On its press site, the company proclaimed:

While I'm sure The Lost and Damned will continue to sell like flame-broiled Whoppers (I'm convinced that hotcakes no longer sell) and the review scores are commendable, Microsoft's celebration is a little misleading. Obviously, the expansion was going to shatter revenue records -- it's more expensive than most other content on Xbox Live (1,600 MS points). Given the popularity of GTAIV and the expensive price, it was easy to predict The Lost and Damn's financial success.

Out of curiosity, have any of you downloaded the expansion? What do you think so far?

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Long Island Business News has posted a feature on Perspective Studios. While the name might not sound familiar to you, there's an excellent chance that you've seen Perspective's work. This is the company Rockstar Games used for motion capture in Grand Theft Auto IV. According to the LIBN, Perspective has an "exclusive contract with Rockstar Games." In addition to work on GTA IV, the company has worked on Manhunt 2, Uncharted and more.

With all the fornicating and prostitute beating that's possible in GTAIV, I'm sure many of you wonder what happens in Perspective's mo-cap sessions. To answer the burning question that's on everyone's mind, studio director Rich Nelson said:

I was looking for a *wink* *wink* or a *nudge* *nudge* in the article, but didn't see any. I guess what happens in a mo-cap session stays in a mo-cap session.

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The parent group Common Sense Media has reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost and Damned (X-Play Review: 5/5) in possibly the most well-informed review from a parent group that I've ever seen.

Also, their tagline is awesome: "Full-frontal male nudity shocks in hefty expansion with mature themes."

Apart from that, the review admits that the game is good and worth checking out if you're old enough to play mature games. Despite the reviewer's recommendation that the game "should be kept away -- far away -- from children," you can tell that he actually played the game and put some thought into his review.

I wish all of the reviews out of outlets like this were as informed and honest. Most of them tend to only focus on what they don't approve of and show extremely limited knowledge about the game. But then again, the purpose of those reviews is to shock and scare... not inform.

Looking at the author's other reviews, I can quickly see that he isn't giving bad scores to mature games just because they are mature.

Kudos to you, Common Sense Media.

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Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

It appears that one of the cinematics in the new Grand Theft Auto IV expansion pack, The Lost and Damned, features a little surprise -- a penis shaped surprise.

Considering that Rockstar is infamous for their shock-and-awe style of video game development -- especially in the Grand Theft Auto franchise (Hot Coffee anyone? Delicious!) -- the gratuitous inclusion of the manhammer is not completely out of the blue.

However, you're probably wondering how they managed to slip in a little wee-wee. Apparently, the cash and prizes appears in a scene where its main character, Johnny Klebbitz goes to see Congressman Thomas Stubbs who is getting a "massage"  at a private gentleman's club. When the two enter the steam room to talk privately, Stubbs gets comfortable and shows his flaccid baby poker.

My, my, my...how the tables have turned! For years, we girls have been forced to consume endless bouncy polygons, carefully and lovingly crafted by animators into the shape of female chesticles. All of a sudden, a little virtual man log is put out into the world and everyone's got their controllers in a bunch.

Well, I say, "Good show!" I can't wait for my dose of computer generated boy parts! As a salute to feminism and the new order, I really don't think Rockstar should stop here. I smell a video game revolution on the horizon. Now, I want to see dong in Table Tennis darn it!

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MTV has uncovered some details on the radio stations that will be featured in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned. In addition to the new story and gameplay elements the Xbox 360 expansion offers, The Lost and Damned will have new DJs, songs, and musicians. MTV reported:

It's impressive that Rockstar took the time and spent the money to give The Lost and Damned its own unique soundtrack. Acquiring new songs and recording VO for celebrities is not cheap. When you consider that all this effort and money was for downloadable content, it's even more noteworthy.

Any tracks or DJs interest you?

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One of the coolest features of Grand Theft Auto IV was the ability to instantly purchase music you heard in the game without leaving Liberty City. The upcoming "Lost and Damned" DLC will offer the same feature, but with a vital change: The tunes won't be coming from Amazon's music service. Instead, they'll be coming from Apple's iTunes.

Although Rockstar Games hasn't publicly announced the reason for the change, it's probably because iTunes is a more widely adopted service than Amazon's. One of the reasons Rockstar chose Amazon had to do with the company offering MP3s that were not "locked" with Digital Rights Management.

Now that iTunes is doing away with the DRM, it's not a problem. Since iTunes is used by a lot more people than Amazon's service, more people are likely to buy music, so Rockstar and the artists will make more money. Basically, everyone is happy -- except Amazon, of course.

I download through iTunes, so I'm pretty psyched... but I didn't use the song downloader when I played through GTA IV. How about you?

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Think Services has announced the finalists for the Game Developers Choice Awards. The awards take place in March during the company's Game Developers Conference. The company's press release noted that, "Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet leads the nominees for the awards with seven nominations, including the coveted Game of the Year award; Number None’s Braid follows closely with five nominations.  Other nominees for that category include Fallout 3  and Left 4 Dead, which each received a total of four award nominations, Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto IV, which earned a total of three nominations, and Lionhead Studios’ Fable 2."

And the nominees are:

Game of the Year
Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

The first of two long awaited Xbox 360 exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV episode packs, GTA IV: The Lost and Damned comes down the digital pipe on February 17th. I got my hands on the upcoming expansion at Rockstar’s downtown New York office and delved into the world of Johnny Klebitz.

GTA IV devotees will remember Klebitz as a biker -- the second-in-command of The Lost motorcycle gang from the "Blow Your Cover" mission. I never got that far, so Klebitz was new to me. Rockstar did its best to make playing the episode a completely new experience for gamers. It re-skinned the user interface to look a little grittier, threw a new filter on the camera to make everything a little darker, and created roughly 20 hours of exclusive new gameplay including new cut scenes, voice work and even new banter on Liberty City’s radio stations. And yes, there are exclusive guns. Rockstar threw in five new weapons reminiscent of the arsenal found in the Terminator flicks (pipe bomb, sawed off shotgun, combat shotgun, machine pistol and grenade launcher).

According to combined sales data from GfK, ChartTrack, Enterbrain and the NPD Group, the worldwide best-selling video game in 2008 was Mario Kart Wii! Nintendo cleaned up in the charts: A full three of the top five games were from the Japanese company, proving that Universal appeal trumps hardcore gamer opinion. Here's the rest of the best-seller list:

1) Mario Kart Wii: This cart-racing, banana-dropping simulator sold 8.94 million units, five million in the US, 2 million in Japan and 1.94 million in the the U.K.

2) Wii Fit: This fitness game and yoga simulator sold sold 8.31 million copies, total: 4.55 million in the US, 2.15 million in Japan and 1.61 million in England.

3) GTA IV: 7.29 million people bought this open world crime simulator, mostly in the U.S. 5.18m were shifted in the States, and 1.85 sold in the UK. Only 256,000 customers picked the title up in Japan.

4) Super Smash Bros Brawl: Sold 6.32 million overall. 4.17 million came in the US, with 1.75 million in Japan and 404,000 in the UK.

5) Call Of Duty: World At War: The Activision first-person-shooter sold 5.89 million games overall, with 4.46 million in the US and 1.43 million in the UK. The title was not released in Japan.

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