Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Reviews

The game no longer works. I tried the launcher fixes, and games for windows live. Neither of those work. I am reading that the launcher is a problem and that the publisher refuses to update something to fix the game. I always loved this game, but I am unable to play it now. These are all perfect reasons to recommend against buying EFLC. You risk buying a game that you probably can't even launch.

The DLC in this made me so immersed that I actually believed I was an IRL member of the sons of anarchy so I went to my local harley davidsons dealership and bought the cheapest bike I could find and as I pull into the road I get hit by an oncoming bus and I wake up in hospital only to realise i'm a small child from a small suburban town in bradford.

[h1]The Lost and Damned[/h1] This episode focuses on motorcycles, as you would expect from a game that revolves around a biker gang. If GTA4 wasn't gritty enough for you, this one's even grittier. Storywise, it's about the same level of grittiness as GTA4, if not more, If you like riding bikes, you'll like this episode; Johnny Klebitz has mastered the delicate art of not flying off his bike when clipping a lamp post at 20 miles an hour. Though he's not as good of a driver as Niko, and you'll definitely notice that if and when you get behind the wheel. There's more content in general, including an exclusive set of weapons to play with, including an autopistol, a sawed-off shotgun, and a grenade launcher. You get all three of these pretty damn early in the game; the sawed-off is Johnny's starter weapon and he can fire it while riding! Worth playing if you want to follow a parallel, equally if not more gritty story to Niko's. Lost MC! Lost MC! [h1]The Ballad of Gay Tony[/h1] This episode takes a leap away from GTA4's usual brand of grittiness; it's more colorful, has lots of new fun guns to play with (P90 SMG, advanced sniper rifle, M249 light machine gun, AA-12 shotgun with explosive rounds...), parachutes, upgraded police units, and a whackier tone to compete with its new nemesis, Saints Row 2. This one focuses a bit more on helicopters, so this episode may be good practice for the awful PC controls for the helicopters. Or it may frustrate you a bit. Once you finish the story, you can go back and replay any mission you want. There's a score system for missions this time around, but who cares? I actually find this episode to be more fun than GTA4 just because of all the fun stuff it adds. There's nothing like screwing up everyone's commute in Star Junction with stickybombs and an explosive shotgun. What's that? The police are coming? Pfft. They ain't got shit on my APC. You'll have a good time. And as always, mods only increase the fun.

--- [i]The Lost and Damned[/i] --- I'd heard that [i]TLAD[/i] was mediocre and paled in comparison to the base game and [i]The Ballad of Gay Tony[/i], but I actually liked it a lot more than the base game. + Johnny handles motorcycles way better than Niko handles cars + There aren't any [i]really[/i] bad bikes (while most of the cars are terrible) + You can get bikes for free and guns at a discount whenever you want by calling your gang members + At the end of an early mission, [spoiler]the game tries to make you think it's gonna go all [i]San Andreas[/i] and let your gang get pushed around by a couple of corrupt cops, but you just go kill them in the next mission[/spoiler] + You don't get called to go do things with your friends all the time + This game introduces the sawn-off shotgun, which is the most hilariously overpowered gun to use on a motorcycle + Also introduces a few more guns that are more interesting than anything in [i]GTA IV[/i]: An automatic pistol, a street sweeper shotgun and a grenade launcher + I enjoy playing as bikers in games and Johnny has a sweet jacket / The story is still generally joyless / The story is short, but there are a lot of side jobs, gang wars and races to do as well / Johnny flipping his shit in combat for little reason can be alternately hilarious and annoying. "F*** YOU! [b]F*** [i]YOU![/i][/b] F*** YOU F*** YOU F*** YOU F*** YOU!" (this is all one line) - Only 2 safehouses, both very close together, and you can only use one or the other for most of the plot - Johnny runs slower than Niko and Luis if he's holding a weapon - The bike handling is still iffy, and the 4-wheeled vehicle handling is iffy at [i]best[/i] - The death metal station has like 8 songs on it so if you listen to it a lot it will repeat all the time - No character customization [i]TLAD[/i] is still no [i]San Andreas[/i] or [i]Vice City[/i] but it's a pretty good game.

A MUST have addition to GTA IV. It basically retells the story of Libertiy City on the same time era as NIko from additional two different perspectives. A lot of events and mission end up tying between the three protagonists (Niko, Johnny, and Luis). [b]The Lost and Damned (TLaD)[/b] Summary: American 60's biker drama (greasers, junkie girlfriend, running with the politic and mafia, pushers, internal dispute, etc.) There are lot of interesting gameplay mechanics introduced since you are now in bike club. Eg: You get to roll with your brothers (that's what they call each other); with each successful mission (and them not dying), they will receive 'EXP' to upgrade their survivability and weaponry. (Note: noobs brother tend to die easily, but main story brothers won't die unless the story tells so) [b]The Ballad of Gay Tony (TBoGT)[/b] Spoiler: Actually not gay. Lots of booty calls (note: NOT from dudes). Dude who you are working for (Tony Prince, AKA Gay Tony) is the one who's gay; dude runs clubs in town with some 'business' partners. I played TBoGT a long time ago; frankly I don't remember any new interesting things thrown in except for booty calls. I do recall sweet ass helicopter (an upgrade from Annihilator) from [spoiler]rich ass racist Arab[/spoiler]. You can replay missions though since each mission has this 'additional objectives' in order for you to get the 100%/ gold medal bullshit and make yourself feel less terrible. Pros: + Don't need to own GTA IV (But highly recommended to finish the main game first; this game assumes player has experienced base game. A lot of references are thrown here and there as story progresses) + A lot of new arsenals introduced. They are exclusive to each stories (and are more OP in some cases) + Complete different atmospheres with some new mechanics + Feels more optimised than the base game Cons: - Takes another 16 GB of files even if you own GTA IV (since Episodes from Liberty City is considered a separate game). It is such a waste of space, considering 90% of the game files are recycled - Generic missions, with some minor bugs here and there - They RIP APART Vladivostok FM into pop dance club bullshit FM. GIVE ME BACK Кино́'s Группа крови! Overall, if you or your friends are thinking of picking up GTA IV, get the Episodes from LIberty City as well.

The Game won't let you save or load anymore because "Games for Windows Live" doesn't seem to be supported any longer... Also Rockstar took the liberty of removing quite a bunch of beloved songs from the outstanding soundtrack because they must have thought that they are too poor for renewing a few licenses... I feel kind of robbed and can't recommend this game in this state to anyone anymore!!!!!! F. Rockstar... UPDATE: It's that time of a year again when Licensed Songs expire for a Rockstar Game... The time has come for "Episodes of Liberty City" now... But this time Rockstar snatched an entire Radio Station from the game (which was my favourite radio station as a matter of fact)... So that "everyone can still enjoy this game" (as Rockstar calls it in Update-News), "Games for Windows Live" finally got removed from the game, which would be a good thing, if it did not get replaced by that friggin "Rockstar Launcher" which causes the problem, that the majority of people can't even start the game any longer without overcoming many new problems (check the Community Hub Discussions!)... Why couldn't they just have left all the people out of the recent changes, that already had bought "GTA IV" and "Episodes From Liberty City" seperately before, stop the Sale of those two individual products, and offer the new crippled "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition" only for new customers???!!! Why have even old customers to suffer from those stupid changes and be ripped off like that???!!! Because it is Rockstar!!! That's Why!!! Too bad, that most people don't even see what a F***ed Up and greedy Company Rockstar has become... Don't expect to see any of my money in the future, Rockstar...!!!

Please read before playing: GTA IV was updated recently to remove GFWL so players can play it without having the need to login or use the client while saving their games. However, Rockstar have forgotten to remove GFWL in EFLC. This may be seen as an issue but it can be easily fixed by downloading the Xliveless client from the internet which will fix the saving feature in EFLC. You will be able to play the game normally by obtaining the client. It's a shame that Rockstar forgot about updating EFLC. Other than that, EFLC is an amazing expansion to the rich writing of GTA IV and I can always recommend it to anyone who has played IV first. If you don't play IV it may be a bit difficult to understand certain areas of the storylines in EFLC. I'd suggest you play IV before playing TBOGT or TLAD. I really like TBOGT the most out of this expansion, it's like the opposing force to Half-life, an expansion which adds in a new amount of great features and story. EDIT 10/09/19: Seems like someone in Rockstar or Steam censored my words. If this is a problem, why not just update the game? a lot of people are talking about this issue with GFWL and I don't understand why Rockstar haven't updated EFLC. This expansion is brilliant but if people can't play it, why not just update it? it's a bit straight forward

Player Base: ☐ Kids ☐ Everyone ☑ Mature ☐ Casual Players ☐ Professional Players Graphics: ☐ Really Bad ☐ Bad ☑ Ok ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful Price: ☐ Full Price ☑ Wait For Sale ☐ Don't Buy It ☐ Free Requirements: ☐ Minimum ☑ Medium ☐ Fast ☐ High End ☐ Super Computer Difficulty: ☐ Easy ☑ Medium ☐ Hard ☐ Very Hard ☐ Impossible Game length (Campaign): ☐ Really Short (0 - 3 hours) ☐ Short (2 - 8 hours) ☑ Medium (8 - 16 hours) ☐ Long (16+ hours) ☐ Endless ☐ No Campaign Story: ☐ None ☐ Really Bad ☐ Bad ☐ Ok ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful Cinematic/Art: ☐ None ☐ Really Bad ☐ Bad ☑ Ok ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful Music/Sound: ☐ Really Bad ☑ Bad ☐ Ok ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful Gameplay: ☐ Really Bad ☐ Bad ☐ Ok ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful Bugs: ☐ Game Breaking Bugs ☐ Lots Of Bugs ☑ Few Bugs ☐ Nothing That I've Noticed Play Mode: Multiplayer: ☐ Singleplayer: ☑ Final Score: 7/10 Notes - I will be editing this review if updates change the game in any way. Last edit - 08/04/2023

It's fun, but after you're done with both TLaD and TBoGT theres no point in playing it, so due to that the game will give you about 40 hours of playtime.

To those with Games for Windows Live issues or who are whining that the game is broken and shouldn't be sold due to this: There is no issue. You simply have to create an offline account, which is clearly stated when you start the game. I have personally done this. I installed the game, created an offline account, completed the first mission and saved. I restarted the game and guess what? I started off from the saved point. To those whiners: Please take the time to confirm if a game is broken or not before writing some non-sense review to scare people off. Save yourself the embarrassment of being proven to be both wrong and ignorant.