Little less than a week from the official release of The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second and last expansion of Grand Theft Auto IV, the guys from IGN show us an interesting video whosing a few game sequences. The video was put together with much irony by the IGN guys, fitting the Grand Theft Auto atmosphere.

We’ll leave you to the video now without telling too much of what you’ll find, but first reminding you that The Ballad of Gay Tony will be launched on October 29th on the XBox LIVE Marketplace for 1600 Microsoft points, or in a package version, together with The Lost and Damned.

Enjoy!

Rockstar Games has released the debut movie and new images of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the PSP. The readaptation of the Nintendo DS version for the PSP brings a few changes in the game controls and the technical part, clearly necessary to optimize the title to the PSP hardware.

As we can see on the video and the images, all the actions that were possible through the touchscreen display on the DS have been adapted on the PSP by using the front and side keys. The game has new light effects, new animations and it’s adapted to the 16:9 display of the PSP.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is expected to launch on October 20th for the PSP, in UMD support and downloadable from the PlayStation store. Enjoy the images and the video!

Click on the thumbnail to view the full image

October 29th: that was the date chosen by Rockstar Games to launch the second expansion of Grand Theft Auto IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony, on XBox Live.

“As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka Gay Tony), players 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”. That’s the official description for the game.

In order for players to impersonate Luis Lopez, they will need to put aside 1600 Microsoft Points.

During a press conference, John Pleasants from Electronic Arts has revealed the existance of two new titles not yet announced, even though the rumors had been going around for a while.

The first is Battlefield 3 which seems to be at a good point and in good hands, and not only the guys from DICE are apparently working on the title.

The second should be another Need for Speed, this time developed by the same team that worked on Burnout. We’ll have to wait and see whether these rumors become true.

The name for GTA IV’s next additional content is The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it will be an exclusive to the XBox 360, much as The Lost and Damned, for the price of 1600 Microsoft Points.

Both contents will also be published in DVD for $39.99 as standalone products, without the need of the original GTA IV version in order to be played. For now, the launch date has been defined for next autumn, but we will be tuned on more details as soon as they come.

Rockstar Games has released the new 1.0.3 patch for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. This patch is aimed to enhance the graphics, adding a better graphic setting choices for the users. The update is done automatically through Windows Live as soon as the user logs in. For those who’d rather patch manually, the patch is available for download through this link.

Here are the full list of corrections on the 1.0.3 patch:

GRAPHICS:
Interior Lights for ATI 1900 series cards:

• All light sources appear for users with 1900 series ATI cards. (ie. Pool Mini Game)
• ALT-TAB fixed

* Graphics Settings:

• Added menu option ” OFF ” for Reflection quality
• Added menu option ” OFF ” for Shadow quality

PERFORMANCE:

• Physics optimizations to improve situations with heavy physics calculations (ie. 32 player races)
• Graphical Performance Optimizations

MULTIPLAYER:

- NAT Type detection

• Detect if user has a ” strict ” NAT and displays message for user

- Voice chat is received even if your microphone is turned off

CONTROLS:

- Keyboard / Mouse

• Remapping restrictions removed
• Allow Enter, Backspace, and Arrow keys to be remapped by user
• Allow multiple mouse buttons to be mapped

- Enable/Disable DirectInput in Menu

• Users can now activate/deactivate Direct Input devices from “Controls” menu.
• If commandline “-usedirectinput” is active, it will override pause menu setting.

- Use 2 direct input devices simultaneously (ie. Wheel and Gamepad)

• Users can now use 2 different controllers at once, including 1 XInput and 1 Direct Input device.

- Added more Direct Input / XInput device support

• Saitek P380/P480/P580/P990
• Saitek PS1000/PS2700/P3200/P3600
• Gravis Eliminator Shock gamepad

SECURITY:

- Detect modified files and prevent users from entering multiplayer if found

• Game will prompt with a message after blocking user with modified data files from entering multiplayer
• Should prevent multiplayer access from cell phone and GFWL join in progress

VIDEO EDITOR:

- Scroll Bar improved response

• Tweaked to respond better to keyboard inputs

- Sped up load times for users with many clips

TITLE UPDATE 2 FIXES:

- Return of Hot Dog Stands and other props

• Missing hot dog vendors, fences, gates, pylons should be present throughout the world.

- Scrolling signboards

• Activate missing scrolling signboard text (ie. highway signs, Star Junction, Clock Tower Sign)

- ALT-TAB pauses game during cutscenes

• Cutscenes should now pause and resume correctly after an ALT-TAB task switch. Audio remains in sync.

GENERAL ADDITIONS / FIXES:

- Mismatched MODO/Perseus Clothing

• Fixed a bug when Niko mixes clothing from Perseus and Modo

- 360 Controller Texture

• Controller image should be visible in Controller Configuration screen

According to what was published by Videogaming247, the second exclusive XBox 360 episode of Grand Theft Auto IV should be launched this autumn. The declaration would have come directly from Take-Two, that apparently has set the launch date for the new additional content to somewhere between this month and October 2009, without really releasing any further details.

Apparently, Grand Theft Auto isn’t the only game that Take-Two Interactive is scheduling to launch within this fiscal year. Names such as BioShock 2, Mafia 2, Midnight Club: Los Angeles are also part of the company’s list of games to be launched until October this year, in different platforms as well.

The Lost and Damned, the exclusive XBox 360 expansion of Grand Theft Auto IV has beaten any previous record for an XBox Live-distributed content in the first 24 hours. Even though the actual profit hasn’t been made available, we can assume that Microsoft is now sighing in relief, since the exclusivity for the XBox cost them $25 million.

Perhaps that justifies the price of 1600 Microsoft Points for the expansion, but will the profits be enough to justify that amount of money for the exclusive? We’ll have to see.

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned is now finally available for download, and after giving a free XBox Live Week for the people that purchased the expansion, Microsoft has also dedicated an update to the Avatars with costumes that emulate the same look of the members of the Lost group and Johnny Klebitz.

For those who didn’t notice the update by turning their XBox 360, Major Nelson has announced on his blog that the avatars now have new and free costumes to use, all resembling the “street” look featured on the GTA IV games. The package is called “The Lost and Damned Biker Bundle” and it features these clothes:

Guys:
Rocker Jacket
Pixie Boots
Grunge Pants
Metal Combats
Top Hat
Skull Ring
Leather Biker Gloves
Left Feather Earring
Right Feather Earring

Girls:
Punk Tee
Black 60’s Boots
Leopard Print Leggings
Biker Jacket
Biker Gloves
Skull Wrist Band
Left Feather Earring
Right Feather Earring

Rockstar has released a launch trailer to celebrate the arrival of GTA IV: The Lost and Damned at XBox Live today. The content is exclusive to the XBox 360 and can be downloaded for the price of 1600 Microsoft points. Also, whoever buys the game will receive a week of XBox Live Gold membership for free.

The video is a courtesy of Videogaming247, and we’ll repropose it to you here. Enjoy!