Honestly, The Ballad of Gay Tony is the best version of GTA IV.
More interesting missions. You steal a train cart, kick a guy out of the helicopter and catch him, seduce a woman and have a shootout in the club, blow up a yacht with rockets on a helicopter, you land on the building, kill a guy then jump off the window and land on the moving truck. So many more interesting set‑pieces than in OG GTA IV; it feels more like GTA V in Liberty City.
More stuff to do in free roam. Golf, air‑hockey, parachute jumps, races with turbo, club management, dancing and drinking game, cage fight, drug wars.
More weapons. P90, automatic shotgun with explosive rounds, sticky bombs, grenade launcher, machine gun.
I still have a problem with action in this game tho; I feel like it’s very clunky, the movement of the character is not super responsive, enemies are often just standing and not doing anything, and when an enemy is close to you, you can’t do anything because the camera gets all messed up. More weapons, set‑pieces, sounds and reaction of enemies to hits make it not that bad, but it’s not perfect.
I also loved the characters! Louis might be my favorite among GTA IV main characters and I’m serious. Niko is awesome, but the OG game is way too long, and it can’t always deliver meaningful character progress for him. Ludonarrative dissonance is too heavy with him; I don’t get why he killed so many people for money if he doesn’t really seem to love money that much. Louis is more tightly scripted and honest with himself; he kills for money, that’s what he does. He wanted to have a legit job, but a legit job keeps needing his criminal side. And maybe he is fine with it.
Overall, had a great experience; the game just gets everything good from GTA IV and expands on it. More interesting dialogues, more weapons, more vehicles. Lost and Damned feels like an add‑on; this one feels like an expansion.
