Brings the interweaving Grand Theft Auto IV stories of Niko Bellic (main game), Johnny Klebitz (The Lost and Damned) and Luis Lopez (The Ballad of Gay Tony) to an explosive conclusion. Contains The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, on one disc. These were originally digital content releases for GTAIV that were unavailable to PC players. Both games are standalone releases that do not require the original Grand Theft Auto IV game, or an Internet connection for their single player campaigns. Complete your Grand Theft Auto IV experience with powerful new weapons, vehicles, music, features and new mission types. Each episode contains both a single player campaign as well as a variety of online multiplayer modes specific to the storyline of each.
There is a huge amount of content here to play with and enjoy. In Episodes from Liberty City (commonly referred to as EFLC), you get two somewhat smaller GTA games set inside the very same Liberty City you may have gotten to know when you played Grand Theft Auto IV - and you may even spot your old character and some other people you know and recognize from GTAIV as they conduct their own affairs and pursue their destinies in Liberty City!
Now that you know a handful of reasons for why you SHOULD buy this set of games, I'll highlight two issues that might make you reconsider and decide not to purchase. First, the game incorporates the same old SecuROM DRM software that GTAIV had. If you played GTAIV and didn't care, you shouldn't mind this. But if you thought SecuROM in GTAIV was a real pain, you'll encounter the same issue with this game, unfortunately.
The other reason you might reconsider purchasing this game is that the very same bug that plagued GTAIV (some kind of annoying memmory/texture leak issue) remains present and unfixed in this game. Basically, after a while of driving around, doing missions, and in general having fun and raising **** as is customary in GTA games, you might encounter a bug where some of your in-game textures get replaced with lower-resolution textures, and ultimately disappear entirely. While it is a real shame that Rockstar didn't fix this issue, it is worth noting that it is fairly easily addressed: just restart your game every couple missions or so, and the problem is remedied.
On the whole, these new additions to the Grand Theft Auto series (this game pack and GTAIV) are wonderful and worthy additions to the series that enhance the gameplay with updated graphics and physics. As such, as you should expect, you'll need a reasonably modern system to run them well.
On this system of mine, I ran GTAIV and EFLC at 1920x1200 resolution on medium settings, and the game looked and ran fine most of the time, with the only exception being the easily remedied memory leak issue I discussed earlier in this post. Most people tell me your processor and memory are what you really need to watch to run this game well, and the reviews I've read suggested that, with the good multi-core processing support this game offers, you'll want a Quad-Core, or at least a fast dual-core to run it nicely.
In the tradition of the Grand Theft Auto classics that preceded this and GTAIV such as GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City, this game is a quality addition to the overall lineup of games in the Grand Theft Auto series, and offers direly needed graphics and physics updates. All in all, this is arguably a game you shouldn't miss, especially if you liked the other Grand Theft Auto games and you have a good enough system to run it.
There is a huge amount of content here to play with and enjoy. In Episodes from Liberty City (commonly referred to as EFLC), you get two somewhat smaller GTA games set inside the very same Liberty City you may have gotten to know when you played Grand Theft Auto IV - and you may even spot your old character and some other people you know and recognize from GTAIV as they conduct their own affairs and pursue their destinies in Liberty City!
Now that you know a handful of reasons for why you SHOULD buy this set of games, I'll highlight two issues that might make you reconsider and decide not to purchase. First, the game incorporates the same old SecuROM DRM software that GTAIV had. If you played GTAIV and didn't care, you shouldn't mind this. But if you thought SecuROM in GTAIV was a real pain, you'll encounter the same issue with this game, unfortunately.
The other reason you might reconsider purchasing this game is that the very same bug that plagued GTAIV (some kind of annoying memmory/texture leak issue) remains present and unfixed in this game. Basically, after a while of driving around, doing missions, and in general having fun and raising **** as is customary in GTA games, you might encounter a bug where some of your in-game textures get replaced with lower-resolution textures, and ultimately disappear entirely. While it is a real shame that Rockstar didn't fix this issue, it is worth noting that it is fairly easily addressed: just restart your game every couple missions or so, and the problem is remedied.
On the whole, these new additions to the Grand Theft Auto series (this game pack and GTAIV) are wonderful and worthy additions to the series that enhance the gameplay with updated graphics and physics. As such, as you should expect, you'll need a reasonably modern system to run them well.
On this system of mine, I ran GTAIV and EFLC at 1920x1200 resolution on medium settings, and the game looked and ran fine most of the time, with the only exception being the easily remedied memory leak issue I discussed earlier in this post. Most people tell me your processor and memory are what you really need to watch to run this game well, and the reviews I've read suggested that, with the good multi-core processing support this game offers, you'll want a Quad-Core, or at least a fast dual-core to run it nicely.
In the tradition of the Grand Theft Auto classics that preceded this and GTAIV such as GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City, this game is a quality addition to the overall lineup of games in the Grand Theft Auto series, and offers direly needed graphics and physics updates. All in all, this is arguably a game you shouldn't miss, especially if you liked the other Grand Theft Auto games and you have a good enough system to run it.