Preview - The Ballad of Gay Tony

We always look forward to visiting the folks at Rockstar. It's a good bet they will have something cool to show off, and recent trips there have included an early look at PSP music-maker Beaterator, as well as hands-on time with another PSP title, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

Last week, we were Rockstar-bound again to get a quick preview of The Ballad of Gay Tony, the final episode of downloadable content for GTA IV.

The storylines that have featured so far in GTA IV (both the game proper and the first episode of DLC, The Lost and Damned) have shown a gritty, bleak side to Liberty City. The focus has been heavily on the outsiders who make up the city's grimy underbelly. Ballad is going to turn that on its head.

You play as Luis Lopez, personal bodyguard to the episode's eponymous Tony Prince - a notorious and flamboyant nightclub owner. As you'd expect from someone mixing in this kind of company, Lopez is surrounded by wealth and glamour and the game itself instantly feels brighter and freer for it.

Driving around Liberty City feels like exploring a new location. While there's a hint that things have been graphically smoothed out a little, that feeling comes mainly from having instant access to the best cars, the biggest weapons and the most exclusive locations.

Playing as Lopez makes you feel like the king of the whole town. Think back to how it felt playing Vice City once you were stacked with cash and you'll get an idea of how this new content plays out.

Over-the-top

Ballad's storyline revolves around Lopez's attempts to save Gay Tony from the mountain of debt he owes to various gangsters around town and, from the look of the missions we played, it encompasses some of the most entertainingly over-the-top set-pieces we've seen from GTA in ages.

A perfect example is a mission called For The Man Who Has Everything. This tasks you with stealing an entire subway train car for an exceedingly rich, somewhat berserk billionaire called Yusef Amir (brilliantly voice-acted by Iranian comic Omid Djalili).

Rather than pinching an idle carriage from a train yard, you are (for some reason) sent to make off with the front carriage of a train that's in motion. As you'd expect, you're equipped with some serious weaponry to achieve this and are quickly surrounded by police choppers. Gloriously excessive explosions quickly follow.

Another mission, Sexy Time, sees Lopez steal a prototype helicopter from the back of a yacht that's out at sea. Once you're airborne, you find the thing is armed not only with machine guns but also missiles - perfect for taking out the yacht you've just flown off from and, hey, why not a bit of carnage in the city centre while you’re at it?

Showing off

Ballad feels like a game in which Rockstar is showing off just what it can do with the vast Liberty City game world, unleashing everything that's possible in one final fun-ride. New features abound. The parachute makes a welcome return, and you'll be encouraged to make death-defying leaps from all over the city in the base-jumping side game.

It's also an integral part of some missions. In Dropping In, you must infiltrate a skyscraper by leaping from a helicopter and landing on the building's helipad.

There are a stack of new vehicles, including a tank, as well as some seriously heavy duty new weapons. Of these, the sticky bombs particularly stand out. These are grenades that you can throw at walls (think Splinter Cell) that will stick there until triggered - perfect for setting traps.

GTA IV was perhaps the most serious game in the series so far - Ballad looks to be the complete opposite. It's a game that revels in how crazy it can make the action. If you found the dark, gritty nature of The Lost and Damned too heavy-going, we reckon this should be the perfect alternative.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is out for Xbox on October 29. If you own the original version of GTA IV, you can download it from Xbox Live for 1600 points. Alternatively, the content is bundled with The Lost and Damned on a standalone disc (Episodes from Liberty City) which you can play without needing to own the original GTA IV. This costs £34.99 and is also out on October 29.