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Not to be confused with Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.


Liberty City worships money and status — it's heaven for those who have them, and a living nightmare for those who don’t. Johnny, a veteran member of The Lost biker gang, is caught in the middle of a vicious turf war with rival gangs for control of the city. Luis, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (a.k.a. “Gay Tony”), is struggling with the competing loyalties of family and friends in a world in which everyone has a price. Their lives cross paths with devastating consequences as they fight to survive in a city torn apart by violence and corruption.
— Official Description

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a compilation of two expansion packs released for 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. It includes The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, both originally released on the Xbox 360 in 2009 as part of an exclusive deal with Microsoft[1]. Both expansions were later released for PlayStation 3 and Windows in 2010.

As with the original Grand Theft Auto IV game, both expansions are set in Liberty City during the year 2008. Each expansion adds new content including missions, weapons, vehicles and side-activities related to the respective expansion's theme and aesthetics. Episodes from Liberty City is set concurrently to the events of the base game, following new protagonists whose stories intertwine with Niko Bellic's, the protagonist of GTA IV.

Episodes from Liberty City can be purchased either digitally as an add-on to the original game or as a separate game physically. If downloaded online, each episode requires the original GTA IV game disc in order to be played, but doesn't require the disc if the Episodes from Liberty City game disc is used instead. In the former case, slight alterations to the base game's map occurs to modify certain buildings and main consistency with the expansions.

Both Episodes received critical acclaim, with praise towards the new content and the way the expansions intersect with the original game, though the narratives and characters were met with a more mixed response and were compared and contrasted against the base game. The retail release of the compilation sold less than 160,000 copies by December 2009[2].

List of Episodic Content[]

Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned box art.

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony box art.

Overview[]

Both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony were also released together on a single boxed game disc called Episodes From Liberty City, on October 29, 2009. Unlike the individual episodes, Episodes From Liberty City doesn't require the original Grand Theft Auto IV game. The disc includes three new radio stations exclusive to the double-pack version to compensate for some music not carried over from GTA IV. The single-episode DLCs do not contain exclusive music, but the original music has been carried over. Players who do not have GTA IV installed on their console will find that some phone conversation dialog in Episodes From Liberty City are missing.

If the player were to download any episode online and save a game using TLAD or TBoGT in the original GTA IV, and then later use the Episodes from Liberty City game disc, the saved games will still be available, however, the GTA IV saved games will not be, requiring to start a new game. Nevertheless, the player can still reload their last saved GTA IV and play it as usual.

Episodes from Liberty City also introduces three aforementioned exclusive radio stations; Vice City FM, Self-Actualization FM and RamJam FM. The additional tracks from the episodic content, for the existing radio stations, are also included. However, the original playlists from GTA IV have been omitted. Vice City FM replaces The Vibe 98.8, Self-Actualization FM replaces The Journey, and RamJam FM replaces Massive B Soundsystem 96.9 and Tuff Gong Radio.

As of March 19, 2020, the digital version of EFLC no longer exists as a separate game for PC, as the game was replaced by Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition. This update combined GTA IV and Episodes as one game, similar to the console versions of The Complete Edition. Until an update on June 3, 2020, the EFLC-exclusive radio stations were temporarily unavailable. This version combines the GTA IV radio station tracklists with the songs that both Episodes add, but the songs removed in April 2018 due to copyright expiry are still missing in this version. The Complete Edition also lacks all multiplayer modes featured in both GTA IV and EFLC.

Release[]

Reception[]

Episodes from Liberty City received critical acclaim. IGN awarded the pack with a 9.2/10, praising the DLCs' gameplay and features, but criticizing the short story lines. 1Up gave the PS3 version a score of -A. GameSpot gave the PC version an 8.5/10, while both PS3 and Xbox versions received 9/10 from the site.

Versions[]

PC and PS3 release[]

On January 29, 2010, Rockstar officially announced that both expansion episodes would be released for the PlayStation 3 and the PC on March 30th. However, due to having problems with Sony Europe with the Liberty City radio, television, and Internet content, the episodes had been delayed until April 13 in North America and April 16 in Europe. Like the previous release on Xbox 360, each episode was been made individually available online at the PlayStation Store and at Games for Windows - LIVE Marketplace, as well as together on disc.

Rockstar Games Collection[]

Episodes from Liberty City is also part of the Rockstar Games Collection Edition 1 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Controversy[]

Legal Action in Brazil[]

On October 18, 2010, the Third Civil Court of Barueri, São Paulo State, Brazil, claimed that "Episodes From Liberty City" violates the Brazilian law concerning copy rights by using an unauthorized sample of "Bota o dedinho pro alto", from the Brazilian composer Hamilton Lourenço da Silva, in the game without his permission. Said song was sampled in a track on the Electro-Choc radio station, "Kid Conga" by Daniel Haaksman featuring MC Miltinho; the latter being the son of Lourenço da Silva, who was 8 years old at the time his vocals were recorded for the song. Although Rockstar gained permission to use the track, no approval was given by Lourenço da Silva himself.

The court ordered that all copies of the game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC should be recalled from stores. The decision also states that if the game is not recalled in 48 hours, Rockstar Games should be billed in R$ 5,000.00 (approximately USD 3,125.00) per day. The copyright problem has since been resolved in 2012.

Crossovers[]

Trivia[]

  • The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony have removed features which were present in Grand Theft Auto IV, such as Vigilante and Most Wanted missions (attempting to activate a Police Computer will display an error message), and the ability to buy clothing from the various shops. The ability to go on dates has also been redesigned. Although there are women in the clubs present in The Ballad of Gay Tony, they cannot be dated by Luis and will only have sex with him.
  • Johnny and Luis can still use the parking spaces located outside Niko's safehouses, though the safehouses themselves cannot be accessed (with the exception of the South Bohan safehouse from the back door).
  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Grand Theft Auto V are the only games in the series where the entire map is accessible from the beginning of the game.
  • Even though they take place at the same time, the vehicle selection and radio stations featured in the episodes, are different from that of GTA IV, with some of the radio stations being either replaced or removed.
  • The game will often fail to load the last saved game for GTA IV if attempting to play the original game, since it interferes with the saves of The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. The player will be taken to the very start of the game, and must pause and manually load the last saved data for the original game.

Videos[]

GTA: Episodes from Liberty City PC and PlayStation 3 Official Trailer
Meet: Luis Lopez
The Lost and Damned - Trailer #2
The Lost and Damned Debut Trailer










See more videos

References[]

Navigation[]

[ ve ]Grand Theft Auto IV
LocationsLiberty City (Algonquin | Bohan | Broker | Dukes) | Alderney
CharactersCharacters | Niko Bellic | Roman Bellic | Vlad Glebov | Mikhail Faustin | Dimitri Rascalov | Brucie Kibbutz | Elizabeta Torres | Patrick McReary | Playboy X | Dwayne Forge | United Liberty Paper contact | Ray Boccino | Jimmy Pegorino
ContentMissions | Random characters | Friends | Girlfriends | Vehicles | Weapons | Clothing | Internet | Radio Stations | Safehouses | TV Shows
Information100% Completion | Achievements and Trophies | Cheats | Features | Trailers | Multiplayer
Episodes from Liberty CityThe Lost and Damned | The Ballad of Gay Tony
CrossoversDiamonds | Heroin | Impossible Trinity (Museum Piece, Collector's Item, and Not So Fast)
[ ve ]Grand Theft Auto series
Grand Theft AutoProtagonists | Liberty City (and New Guernsey) | San Andreas | Vice City | Characters | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: London
London 1969Protagonists | London | Characters | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
London 1961Protagonists | London | Manchester | Characters | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto 2Claude Speed/GBC Protagonists | Anywhere City (Downtown | Residential | Industrial) | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto IIIClaude | Liberty City | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: Vice CityTommy Vercetti | Vice City | Characters | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasCarl Johnson | State of San Andreas (Los SantosSan FierroLas VenturasRed CountyFlint CountyWhetstoneBone CountyTierra Robada) | Characters | Missions | Gangs | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto AdvanceMike | Liberty City | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Soundtrack | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City StoriesToni Cipriani | Liberty City | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City StoriesVictor Vance | Vice City | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto IVNiko Bellic | Liberty City | Alderney | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Episodes from Liberty City
The Lost and DamnedJohnny Klebitz | Liberty City | Alderney | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
The Ballad of Gay TonyLuis Fernando Lopez | Liberty City | Alderney | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown WarsHuang Lee | Liberty City | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto VMichael De Santa | Trevor Philips | Franklin Clinton | Southern San Andreas (Los Santos (County) | Blaine County) | State of North Yankton (Ludendorff) | Characters | Gangs | Missions | Weapons | Vehicles | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Grand Theft Auto OnlineGTA Online Protagonist (Crews | Organizations | Motorcycle Clubs) | Southern San Andreas (Los Santos (County) | Blaine County) | The Caribbean (Cayo Perico) | Missions | Jobs | Gangs | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Reputation (Arena Points | LS Car Meet) | Content Updates | Events | Achievements/Trophies | Awards
Grand Theft Auto VILucia | Unnamed male accomplice | State of Leonida (Vice-Dale County | Kelly County | Leonard County) | Characters | Missions | Vehicles | Weapons | Radio stations | Achievements/Trophies | Cheats
Collectibles | Multiplayer | Modifications | Controversy
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