Both games take you one an awesome ride to show you a different side of Liberty City.
Lost & Damned
The Lost and Damned takes another step in letting you play as something you haven't before, your not in the mafia, or a gangster wearing colors taking over other sets. You're a biker, which is a great idea and works out perfect. Most of the time you want be a lone, you'll have your brothers by your side to help you out. If you get stranded with out a bike, you can call someone who will bring you one right on the spot.
You play as Johnny Klebitz, you start out as going to pick up Billy Grey, who is the club's president. Billy has just gotten out of court ordered rehab, and Johnny has been taking over while he was gone. Early on you can tell Billy is going to be getting you into a lot of crazy things. The story overall is a very interesting one which I really enjoyed a lot, although one of it's flaws is how short it is. That's the only problem I have with it, but it's one hell of a ride while it last.
The story is filled with a lot of fire fights and action, betrayal and revenge, and it goes out with a bang. This is probably one of my favorite endings in the GTA series. While your on your journey you'll encounter some familiar faces if you played GTA IV, some who will be one your side on certain missions and others that will be against you. And expect new characters as well, the series has always had interesting people in it and this one is no different.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as before, one of the first things I noticed was the motorcycle's felt improved. I hardly ever used them on the previous game, but not no more I used a motorcycle throughout the whole game this time. The only time I drove an actual car or truck is when I had to in a mission, there is also some new weapons added. Some new music has also been added to the soundtrack nothing big, but some new things to listen to if you like that type.
The graphics are pretty much the same as they were before, nothing jaw dropping but defiantly a lot better than others games out there. The voice acting is excellent as it has always been, and the sounds are just great. You can just stand there and listen are just drive around, the city sounds like a real city, it's one of the things I really enjoy seeing.
The online is pretty fun to, I can't say about all of them since I've only played two modes so far. Witness Protection I really enjoy, one team plays as The Lost biker gang, while the others play as Noose. If you're The Lost you must try and destroy a bus carrying witnesses, if you're playing as Noose then you must try and protect them, and make sure you get them to safety. The other mode I played was Own the City, if you remember in San Andreas taking over gang territories, that's basically what this mode is.
The Ballad of Gay Tony
Ballad of Gay Tony is even better than Lost & Damned, it seems to have a lot more features added into the game. A longer story than the other game, and a character that almost became my favorite one in the series. This time around you'll see even more crime and everything overall.
You play as Luis Fernando Lopez, right from the start you'll recognize him if you played GTA IV, and just like The Lost & Damned you'll meet all kinds of familiar characters along with a whole bunch of new ones. Luis isn't in a gang, but instead used to be a drug dealer, now he's a body guard for Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince. Tony is defiantly an interesting character and very funny to watch sometimes, he owns two clubs in the city
In these two clubs you can go two the bar and drink as much as you would like, there is also a mini dance game at both of them. At one of them you can have a drinking game of sorts, but don't get two drunk are you'll wake beside a trash can.
Some of the new things added in was the ability to base jump, this feature is a lot of fun to do, you'll find locations all over the map where you can do this. They also added a set of awesome advanced weapons in the game, defiantly some of the strongest in the series. Take the new shotgun for example, it will smash the front end of car which looks like a big rig rolled over it. But one of the biggest new features I've been wanting to see since I played the Warriors was you can re play missions. You just go to your phone and select which one you want to do over again. You also get scored on missions, something like the feature in the first Manhunt.
Another little feature is something like a cage fight, you can either watch it or put up your money and fight in it. See if you can make it to the last round, but be careful the opponents want just come at you with their fist, they'll have some weapons to. But it isn't all the hard, just make sure you don't get cracked in the head, or stabbed with a knife.
Like I said there is a lot of new features added into this one, exploring and finding out what they are is the best thing about the game. The game is longer then Lost and Damned but not really by much, but is still a little bit more interesting.
Overall the Episodes from Liberty City, is most defiantly the best DLC I have ever played for any game. If you love the series as much as I do, then there is no way your going to want to pass it up. If you can't download it, then buy the disk it's all on one disk. Even though both games are shorter than GTA IV they build and expand on what it did, and also in some ways is better than it. Even if you didn't like GTA IV you should give it a try, I know some people who did and love it.