GTA IV: Episodes From Behind the TV

There was a mess of HDMI cables in the gap between the wall and the TV stand. Which one belonged to the PS3 was anyone's guess.

Peering over the back of the TV, I couldn't make sense of it, so I pulled the stand away from the wall so that I could have a proper look. Far too many wires! I picked one from the tangled mass, gave it a tug, and was greatly relieved to see the PS3 move ever so slightly. I had my cable, and on the first pull no less! 

I plugged it in and re-emerged from behind the stand, smacking my head on the corner of the TV on the way out.

The rigmarole didn't end there. The DualShock 3's battery was flat, so I needed to find the right charging cable, which involved dumping a box full of gadgets on the living room floor so that I could sort through it. I soon found what I was looking for, but the wire wasn't quite long enough to comfortably reach from the console to the sofa. I had to perch on the edge, hunched over, trading comfort for the extra couple of inches required to make the newly-wired controller stretch to my preferred seat.

All this fuss to play expansions for an eighteen year old game. 

2008-me was going to wait for Metal Gear Solid IV before splurging on a PS3, but Grand Theft Auto IV convinced me to move my plan up by a month. I played GTA IV from start to finish that spring, and was blown away. It was a spectacular introduction to a new generation, and Rockstar had finally succeeded in making me care about GTA narrative and characters.

In the late 2000s to early 2010s, I was going through new games at an alarming rate, and by the time the Episodes From Liberty City expansions had arrived - The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony - I'd already moved on a hundred times over. Thus, they both passed me by.

I'm not exactly sure why I chose now, the summer of 2026, to go back to Liberty City and play The Episodes. Sometimes I just get an idea in my head, and that's enough. This idea was almost certainly planted by the hype surrounding Grand Theft Auto VI, and encouraged by a handful of GTA retrospectives that I've enjoyed over the last couple of years. Last month, when I spotted a boxed copy of the expansions in a local Book Off for 480 yen, I pounced.

Back to the living room.

My DualShock 3 was charging but it was also possessed. Incessant phantom inputs made the XMB impossible to navigate, its movements as unpredictable as Gay Tony on smack. With my first-choice controller on the scrap heap, I had the bright idea of using a PS4 pad instead. The buttons don't quite match up but it would allow me to connect my headphones, which is how I like to play. However, it turns out headphone functionality isn't supported when using a DS4 with a PS3, which I discovered after going to the trouble of unboxing the controller and partially charging it. Defeated, I fished out another DS3 from the pile of gadgets still strewn across the floor; thankfully, that one worked fine.

Next up, I had to connect to the internet. That was straight forward, though it did bring a system update, which crashed my console. On a restart, I had sound but no picture; it took a second hard restart to put that right. A good half hour into my session, and I was finally ready to slip the disc in. Of course, there was a game install, which ate up a further fifteen minutes. 

Just as an aside, if you spend more time setting up and troubleshooting than playing, that means you're retro gaming. By this logic, the correct logic, the PS3-360-Wii generation is undoubtedly now retro, whatever the fuck that means, because nothing works properly on the first attempt. Glad we cleared that up.

All that palaver was a month ago, and I'm happy to report that my PS3 has been relatively well behaved since, allowing me to get through both The Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, back-to-back, with very little fuss. Overall, I had a great time with both of them.

Being back in Liberty City after all these years was a strange experience. Some parts of the city were instantly familiar, such as the bridges, the airport, the tower blocks, and large sections of downtown, and revisiting them immediately transported me back to my first adventure with Niko. The majority of the map, however, brought back only faint memories, and other locales, especially the residential boroughs, were as good as new to me.

I certainly didn't recall the city looking so out of focus. I'm sure it would have looked more striking back in 2008, viewed on my last big CRT before I made the jump to HD. Even still, I was surprised by the lack of visual clarity. What I didn't initially realise is that The Lost & Damned, which I played first, is presented in a slightly muted colour pallet - the grey and brown smear is a feature, not the result of mismatched hardware. It wasn't until I started the substantially more colourful and in-focus Ballad of Gay Tony that I caught on.

Visuals aside, a change in soundtrack made Liberty City feel a little less familiar than it otherwise would've done. I was playing the expansion-only version of Episodes From Liberty City, which doesn't include the base game, which means that the radio stations are updated and most of the music from 2008 is absent. That's a shame, as it made the city feel even more alien at first, though I quickly discovered new favourites, mainly on the disco, electronica, and reggae stations.

GTA IV fails to offer a convenient fast travel option, so most journeys need to be taken in full, so I quickly re-familiarised myself with the map. I gave up on trying to hail cabs, which provide a sort-of fast travel option, as half the time I'd accidentally carjack the taxi, and that's more trouble than it's worth. To be honest, I didn't mind all the to-and-fro between missions, as it's part of the GTA experience and helps to forge a connection between player and city. While I enjoyed travelling by motorbike in Lost & Damned, I did find the city to be more of a chore and far more oppressive than it is in Gay Tony, where it transforms into a veritable playground, something to be enjoyed and not just navigated.

The juvenile dialogue is, well, very juvenile, and I found myself cringing as much as laughing. The gay and racial slurs that are thrown around in Gay Tony are excessive, often played for laughs and delivered mostly consequence free. I don't think the writers would get away with that shit now, nor should they, though I guess we'll see when GTA VI drops in November. Questionable dialogue aside, both episodes serve up memorable leads, and I enjoyed the character crossovers between episodes. 

All in all, I liked The Ballad of Gay Tony slightly more, but I think The Lost & Damned will stay with me longer. Johnny's story is more impactful, and knowing his eventual fate, which is revealed in GTA V, makes his tale even more tragic.

With my DS3 fully charged and the HDMI cable safely hooked up to the back of the TV, I might stick with the PS3 and get through a couple more games from my decently-sized, but expertly-curated backlog. Of that collection, Alpha Protocol, The Saboteur, Remember Me, Lightning Returns, Wet and Ridge Racer Unbounded sit at the top of my to-play list. Expertly curated, indeed.

Come the end of the month, it'll be time for Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of the Patriots. As you'd expect, I'm greatly looking forward to re-experiencing a PS3 classic on modern hardware, revelling in the charms of late-2000s gaming, while avoiding the troubleshooting and behind-the-TV fiddling that comes with using an older console. The wonders of modern gaming!