Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Game Review | Common Sense Media

Contents:

• THE STRAIGHT STORY OF 'GAY TONY'
• THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY IS THE STRAIGHTT GRAND THEFT AUTO EVER
• GRAND THEFT AUTO IV: THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY
• LGBTQ REFERENC GRAND THEFT AUTO: THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY

THE STRAIGHT STORY OF 'GAY TONY'

It took me a while to realize, too, but all started out back 2009, wh the GTA 4 sgle-player DLC story expansn 'The Ballad of Gay Tony'. GTA 4's The Ballad of Gay Tony is one of the bt exampl of sgle-player DLC done right, but also gave a posive gay character to not jt root for, but to fight for, too. Gay Tony, the flamboyantly out-there ke-addled club magnate serv as the game's uteragonist.

Younger me, who was certaly more prone to makg c jok and sensive observatns, didn't even realize I uld have been makg a dozen immature gay jok every hour - I was too ught up the story and the characters to re that one of the ma movers and shakers Liberty Cy had more mov and shak than your average straight du. I was weled to the world of seedy nightclub management wh a gay fella as my guidg light, and I didn't qutn once. While Rockstar pated Gay Tony as your stereotypil drama slay Queen, they didn't do him dirty.

THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY IS THE STRAIGHTT GRAND THEFT AUTO EVER

Where Gay Tony was fely "out there" and obv, Rockstar has also gone for the super subtle approach. Gay Tony's flamboyant nature was fe bee f the time - the 2000s were somethg of a renaissance for gay culture, and though still lightly mocked by society, the liftyle was generally accepted by all wh more than a uple of lonely bra cells.

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV: THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY

Bill Williamson of Red Dead Remptn 2, however, was the oppose of Gay Tony. Where Gay Tony would have tied a navel knot his nim shirt and accsorized the hell out of his wboy hat, ol' Bill lurked the background—quiet, large, and unassumg. Back those days, the late 1800s, beg anythg other than straight brought about a severe se of moral outrage, and one uld fd themselv ostracized by their muny, and even slammed head-first to some holy water the hope of drowng the gay mons.

Thoands of men playg football every week, yet how many are openly gay? The gang at large still mak some sly, subtle dig at his discharge om the army for “viancy”, but that faial bond stops short of all-out homophobia.

Christopher Williams says The Ballad of Gay Tony hews to some hetero-driven crime-novel reprentatns of both sexuali, but the end is about much eper Week In Gam: What’s Comg Out Beyond Armored Core VIOffEnglishEnglishWarng, this discsn will nta spoilers of "The Ballad of Gay Tony, " released Oct.

LGBTQ REFERENC GRAND THEFT AUTO: THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY

"Club life is the central foc of The Ballad of Gay Tony, which brgs back to the sex act as a central ncern of this versn of GTA, " Williams wr.

"Gay" Tony Prce, not the player protagonist but certaly the game's "most ccial character, " is the proprietor of two clubs, one gay and one straight, but 's the straight venue where the story is largely spe the game's tle, and the datg/booty ll mechanic of Luis' enunters wh women the club, where the story ends up is not about sex, homosexual or heterosexual, promiscuo or monogamo. It's an "Oedipal drama" about two men g to be a father and son, both men lackg the other fay role mol their Ballad of Gay Tony is the Straightt Grand Theft Auto Ever [PopMatters, Nov. Th, the game is ls than retrogra prentg a rather darg and progrsive versn of a father-son story, one which the "father" is a Oedipal drama that would normally ensue such stori is verted, though, perhaps as a rult of Tony's homosexualy.

Ined, throughout The Ballad of Gay Tony, Luis spends much of his time rg for this adopted "father" whose addictn is leadg to some really bad cisn makg on the part of the elr of the two men.