this is miles better than what we got with the lost and damned. for one, i actually care about multiple characters and like them, which i couldn't say about TLAD. it also helps that, in terms of mission variety and structure, this is one of the strongest GTA games. i think the addition of parachuting is great, the triathlons are fun (if a bit samey), and the ability to replay missions is something that i'm shocked isn't in more rockstar games. i have next to nothing bad to say about this DLC.

but there is one thing. this is a narrative about a gay man. and rockstar, being rockstar, has to amp up the homophobia. it wasn't enough that base GTA IV had its share of homophobia, but now we have to have a DLC almost dedicated to it. it's a shame, because i think tony prince is a decently written character and probably one of the best lgbt characters they've done. he has nuance and is an active participant in the narrative. it's a shame that so many other of the gay characters fall into the "closet case or effeminate flamer" stereotype that rockstar leans into. i literally cannot name a single gay character outside of tony that doesn't fit either of those categories and there's like. 5 named gay characters now. that's still bad to me. and like yeah, i get that making multiple characters call tony a faggot over and over again is an easy shorthand to demonstrate the struggles he's faced as a gay man + the immediate dislikability of the slur sayer in question, but it gets to be a bit much. we start out the DLC with luis' friends immediately being homophobic to him (one of them explicitly calls tony a fag in his very first scene), and we end with ray bulgarin shouting "I AM NOT A FUCKING FAGGOT!!!!". like okay. cool. did every character have to be this way? you can make a lgbt character without them immediately getting slurred or victimized, rockstar. it's not impossible.

either way. i had a good time with this game. i can't recommend it to anyone who hasn't built up the ability to compartmentalize homophobia as one of those things that just exists, but otherwise, it's a great DLC and a good cap GTA IV.

oh wait, i forgot one thing. SO TELL ME HOW LONG BEFORE YOU DROP THE BOMB, BEFORE YOU TURN IT UP, TURN IT UP, TURN IT UP, TURN IT UP

That's how I like my GTA games.
Unlike GTA IV which tried something different with a more realistic approach, this one is just like the old games. Characters with exaggerated personalities and crazy missions. On top of that, it has the pinnacle of video game technology, "checkpoints". You are no more in need of to repeat the whole mission with it's boring driving parts just because you failed it.
It's good, it really is good, I could've even said it's better than GTA IV if it was a little longer.

I gave Grand Theft Auto IV a relatively low score because while it was a decent game, the PC version being sold on Steam is player-unfriendly to the point of alienation. With The Lost and Damned, you don't have to worry about that. It gets a low score simply because it's pure and utter horseshit.

Mate, what a terrible expansion pack. They made the effort to fix the godawful motorcycle controls the original game had, and then stopped. Liberty City has never felt more like Detroit, Michigan a barren wasteland than in this lame ass motorcycle riding simulator. Christ, I get it, you fucking fixed the motorcycle controls, that's not reason to surgically graft the motorcycle onto my fucking character, making you fail most missions automatically if your bike gets damaged. I thought Grand Theft Auto was about stealing any vehicle you wanted?

And what a character he is. What characters they all are. Great crime stories often show us that while the thug life may look flashy and glamorous, it can only end with you six feet under or behind bars. The Lost and Damned takes a different approach to dissuade kids from a life of petty thievery: it makes being an outlaw biker just look so fucking embarrassing. It made me have second thoughts about Sons of Anarchy being one of my favourite TV shows, because it makes motorcycle gangsters look like manchildren. Every cutscene has the detestable cast getting in each others' faces - we get the point okay, they're all alpha males because they smoke unfiltered cigarettes and say 'fuck you,' in every sentence, ever heard of subtlety? When you fight against rival gangs, they toss playground insults like 'losers' (a very creative twist on the gang being called Lost) and 'deadbeats' (an equally profound mockery of Angels of Death). When two skinny cops get one over on these skinhead shitheads, they whine, "It's because of these guys that I joined the Lost!" Boo fucking hoo. Go tell your big brother, Johnny, I'm sure you still think he can beat police officers up for you.

Levelheaded players who have not been exposed to this rancid bucket of manure may argue that the story isn't quite so important when the gameplay is enjoyable. Ooooh, sit down sonny boy, and let me tell you about the gameplay. Every single fucking mission has you drive across the city - recycled and stripped bare of most of the side activities that were available in the original game - shoot a bunch of NPCs, refuse to elaborate, and leave. It's so mindlessly repetitive and because of the poorly paced, distilled cringefest of a storyline, there's little incentive to do so. I did half the missions in this expansion pack hoping it would be over quickly. I think I dozed off at one point, despite this being one of the few days where I got a full night's sleep. It didn't matter; you don't need your cerebral hemispheres to play this game - just the medulla will do. Finally, exhausted, I checked the mission list online, saw I still had half of them left, and gave it up as a bad job.

I used to think outlaw bikers were cool. After playing The Lost and Damned, all I can say is: lose the kutte and get a job, assholes.

This is the kind of spinoff Nintendo needs to do more. Take a side character and make a completely unrelated game with them as the star. Luigi vacuuming ghosts & hoarding cash turned out so well, we should get back to this style of weird juxtaposition.

Let's have Waluigi as a detective.

Put Tingle in a survival horror game.

Make Ridley a chef.

Last year I decided to replay Luigi's Mansion after having first played it back in 2018. I had a fantastic time and decided I would replay it every October. Well, Spooky season is now back so it's time for the annual replay. Yeah it's still a ton of fun.

As I stated before in my other review, the short length of this game makes it an ideal one to replay every year I think. I beat it in a day which is perfect since I'm a lot busier than I used to be. The shortness combined with the unrivaled atmosphere, funkiness and control scheme makes this the definitive Luigi's Mansion game in my eyes. There's just little things I love about this game that the other's lack. Like the funky jingle that plays when you pickup keys and stuff or how when you're not interacting with anything, Luigi calls out to Mario when you press the A button. He even has different calls when you're low on health. The one here at 0:04 is my absolutely favorite, has me laughing every time.

This game has that weird 6th gen GameCube charm that I love. 2 and 3 while not bad, both feel sterile in comparison. Idk, nothing is as raw as that ending where Luigi just starts crying and laughing at the fact he's finally reunited with Mario, it's genuinely so heartwarming I love it so much.

As I said in my other review, it does have its faults. I don't particularly like Boolossus. I just think they made it way too tedious to hit the boos with the ice. The high HP boos are also still somewhat annoying, though I feel like they weren't too bad this time around. Again, if they just didn't give them massive amounts of health...or even better just don't let them fly into different rooms, then that issue would be alleviated.

In the end though, I do love this game. Definitely a game I'd like to continue to replay every October and definitely one of my favorite GameCube games. After this I plan on playing Dead Space and Silent Hill, hopefully I'm able to get them in before Super Mario Bros Wonder comes out cuz I'm definitely playing that day 1 lol.

P.S: Oh yeah, this time around I decided not to get all gold portraits. Last year I did and while I'm glad I accomplished that feat, having to gold Sir Weston again doesn't sound like a fun time. I did get mostly golds though which is cool. I also didn't forget the gold diamond in the plant this time around so thank god. Because of that my score was 122,000,000 something which aint half bad. I also forgot to mention I played the hidden mission this time around. I wanna say I played the hidden one back in 2018 as well but i forget if I beat it back then. Enemies do more damage, there's more of them apparently (I didn't really notice a difference) and your vacuum sucks way faster now which was super fun and helpful with those portrait ghosts.