GTA 'Episodes from Liberty City' Hitting PC, PS3

By Marcus Yam
published

No longer an Xbox 360 exclusive after March. Come and get it, PC gamers!

Are you a PC or PS3 gamer who preferred your Grand Theft Auto IV experience on your non-Xbox 360? Right now, you've been missing out on some of the best downloadable content yet with the "Lost and the Damned" and the "Ballad of Gay Tony" expansions – but that will soon change.

It appears that the Microsoft exclusivity period on the GTA IV DLC will be expiring on March 30 as the "Episodes From Liberty City" – which contains both DLC packs – will be appearing at both retail and online for download on PSN and Games for Windows Live.

Expect the retail package to include both DLC packs and the online download to allow gamers to buy separately.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alextheawesome
    It's about time.
    Reply
  • ominous prime
    Hoping for a better port than GTA IV, what a nightmare that was.
    Reply
  • LATTEH
    i never played the DLC i hope there good...
    Reply
  • logitic
    I just hope we can use all of our GPU's this time around.
    Reply
  • JonathanDeane
    ominous primeHoping for a better port than GTA IV, what a nightmare that was.
    How was the PC version compared to the PS3 version? (the only version I got to play for more then a few minutes)

    I was thinking about buying the PC one since its much cheaper now, that is if its any good.

    At any rate this is good news I guess?
    Reply
  • idisarmu
    I'll pass. I'm not a fan of GTA IV. I would have loved it if it hadn't cut so much stuff out that GTA:SA had.
    Reply
  • fulle
    I bought GTAIV for $7 on Steam, and I feel ripped off! Its one of the most glitchy pieces of console port garbage I've ever made the mistake of trying. GTA has low detail textures, poor character models, long loading screens, horrible CPU optimization, and graphical glitches galore (like having a boat disappear if looked at from an angle), yet, for some reason it still got glowing reviews for the PC from the likes of online gaming sites (like IGN).

    With the track record Rockstar has at this point, I don't know why anyone would think that they'll ever make a decent GTA port. Remember how GTA3 ran on the PC when it was released? With GTAIV, I heard the rumors, but figured that I'd risk it due to the sale price. Never again.
    Reply
  • princeandy63
    finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Reply
  • nforce4max
    About time since I am getting bored of wow. Even more so if I am dusting off old games like Blade Runner then you know after a Lv 80 blood elf pally and a lv 80 warrior tank.
    Reply
  • fulle
    @Bog...
    You're kidding, right?

    When GTAIV released it was playing at 38FPS at 1280x1024, on a C2Q OCed to 3.6GHz, paired with a GTX 280 for the GPU. Absolutely pathetic performance for the visuals offered.

    http://forums.vr-zone.com/news-around-the-web/362187-gta-4-pc-cpu-benchmark-review-13-cpus.html

    I have no doubt that you probably can run GTAIV at a decent framerate, but it's probably still under 60, and with a 50% view distance. I'd also hate to see what the min FPS values look like. Even with a complete monster system, with say a 5970 and 4+GHz i7 920, GTA would STILL stutter due to its poor system memory optimizations. Noticeably.

    The shadows just downright piss me off. They have this sort of hashing to them, because they were designed to run with a post-processing filter.
    Here's an example:
    http://img183.imageshack.us/i/newbitmapimagemq7.jpg/

    Due to this, if you run with AA on, depending on the AA method, the shadows look especially horrible... and could have a shimmering effect.

    Gameplay is the same old stuff from the GTA3 series. Only, a little more story driven. The sandbox environment is actually LESS interesting than in previous GTA titles.

    Good game my ass.
    Reply