The Lost and Damned

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two episodic expansions for Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It came out on 17 February 2009 as downloadable content for the Xbox 360, priced at 1600 Microsoft Points. Rockstar said at launch that the content equalled roughly a third of the main game's story missions. The player takes the role of a biker in Liberty City instead of Niko Bellic.

Announced at E3 2006 as an Xbox 360 exclusive

Episodic content for GTA IV was first announced at Microsoft's E3 2006 press conference on 9 May 2006. Both episodes were Xbox 360 exclusives at first, under a deal in which Microsoft reportedly paid Take-Two 50 million US dollars for the pair. Dan Houser described the plan as showing a different side of Liberty City and explaining details and mysteries from the main story.

A biker war that keeps crossing Niko's path

The protagonist is Johnny Klebitz, vice president of the Alderney chapter of The Lost MC, a biker gang that appears in some of GTA IV's missions. Rockstar's own synopsis describes a veteran member caught in a vicious turf war with rival gangs for control of the city. It begins when club president Billy Grey comes back from rehab and breaks Johnny's truce with the Angels of Death.

The episode is set in 2008, at the same time as GTA IV and the second expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony. It shows Johnny's side of the heroin and blood diamonds storylines that those two games tell through Niko Bellic and Luis Lopez. Johnny attends the heroin deal that turns out to be a police sting, alongside Niko and Playboy X, and the diamond exchange at the museum is the one Luis Lopez ambushes. Johnny also kidnaps Niko's cousin Roman for Dimitri Rascalov, to pay off the debts of his ex-girlfriend Ashley, and Niko rescues Roman in GTA IV's mission Hostile Negotiations. Niko in turn kills Lost member Jason Michaels in the main game, and Johnny's best friend Jim Fitzgerald in the mission No Way on the Subway.

Mid-mission checkpoints and a map that is open from the start

The whole map, Alderney included, is open from the start. Alderney, modelled on New Jersey, is the main location because The Lost are based there.

Missions now have mid-mission checkpoints, which answers a long-running complaint about the series: after a failure, the player can retry from the start of the failed section. Motorcycle handling was refined so that minor collisions are less likely to throw the rider off, and Johnny can call on gang members Terry and Clay for weapons or a bike.

New side jobs include Gang Wars and Bike Races, in which riders carry baseball bats. New activities include arm wrestling, Hi-Lo cards and air hockey. The weapons list gained:

• sawn-off shotgun
• automatic 9mm pistol
• assault shotgun
• pool cue
• grenade launcher
• pipe bomb

Multiplayer got five new modes:

• Witness Protection
• Lone Wolf Biker
• Own The City
• Club Business
• Chopper vs Chopper

Metal on L.C.H.C. and Frankie Boyle at Split Sides

Five radio stations received new content. Max Cavalera hosts a metal show on L.C.H.C., and WKTT carries The Martin Serious Show, voiced by Will Forte. Comedian Frankie Boyle performs at the Split Sides comedy club, on top of the base game's comedians.

Praised for the bikes, flagged for full-frontal nudity

Metacritic rates the Xbox 360 version 90/100, which it classes as universal acclaim, and the PS3 version 88/100. IGN gave it 9.0/10 and Eurogamer 8/10. Critics praised the motorcycle handling, the darker story and the voice acting. They criticised the auto-aim carried over from GTA IV and the weak AI of allied bikers.

A scene with congressman Thomas Stubbs III was the first full-frontal nudity in the series, and Common Sense Media issued a public warning about the episode.

From Xbox download to disc, PS3 and PC

On 29 October 2009 The Lost and Damned was released on disc together with The Ballad of Gay Tony as Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. This release is standalone and does not require GTA IV. According to NPD, the boxed package sold under 160,000 units at US retail between its launch and 28 November 2009, a figure that leaves out digital sales.

Episodes from Liberty City reached PlayStation 3 and PC on 13 April 2010 in North America and 16 April 2010 in Europe, on disc or as downloads via PlayStation Network and Games for Windows LIVE. Rockstar Toronto ported the episode to Windows. The European release was delayed by two weeks after a last-minute request from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to edit some in-game radio, TV and internet content.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition followed on 26 October 2010 in North America and 29 October in Europe, bundling GTA IV with Episodes from Liberty City on PS3 and Xbox 360. Since 9 February 2017, GTA IV and Episodes from Liberty City have also been playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility.