It's not meant to be clear where exactly Lost and Damned's storyline kicks off in relation to GTA IV's we only know that it takes place within the timeframe of the main game, with several crossover points - players certainly don't need to have finished or made any significant progress in GTA IV to be able to get started in The Lost and Damned, so for example, although we meet up with familiar characters in Lost and Damned, these obviously take place before Niko makes certain relevant 'decisions' over on the GTA IV storyline. But the soul and pace of The Lost and Damned is notably different to Niko's adventures in the same city.

Some of the references to the main game are subtle others more overt. Once again it's about the story, and a completely new narrative arc sits within the timeframe of GTA IV - at some points, intertwining with it. Obviously, players need to have GTA IV inserted for the DLC to work, and after the initial download (there's no word at all on the download size), you have the choice to enter The Lost and Damned from within the main game, Rockstar told us.īut it's not really about the new guns, vehicles, music, animation, or areas. So as far as DLC goes, we're still talking big time here, and the production values in Lost and Damned are pretty much what you'd expect from Rockstar North - the new characters aren't just recycled assets from the main game.

The Lost and Damned downloadable content is the first of two exclusive Xbox 360 episodic updates to GTA IV - setting back Microsoft $25 million per episode, according to Take-Two CFO Lainie Goldstein.

Gta iv lost and damned