The first new game type we tried out was my favorite of the bunch. Called "Witness Protection," this mode is a team affair with one squad playing as The Lost biker gang and the other as the N.O.O.S.E. The goal of the N.O.O.S.E. is to deliver three state witnesses to the proper police stations while The Lost try to kill said witnesses. If you're playing as the good guys, one team member gets to drive the van with the witnesses making him the prime target while the rest of the team drives in cop cars. As I found out, it takes quite a bit of firepower to take down the van…and the van is pretty daunting when it starts trying to ram you and you're just chasing it on a small bike.
It's all about teamwork here. You might be tempted to just ride your bike up solo and try to take out the van's driver, but a coordinated attack just as the witness is leaving the van for the police station is most effective. Likewise for the cops running defense. Without staying in constant contact with the van's driver, you won't know where you should go to be most effective. You can get all of the kills you want, but if you don't protect the van you won't win.
Also, when you're on a bike, avoid getting hit by a cop car while on a bridge. It doesn't go over well.
The next mode, "Own the City," is a GTA take on your standard territories match. Each team must try to take over as many territories as possible. There's just one catch: Each territory your team owns is populated by NPC characters to protect it while you're off taking over another.
The more territories you currently hold, the more AI controlled NPCs you'll have on your side. In order to take over a territory, you'll have to clear it of all opposition, both human and AI. Add in a special Gun Van that you can hijack and drive around to upgrade all of your squad's weapons and you've got yourself some extra strategic elements.
The new race mode is a clear homage to the classic motorcycle game Road Rash. The goal is simple: travel through all of the checkpoints and reach the finish first. The catch is that everyone is on bikes and you can hold down the X or B buttons to charge up a baseball bat swing to knock the opposition on their tails.
After a few motorcycle races (and concussions from high speed bat-meets-face collisions), we moved on to "Lone Wolf Biker." If you've played a first-person shooter, you've likely already played a mode just like this. At the outset of the match, one player is selected as the Lone Wolf. Their job is to survive as long as they can while everyone else tries to take them down. Kill the Lone Wolf and you get your shot at being the target. Last the longest as the Lone Wolf and you win.
The last mode we played is called "Chopper vs. Chopper." You can probably guess what that entails. The game is only played by two people, one on a motorcycle and one in a helicopter. If you're on the bike, it's your job to get to as many checkpoints scattered around the city as possible. If you're in the copter, all you need to do is kill the guy on the bike, either by shooting them down or embarrassing them by killing them with the copter blades. Once the player in the motorcycle is killed, the roles are reversed.
There is one more mode, but we didn't get a chance to try it out. This one, called "Club Business" has everyone playing as a member of The Lost. Different tasks are doled out that everyone will race to complete in order to gain favor with the gang. In the team-based version of this, Rockstar says you can gain money for your club by riding in formation.