Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Overview:
Midnight Club is a Rockstar developed game released on the Playstation 3. The game is rated T for mild language. One of the first things a gamer can see when they turn on their Playstations are the beautifully sculpted graphics. From the reflection off of the hood to the expressions of the people, Midnight Club delivers well. The game takes you through the life of Tony, a New York man who travels to Los Angeles to race cars. As you progress, Tony builds tentative relations with the different racers of LA, his reputation and cars speaking louder than his words. Soon you find yourself face to face with some of the best racers in Hollywood, and looking at a shot at a racing legend. While this is not not the most in-depth storyline, looking fly in a Lamborghini can make anything interesting as you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIT3j7T4crA.
Game Mechanics:
The obvious focus of Midnight Club is cars, and Rockstar games fulfilled that. Soon after Tony, the main character in the story, wins his first race in Hollywood he is invited to a garage by a gruff, rugged man named Karol, who hooks you up with different cars. In Karol's garages (He owns two on either side of town) the player can customize their cars down to the color of the dashboard. Gamers can add neon lighting, tints, rims, and even change their chassis. Races are easily accessible and bountiful. As soon as you're done with one race, three more will be waiting for you. The game does a great job of keeping you attached to the road, as IGN reports. At almost all times Tony will be in the car. Even after you win a race, a tiny window will pop up and stop everything while you read. As soon as your done, you're back on the road, looking for more suckers to pummel. The game also offers a player four general types of races; high-speed highway races that vary in intensity, ordered races that take you 'round the city at a wicked fast pace, time trials, and red-light races. This is a unique time of racing that challenges the racer to beat their opponent to a land mark in the city any way possible. Rockstar does a decent job of giving characters flare, but it is obviously geared for racing. Cut scenes are not necessary to the story, and you could skip every speech in the game and still know what to do. Midnight Club does a good job of keeping your racing options easily accessible with a task-list that displays the 15 most recent objectives.
Even among the dark nights Los Angeles looks gorgeous
Radar and your full screen map displayed the city beautifully, giving players access to normally hard to find back roads and off track shortcuts. RockStar does not press the player to do any of the races though. Players can accrue money and boost your rep by racing contenders outside of the story before they race again. Chris Roper of IGN had this to say on Midnight Club:
"The game has a whole lot going for it, and racing fans would do well to check it out. However, it's not perfect, with a few bumps in the road here and there that keep it from being the undisputed king of the streets. Contender though? Most certainly"
Midnight Club is a hard game, no questions asked. Early in the game players will realize that they cannot laze through courses and expect to win. Opponent cars will continue to upgrade to match the speed of your cars, so even if you manage to make enough money to buy that brand new tuner, your opponents will have their corvettes and mustangs waiting for you. Even older cars can be seen blasting off of the line, leaving you and your Ducatti eating dust.
Breathtaking... Simply breathtaking
Midnight club also requires the player to drive seamlessly in order to win. One or two wrecks can cost you the race. Furthermore, some races require you to race a series, or more than one race to win. This means that reckless drivers cannot get away with a kiss from lady luck. However, because you earn reputation and money for losing as well as winning, you can beef up your vehicle for the next race, making winning much more obtainable. Many reviewers claim that Midnight Club is much too hard, reviewers like Aaron Thomas of Game Spot: "...Because of the amazing skill level of the CPU, even one minor error on your part can--and typically will--cost you the race. This means that you'll end up doing a lot of grinding (finding races that aren't insanely tough and repeatedly doing them over) to raise your respect level. It's tedious and doesn't make for a great time."
As you can see, the side skirts of this picture blur as your attention shifts to the car threatening to overtake you.
I do not find this to be completely accurate. While I found myself cursing at the almost invisible parked cars, the SUV's that blindsided me at intersections and the corners that seemed unavoidable, I also found myself enjoying the fact that I had made a vicious turn around a building or running my opponents' vehicles off of the highway. Although Midnight Club demands skill and practice, the difficultly of the game is fair enough to keep players coming back for more.
Graphics:
This game offers a very nice presentation of Hollywood, while not making the driving field too big or intricate.
Cars are beautifully designed and even the road looks nice. Even blazing over 150 miles an hour, small details make the game great. While tearing up the tracks players can see litter and leaves as they zoom past
As you can see, Tony is stunting like his daddy here
competitors, rain patters against your windshield as they cut through Beverly Hills, and an airplane leaving port as you burn highway racers. Founder of Consoleupdates.com commented: "Whether driving by the beach or beating the competition by cutting through a parking garage at 200 mph, Midnight Club: Los Angeles provides a seamless, breath taking environment for everyone who loves to compete..." As you move through the race, the sides of the street almost melt away as you focus on that car right in front of you, that very next corner, or drifting right into the spot you need without crashing. The realism of the game sometimes affects the game play, however. Gamers driving on a dark road at breakneck speeds will easily get confused with cars on the road as they wiggle around the highway as the running of head lights colors can throw you in to a dizzying crash. All in all, however, these flaws in the game are minor by in large.
Final Review:
Game play: In a word, Midnight Club's game play is superb. The handling is great, each car has a slightly different feel to it, and even though racing can have it's downturns, Midnight Club Los Angeles is just fun - 3.5
Graphics: Midnight Club chauffeurs a very well polished view of the West Coast. You would do well to see it. - 4.0
Overall: Midnight Club Los Angeles scores a 3.5. While there are no outstanding flaws that should push anyone away from this great game, the small pitfalls do add up. Especially when you fall into them more than once.
Thanks for reading. Check back often for new posts, videos and information. - Tahj
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