RockTheCasba
07-23-2008, 04:08 PM
game looks pretty good. i liked the previous game.
July 23, 2008 - It's been a while since our first good look at Midnight Club: Los Angeles - nearly a full year, in fact. Since then, Rockstar San Diego has been set up in the garage and busy putting new finishes on nearly every piece of its latest entry in the highly successful franchise, and our recent hands-on time with the title has proven that the studio's efforts look to have paid off greatly.
Much of what I saw in my latest hands-on time had been revealed to us at our demo last August, but this was my first time getting my hands on the wheel, and as of now, the game drives quite well. When you punch the gas from a standstill, your car will kick and fight to get up to speed, its rear end lurching from side to side as the tires struggle to hug the road. Rockstar San Diego has done a great job in this regard in transferring the feeling of these extremely powerful engines to a plastic controller, perhaps even instilling a bit of fear and respect for the rides as you work to maintain control of the multi-hundred horsepower vehicles.
Motorcycles will play a big part of your domination of Los Angeles.
Once you're up to speed, the controls become both utterly responsive and realistically touchy. If you're in a high-powered exotic ride, like an Aston-Martin Vantage, for example, the car responds immediately to your inputs, but you need to be careful as it's so fast and agile that you can easily push things too far and wind up taking yourself out of the race. It's a great mix of control and chaos.
Seeing the Action Cam in, err, action, is one thing, but it's something else to drive with it. Rather than being stuck directly to your car, with your ride essentially remaining static in the middle of the screen, the Action Cam follows your car on a loose line, bobbing and weaving around the action. It looks like it's taken straight out of a Michael Bay film, minus the terrible dialog and forgettable characters. I prefer to race via the dashboard view, however. Each dashboard in the game is uniquely modeled after the car's real-life counterparts, with working gauges and so forth. The attention to detail here is great and helps give each car that extra bit of something unique to help it stand out from the crowd.
We'd gotten a look at the game's GPS system beforehand, which takes you zooming from an overhead, realtime look at the city straight down into your car, but I saw another sweet use of it this go 'round. After a race is set up, you can head to the GPS and scope out the checkpoints for the race to figure out which route you're going to take. That's cool, but even better is the fact that since the system is running in realtime and in 3D, you can zoom in and around the map, and even change the angle, and look for shortcuts to take in the race. This'll help you learn the ins and outs of the city faster than mulling about on your own and immediately helps level the computer's advantage of having built-in knowledge of LA, which is awesome.
Tight, chaotic racing is the name of the game.
The GPS will also allow you to track down any racer that you've identified in the city. Once you find another racer and flash your lights to begin a one-on-one race, said driver will be added to your GPS and you'll be able to track their whereabouts anywhere in the city. No more having to drive around the city to hunt down opponents - they're all trackable at any time.
A number of elements from previous Midnight Club titles are making their return in Los Angeles, but with cool tweaks. For example, you'll once again have access to special moves, but rather than being pre-assigned on a per-class basis, you'll be able to assign a custom special move to any car you want, including the new EMP move which disables all vehicles in a nearby radius.
The police have also seen a change in their ways. They'll now target anyone caught speeding and generally driving recklessly, including your opponents, which can be to your advantage. They're also dynamic this time around, patrolling the streets and looking for "bad" drivers. Speeding will catch their attention, as will taking a shortcut through private property. Once you're being chased, you can opt to pull over and pay a small fine, or attempt to get away at the risk of a bigger fine, but with a handful of Reputation Points as a reward if you can escape. A cool twist is that even if you pull over, the game is still "live", allowing you to wait until the cop approaches your window before peeling out and giving yourself a head start as he races back to his car.
The DUB folks are helping out once again.
A number of different race types will be available in the game. Circuit Races will have you hit checkpoints one by one in order, Unordered Races will you have you clear checkpoints in any order you wish, while Freeway Races will pit you against one other car on the current freeway. The cool thing about these races is that it allows you to focus on dodging traffic and beating the other car without having to navigate the city all too much since they're mostly straightaway races. Red Light Racer has you start at a streetlight and race to another spot in the city any way you wish, while Wager Races and Pinkslip Races will have you gambling your cash and car stash away. The list of race types goes on and on - if you can think of an option, it's probably here.
The last bit of the game that I got a look at is Midnight Club: Los Angeles' customization options. Like the previous games in the series, you'll have a ton of parts to tweak and choose from to outfit your car in almost any way you see fit. Performance upgrades allow you to tweak your car's internal bits and improve its handling, speed and whatnot. There's also an interior/exterior bit to the garage that'll allow you to swap out for new hoods, bumpers, spoilers, seats and much, much more. The two upgrades are separate, so you don't have to settle for a specific hood just to edge out a few more horses from your ride. There's a full vinyl and sticker editor as well, with multiple layers to work with, as well as tons of options for the type of paint (and color, obviously). In other words, there will be tons of options at your disposal for making your car unique.
You're no longer a faceless driver this time out.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles is currently slated to ship on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 7th in the US, and October 9th in Europe and the UK. A PSP version entitled Midnight Club: Los Angeles Remix will also hit shelves the same day.
July 23, 2008 - It's been a while since our first good look at Midnight Club: Los Angeles - nearly a full year, in fact. Since then, Rockstar San Diego has been set up in the garage and busy putting new finishes on nearly every piece of its latest entry in the highly successful franchise, and our recent hands-on time with the title has proven that the studio's efforts look to have paid off greatly.
Much of what I saw in my latest hands-on time had been revealed to us at our demo last August, but this was my first time getting my hands on the wheel, and as of now, the game drives quite well. When you punch the gas from a standstill, your car will kick and fight to get up to speed, its rear end lurching from side to side as the tires struggle to hug the road. Rockstar San Diego has done a great job in this regard in transferring the feeling of these extremely powerful engines to a plastic controller, perhaps even instilling a bit of fear and respect for the rides as you work to maintain control of the multi-hundred horsepower vehicles.
Motorcycles will play a big part of your domination of Los Angeles.
Once you're up to speed, the controls become both utterly responsive and realistically touchy. If you're in a high-powered exotic ride, like an Aston-Martin Vantage, for example, the car responds immediately to your inputs, but you need to be careful as it's so fast and agile that you can easily push things too far and wind up taking yourself out of the race. It's a great mix of control and chaos.
Seeing the Action Cam in, err, action, is one thing, but it's something else to drive with it. Rather than being stuck directly to your car, with your ride essentially remaining static in the middle of the screen, the Action Cam follows your car on a loose line, bobbing and weaving around the action. It looks like it's taken straight out of a Michael Bay film, minus the terrible dialog and forgettable characters. I prefer to race via the dashboard view, however. Each dashboard in the game is uniquely modeled after the car's real-life counterparts, with working gauges and so forth. The attention to detail here is great and helps give each car that extra bit of something unique to help it stand out from the crowd.
We'd gotten a look at the game's GPS system beforehand, which takes you zooming from an overhead, realtime look at the city straight down into your car, but I saw another sweet use of it this go 'round. After a race is set up, you can head to the GPS and scope out the checkpoints for the race to figure out which route you're going to take. That's cool, but even better is the fact that since the system is running in realtime and in 3D, you can zoom in and around the map, and even change the angle, and look for shortcuts to take in the race. This'll help you learn the ins and outs of the city faster than mulling about on your own and immediately helps level the computer's advantage of having built-in knowledge of LA, which is awesome.
Tight, chaotic racing is the name of the game.
The GPS will also allow you to track down any racer that you've identified in the city. Once you find another racer and flash your lights to begin a one-on-one race, said driver will be added to your GPS and you'll be able to track their whereabouts anywhere in the city. No more having to drive around the city to hunt down opponents - they're all trackable at any time.
A number of elements from previous Midnight Club titles are making their return in Los Angeles, but with cool tweaks. For example, you'll once again have access to special moves, but rather than being pre-assigned on a per-class basis, you'll be able to assign a custom special move to any car you want, including the new EMP move which disables all vehicles in a nearby radius.
The police have also seen a change in their ways. They'll now target anyone caught speeding and generally driving recklessly, including your opponents, which can be to your advantage. They're also dynamic this time around, patrolling the streets and looking for "bad" drivers. Speeding will catch their attention, as will taking a shortcut through private property. Once you're being chased, you can opt to pull over and pay a small fine, or attempt to get away at the risk of a bigger fine, but with a handful of Reputation Points as a reward if you can escape. A cool twist is that even if you pull over, the game is still "live", allowing you to wait until the cop approaches your window before peeling out and giving yourself a head start as he races back to his car.
The DUB folks are helping out once again.
A number of different race types will be available in the game. Circuit Races will have you hit checkpoints one by one in order, Unordered Races will you have you clear checkpoints in any order you wish, while Freeway Races will pit you against one other car on the current freeway. The cool thing about these races is that it allows you to focus on dodging traffic and beating the other car without having to navigate the city all too much since they're mostly straightaway races. Red Light Racer has you start at a streetlight and race to another spot in the city any way you wish, while Wager Races and Pinkslip Races will have you gambling your cash and car stash away. The list of race types goes on and on - if you can think of an option, it's probably here.
The last bit of the game that I got a look at is Midnight Club: Los Angeles' customization options. Like the previous games in the series, you'll have a ton of parts to tweak and choose from to outfit your car in almost any way you see fit. Performance upgrades allow you to tweak your car's internal bits and improve its handling, speed and whatnot. There's also an interior/exterior bit to the garage that'll allow you to swap out for new hoods, bumpers, spoilers, seats and much, much more. The two upgrades are separate, so you don't have to settle for a specific hood just to edge out a few more horses from your ride. There's a full vinyl and sticker editor as well, with multiple layers to work with, as well as tons of options for the type of paint (and color, obviously). In other words, there will be tons of options at your disposal for making your car unique.
You're no longer a faceless driver this time out.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles is currently slated to ship on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 7th in the US, and October 9th in Europe and the UK. A PSP version entitled Midnight Club: Los Angeles Remix will also hit shelves the same day.