Midnight Club: Los Angeles

[MrDigital]

Anyone else playing it? I'm about 60% through it now with 35 hours (according to the game stats). Plays well, cars handle similar to Test Drive Unlimited.

I have a few issues with the game:
1) The recreation of Los Angeles is pretty weak. First of all they only included the basin and not the valley or even south bay. The boundaries are the 101, the PCH, the 5 and the 10. Why the hell did it take so long to get the game released if that's all they were going to include? The scope is incredibly weak compared to Test Drive Unlimited. Second of all, the parts of LA they DID include are barely true to life. They took quite a few liberties with the streets and layout. Very few of the actual stores/buildings look correct, and most of the streets aren't particularly similar to reality.

2) The selection of cars in the game is limited -- again, why did this game take so long to get released? I've been waiting for it since they announced it about 18 months ago. There's maybe 40 cars, with many of those being "DUB" editions of the same cars.

3) The game has some serious texture loading issues. Sometimes I'm driving around on a cloud because the ground textures don't load. Sometimes the wheels disappear off my car leaving tires with no rims.

4) Somebody should've told Rockstar to listen to the old 80's song "Nobody Walks in LA" because they have an excessive amount of pedestrians walking the streets for no other reason then to distract your eyes with them dodging out of the way. And you can tell it's from the same people who made Grand Theft Auto since the character designs and voices are identical.

What I like about the game:
1) The controls are good. I don't have any issues with car handling or illusion of speed. The pointers that point you through the courses are easy to see and aim for (much better than Burnout Paradise).

2) The graphics are decent, nothing extraordinary but nothing horrible either.

3) The soundtrack is great. It even has my ringtone in the game! (DJ Felli Fel's "Get Buck in Here") Hah I actually thought my phone was ringing when I heard it. Never expected it to be in a game. But it's a mix between hip-hop and house/minimal electro.

4) It's my favorite city inside of a video game and they made a respectable effort, but nowhere near what I expected.

I haven't played online yet so I don't know how that aspect of it plays.

Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10

For reference I'd give these scores to these similar games:
Test Drive Unlimited: 9/10
Burnout Paradise: 7/10
Need For Speed Most Wanted: 8/10
Need For Speed Carbon: 7/10

[eon]

my brother bought it
i didnt even care enough to try it out yet

[wh666-666]

Nice review ...

[Kung_Fu_Fighter]

2) The selection of cars in the game is limited -- again, why did this game take so long to get released? I've been waiting for it since they announced it about 18 months ago. There's maybe 40 cars, with many of those being "DUB" editions of the same cars.

How does it compare overall to MIDNIGHT CLUB 3? That game was one of my favorite racers of all time along with F-Zero GX.

[MrDigital]

I've never played any earlier MCs but a different review (IGN I think) stated that it was a drastic reduction in cars from MC3.

[Timman_24]

Really test drive unlimited is that good? Better than most wanted? I might have to pick that up. What makes it better?

[MrDigital]

NFS:MW had a LOT of bugs.. ie. invisible walls (where your car misses an object but still registers a hit and spins around), elastic-band AI and some other minor things. TDU has much fewer of those.

TDU is also a much larger environment to race around with a wider variety of cars which handle much different from each other. It's also an open racing world and not linear like NFS:MW. The selection of cars in TDU is amazing with even boutique vendors like Koenigsegg and Caterham being represented and not just the big automakers.

TDU is the best arcade racing game ever IMO.

[Kamakazie]

I hated TDU, myself. The car physics didn't feel right and the bike physics were terrible. I did like the island you were placed on and the stuff they did with online play, but that wasn't enough to get past the fact that the driving physics were stiff and the bikes feel like small cars.

[MrDigital]

The bikes ride the same (if not worse) in MCLA as they do in TDU, so... I agree.

But the car physics??? I think we argued about this before actually, no need to rehash it lol. Needless to say I strongly disagree.

[MrDigital]

Well I just got to 100% career completion, took me 70 hours. Probably would've taken about 65hrs if I understood the idea that you had to use each type of car earlier.

I'd say my initial assessment was correct, I'd stick with a 7.5/10 rating.

[mr_oh_so_ice]

Does this game have elastic band AI?

I absolutely hate racing games that have this type of AI.

[MrDigital]

No, not that I've seen. I've beaten the AI by upwards of 45 seconds before.

[Timman_24]

I think I might pick it up because I haven't played a game like this since Burnout Paradise came out and I haven't played a upgradeable arcade game since Carbon (sucked.) I've read at gamespot that the AI is extremely hard. Is this true? I am pretty good at racing games but the reviewer was making it out to be a huge crutch and his main reason for scoring it lower. I don't mind difficulty, but if it is insane then I don't know if I will give it a go.

What say you Mr.D?

[MrDigital]

I wouldn't say that. There's only a few races where you can even choose your difficulty (wager/pinkslip) so I'm not sure what he's referring to. You have to beat certain racers on hard in order to win the prize car, but only a couple of them were particularly difficult.

I never found the AI to be difficult though. When I raced without screwing up, I won. When I hit other cars or crashed into walls and flipped over, I lost. The onus was always on me for winning or losing, not the AI. There's no rubberband effect that I could see.

I'm not the world's greatest racer and I barely ever win when I get into online races, and yet I was able to get to 100% completion in 70hrs and every offline achievement in about 75hrs. It could be done even faster if you understand the basics of the game going in.

I would say it's about the same level of difficulty as Burnout Paradise.

[Timman_24]

Sweet, I love to hear no rubberband AI. Sounds like the guy that reviewed it just sucks *** at racing games or is a cry baby. Probably kept losing the same race a few times right before he started writing his review and he just wanted to vent.

An arcade racer that takes skill??? Unheard of! :D

I will most likely pick it up after exams.

[MrDigital]

I did hear somewhere else that they said the "red" level races were exceptionally difficult, and I will admit that I never bothered racing them (except the freeway ones). There's a bunch of events that don't NEED to be beaten in order to get to 100% and as far as I can tell exist only to 1) give you more money/rep; 2) train your racing skills.

I am a pretty good racer, the best amongst my friends, so I can see where someone with less skill would get upset at the difficulty of the game since I know I had trouble with a few sections, but I still wouldn't rank it as a "difficult" game.

[MrDigital]

Week of 12/21 MC:LA is going to be $37.99 for 360/PS3 at BestBuy.

[Un4given]

I got this game for x-mas. I'm trading it in. I didn't like it at all. My main gripe is not having controller configuration capabilities. I hate using the joystick to drive. I want to be able to use the D-pad, but that isn't even an option.

[MrDigital]

I wouldn't want to trade in the analog precision of the stick for the digital response of the pad when driving in a game designed for the analog stick.

I understand what you're saying but I've trained myself to use the system since it's standard on pretty much every 360 driving game. I used to hate using the trigger as acceleration (preferred a front button) but now I wouldn't have it any other way. Same with the analog stick.

Once you realize that's how it's going to be across the board it's easier to adapt yourself to the system and enjoy the games than to try and adapt the games to you.

[Timman_24]

I got this game for x-mas. I'm trading it in. I didn't like it at all. My main gripe is not having controller configuration capabilities. I hate using the joystick to drive. I want to be able to use the D-pad, but that isn't even an option.

D-pad to drive in the year 2009? Lol, get used to the time man. I changed over with GT3. At first it sucks, but once you get used it, it is much better. There is a lot more control.

This game is pretty cool. I got it for X-mas but just started to play it. The graphics are nice, the gameplay is not bad, and I like the little cutscenes. So far my only complaint are the extremely long races (some go for 5+ mins.) This isnt bad for circuit type races in a typical racing game, but when you are dodging traffic it can suck to get owned right at the end. Also the bumper cam seems a bit too low, I wish they had a hood cam without going into the cockpit. Otherwise I will probably beat it over time. I really enjoy it.

[Un4given]

I don't like the stick. I have far better control capabilities with the D-pad. If they don't want to give gamers the ability to set the controls in a manner they like to use, then I simply won't purchase their games.

GRID was perfect for giving me the controller features I want. I'm not going to learn 50 different pad configurations for each game. I want to set the pad to how I like it. If they want my business they will cater to me, not the other way around.

[Timman_24]

I don't like the stick. I have far better control capabilities with the D-pad. If they don't want to give gamers the ability to set the controls in a manner they like to use, then I simply won't purchase their games.

GRID was perfect for giving me the controller features I want. I'm not going to learn 50 different pad configurations for each game. I want to set the pad to how I like it. If they want my business they will cater to me, not the other way around.

You are just limiting yourself. You are missing some good games if you won't learn the control scheme. Giving D-pad control is kind of a special case these days, ALL racing games use the stick now. It has an "infinite" range of motion instead of just on-off full lock, no lock turning. Seriously if you just give it a chance within 1-2 hours you will never go back.

[Timman_24]

So what cars did you primarily use Mr. D? I started off with the integra and then used that Camaro for awhile (fast but always felt like I was on the edge of losing control.) I'm thinking of getting the RX-8. Was the new Mustang any good?

[MrDigital]

So what cars did you primarily use Mr. D? I started off with the integra and then used that Camaro for awhile (fast but always felt like I was on the edge of losing control.) I'm thinking of getting the RX-8. Was the new Mustang any good?

I used mainly tuners and exotics. I almost never use American/"muscle" cars in games because they tend to handle like crap, lol.

I can't remember what I started with, it wasn't the integra. I used the RX-8 quite a bit near the beginning I think (don't you win it from somebody?) but the main cars I used were the Evo and the Murcielago, both of which you can win I think.

I I think I actually beat the guy with the Murcielago pretty early (he's downtown, right?) and so the game became quite a bit easier once I had that.

[Timman_24]

I used mainly tuners and exotics. I almost never use American/"muscle" cars in games because they tend to handle like crap, lol.

I can't remember what I started with, it wasn't the integra. I used the RX-8 quite a bit near the beginning I think (don't you win it from somebody?) but the main cars I used were the Evo and the Murcielago, both of which you can win I think.

I I think I actually beat the guy with the Murcielago pretty early (he's downtown, right?) and so the game became quite a bit easier once I had that.

Okay, I seem to be stuck in a wierd position. I have the integra that is super slow and the camero which has very bad handling but it feels awesome when I win with it. I also won this datsun 240z but it is super slow too. I don't want to buy a car, so I guess I just need to race some of the medium/easy races to get the game to advance me to the point of winning the RX8.

[MrDigital]

MC:LA SOUTH CENTRAL DLC comes out March 12th.
http://kotaku.com/5162892/midnight-club-south-central-trailer

Has a free version which just adds the map and a $10 premium version which adds some new cars and other crap. I'll grab the $10 version myself. Haven't played MC:LA in awhile, gonna take some time to get back into the driving method.
The free South Central upgrade for Midnight Club: Los Angeles includes four new neighborhoods, increasing the game's total map size by a third.

For $10 on the Playstation Network, or 800 points on Xbox Live, you can download the premium upgrade which includes the map expansion plus new vehicles, parts, music, vinyls, hydraulics and more.


Sweet.