Gamers PS3 Review Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Gamers PS3 Review Midnight Club: Los Angeles
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Screenshots

Let your driving do the talking

Whose next!

Los Angeles never looked this good

The best parts (3 out of 5)

Midnight Club: Los Angeles has an excellent looking and very functional game play interface and good looking visuals that definitely are an upgrade from other racing games.

A difficult and very hard drive against opponents who will challenge you and frustrate you with their tactics, they are wonderfully aggressive, and will take advantage of any mistakes you make.

Up to 16 players can race competitively against each other in a number of fun, engaging and entertainment game modes on line that let you create your own races or challenge other drivers to competitions.

A wonderfully designed and fleshed out Los Angeles to race and explore in is nice, all the major buildings and streets and other sights are included in their eye-popping and sense-engaging best.

Parts that could be better (4 out of 5)

Midnight Club: Los Angeles has over the top difficulty that never stops coming, even with the patch on Dec 19, 2008 by Microsoft, the game is only a little easier to defeat.

The game graphics (3 out of 5)

The racing goes on day or night in this Los Angeles and the visual presentation shows all the best sights at night and day, the beaches of Santa Monica look amazing, the Hollywood Hills have the look of wealth we expect, and all the monuments in LA have been rendered beautifully in the Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

The frame rate stayed steady and calm when I was driving, racing or whatever I was up to, which helped keep me engaged and excited about the next race.

The weather matrix produces some nice effects day or night, you’ll begin in sunshine and rain will begin to fall as you race, which especially at night has some wonderful textures and details to keep the eyes happy.

The city maps are all authentic and well designed; you can zoom in like Google Street Level, or pull back to get a nice view of the streets and buildings around you.

Sounds in the game (3 out of 5)

The sound effects are actually average, but they have done a good job trying to make each car sound different, even if the engines don’t really sound as loud and authentic as the real thing in action.

The voice acting is also average, the lines of dialogue could certainly be better thought out, since many of the comments are too simple for real humans.

The story line (2 out of 5)

There’s not much of a story line in Midnight Club: Los Angeles and it’s really there just to give you a reason to get in the car and race. You will drive around Los Angeles looking for suitable competition, then flash your lights to get their attention, and let them know you want to take them down. You will occasionally be stopped by the police, but they’re not hard to leave in your dust, so there not a factor in the game play.

Playability (3 out of 5)

Despite the difficulty of actually beating the game, Midnight Club is a very playable game that can provide you with an extreme racing challenge, and should keep the best virtual racers busy.

Midnight Club only has around 44 different types of cars to race with, a small selection that needs improvement to compete.

You will be able to race in a number of different races; including time trials, check point races, freeway races, point to point excursions, but it’s all been done before, so there’s nothing new for you to try.

The driving is difficult, a minor bump, slight touch on a wall or fence, will send you spinning, which is unrealistic and takes some of the entertainment out of the game play.

You will have to do a lot of racing and winning to unlock new rides in Midnight Club, which is frustrating when you have lots of money and a car that needs to be upgraded to compete better.

Your finishing position in each race determines your respect aspect of the game, with more respect you get more money, unlock new rides (including motorcycles), and visual customizations to attract the girls and performance upgrades to improve your cars ability to win.

The final mark (3 out of 5)

Midnight Club can give Need for Speed a run for its money and if you don’t mind the difficulty level, it will win out every time, but it’s still a street racing game that could be much better. The racing-guru who hasn’t met his AI match will certainly like this game and is probably still trying to beat it, but if you’re only a novice racer, you might want to try an easier racing experience to keep the frustration level down and the entertainment high.