Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3)
The return of the king of open-city racing
10/24/2008 4:57 PM | 1 Comments | Page 3 of 3
What's Hot: Beautiful living city; In-depth driving model; Extensive car customization
What's Not: Those stupid cars that get in your way
To-do list included
In this city, there is no shortage of things to do, and most of them are arranged in a checklist of missions that progress as you earn reputation. It's also worth noting that here is finally a third-party game that ships with Trophies for the PlayStation 3, which just gives you even more to do. Choose among dynamically generated freeway races, time trials in powerful cars you haven't unlocked yet, demolition missions or tournaments composed of multiple races. Accept one-off challenges from other characters, work your way through various goals for each of the game's courses, or just set up an arcade challenge -- your choice. The multiplayer takes a cue from
Burnout: Paradise. You can seamlessly host or join a multiplayer instance of the city in which drivers can set up races of their choosing (in fact, there is no main menu in this game; you set everything up using the T-Mobile-branded cell phone from inside your car). In this case, Los Angeles is both the lobby and the arena.
Muscle cars for brute power
The multiplayer includes Midnight Club's breadth of game types, from various race layouts (you can even make your own) to team capture-the-flag battles to keep-away challenges. All of these can be punched up with power-ups that make this unlike any other racing game. Slam on the other guy's brakes for him, freeze him in a giant ice cube, reverse his steering, or just mess up his view. Unfortunately, unless you specifically set up a race to limit car types, it looks like players will always use the best car they've unlocked. It's not very sporting for folks with Lamborghinis to go up against Ford Focuses and Volkswagen Golfs, but that's what seems to be happening during the first few days of the game's release.
Consider it a further incentive to work your way through the single-player mode to get the better cars. Not that you'll need much incentive beyond the game itself. This is easily the best city-racing game you can play right now, and a must-have for anyone who likes racing, driving games, open-world cities or great graphics. Just remember to breathe occasionally.
This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
