Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3)

The return of the king of open-city racing
10/24/2008 4:57 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 3

"White-knuckle" doesn't begin to describe it. Throw in "eyes-dry-because-I-can't-blink" and "why-does-my-stomach-hurt? (oh-it's-because-I've-been-forgetting-to-breathe)." Maybe "drunk-on-sheer-velocity-so-keep-me-away-from-a-real-car-for-a-while," too. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is that kind of racing game, played through shuffling city traffic, where a split second or a misjudged millimeter will blow the race. Move over, Burnout Paradise. The definitive open-city city-racing game has returned, and it wants its crown back.

Where it's rush hour 24/7

Midnight Club has always been about racing in a city, and therefore navigating traffic. The normal cars on the street are just as much a factor as the other racers, your top speed and that hard right coming up in two blocks. Whether you're on the freeway, downtown, in Brentwood or winding your way through the Hollywood Hills, half the battle is getting around the pokey traffic. For the most part, you'll be okay if you stay in the left lane. Too bad that's not always the fastest way to get from point A to point B.

The other half of the battle is finding your way around the city. It's a true delight how Midnight Club: Los Angeles doesn't rely on constantly checking a mini-map to see where you need to go. It's there, as is an excellent full-screen HUD map and an even more excellent pause map. But this game is clearly built so that you can keep your eyes on the road, where they belong. Every race is played in an entirely open city, and the courses aren't afraid to run you from one side to the other, sometimes with tortuous twists along the way. But in all cases, bright smoke flares lead the way. It takes a small leap of faith to stop checking the map, but it's well worth the payoff: You are completely in the game world, able to react organically to the traffic, to detours and to what the other cars are doing. In fact, this is one of the few racing games in which every view is useful. I can't decide whether I prefer the static third-person view (Convenient!), the action view that slews around with the G-forces (Thrilling!), the in-car cockpit view (Immersive!) or the unobstructed bumper cam (Too immersive; I'm gonna barf!).

The final half of the battle -- these races are 50 percent better than most races! -- is the cars. There isn't any egregious rubber-banding going on here (rubber-banding is where the cars in the lead are slowed down, and the cars in the rear are sped up, effectively scripting closer races by redistributing the wealth of velocity). There's a subtle rubber-banding effect from the way drafting works. By slipstreaming behind another racer, cars earn a free turbo boost. This introduces a mild Mario Kart dynamic that slightly favors the guy who's behind, but it's not an under-the-hood cheat. The artificial intelligence cars are good, and they occasionally mess up, but your wins are hard-won and your defeats are usually a matter of some mistake you made. The races are color-coded, so it's fairly easy to make the game as challenging or easy as you want. And since you're still earning money and reputation when you lose, you're never just spinning your wheels.