The entire city of Los Angeles is your playground as you speed through the streets, parking lots, and back alleys in Midnight Club: Los Angeles, all on your way to becoming the most notable racer in the city. As a new arrival on the racing scene, you’re going to need to earn REP for others to take you seriously, and earn the right to upgrade your ride or purchase an even better one. Reputation Points can be earned by completing any task or race in MCLA, regardless of what position you finish. Midnight Club Los Angeles features over 40 vehicles from 4 different classes. Tuner, Luxury, Exotic and Muscle cars as well as Bikes are available to race throughout the game. All cars can be fully customized in one of two garages found in the game.
User Reviews
2 Stars I’m stepping out on a limb…
I don’t have this game. I haven’t played this game.
I’m still submitting a review.
You want to say it’s not helpful? Fine. You want to flame? Flame away… But I’ve read reviews from other sites already and much as I suspected, Midnight Club: LA is going to be more of the same.
I’ve been playing Midnight Club since the very first installment on a PC and let me tell you – these are the hardest, most frustrating racing games ever made.
Midnight Club DUB Edition was neat – it gave players the ability to customize a car unlike anything to ever come before it, and frankly, ever since. You could chop tops, you had a slew of available paint jobs, infinte colors – even the ability to choose the hues of irridescant paint. There were probably 100 – yes, 100 – license plates available – they had vintage plates, classic plates, even the “Save the Wildlife” plates from Maryland! And it went all the way down to the white lettering or red sripes on tires, or putting different sized (or even styles) of rims on each axle – you could spend hours customizing cars.
That was good – because racing was never fun for more than about two minutes.
These games employ rubber banding. That means when you’re behind the lead cars, the AI slows down and makes mistakes, letting you catch up. But when you’re in the lead, the AI cars speed up and become miraculous drivers – quickly putting you back in the pack. Some games try to curve the rubber band – making them fair competition. Midnight Club is simply ruthless. You can sit at the start line for as long as you want – just let the light turn green and sit there. Mash the gas and you’ll be in the top 3 places within seconds – it’s actually laughable. The AI actually waits for you.
In addition, the tracks are completely random and will often take multiple attempts to memorize the turns. You’re racing in a city – not on a track. So you have to know ahead of time where the turns are because – at 200 miles per hour – there’s simply no time for “whoops.” And don’t talk to me about “realism” – 200 miles per hour through town is impossible – I don’t care who you are.
If you’re a fan of racing but enjoy it as a sport, you’ll hate Midnight Club. If you’re looking for a good reason to send a $60 controller through a window, then maybe you should give it a shot. Me personally, I’ll wait ’till it’s on the clearance rack and I can find a cheat code for “all unlocks” and “infinite money.” Then I can enjoy it’s only good quality – a car designer
You’re not getting me this time, Rockstar.
5 Stars Realistic….NO…..Best Racing Game Thus Far?? YES!!!!
GAMEPLAY:
I have only invested a small amount of time in the game so far, I have no more then one car; (1998 Nissan 240SX), but in this short time invested, I can tell you that the handling far exceeded my expectations. The cars have a serious weight to them, and its an excellent balance between an arcade and simulation feel. There are some interesting features within the game as well that really stand out. For starters, you have the ability to purchase “special abilities,” these are things like “electro magnetic pulse, or EMP,” that allow you to temporarily take down the oppositions cars. Its really quite a neat idea I believe, and even thou I’m far from attaining those abilities, I think it will add a certain element of strategy to the game that we’ve yet to see in a racing game.
Is the game difficult you ask? I’ve been reading a lot about people complaining that they find this game a lil difficult… Well I gotta say, it certainly isn’t easy by an means. But it sure as heck ain’t terribly hard or impossible like some people would have you believe either. Yes you have to know how to drive, if you can’t drive in the real world, don’t expect to ace this game, its a challenge, you must make sure you pay attention to where your traveling, and also watch for traffic, it’s quite the intense experience I must say.
GRAPHICS:
Excellent in this department. I was surprised to find out that the developers used the “RAGE” engine that GTAIV is based off of. It runs very smoothly so far, and everything looks excellent. There’s also a great sense of speed in this game, which is a must for any racing game, but especially a street racing game. Each of the games 45 or so cars and bikes are excellently detailed, and they all include INTERIOR VIEWS!!! Heck yes, I expect nothing less anymore, and I really hope the next installment of FORZA Motorsport will include dashboards for EVERY car as well. The interior view is great and it’s the view I use the most. I must also point out that its a nicer seating position in the car then the latest installment of Project Gotham Racing. PGR3 had a great seating position in the car where you could clearly see the gauges, as well as where you were heading. But PGR4′s quite frankly sucked, at least in my opinion.
The city of Angels looks absolutely incredible in this game, and its; almost like being there. There’s a great amount of detail included in the city, and it’s just a joy to look at while driving around or racing by at 180MPH! Another interesting feature is the awesome way you transition between the full city map and the game. It’s very much like Test Drive Unlimited, and those that have played TDU will know exactly what I mean. Its extreamly smooth in it’s transitions between the map of the city and the game, and you get wisked from a real time birds-eye view of LA right back into your car at the touch of a button, magnificent!
CUSTOMIZATION:
I gave this area of the game its own heading, because there is simply so much of it that you can do and its generally a huge aspect of the game. Everything and anything on your car can be customized, from the body panels, to the doors, to the headlights and taillights, interior features etc, and of course performance mods. Here is a quick list of what can be done:
EXTERIOR:
- Body panels, front and rear, as well as side skirts
- Wide body kits
- Headlights
- Taillights
- Exhaust tip
- Rims
- Tires (branding and tread pattern, or tire model)
- Neon
- Ride Height
- Paint (Pearl, Metallic, Sparkle, Gloss, Matte)
- Roof and hood
- Carbon fibre panels
- VINYLS
INTERIOR:
- Colour scheme
- Seats
- Neons
- Gauges
- Steering wheel
- Floor mats
PERFORMANCE: all categories have three stages, and you may choose the brands of the parts you install..
- Intake
- Exhaust
- Suspension
- Boosted / NA (Turbocharge or Supercharge)
- Engine Internals strengthened
- Roll bars
- Brakes
- Tires
- Nitrous
(there are more, I can’t remember them all at the moment)
Another nice touch is that if you aren’t terribly in to tuning cars, then you may choose to have the game “auto tune” your car for you. It will select the best parts for you automatically if you choose, to take the guess work out of it for you.
CONTROL:
No problem here, like I mentioned in the gameplay section, the cars handle very nicely. You are afforded a modest amount of drift control around corners via the e-brake, or just turning in hard and asjusting the accelerator appropriately. I have remapped the right joystick to allow me freedom of head movement in the cabin, so I can look left, right, up, or down. Thats something else that deserves a mention, we’ve come to the point in console gaming it seems, after so many years that developers are starting to allow us to customize the control scheme are selves, which is EXCELLENT!
AUDIO:
Another well done department here. The tires sound just right biting the pavement, and the engines pur at idle or scream under hard acceleration. My 240SX sounds bang on to my buddies real 240, and screams and pops like the real deal at all the right times. The music is a nice selection of songs, but I prefer to have the in game race music off so i can hear my car. Sound effects are well don, I can hear the gear changes when I’m in the interior view, little details like that really bring the game alive.
MULTIPLAYER:
I really have no input here, as I have yet to try it, but it seems like it might be awesome, you should be able to go online with some buddies and just drive around LA or race, which ever you choose. You can also race for PINKS!
REPLAY VALUE:
I’d say its probably fairly high, as you ca go back and re-run each race for another attempt at besting your score, and earn more money. Although there may be slightly less incentive to re try the whole career again once completed, which is usually a tend with racing games anyway, so no loss there.
BOTTOM LINE:
U CAN EDIT EVERY THING THAT YOU DID IN THE LAST ONE IS THIS ONE PLUS MORE.
BUY THIS GAME IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN RACING AT ALL! Its really well done in my opinion, with subtle touched like interiors in every car, and damage, as well as the amazing selection of car customization options, and just generally good amount of racing, its worth every penny of the asking price.
5 Stars L.A. to the fullest, with great cars
This game is my second midnight club i played so I’m not the most experienced person, but i must say this game is great. The game graphics are great, the cars are great, the customization is deep, and the map is super DEEP! Its actually L.A. in the flesh. Now the gameplay, I would have to say its much more difficult than the Need for Speed series but in the long run i think its hella better because its more challenging and is more game for your buck. That’s the only thing that would be a backside if you look at it that way besides that you need to get the game. Great to any racing collection. Highly recommend it
5 Stars Must Have Great Racing Game
This game is really really good, a must have game for any racing game fans, from graphics to gameplay. Midnight Club is a very accurate representation of what breakneck,-high-speed street racing is really all about. Its an adrenaline rush. This is all about fast, moddable cars throwing down in dangerous street racing. Unlike other racing games, it also included motorcycles, which is as fun if not even more fun to drive than some of the cars. This is a game from the makers of Grand Theft Auto IV, so you know its going to be up there with the best racing games of all time.
