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MIDNIGHT CLUB LOS ANGELES Posted by Dan Pearson on Nov 12, 2008 16:35 (Nov 12, 2008 16:35) |
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Midnight Club comes screeching through onto the next gen, but can it compete with games such as the ever growing Burnout Paradise City?
In Midnight Club you start off as the new kid in town looking to prove yourself against the other racers that populate the town. So you choose your initial car,(I personally went for the classic Volkswagen Golf) and then get ready for the ride of your life. Once behind the wheel of your new car you are shown the ropes for street racing. You have a small map on the bottom right which will point to your selected race, a T-Mobile messenger will also pop up every now and again with updates on new races. You can then rev you engine and start looking for races.
 The city itself is bustling with people and cars, different times of the day have differing amounts of traffic, peak times on the motorway will have loads of cars trying to get home whilst late at night the city streets are relatively empty. I enjoyed Burnout but this game feels a lot more like a living breathing city with a lot more grassy areas to drive over and pedestrians to scare, but never hit. To start a race you just need to find an opponent and flash your lights at them. Racing itself comes in a few forms but most are point to point races. Red Light racing is where you start at a set of lights and then drive anywhere the game will let you to a local landmark. There are also small tournaments with a few races a piece, plus you have the Pink Slip races, where the winner is able to take ownership of the loser’s car and wagers to earn some hard cash. Thankfully in between each race you are able to take you car to a garage and fix it up should you have caused any damage in the previous race, this makes sure your car runs at 100% in the next one.
Once you have gotten bored with the pre approved tracks you can go and make your own, its really easy in this game, just drive to where you want to start and drop a marker, then drive around dropping more until you have had enough, then test and save, you can then go online and when you get challenged by a rival driver you will be able to have a round on your very own track.
There are many cars available to collect and race, each one falls into a specific category like tuned, muscle and of course the ultra cool motor bikes. Each one has its own pros and cons and in the end it’s up to you to decide which you feel more comfortable driving, however to get through the game you need to race and be the best at all of them.
There is a healthy amount of view options available, some make the game look good but hard to control and others like the in car view and bumper view just give you an immense sense of speed and allow for greater cornering.
 Something that you just can’t avoid in this game is the sheer amount of adverts, Virgin, t-mobile and tonnes of others appear, but I will say the adverts are no more obtrusive than what you would experience whilst driving through a bustling city.
This is my first foray into the Midnight scene and by all accounts it’s a great experience. There are obvious comparisons to Burnout series, the main being the map. Los Angeles is huge and very well laid out, when compared to Paradise City (which I felt was a bit small with not enough roads) it is huge, has more shortcuts and is generally more fun to race around.
Midnight Club is an excellent racer which brings yet more quality to the world of racers. There isn’t really a great choice out there when it comes to racing games so it is nice to have another quality game to add to the list.
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