Genre: Racing
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Release Date: October 20, 2008

For a developer that is better known for running down hookers and leading four-star cop chases through Liberty City, Rockstar has finally released the next step in their Midnight Club series. Midnight Club: Los Angeles continues the tradition of hyper-realistic and licensed vehicles racing in a real world setting. Being an East Coast gamer, I can't speak to the accuracy of the modeling of L.A.'s virtual counterpart, but from everything I see in the game and read online, this is likely as close as I'll get to racing the streets of Cali.

Despite my penchant for puzzle games, I have always loved the Midnight Club franchise because it was one of the games to take Nissans and VWs and SUVs and motorcycles and let you race off the track in a city environment. This latest foray is no different in that sense, as the cars look as beautiful and realistic as ever, and the city is absolutely thriving with life, as other motorists and passing pedestrians are the norm.

Jumping right into the game, as I often do, you can start up the Story mode, which puts you into the story arc of the game. Let's be honest, though: The story is just there as a vehicle to get you from one place to the other, and there isn't anything deep here. Also, sadly, there is no way to customize your driver, as the focus is on customizing your ride. It's understandable, but it would've been a nice little perk for those of us obsessed with avatar creation.

It's also worth noting that your abilities racing, or lack thereof, will barely even matter while playing through the Story mode. In my first race, I had to prove myself to be taken seriously and to get street cred, or Rep, as there is a new hip form of racing within MC:LA. I came in dead last. And yet, the race promoter replied with a line that could've only been funnier had it been tongue in cheek. I was told, "Man, I can see why you're here. You're one hell of a driver!" Indeed.

Sadly, it progressed like this for my next few races. I'd come in second, third or last, and be told how awesome I was and then get shown the path to new, and subsequently harder, races. For me, there is a very hard balance in the game with the camera, controls, on-screen GPS and path markers. The controls feel tight and responsive, according to whatever mods you put in your car. No problems there. The on-screen GPS shows you where you are, and where you need to be. No problems there. The camera … well, there are some problems there. You can zoom in, zoom out and pan, but you just can't change how the camera is oriented. It may not seem like a big deal at first, but if you zoom in, you get a narrower view of the roads and paths available, which leads up to my point about the path markers.

As has been the norm since the Crazy Taxi days, Midnight Club: Los Angeles lights up your path with colored floating markers so that you can always see where you need to travel. It's such an innocuous and expected feature that there isn't much to say about it. In MC: LA, however, it seems that the markers are either too close to each other or don't pop out far enough into the distance. Race after race after race, I would be driving, scanning the GPS, avoiding cars, hugging turns, and looking for markers only to find that I missed a critical turn, or that I was about to slam sideways into an approaching vehicle. It's almost too much visually. Inevitably, I would be winning, hit something, lose my spot, lose the race, and then get told what an awesome racer I was without any sense of sarcasm at all.

Stepping back just a little bit with regards to the GPS, that is probably one of the most visually impressive features in the game. You have a typical HUD-like GPS on your screen, but switching to GPS city view, you get an impressive topological map of L.A. that flows as close to real time as the disc will allow. It's not just bunch of lines that gives you the rough impression of the city, but what looks to be the Xbox 360 equivalent of a Google map of your game. Again, it's a minor thing, but a very nice touch.

Perhaps taking a cue from Forza, Midnight Club: Los Angeles has expanded its vehicle lineup to include motorcycles and muscle cars. The handling for each vehicle, not just each vehicle class, makes the game feel very authentic. Muscle cars torque hard on a burnout and give you insane amounts of horsepower but at the expense of fine control, and likewise with motorcycles. It may take a fair amount of playing before you find the one vehicle that seems to "fit" you best, but it's definitely a fun experiment.

Of course, what Midnight Club title would be complete without the garage. It isn't exactly the Tiger Woods PGA Tour character creator, but you can do some mighty impressive vehicle modding here. The garage menu is a little cumbersome, causing you to thumb left and right through parts and up and down through categories. It makes sense, but it just feels a little … ugly. Given the polish of the rest of the game, this part is a bit lacking. Otherwise, things are logically broken down into performance improvement categories and cosmetic categories. You can tweak as much of your car as you can afford to, all the way from rims, tires, exhaust, and engine tuning, right down to body kits and your neon interior color. MC: LA is definitely one of the most customizable vehicle games on the market today.

Once you've got your ride pimped out so much that it looks like Xzibit handed you the keys, you can get into the game's variations. There are time trials, series events and, again reaching back to the Crazy Taxi days, delivery missions. The events are varied enough to keep things fresh without feeling like you're grinding through just to earn money for more rides and equipment. Bad news for people like me, but there are also damage penalties. I mean, it's not my fault if I ding a few people, right? They shouldn't have been on the sidewalk. But perhaps that's just my GTA alter ego talking.

Another new feature for the franchise is the addition of cops, so no longer will you get free reign to burn up the streets without consequence because they're monitoring your speed with the virtual equivalent of a radar gun. You can choose to drive sensibly and safely, obeying all traffic lights and following the roads, or you can play like the rest of us and try to avoid The Man and his flashing reds and blues. It's tough because the cops put up some serious challenges that you must try to evade, but it's also a great way to learn the city streets and find some shortcuts. It's not that I'm endorsing bad driving; it's just more fun.

Throughout it all, in addition to any money won during events, you'll also get Rep. Increasing your Rep not only gets you racing titles, but it will also unlock new vehicles and upgrades. Or, if you're like me and constantly lose all of the races, you'll, you know, just keep driving the same little Nissan against the Lamborghinis. Ah well.

Once you get tired of the AI kicking your butt, you can hop online and play with up to 16 live players who can kick your butt and trash talk! And really, who doesn't love that? There were a few races where things seemed to drag a bit, but all in all, even with running a full track with 16 people, the game handles the graphics and modes extremely smoothly.

The soundtrack in MC: LA is exactly what you'd expect for a racing title, with artists and songs that are both fast and furious (see what I did there?). There are a ton of huge artists featured on this game, including Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Ice-Cube, Nas and Nine Inch Nails. I want to meet the person who can race in L.A. while reciting "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It," or perhaps I did already meet that person in an online match, as I've never won one yet.

For anyone who likes racing games, particularly street racing games, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is definitely at the top of the pack this year. The customizable vehicles, music, online gameplay, varied game modes, and, most importantly, fast racing all combine to make this one of the best racers out there. There are a few camera issues, and the difficulty is definitely ramped up on this title to make the challenges just this side of maddening, but the game is otherwise solid.

Score: 7.9/10