Midnight Club Los Angeles
Rockstar
Xbox 360
3 stars (out of 5)
Review by Hayden Meikle
In a genre that now seems to make it compulsory to come with barrowloads of attitude, the Midnight Club series consistently makes the loudest noise.
Driving games have been around forever - my generation remembers the flashing lights of Pole Position - and now cover a broad spectrum ranging from realistic simulations to full-on arcade madness.
Midnight Club actually falls somewhere in the middle.
It's full of all sorts of whizz-bang brightness and souped-up petrolhead madness, but it's also a really detailed driving sim that demands focus and rewards accuracy.
The last game in the series was called Dub Edition and featured the cities of Detroit and Atlanta.
This time it's Los Angeles, the City of Angels, home to pimped-out rides and movie stars.
As before, the game is all about super fast, super customisable cars engaged in ferocious street racing, with the aim of winning races to make money and unlock new parts.
It's a simple formula, deliberately aimed at inviting you in as quickly as possible and making it so much fun you don't want to leave.
I don't know Los Angeles well enough to say Midnight Club LA is an accurate representation but the city sure looks nice.
The city is alive and teeming with vehicles and pedestrians.
There are lights, bridges, one-way alleys, old ladies driving too slowly and young punks driving too fast.
The story has you starting as a newcomer to the illegal street racing scene in LA.
You've got no mates, a very thin bank account and a garage containing very old, rather slow cars.
Race types include single events, sprints through checkpoints, laps, pink slip races (where cars are at stake) and seriously long and detailed multi-race events.
Like Midnight Club Dub Edition, which I spent hours at without really scratching the surface, Midnight Club LA is proudly detailed and seriously in-depth.
The cars are better looking than last time and new customising modes give the aspiring car detailer even more opportunity to let his or her imagination run wild.
It gets quite difficult.
You find the races harder and harder to win, which is frustrating initially but adds to the game's longevity.
And the whole thing is exhilarating.
Midnight Club is a series that really values the sensation of speed, and you whizz through the streets at an exhilarating pace.
