Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Developer(s)	Rockstar San Diego
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Series	Midnight Club
Engine	RAGE
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (online)

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the fourth video game in the Midnight Club racing series, not including Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix. It was officially announced for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on May 16, 2007 by Rockstar Games. The game was developed by Rockstar San Diego, the same studio behind Rockstar's first iteration into the seventh generation of video games, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. The game features 43 cars (of which 4 are DUB Edition cars) and 3 motorcycles. The map of Los Angeles is confirmed to be the size of all three cities from the previous installment combined. The game play has been noted for its "extreme difficulty". It has also been confirmed in several sources that each car has a polygon count of roughly 100,000. After several delays Midnight Club: Los Angeles was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and October 24, 2008 in Europe.

Released media

Beginning in late August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention, Rockstar began releasing screen shots and trailers that showcased the new 24-hour cycle, new makes including Ford and Mazda, and the city of Los Angeles itself. In all a total of seven trailers were released along with a large number of quick clips that showcased individual cars that appear in the game.

Another screenshot update for the game confirmed that Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the first video game to feature the new Dodge Challenger and the new Chevrolet Camaro..

Along with various videos and screenshots, Rockstar began opening individual sections of the video game's official website that featured new videos, screenshots, and characters. At the annual Leipzig Games Convention in 2008, gamers in attendance were given a chance to experience Midnight Club: Los Angeles’ head-to-head multiplayer aspect for the first time. As the release date drew nearer Rockstar revealed several contests which included prizes from Pizza Hut and Footaction USA. Also, Rockstar has teamed up with Air Jordan Brand to make a pair of limited edition shoes to celebrate Midnight Club: Los Angeles. The pair of Air Jordan Classic '87 are said to cost $380, along with the game. Only 40 pairs were given away.

Soon after a sample of the Midnight Club: Los Angeles soundtrack was released which has a total of 97 songs. The music includes a variety of genres; from hip-hop, to rock, to electronic including Maino, Nas, The Cool Kids, Digitalism, Agent Elf, DJ Felli Fel, Bishop Lamont, MURS, and No Age. The Live Launch Event introduced the remix of the Eagles of Death Metal soundtrack-featured song, "Wannabe in L.A." from their album Heart On, at the Virgin Megastore in Los Angeles.

Finally on October 20, 2008, Midnight Club: Los Angeles was released in the United States and the music section of the website was released and revealed all the music tracks that were in the game. The full vehicle list was also revealed, showing a lot of surprising vehicles, such as the Ford Mustang GT Convertible and the Ford Shelby Cobra Concept.

Plot

File:MCLA Protagonist character.png

The unnamed protagonist character

A young male, flies from the East Coast to move to Los Angeles. However the character is left nameless, he takes a major role in the game. In the intro of the game, he is on the phone with the, unknown at the time, Los Angeles City Champ, Booke, telling him to meet at a fast-food restaurant named Express Carneys Limited. He hooks the protagonist character up with 3 cars, 1 to pick, in the beginning of the game: a 1998 Nissan 240SX, 1983 Volkswagen Golf GTI, or 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco. Similar to Grand Theft Auto IV, the player has a cell phone to interact with Booke & other characters. They call you either to tell you that a race, tournament, or time trial is being set up, or been beaten.

Early in the game, the protagonist character asks Booke saying if someone can help him with his car. After a few missions, the character receives a call from a Russian man, from Moscow, named Karol, who plays a big part throughout the game, telling you that you are welcome to use his garage, Hollywood Auto, as a safehouse where the character can buy & sell new vehicles, paint the vehicle, upgrade the engine, or any other thing the character wants to do to his vehicle. Shortly after, the character meets Annie, who has earned a reputation as one of the finest drivers in the city. You race her best of 3. Karol calls introducing you to Delivery Missions, where you deliver his cars with very little damage in a certain amount of time. After that the character is introduced to "Time Trials" where you have a certain amount of time to make your way around the city in a certain vehicle. The first vehicle the character uses is a 1995 Mazda RX-7. After each and every time trial, someone calls saying that it has been beaten, meaning you must do it again, sometimes even more than twice. With many time trials, payback missions and regular races, Annie calls saying to race these people at the 7-Eleven in Santa Monica.

Around 70% completed, the character meets an overenthusiastic young man named Andrew. Just like Karol, Annie, and Hugo, you race. After a few races with Andrew and other missions to build rep and money, with City Optional Races with no major character involved, Booke calls you about a payback mission where this guy named Jin owes Booke money, and you have to take his car out. After the mission, where Jin is released from the hospital Booke calls and says that you have both been challenged to a Team-Ordered race between Jin and Andrew. After the race, the Los Angeles Police Department has gotten cranky about street racers, and they chase you in a mission called "Lose The Cops". You must race from an abandoned gas station to Carneys without the cops noticing. During the mission Booke calls and says that if he doesn't come back and get him, "they're done with each other". Later after, Andrew calls saying that he wants to race in his 1995 Mazda RX-7. Later Annie calls again saying to race her in her new Ford Shelby Cobra Concept. After, Andrew calls the character, in a very bad mood, saying "Well if it isn't Mr. Big Win, you think you're so good using your foot to step down on a pedal, yeah yeah. Now let's see how well you do on a bike! Get your hands on a motorcycle and get some rep out of it and then we'll talk! He calls back saying that bikers want to race you in a hangout downtown. want to race you. After the tournament, after the 5 races, and one other city race, Andrew challenges you in his 2006 Ducati 999R motorcycle.

After the tournament, Booke says that you need to have the right to race him, now that he's interested because he has made a fine reputation, by racing the District Class Champs: Tommy, Leon, and Laticia. Aside from the District Champ races, you also begin a series of Class Champ races, one Champ you have to beat for all 5 vehicle class's on the game from the characters Oswaldo, Julian, Lester, Pete, Marcel, which is part of the final part of the game. After the character beats the district champs, Booke calls saying he is impressed, and to meet him at the Standard Hotel for a race which ends up being the City Champ race vs. Booke and one of the final races on Career mode.

After all the Class Champs and the City Champ are beat, Karol later calls and asks for a proposition from you. He asks you to get $1 Million dollars to help co-own his two Garages with him for his business. In return, since you co-own the two garages with him, he lets you have anything in the garages for free. So you unlock everything in the game for free at the end of the game.

After the character has completed 100% in LA, (PSP version only:) an unknown man somehow has reached your cell number, and calls saying that he wants to meet you at the Los Angeles International Airport on "his flight to Tokyo" then the character says "You talking about the Mid Night Club? After the call, the Tokyo career and map may be accessed in Midnight Club: LA Remix.

Gameplay

[[Image:Midnight club los angeles lamborghini gallardo.png|thumb|left|230px| The main character in is krolhe rides a Volkwagen 1983 Golf GTI The game is, set in the city of Los Angeles, again providing the option to completely free-roam (in a map quite larger than all the 3 cities combined from the previous game, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition). New additions are a 24hr day-to-night cycle and weather effects, adding a realistic aspect to the game. After races, if any damage is inflicted upon the vehicle, the player doesn't necessarily have to drive back to the garage for a full repair, but instead can choose the Quick Fix option through which old, junkyard-esque parts will be added to the car. To get the nice look back, the player must actually drive back to repair their vehicle at a garage or at a gas station so totaling the car is only possible within a single race or event. With the RAGE system being used for this game, as with Grand Theft Auto IV, traffic levels will fluctuate throughout the day, with heavy traffic in the morning and afternoon, and little to no traffic at night. Motorcycles are once again a part of the game, including the Ducati 999R and the hyper sport bike, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14. Convertible cars, customizable interiors, in-game photo mode, and customizable exotics are all new additions.

The Special Abilities options have also been brought into the game which include EMP, when activated will disable the electronics of every vehicle around you; Agro, when activated will make your vehicle indestructible giving you the ability to plow through traffic without slowing you down; Roar, when activated will send out a sound wave moving traffic out of your way for a clear and straight path through the streets; Zone, when activated will literally slow down time allowing you to get between that tough gap in the traffic or letting you get around that sharp corner without losing too much speed.

Police return but are no longer scripted to a specific race; they will chase you no matter where you are and the longer you run from them, the higher your fine if you are arrested. Developers placed great emphasis on the elimination of load screens, stating that the player can literally jump from career mode to an online race in under ten seconds. The new dynamic weather system has been reported to alter the gameplay experience, making the vehicle more prone to sliding in the rain.

Online features

Online play supports 16 players at once and a number of new modes will be introduced including, Keep Away where the player must hold the flag as long as he can and Stockpile in which there are numerous flags to be captured. New online power-ups mentioned include Mirror (will reflect any power-up fired at the player back to the person who fired it), Agro (will act the same as the offline special ability, increasing the players vehicle weight and enabling them to crash through other vehicles without taking damage or slowing down), and Random (gives the player a random power-up). A new aspect entitled "Rate My Ride" is also to be introduced, where the players can go online to view vehicles that other players have created.

Playstation Network trophies are also included with a total of 46 trophies to be won.

Social Club

Main article: Rockstar Games Social Club

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a part of Rockstar's Social Club and includes a variety of features that track the stats of the player's driving and will potentially award them with various in-game content such as hydraulics, TIS rims, and the Audi R8. In order to obtain these rewards, players must fulfill certain requirements to achieve their C-License, their B-License, and A-License. Once each license is acquired, a new reward will be obtained. Players may also view their in-game Rate A Ride vehicle's rating, rate other player's vehicles, view their stats and compare it with other players, look at online leaderboards, and upload and share their in-game photos.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	83/100
Metacritic	82/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	A-
Famitsu	33/40
Game Informer	9/10
GamePro	4/5
GameSpot	7.5/10
GameSpy	4.5/5
GameTrailers	8.7/10
IGN	8.5/10
PlayStation Official Magazine – UK	9/10
PlayStation: The Official Magazine	9/10
PSM3	9.3/10

Midnight Club: Los Angeles received generally favorable reviews from critics. Most reviews praise the game's detailed depiction of Los Angeles, great amount of depth and multiplayer options, consistent frame-rate, stylish presentation, and varied soundtrack. The areas that were criticized included the clichéd characters, slow texture loading when players start up the game and unbalanced difficulty, saying that the game is far from forgiving and features AI that displays superhuman driving skills.

Game Informer magazine gave it a 9/10, praising the game by saying "Midnight Club: Los Angeles is just what the doctor ordered: a fun, fast racing experience with enough content to keep you playing for months." They also praised the virtual recreation of the map of Los Angeles by saying, "The level of detail and the sheer amount of roadway to tear up seems limitless, and the diversity of L.A. lends it a less monochromatic feel than Burnout Paradise."

IGN gave it 8.5/10 and an Editor's Choice Award by saying, "Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a great racing experience with a few mars on its paint job. The cars handle fantastically, the city is nearly perfect, the GPS stuff is awesome and customizing your ride is great." They also address the difficulty by saying, "...but don't expect an easy time on the streets."

GameSpy gave the game a 4.5/5 and an Editor's Choice Award, praising the game by saying, "The original open-world street racer leaves the competition in the dust." They also said, "And speed is the name of the game. MCLA's sense of velocity is breathtaking. The graphics are practically photorealistic..." They also addressed the difficulty by saying, "Single-player learning curve can be a bit steep."

Updates and Expansion / Downloadable Content (DLC)

Since its release the game has had a single update and another planned. The first update released on December 9, 2008 included improved AI balance to better adjust to players skill level and the Xbox 360 got additional leaderboard support for tournaments on Rockstar Social Club. Also part of the update was an additional online game mode called "Modes", where the user could choose to go to a lobby to play various race and flag modes instead of just one specific mode, aside from cruise mode.

The next scheduled update entitled the South Central Upgrade And Content Pack will include a whole new area of the map, South Central LA, about 1/3 the size of the current map, for free. Players will also be able to purchase the pack which will include new character competitions, races, music,and cars available in a single complete package. New vehicles will include various cars and, for the first time in the game, SUVs along with another motorcycle. The content is set to release on March 12. It was also stated that additional car packs will be released in the future.

On January 14, 2009, the content pack was accidentally released on the Xbox Live Marketplace during its testing and approval phase by Microsoft. It has since been removed and anyone who was able to obtain it was asked to delete it because it may cause unforeseen problems with achievements and save data, according to a Xbox Live Marketplace staff member.

Midnight Club: L.A. Remix

Midnight Club: L.A. Remix
File:MidnightClubLARemix Logo.png
Developer(s)	Rockstar London with Rockstar San Diego
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Series	Midnight Club
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Singleplayer Online

Midnight Club: L.A. Remix is a portable version of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, which was announced by Rockstar Games on April 21, 2008 for PlayStation Portable. The game was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and October 24, 2008 in Europe.

The game features only a portion of Los Angeles. Making up for this, the game features another playable city, Tokyo. Unlike the console version, the cops do not chase you in "Cruise" mode. However you can get busted after you run from the police for a long period of time, and you will eventually get boxed in, and you get no fine. Also unlike the console version, Midnight Club: LA Remix does not feature cutscenes.

Motorcycle glitch

A humorous but annoying glitch involving the motorcycles in the game have frequently been reported by gamers. Nicknamed the "Ghost rider" The bike will still move, but no rider.

External links

• Official website
• Official partner website