Midnight Club: Los Angeles Hands-On

We go hands-on with the first in this reinvented racing series in our latest behind-the-scenes Rockstar preview.

Page: 1  2  3 

Page 3

The zooming from satellite view right down to behind your vehicle in a few seconds is still one of the most impressive things we've seen in a game for a while, and is completely real-time - we tested it out by panning around the city at a slightly closer to the ground level, where you can then set a waypoint like in GTA IV. We recognised the Staples Center / LA Convention Center configuration from above, from having checked it out on Google Earth back when Google Earth was exciting and new. Setting the waypoint there, we drove up to the Convention Center to find it surprisingly naked of any E3-style banners. Not too dissimilar to the last two E3s, then. They've thought of everything in making this game realistic as the real LA...

There's also a soundtrack that's certainly up the standards that you'd expect from Rockstar, although as is always the case, much of it has yet to get the final nod legally so we can't say what any of it is yet. Having said that, some tracks were better than others - so fortunately you can once more cycle through tracks with the D-pad.

We also stumbled upon the game's Photo Mode by accident - not sure whether we're supposed to know that or not, but it's nice to know Rockstar isn't skimping on other features that have made the likes of Gran Turismo and Project Gotham successful.

Rockstar is also not officially talking further yet about what it meant by its tease at the end of their previous presentation to us. As a recap, last year they told us: "Midnight Club Los Angeles marks the beginning of something very big for us, something very ambitious, that's going to use the next-gen hardware in a way that other racing games haven't. It marks the beginning of an ever-expanding, ever-evolving world, and you're seeing the very first possible demo, of the first part of that."

This time around, we were told, "it seems pretty clear what we were alluding to" and less cryptically that MCLA is "the first one on the new gen". So it does seem obvious that more cities of this quality are coming in further Midnight Club releases after Los Angeles. If that's the case, then our wish list includes New York (easily remodelled from GTA IV?), London, and perhaps most likely Tokyo, since the series is named after a Tokyo street racing club.

First, though, it's clear that LA has been painstakingly recreated, and is a hell of a lot of fun to race around. Online is going to be "a massive part of the game" as well apparently, and details of that are just around the corner. We'd also urge you to go check out the newly released Trailer 2 at the official site, because we think it conveys the action much better than this newest batch of screenies. The game's out in October and we'll have more for you shortly.

Page: 1  2  3 

MORE PREVIEWS >>