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Midnight Club: Los Angeles

RacingArcade

Overview

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a 2008 racing video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fourth installment in the Midnight Club series before it was discontinued in January 2010. The game features 43 (58 with DLC) cars and 3 (plus one additional with DLC) motorcycles. The open world map of Los Angeles is the size of all three cities from Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition combined. After several delays, Midnight Club: Los Angeles was released in October 2008.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is set in the city of Los Angeles, again providing an option to completely free-roam (in an open world environment larger than all the three cities combined from the previous game, Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition). New additions are a 24-hour day-to-night cycle, weather effects and traffic with licensed vehicles, adding a realistic aspect to the game. The new dynamic weather system has been reported to alter the gameplay experience, making the vehicle more prone to sliding on slick surfaces. If any damage is inflicted upon a vehicle after races, the player does not necessarily need to drive back to a 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.

A man from the East Coast moves to Los Angeles. The character, known only as "Player" (Matthew Metzger), takes a major role in the game. In the introduction of the game, he is on the phone with the L.A. City Champ, Booke (Martin Luther McCoy), instructing him to meet at the fast-food restaurant Carney's Express Limited. He gives the protagonist the choice of three cars, one to pick, in the beginning of the game: a 1998 Nissan 240SX, 1983 Volkswagen Golf GTI, or a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles was developed using the RAGE engine which was developed at Rockstar San Diego's in-house RAGE Technology Group, which would be used for Rockstar's titles on seventh generation consoles. As reported by Rockstar San Diego producer Jay Panek, the development team choose Los Angeles as the location for the game due to the city's strong ties with the street racing culture. The team would also license several real-life locations in Los Angeles to make the city feel more authentic.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles was met with positive reception upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 81.66% and 82 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version; 80.64% and 81 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version; and 78.96% and 79 out of 100 for the PSP version.