IT'S A racing game that promises to outdo others in the Beng quotient and, in many ways, Midnight Club: Los Angeles appears well able to do just that.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles goes out on Friday for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable platforms.
Going by early gameplay videos that Digital Life got hold of last week, this latest addition to Rockstar's Midnight Club series may just get you going to the local workshop to "zhng", or soup up, your real wheels.
If this was an actual review, I'd give it seven out of 10.
First off, instead of switching easily to a garage mode to customise your ride, you must drive to a garage in the game. This pushes up the realism factor, letting you dive more deeply into the City of Angels in which you speed around.
Spot on if you are thinking of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV blockbuster.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles taps on a spruced-up version of the drive-and-shoot title's engine, serving up better graphics along with much of the interactivity that made GTA IV such a hit.
Once in a garage, you can customise your vehicle to your heart's content.
I saw, for example, a quietly sporty Audi A4 being dressed up with all sorts of outlandish spoilers, exhausts and lights that I could think of.
It is not just the exterior. You can also specify the colour of your cabin lights.
Also, in Midnight Club, you get a good replica of the sights and sounds of the real City of Angels, as you drive through the virtual one.
As in GTA, you drive around looking for, well, fun. Instead of the usual racing game which places you at a start line along with other cars, you literally go looking for a race on the streets. This is the best way to live out your Beng racer fantasies.
The races themselves are stunning. There are the by-now common nitrous oxide boosts, which give you a short burst of blinding speed.
If you crash into a truck, an instant 360-degree, slow-motion camera view gives you that extra cinematic drama.
All in, the game feels a little like GTA IV without the violence (you can't run over pedestrians) but with a lot more racing Bengness thrown in.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Action/RPG
$71.90
Launching on Oct 24
This article was first published in Digital Life, The Straits Times on Oct 22, 2008.
