Game: Midnight Club, L.A

We play XBox360 damn-near everyday! Games that are in the heaviest rotation are mostly Madden, NBA 2k9, GTA4, Call of Duty, or Tony Hawk. NO RACING GAMES! I remember back in the day (2005, lol) sitting in front of my PS2 for hours playing Midnight Club online. At that time, that was in my top 3 favorite racing games of all time... the other two being Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero and Mario Kart 64.
Finally, the next-gen systems have put out a racing game worthy of my 360.


Setting
We all know how Rockstar amazed us with it's cityscape of New York, this game is all about Cali! They captured the feel of LA perfect...except the pollution, drugs and prostitution of course. lol. The city's are crowded as hell wit pedestrians of all sorts who almost seem to have a life of their own. You see them walking in and out of shops... shops that are there in reality! For example, there's a Holiday Inn and Pizza Hut (in the game) right around The Santa Monica/ Venturas area. Out of curiosity, I google'd Holiday Inn's in LA and found one within walking distance of where the game places it!

Features
The developers definitely put in lots of time focusing on lots of aspects of the vehicles in this game. Each car in each class (Tuner, muscle, bike, luxury, and exotic) has it's own feel and they did a great job making sure that the upgrades you make are articulated in the performance. The customization in this game is crazy!!! One change Rockstar made from the previous games in the series is that you're no longer charged $$$ to make your rims bigger... and these bitches go up to 28"! In this year's game you can also customize your car's interior. This feature would be completely useless if it weren't for the driver POV camera during replays...bad-ass!!!

Soundtrack
Since this game is on next-gen, it's kind of pointless to talk about the game's soundtrack... most people play their own music stored on the system hard drive, but oh well. The main reason that I fux with the sound track is because a song from our Episode 1 (Game: Big Dreams) is in the playlist. There are a few other rays of hope on the soundtrack like "All in One" by Recs and M.O.P., and "Day and Nite" by DJ Cudi but everything else on there i tune out for the most part. The game SFX help too since each car's engine and upgrades have their own distinct sound.

Gameplay
The game offers a wide array of race types and stipulations. There's everything from freeway drag-style races to landmark circuit races. Every race earns you rep points which can unlock upgrades, and certain races allow you to name your wager in cash or race for your car. Word of advice: have a backup car ready in case you lose... you cannot restart wager races, I found out the hard way lol. The cops in the game are a nice touch, but you can tell that the developers didn't want to make a hot pursuit style game so its often easy to confuse and lose the heat. Old MC players will be happy to know that your favorite special ability power moves are back plus an additional powerup: EMP. Unlike the old game, you can assign these powerups and change them at anytime for all the cars in your garage
I have yet to take my skills online yet, but from what I've been told It's awesome! The game ranking system seems to work well and there are different powerup abilities for playing online. There's still the classic free-roam mode, and a section called Rate-My-Ride where players online can view, rank, comment, and even buy cars in your garage.

Complaints
I have three major complaints with this game:
1) The GPS sucks!!! Although it looks really cool in 3D and all, it has very little functionality. You can not rotate the map at all, the freeway exits are misleading, and the shortcut paths tend to differ than what's laid-out on the actual road. Also, it would've been nice if they allowed highlighted routes to show on your HUD.
2) I know I said earlier that the cops were ease to confuse, but there are still way too many of these fuckers! I guess it's realistic, but it sucks in-game. What irritates me more is that they continue pursuit as long as you are in line of sight... and the developers gave them binoculars for eyes. There have been times when i was well over a mile down the freeway of the cops and they still continue chasing me when I exit
3) This game is really hard! First I thought that I was just rusty, having not played a next-gen racing game since NFS Most Wanted, but I think the game is just designed really difficult. I can live with that... the old midnight clubs weren't exactly a walk in the park, but I think that something could have been done in the testing phases of production to equal out the challenge/reward ratio.


Cverall, this game is dope. I will definitely be posting some of my gameplay to youtube soon. I give this game 4 of 5 stars,

If you r ever online and want to get a race in, find me. Gamertag: Phive10

Video: Unofficial Biography of Bob Marley

Props to tha homie Shaun Boothe. Not only for starting what (at least in the early going) is gonna be a dope mixtape, but for also posting video and lyrics for the joints. It's not like this is gonna be somethin that you here playin loud down Madison St., but it's definitely a great concept. To peep more material from Shaun, check out www.myspace.com/shaunboothe


Unauthorized Biography of BOB MARLEY (2nd of 12)