Customer Reviews

Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Complete Edition

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just got Midnight Club Los Angeles Complete Edition the other day. I played the first Midnight Club for the PS One and wasn't a big fan. I didn't much care for the PSP Midnight Club either. But Los Angeles is a completely different story! I have to go to work early and I've been losing sleep because I can't put the controller down - it's that much fun!

I think Need for Speed games have a lot going for them, but my big gripe has been vehicle physics and controls which are too loose, floaty, and unpredictable. Midnight Club LA is an arcade game and the physics are far from realistic, but they got the controls right! Dodging oncoming traffic at 150pmh is possible - if you don't blink - and long drifts around corners are easily controlable. Acceleration from a stop is a little cheesy (makes for more drama off the line when starting a race), but once up to speed the handling is smooth and responsive.

I used to live near LA so I see familiar sights when cruising or racing, which is cool. The sharp detail and high resolution world just waiting to be explored is gorgeous! What's really amazing is that, once you get into the game, there are almost no load times at all! With a high resolution, 3D world like this, that's amazing! The developers are really showcasing what the PS3 is capable of here.

This is not the first racing game to feature reputation points, but the way building reputation unlocks cooler cars and upgrades is neat and motivates you to keep racing. You don't earn large amounts of money from early races, but there are a lot of different types of races which keeps things interesting. You hit paydirt when you come across the chance to win your opponent's car, which can be sold for a lot more than you'd make from a series of races. The game seems to be structured around picking a few favorites from the available vehicles and upgrading them, rather than collecting all the cars. There is a good mix of car classes and the car models are beautiful and nicely rendered.

The upgrade system is not as in-depth as some Need for Speed games or Gran Turismo but that's fine for a game like this where fine-tuning suspension settings wouldn't produce a noticeable difference. The fact that they are there, unlockable, and make your car go faster and turn better is enough. I'm not a big fan of the vinyls but I do like the paint and wheel options, which are easy to use for giving your vehicles a unique and customized look.

The best thing about this game is the nicely detailed graphics of the open world, and outrageously challenging and fun gameplay. I lost quite a few races from slamming into traffic or just plain going too fast to avoid obstacles on the last lap of a race, but I don't mind because it's so much fun! Cutting through a corner gas station doing an 85mph drift, then blasting through the fence on the other side of the street into an ally way shortcut with your opponents reving right behind you... Now that's fun! It's like they took the best parts of Burnout: Paradise and Need for Speed and put them in one game!

Ok if you want to play the game read one of the many fine posts written by true gamers. I am not a gamer per-se. I am just a dude who has cerebral palsy, autism and a ton of other disabilities that will forever prevent me from driving a real car. Trust me save the pity party because; I honestly don't want or need it. I love my life just as it is thank you. However I always wanted to know what it was like to drive. I always wanted the experience of seeing the world from behind the wheel of a car. I always wanted to drive in a virtual environment where I could not hurt anyone while enjoying what it was like to drive.

I love this game because; it lets me drive and the experience is just life like enough to make me want to visit different parts of LA. I know it sounds sort of stupid but, driving in this game gave me a chance to feel a little closer to normal if only for just the all too fleeting time where I let myself live my driving fantasy in this virtual world. Yes the game wants you to race and the game voices are built around racing. However this game is programmed loosely enough that it lets you drive around the streets of L.A. looking at the sparkling buildings, bridges and such. The game is programmed loosely enough to just let you drive by nice houses and seedy parts of LA town too.

So many video games are so driven by their stories that they do not allow the person to just drive around. Of course I have the option to drive like a maniac or drive like Miss Daisy is in the back seat barking out orders. Sometimes I drive like a mad man and other times I drive like a gentleman of both quality and breeding. The best thing is the cars are in effect indestructable. The cars DO break down after lots of abuse but you always have the option to "Fix" them. The overall quality of the "friends you have in the game are of a thuggish gangsta playah sort". The cars are all extremely nice, sporty and powerful too. You drive during the day or night. As a dude with fairly moderate Cerebral Palsy playing video games is generally a disaster but with great effort I can generally keep the car on the road. Oh I do make some really BAD mistakes which is why I don't drive in reality. Oh I CAN AND DO drive on the sidewalk. The people in this game rarely get killed by a car because; lets face it people in LA are too kewl to be hit by any car even one driven by a reckless half blind autistic werewolf with cerebral palsy.

As a dude with cerebral palsy the main thing to remember is the primary purpose of playing any video game is to have fun. I figure if a video game can deliver on its promise of fun to all people able bodied and disabled alike then it is a true gem. This video game is a true gem because; I was not SOOOO locked or forced into completing the races that I could not just drive around and have a good time doing so. What made this game fun is that I could choose to just ride around the city and enjoy the trouble I got into. What a joy to have cerebral palsy and still DRIVE around like Joe solid citizen to see the sights OF THE great LALA aka LOS ANGELES. The graphics in the game are great. The realism of the game is first rate. I did not see any glitches or flaws at least not big ones that took away from my driving experience. For the price this game was "The Bomb Biggity!" Too bad this game does not let you just commit mindless acts of mayham from behind the wheel because it would have been so much more added fun. Yes I would have loved the opportunity to be a psycho mad driver with road rage being chased by police car and feared by pedestrians EVERYWHERE! I WOULD HAVE LOVED HEARING THE GAME'S POLICE OFFICIERS BROADCASTING THE FOLLOWING ALL POINTS BULLITIN...

ATTENTION ALL UNITS...

PSYCHOTIC INDISTRUCTIBLE AUTISTIC WEREWOLF WITH CEREBRAL PALSY RECKLESSLY DRIVING INDISTRUCTIBLE CAR. APPROACH WITH CAUTION. SUBJECT IS STONE COLD CRAZY. HE CAN NEVER DIE SO KEEP LA'S CITIZENS ON FOOT AND IN CARS SAFE... THAT IS ALL!

I am happy I brought this game. It is just plain fun even if you are so disabled you will never spend time behind the wheel of a real car. Hey this is the next best thing to real life driving. CRASH ON!

The good:
-Huge city
-Lots and lots of customization
-Lots of cars
-Great races
-Huge depth, very addicting gameplay
-Great, eclectic soundtrack

The bad:
-Storyline may seem unnecessary

Overall, I've been playing this game practically nonstop. Upgrading and customizing your car never gets old. The races are fast paced and intense. Online is very well made too. Best racer this gen.

This game is closest to in terms of content is burnout paradise. Its filled with endless amount of races, every time you finish one you'll most likely get a phone call telling you there's a new race available. So you'll never have anything not to do because there not all races some of the are delivery, payback which you smash up a rivals car which might I add usually takes forever, but they're varied enough. Now how the game looks, its pretty amazing what they did the world is a living breathing L.A and all very detailed even the npc cars have enough detail to warrant just stopping to take look at their detailed car models. Soundtrack is pretty ok a couple good songs I've added to the playlist but thankfully it has custom soundtrack so its always nice to have an option to play your own music.

The difficulty in this game is insane, everything you heard about this game being difficult is true. Stay away from this game if you get easily frustrated you'll cuss this game more then any other game in your collection unless you have ninja gaiden games then forget it. AI drivers in this game is brutal they'll always beat you off the starting line unless your playing it on the easiest difficulty which this will probably wont happen. There are difficulty levels but you can't beat the game just doing the easiest races sometimes you'll have to do a hard or very hard race to continue. There is a auto-difficulty adjustment, basically whenever you lose a race the game gets easier, whenever you win it gets harder.
This is fine mechanic but its silly and how you'll most likely intent on loosing a race on purpose just to make it easy. Its not like you lose cash or reputation or your car unless its a pink slip race then you'll probably reset the console in frustration. So what it ends up to is the game forces you to drive perfectly without hitting anything but hitting traffic is something that will happen to you constantly if your rushing to get the lead, as hitting traffic will slow you down completely while spinning car the other way.
This game in general is great, but the difficulty is whats going to turn people. I'd recommend renting it and trying out if it fits your need for a arcade racer I'd say this is one of the best just don't expect an easy one though. P.S the reward for beating the story is well worth it.

This was a christmas gift for my boyfriend. We BOTH love this game. I dont really play it too much - just cause I'm not good but I enjoy watching it and sometimes helping him out while he is racing. The best part is tricking out the cars!

I love the game.
the graphics are awesome, and the world is vast.
you do get your moneys worth.
this game in-particular comes with every thing that is availible for download.
so new cars and a new add on such as south central are available right out of the box.
so no need to go looking for them on the PSN.
over all great game.
customization is still great, but also again, this game only, does it come with add-ons only available for down load.
so new body kits. and parts.
and i am strictly comparing this to the first one that came out.

I bought this game hoping it would be better or equivalent to mc dub edition for the ps2. While the graphics are great and the cars look nice, there are small game play cons that just nag at you and makes the game unplayable.

1. For no apparent reason you drop speed while in 4th or 3rd gear. It does this from time to time and you have no control over it. I thought it was because of my joystick running low or something. But I installed the usb cord and it still did the same thing. Definitely not enjoyable when you're racing a freaking lightning fast exotic car and you drop from 90 to 15 for no reason at all.

2. At the beginning everything was fine. Yet as you progress in the game doing the missions, cars get faster of course. But the a.i. is just way too advanced for this game. You have to win too many races to open up better cars, and better cars don't even amount to a fair shot. Why?

Once I got so far, the cars that I had opened weren't fast enough. I had the 1970 Charger with 2nd level upgrades and I had another tuner with the 2nd level upgrades. Neither we're fast enough to win the series I was in. Yet I couldn't upgrade or buy another car. So I decided to race with a bike. Great idea, since I won with the bike.

But I noticed that all of the races began to get extremely hard. Imagine if I didn't get the bike and had to race all these exotic cars they we're racing? You're right, I'd have no shot. I raced my Charger and I couldn't even see the other guy and I didn't even crash. And even when you're in a bike which is faster than any car on the game, you still find yourself fighting from behind from the start.

Yes, I purchased a bike with the highest acceleration, highest speed, and handling. Yet cars in a lower class or not even close we're much faster. It wasn't like this on the PS2. On the PS2 if I raced a class C car vs a class B you'd notice it. On this one you have to race with a freaking bike to have a shot at the cpu once you get far. Or you can race a 100 missions to open the exotics or more upgrades up. Whats sad about this is the freaking bike you race with is faster than the exotics. Yet the bike barely can get a win. Usually you have to race flawless to win with a bike, but if you're lucky you can fall one or two times and still win. So how frustrated would I be trying to race the exotics with less handling, speed, and acceleration than the bike. And I dare you to race on the hardest level without a bike when doing a wager. If you touch any other car or barely crash, you lose. Have fun resetting the game a 100 times or lose all your money.

3. The special abilities are close to useless. The best one is the new one which is the EMP. It shocks the other cars electronic system for a few seconds and slows them down while you keep up speed. The thing is sometimes it doesn't even do anything. You use it and they keep up speed so it barely helps. Last MC was ok because the advantages the cpu had over you were compensated by your special abilities. And they actually meant something when you used them. The agro on here is useless once you get far because you won't touch the cpu. Even if you do knock them off the road they immediately regain control of their car and still pass you up. One thing I have discovered since last making this review is that agro is good for the bike if you hit it right before you're about to crash. And with the bike it's good to knock cars out the way. I haven't tried to use it with this game since the cpu hits every corner perfectly anyway.

I guess for 30 bucks you get your moneys worth. I think it's a decent game but once you advance far enough, you'll be frustrated with the flaws of the game. I just think the version for the PS2 was better designed and thought out. A.I. was more fair, special abilities helped more, and I also like the handling much better. I upgraded the grade to a 4. But the flaws that I mentioned affect the gameplay.

My son got this game for his birthday and I haven't seen him since...just kidding but he loves this game and gave it a 5 star overall

I have always loved the midnight club series and this game is great. It improves by having one large city to roam while being able to race non stop. Need for speed will never be better than midnight club in my opinion. This game is a must if you like arcade racers and anyone that says this game is too hard like I've been hearin can't drive.

it's fun at first until you couldn't progress any further i had this game and had to do the same races up to 100 times same race again and again and i came in first each time not sure why it was doing this so i gave up after about a month of trying to do this this is why for the bad review save your money get need for speed or something else