Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Games Master UK

Where other street racing games have been re-branded, re-built or have fallen by the wayside, Midnight Club: Los Angeles has been polished up to be the pinnacle of the series, and one of the most exciting arcade racing games of 2008.

Game Informer

Just what the doctor ordered: a fun, fast racing experience with enough content to keep you playing for months.

Games Radar (in-house)

By sticking to its roots, Midnight Club Los Angeles may not be a master of innovation, but as one of the most polished, finely honed and adrenaline-filled racing games, you won’t find any that do it better.

GameSpy

If you invest the time in tricking out your ride and mastering the more challenging difficulty levels, you'll be rewarded with an adrenaline rush that you won't find anywhere else.

TheSixthAxis

So, with a decent selection of cars (and bikes), the most extensive modification options yet seen in a video game, real-car traffic, race editors and loads of online modes (not to mention a total of 60 hidden unlockables) this is amazing value for money.

VideoGamer

As fun as Midnight Club L.A. is, it wouldn't be nearly as impressive if it weren't for the incredible visuals on display.

Playstation Official Magazine UK

Hit your stride and the confluence of hard-won experience, favourite ride and the unmistakable kick of nitrous will see you threading through rush-hour traffic at speeds bystanders will scarcely believe possible. [Dec 2008, p.102]

NZGamer

Despite the challenging learning curve, Midnight Club: Los Angeles succeeds in exactly the way it should: taking you to heights of adrenaline that are simply unparalleled.

Jolt Online Gaming UK

The soundtrack is better, the characters more convincing and, for our money, the racing experience just that little bit more enjoyable.

PGNx Media

Overall, Midnight Club Los Angeles is a superb racing game.

Game Chronicles

The best racing game out on the market today PERIOD.

IGN AU

Suffice to say, MCLA is the sequel we were hoping for; a ballsy, fast, challenging racing game set to a killer soundtrack. It may be a little frustrating at times, but it gets an awful lot right. Plus, it makes L.A. an appealing place, and that’s harder than you might think.

MEGamers

A very challenging but rewarding game.

Extreme Gamer

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a straightforward street racing title with a lot of bells and whistles.

GamingXP

Rockstar Games did a very good job. For race-newbies Midnight Club: Los Angeles is an ideal game and graphics rock, too. A good game to enjoy the Christmas holidays!

Worth Playing

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is still a great racer and a great game, but unless your luck tends toward winning big lotteries back-to-back or you have supernatural ability at arcade racers, the price of entry into the current-gen Midnight Club title is giving up your meticulous win-every-race attitude, if you have one.

Gameplanet

Rockstar has gone all out to make a great street racer with this latest Midnight Club release. Packed with hours of gameplay and incredible visuals, you'll probably still be playing as your Christmas dinner gets cold.

PTGamers

There is so much to do, so many vehicles to buy and equip, fabulous online support and a great atmosphere overall.

IGN

The cars handle fantastically, the city is nearly perfect, the GPS stuff is awesome and customizing your ride is great. It is way too hard, however, even right from the start.

3DJuegos

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is an Old-School Arcade: Difficult, spectacular, sometimes absurd… This game will irritate all of those who want serious simulation, but will captivate those who are amused "simply" taking their engines to its maximum power.

Cheat Code Central

Sure, it doesn't have the grandeur and scope of the Gran Turismo series, or the freewheeling mayhem of Burnout, but it does bring a style all it's own to the genre. With plenty of rides, modes, and personality to spare, this title is definitely worthy of having a spot on your automotive mantle, as long as you're up to the challenge!

IGN UK

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is unarguably a high quality racer that admirably bridges the gap between a freeform gaming world and a more structured race setup. Yet for all its visual thrills, extensive (if never exhaustive) customisation options and high production values, it feels as though Rockstar San Diego has played it a little too safe here.

Play UK

The best, fastest and most exhilarating ride you’ll get for a long time. It’s got all the options you’ll want from a ‘street’ racer of this ilk, but it really doesn’t need it. The real joy is in the toughness and thrill of the races. Simple.

GamingTrend

While not without its faults, Los Angeles is a nice place to take a drive.

GamingExcellence

The gameplay could use a tune-up, and more of a plot would’ve been appreciated, but fans of the Midnight Club series, and street racing in general, will not be disappointed.

PSM3 Magazine UK

"Burnout"'s more 'Hollywood', but MC:LA's the purer arcade racer. [Dec 2008, p.76]

Thunderbolt

If you can stomach a little two-dimensional West coast gangster arrogance, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the ride for you.

GameDaily

You'll really dig the option of outrunning cops and keeping up with your rival makes this one revved up adventure that Midnight Club never runs out of gas.

Game Over Online

All in all, I found that Midnight Club: L.A. is an incredibly enjoyable, but flawed racing game that succeeds at offering an excellent virtual L.A. and a great deal of fun racing action, but also requires you to jump through far too many hoops to fully enjoy the game.

Gameplayer

The game is also a visual feast with striking environments, meticulous vehicle models, and adrenaline enhancing post-production effects. While its true the series hasn’t made a massive evolutionary leap forward in terms of gameplay, it still offers up plenty of unforgettable racing moments where you’ll get P.I.T. maneuvered by an opponent on the last corner but manage to desperately slipstream turbo your way back to win by the span of a diamond encrusted hood ornament. In other words; it’s got fun factor out the chrome-plated wazoo.

Eurogamer

From time to time, it will get the better of you, and at that point it's not about difficulty so much as accumulated failure, a burden Midnight Club: Los Angeles forces you to carry, and one that's tough to bear for all the game's other successes. Tolerate the lashing of agony that accompanies every one of these moments, though, and this is fast, brutal, ingenious racing drama, dragging you into the screen every bit as thoroughly as Burnout Paradise, and delivered in a manner that befits the publisher that financed GTA IV.

Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)

So long as you have the skills (or beefy enough cars) to avoid crashing constantly, you can find an almost endless supply of fun on the streets of LA. [Dec 2008, p.76]

PSX Extreme

The game is frustrating, the rubberband A.I. does suck, and there are some unusually poor design choices, but with a large city, good customization, good visuals, terrific audio, and solid online gameplay, Midnight Club is still worth taking a look at.

Kombo

If you can grit your teeth and win races, you'll appreciate the digitized city of LA.

Total Video Games

The breathtaking speed that we've come to expect from Midnight Club remains intact and better than ever on the streets of Los Angeles, becoming the most well-rounded instalment to date.

D+PAD Magazine

The impressive vehicle handling, sky-high production values and conscious decision to refine Midnight Club for its next-gen debut rather than reinvent ensure that MC: LA is the best in its class.

PALGN

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a fun and fast racer for those after an open-ended arcade experience.

DailyGame

Still, these neat little touches can't justify the purchase of this game by themselves, and the rest of Midnight Club Los Angeles just has too many less-than-next-gen issues to warrant choosing it over the outstanding Burnout Paradise.

Gamers' Temple

Sure, you may enjoy the challenge of this game and the time you must invest to achieve the goals set before you, but at the end of the day this game is frustrating from start to finish.

Gamer 2.0

Rockstar San Diego has created something good here, so if they release a patch that eases things up a bit, they’ll have something even better. If you are looking for something more beginner-friendly, you may just want to give it a rental first.

GameShark

Midnight Club Los Angeles is an excellent game brought down by its maddening difficulty level. It’s unfortunate to see Rockstar San Diego fall back into that ditch with this game seeing as how the rest of the package is loaded with arcade racing goodness.

Gaming Age

Basically, I really enjoyed Midnight Club LA, but I was hardly amazed by it. It's a really solid arcade style racer with a lot of flashy stuff going for it, but it doesn't really do anything new or exciting, and it's not going to be the game to replace a couple other high profile racing titles on the 360 or PS3.

GameSpot

Midnight Club is fast, beautiful, and way too hard.

Edge Magazine

The overwhelming impression Los Angeles leaves is very slick, but it’s ultimately quite soulless. [Dec 2008, p.86]

Boomtown

If you do decide to pick it up you’re unlikely to be disappointed, but it’s also unlikely to set your gaming world on fire.

Video Game Talk

If you're looking for a good street racing title, then this is definitely one to consider. It's not perfect, but there are enough positives to put it neck and neck with some of its competition.

My Gamer

If you like fast paced racers that are more on the arcadey side, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t give Midnight Club LA a try.

Playstation Official Magazine Australia

Visually weak, but delivers in other aspects. [Christmas 2008, p.90]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

In spite of the L.A. verisimilitude and the sound racing action, the clichéd characters, pseudo-urban dialogue (we're officially calling for a moratorium on the term "buster"), and the use of a T-Mobile Sidekick all work to make the game feel like it's stuck in 2005. The racing is exciting; the packaging isn't.

Giant Bomb

I really enjoy the look and feel of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and there's a good amount of content here, but the severe difficulty level makes it all much harder to appreciate. It's punishing, but if you're up for it, there are some sights worth seeing here.