Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Games Master UK

The pinnacle of the series - honest to the original concept, but faster and better looking. [Dec 2008, p.76]

XboxAddict

If you like racing games then you should absolutely love Midnight Club LA.

Cynamite

The open-world racer convinced us with its extensive tuning part and sophisticated graphics. Only the missions and events could offer more variation.

Gamervision

Midnight Club: Los Angeles just might be the best racing game to come out this year.

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 Informer

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

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.

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.

Kikizo

But MCLA does everything right, and has plenty of longevity packed in.

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.

TeamXbox

In Midnight Club: Los Angeles’s case, the engine behind its essence—Rage—is good enough to make this title a standout, even though it isn’t particularly packed with genre-inspiring features. While this may be a letdown for those early-adopting, cutting-edge types, those who rank “go” above the “show” in the list of their racing-game prerequisites will consider Midnight Club: Los Angeles a real cream puff.

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.

AtomicGamer

Get over the hardcore challenge, though, and you’ll discover one of the most satisfying racers on the market for car nuts and noobs alike.

GameTrailers

While the technical hitches are disappointing, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is still a frantic, open experience that's even more fun for anyone familiar with the city. There's a lot of room for personalization, and the nearly overwhelming lineup of modes and events ensure that players won't be taking the bus out of town any time soon.

MEGamers

A very challenging but rewarding game.

WonderwallWeb

Midnight Club Los Angeles is a great racing game that has shown itself as one of the best arcade racers on the market.

Extreme Gamer

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

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.

IGN

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a great racing experience with a few mars on its paint job. 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.

Variety

Detailed beyond most players' interests, the game still manages to be broadly accessible thanks to simple controls, a smooth mission structure, and jaw-droppingly stunning graphics.

PTGamers

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

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.

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.

Gaming Target

With a car (and motorcycle) list that pushes 50 vehicles, tons of customization options for each ride, and a well-realized recreation of LA to race through, this edition of Midnight Club is a worthy debut for the series on the current generation of consoles.

Talk Xbox

Midnight Club: Los Angeles has the right concepts in place with plenty of realized potential, but much still untapped.

Play.tm

Midnight Club: Los Angeles captures an unmatched sense of speed coupled with a fantastic representation of a real-life city, and a stylish veneer which is observed all the way from the game's slick intro sequence to the final race you drive. The very challenging difficulty will not go unnoticed by casual gamers, and perhaps a handicap would have alleviated this problem. Still, as far as action-packed racing goes, it doesn't get much better than this.

Totally360

The game may feel like it’s treading an extremely well-worn path but with a plethora of races on offer, so many customisation options and a superb online mode, Midnight Club L.A sets a high standard for other street racers to follow, and EA’s Need for Speed could have a lot of catching up to do.

MS Xbox World

Midnight Club: Los Angeles offers up an entertaining ride around the city, with plenty to keep you busy from getting away from pursuing police to meeting and beating the competition, all in the name of taking their rides, earning money and more importantly, some respect along the way.

GameZone

If you’re into customizable racing games, this one is for you. It’s hard to go wrong with the amount of options and car tweaking possible in this game. If you’re more into arcade racers, "Burnout Paradise" is still the king of the road. MCLA is a competent racer, however, and while flawed, offers an awesome driving experience.

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.

AceGamez

With the exception of the unbalanced AI, occasionally infuriating difficulty and arguable lack of series progression, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a triumph in every respect.

Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

Not pretty, but smart as a whip, and constantly quick and accessible. [Christmas 2008, p.74]

HellBored

A dominance of circuit based racers means Midnight Club: Los Angeles is quite a breath of fresh air in the run up to the Christmas season.

Thunderbolt

Despite a lopsided difficulty Midnight Club L.A. is quite enjoyable, especially if the previous installments hit home.

Gamers' Temple

There’s a lot to like in Midnight Club: Los Angeles, but the rubber band races mar the experience. Street racing fans will enjoy the game, but others may find it less frustrating to stick to Burnout Paradise.

Official Xbox Magazine

An extremely solid racer with moments of greatness; but just enough flaws to keep it from the ranks of the classics. [Dec 2008, p.82]

Official Xbox Magazine UK

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is most successful when it keeps things simple. The game's checkpoint events and time trials are the best we've seen, and the option to create circuits from scratch adds the potential for some truly epic contests. For slick graphics, intelligent design and pure arcade fun, this is the racing game to keep your motor running this winter.

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.

Gamer.nl

Midnight Club LA stays loyal to the series and is by far the most complete and finished version. The game is still a little bit unforgiving and frustrating but keeps it to a minimum. In contradiction, the game offers a very lively Los Angeles and the controls offers you exactly what need: to manouvre through traffic with mind boggling speed.

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.

Meristation

Rockstar invites us to the great city of Los Angeles. You are a newbie who tries to climb the ladder of success in the world of urban racing. Race against all kind of rivals, escape from police, and enjoy the many modes available, both online and offline. The lower feature of the game is its huge difficulty, which affects the fun factor.

GamePro

With an equal amount of attention to detail across the board, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a fun racer that won't bog you down with menu after menu of tuning specs and testing screens.

BigPond GameArena

If you like racing games and customising your car get Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Apart from the fact that the AI difficulty setting is locked on "Nightmare" it's a flawless street racing experience. Just be prepared to scream at your TV a couple of times until you come to grips with the fact that You. Will. Never. Win.

Worth Playing

For anyone who likes racing games, particularly street racing games, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is definitely at the top of the pack this year. The customizable vehicles, music, online gameplay, varied game modes, and, most importantly, fast racing all combine to make this one of the best racers out there.

Planet Xbox 360

But the greatest advice for gamers is to skip the offline and head straight to the online play if you want to get the most out of your game. Online features the opportunity to play with up to 16 players through several different modes. It’s hands down the best aspect of the game as, after awhile, you’ll become increasingly bored with the single-player campaign.

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.

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.

Gaming Nexus

Midnight Club: Los Angeles isn't without a few problems, including a steep learning curve, unfair artificial intelligence and a lack of originality. However, that shouldn't keep you from having a great time as you race around one of the best looking recreations of Los Angeles I have ever seen!

GameSpot

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

1UP

While MC:LA won't necessarily wow you beyond its technical achievements -- it sticks too close to the feel and formula of preview MC games -- it still offers plenty of thrilling (and sometimes frustrating) driving.

Xbox World Australia

Midnight Club Los Angeles is a decent game in all respects apart from the insane difficulty.

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.

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.

X360 Magazine UK

You can't help but admire the artistry with which Rockstar's world has been created, but too many fundamental elements elements fall short of greatness. [Issue#39]

Video Game Talk

Fans of the series will no doubt feel right at home in this iteration and continue to support the franchise. Those new to the Midnight Club line or those looking for a new racing game to pick up will still get a great deal out of this game.

Level7.nu

This is a street racing game with a whole lot of style and soul than the competition. There are a few major flaws though and these are enough to lower the overall experience from tripple-A to simply pleasant. Games released by Rockstar are generally polished and slick productions, and this is no exception.

games(TM)

It is difficult to see MC:LA as anything other than a chance to reacquaint yourself with Grand Theft Auto IV’s miraculous engine. [Christmas 2008, p.115]

360 Gamer Magazine UK

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a solid and hugely enjoyable racing game but almost every inch of it covers ground we’ve seen several times already. There’s not a lot more to it than a checklist of gameplay and features we’ve seen in the series before or in the likes of Burnout, Juiced and Need for Speed. We haven’t had a street racing game for a while, though, so we’ve no problem recommending this to anyone look for those ‘high-octane/adrenaline fuelled’ clichés. Just don’t expect a new benchmark to be set for its successors to follow.

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.

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.

G4 TV

Thanks to the numerous computer-related balancing issues and somewhat punishing controls, it can oftentimes be more annoying than fun.

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.

GameCritics

Patient racing fans will find things to enjoy, but everyone else should weigh both the game's pros and cons before making a final decision on whether or not this one is worthy of a purchase.