R* Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Gen. Disc. & Info

I just had to return the game to Circuit City because one of the tournaments wouldn't load at all. There really are glitches all over this game. Hopefully they'll fix the texture loading in a patch soon.
 
Just got my Camaro...I couldn't do any modifications to it...its perfect just the way it is:

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[quote name='JC Monkeyballs']I just had to return the game to Circuit City because one of the tournaments wouldn't load at all. There really are glitches all over this game. Hopefully they'll fix the texture loading in a patch soon.[/quote]

Yea im thinking about returning my copy of Midnight Club LA to Best Buy and getting a refund. This game is way to buggy and gets frustrating when you are in a race and the textures disappears and it becomes blurry. Also the camera mode is screwed up! Ill just wait until this game is in the clearance rack, then ill pick it up again.


[quote name='glockant']glad I didn't pick this up. i'll wait for the price drop.[/quote]

Yea, good idea.. you should definitely wait until they release a patch to fix all the bugs and glitches in the game.
 
Picked this up. Holy shit. The traffic patterns are freakin' awesome. The whole city feels so alive. Looks nice, too. Let's set up for a CAG night. I've only got a 240SX though.
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']I second that ^
Needs more cars though...I hope DLC is planned.[/QUOTE]

I would love a 1998-2002 Z28 or SS Camaro .
 
Whoo-hoo! Just came in the mail from GameFly.

I need to run through the shower real quick, then I'm gonna pop this baby in.
 
I started playing this game last night and meh. It wasn't as realistic as I was hoping it would be. It is exactly what I would have expected if I came in with no expectations, but Rockstar definitely oversold the realism.

Overall it is a decent game, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone at $60. It has one of the same problems as Burnout Paradise in that some of the difficulty comes from the computer taking shortcuts that you have to play a couple times to figure out where they are. I got pissed at the game last night because I won the first race of a series and then lost the next two because I had to turn around due to taking wrong turns that I had no way of knowing were wrong from the map.
 
You do realize that this is an 'arcade' racer and not a 'sim' right? I knew that ahead of time...I've always favored arcade racers over sims. Also there's nothing wrong with losing a few races, eventually after playing a few times you learn to check the mini map at the bottom right of the screen to look for uncoming shortcuts, which ar usually highlighted in light blue. You can also pause the match, check the map, and go from there...or press up on the d-pad to quickly view the map to see what's coming up ahead or to see how many checkpoints are left till you get to the finish line...which also help you in deciding when to use your nitrous or special abilities.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']I started playing this game last night and meh. It wasn't as realistic as I was hoping it would be. It is exactly what I would have expected if I came in with no expectations, but Rockstar definitely oversold the realism.

Overall it is a decent game, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone at $60. It has one of the same problems as Burnout Paradise in that some of the difficulty comes from the computer taking shortcuts that you have to play a couple times to figure out where they are. I got pissed at the game last night because I won the first race of a series and then lost the next two because I had to turn around due to taking wrong turns that I had no way of knowing were wrong from the map.[/QUOTE]

You can change the arrow to a Crazy Taxi floating style if that would help .
 
[quote name='Richlough']You can change the arrow to a Crazy Taxi floating style if that would help .[/quote]

Will the arrow point to shortcuts or only main roads?

And to the other guy I wasn't talking arcade vs. sim, I was talking about stuff like the 101 is N/S until it runs into the 134 and then it is E/W.
 
There's only so much realism you can have in a closed-world environment.

I just don't see the criticism. This is the best racer this gen, IMO.
 
[quote name='snakelda']Are there aesthetic mods?I'm pretty sure that rae engine mods.Thanks.[/quote]

Of course...just take a look at the images we've posted in the previous pages.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']Will the arrow point to shortcuts or only main roads?

And to the other guy I wasn't talking arcade vs. sim, I was talking about stuff like the 101 is N/S until it runs into the 134 and then it is E/W.[/QUOTE]

The arrow points directly to the next checkpoint , through everything .
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']There's only so much realism you can have in a closed-world environment.

I just don't see the criticism. This is the best racer this gen, IMO.[/quote]

sorry to burst your bubble but actually GRID was. GRID was alot better than this game with have/none of the glitches and bugs this game has.

GRID offered alot more realism and more cars including better damage effects.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Haven't played it. Still sealed on my shelf.

It would have to be damn impressive to top MCLA. Is it even open-world?[/quote]

Nope...its linear...pick a car and a race, and race. You're on a track on each race. Also its more sim than arcade.
 
[quote name='Dynasty1756']sorry to burst your bubble but actually GRID was. GRID was alot better than this game with have/none of the glitches and bugs this game has.

GRID offered alot more realism and more cars including better damage effects.[/quote]

Besides that whole freezing issue in the beginning.
 
[quote name='Dynasty1756']sorry to burst your bubble but actually GRID was. GRID was alot better than this game with have/none of the glitches and bugs this game has.

GRID offered alot more realism and more cars including better damage effects.[/QUOTE]

Er, GRID had bugs. Like a major one that caused the game to just hang for a second during races.

Midnight Club has NEVER been about realistic racing, and has always been an arcade style racer. GRID was not realistic either, though it was more realistic than MC, and was also a good game.
 
[quote name='slickkill77']Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa???? TDU was the best racer this gen[/QUOTE]

It was good. But it wasn't great.

Hopefully Atari gives us a sequel.
 
Are we saying GRID is a sim? Or that it's more realistic graphically? Or a more accurate representation of racing as a whole.

Because I'd have to disagree on all accounts. Neither of these games are "sims" in the Forza and GT sense. The city recreated within MC is outstanding. The layouts of the tracks in GRID were good, too, but if you were to say they were more "realistic" when it comes to racing is a bit off. There are trailers in the racing line, if you remember.

There's some sort of filter on GRID, too, and I happen to prefer MC's look. The only thing GRID might have over MC is the way racing feels within a pack. You see cars spinning out and bumping into each other.

When it comes down to it, we've got two pretty damn good arcade racers. That's not really something to complain about, especially for racing fans.
 
[quote name='jkanownik'] It has one of the same problems as Burnout Paradise in that some of the difficulty comes from the computer taking shortcuts that you have to play a couple times to figure out where they are..[/quote]

I'd like to point out that the computer controlled racers in Burnout Paradise never take shortcuts. Like, ever. Even in marked man your pursuers avoid shortcuts like the plague.

Alsoooo, in MCLA the only time I had a problem with AI taking shortcuts I don't know about is on some of the harder missions like the DUB tourneys on hard mode and red/orange difficulty red light races.
 
This game definitely reminds me of Tokyo Extreme Racer, one of the reasons I bought a Dreamcast! Despite the minor bugs, I really like the customization element. I chose this over GRID so I could pimp my ride. MCLA also has one of the better soundtracks I've heard in awhile.
 
Jeez. I should have just stayed out of this thread. I know better on RPG's and fighters, but I didn't know the hard core racing fans were just as bad. I guess since I'm already deep into this I'll go into a little more detail.

I am a casual racing fan. I like to have one racing game sitting around and play it from time to time. I got NFS:MW for free with my 360 and liked it a lot and played in all the way through. I later picked up Ridge Racer 6 for $10 and liked it as well. I put over 60 hours into the game and stopped playing once I got to the higher levels and it got really hard. I next rented Burnout Paradise when it was released. It was OK but I hated not being able to restart races and another aspect I'll get into later. I played up to a D license and sent it back in. When it dropped down to $20 used I figured I'd give it another try. I played up to a B license until I realized I wasn't really enjoying it and I sold it.

That left me with a need for a new racing game to have sitting around. I bought Midnight Club LA for $60 solely because I live in LA. I've never played a Midnight Club game. I'm not a car guy. They kept talking about how awesome a recreation of LA it was going to be. I was excited to drive at high speeds on roads that you can only go 5-10 MPH on most of the time because of traffic. Well, I don't think it's an awesome recreation. After about 10 minutes the novelty of it wore off. It's obvious that whoever designed and laid out the map was looking at maps and pictures of LA versus actually driving it. This probably does not matter to most people, but it was the sole reason I picked this game up new versus an older game for $20 used.

Now, forgetting the price I paid, how does this compare to the other racers I've played? I like it less than NFS and Ridge Racer and about the same as Burnout Paradise. I don't find difficulty to be a problem in general. What I don't like is the same thing that I didn't like about Burnout, I can't tell where I'm supposed to go from the map when driving at full speed. In Burnout I found that I was always missing turns or going the wrong way (mostly due to getting stuck on highways on not being able to get off where I needed). While the CPU didn't technically take "shortcuts", it seemed like it because they would take roads that I never would have picked just from looking at the map.

In MC:LA my first bad experience was when two vertical roads were indistinguishable on the map. I took a ramp up to go on the higher road only to find out that the check point was below me. The next race I came up to a very open four way intersection with two nearly parallel shortcuts. I could tell from the map that the CPU was going to pass me by quite a bit if I just took the normal roads, so I knew I had to take the shortcut. I took what I thought was the right shortcut based on the map, but it turns out I was wrong. This shortcut actually took me on a bridge over the main roads so I was completely screwed.

If you're hardcore into racing games this design choice is probably cool. If you're a casual fan that will play maybe 1 to 2 hours a week while playing other games it is extremely frustrating. I'll probably never learn the map well enough to know all the shortcuts.
 
^^That's understandable given your expectations of what they had built up their virtual city to be. For someone like me, who just wants the "essence" of the city it works out great. It feels like a living, breathing city. I do agree though, that it's a bit tough trying to figure out where some checkpoints are exactly. The free-roaming option is a bit of a crutch when you're going 100mph and have racers on your tail. I think in the future, they need to find some way to narrow where you can go to cut down on the frustrations with navigation.
 
I had similar problems with navigation issues with Burnout, but I haven't had any problems with Midnight Club so far. Sorry you're having issues, have you tried switching to have the Nav arrow on the car? Also as you are going through a checkpoint there's an arrow in the smoke pointing which direction you can go in.

But come on, as someone who has lived in LA you've got to expect that this isn't meant to duplicate LA exactly, it's meant to represent the essence of LA. Many of the roads and the traffic wouldn't make for a fun racing game.
 
[quote name='whiptcracker']I had similar problems with navigation issues with Burnout, but I haven't had any problems with Midnight Club so far. Sorry you're having issues, have you tried switching to have the Nav arrow on the car? Also as you are going through a checkpoint there's an arrow in the smoke pointing which direction you can go in.

But come on, as someone who has lived in LA you've got to expect that this isn't meant to duplicate LA exactly, it's meant to represent the essence of LA. Many of the roads and the traffic wouldn't make for a fun racing game.[/quote]

I'll try switching the arrow, but I probably won't get back to this game for a month or two because of my initial impression and Gears is coming out.

I knew it wouldn't duplicate LA exactly, but it is a much rougher interpretation of the city than I was expecting. It's not much better than GTA's New York. Its my fault for buying into their hype. The thing that bothers me the most is that if I had the same mileage available I would have made many different decisions on how things were laid out. With some additional insight they could have definitely improved the realism without a lot of extra effort or sacrificing the gameplay. It's like they just had a checklist of things they wanted to get in the game.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']I'll try switching the arrow, but I probably won't get back to this game for a month or two because of my initial impression and Gears is coming out.

I knew it wouldn't duplicate LA exactly, but it is a much rougher interpretation of the city than I was expecting. It's not much better than GTA's New York. Its my fault for buying into their hype. The thing that bothers me the most is that if I had the same mileage available I would have made many different decisions on how things were laid out. With some additional insight they could have definitely improved the realism without a lot of extra effort or sacrificing the gameplay. It's like they just had a checklist of things they wanted to get in the game.[/quote]

yea that is completely true. It seems like MC:LA could have been alot better if they improved on alot of things with realism, more variety of cars, not just a small handful of cars and a better navigation system to show you where to go so that you don't get lost like I did when I was racing and be in the lead one moment and the next 3rd place.
 
[quote name='Dynasty1756']yea that is completely true. It seems like MC:LA could have been alot better if they improved on alot of things with realism, more variety of cars, not just a small handful of cars and a better navigation system to show you where to go so that you don't get lost like I did when I was racing and be in the lead one moment and the next 3rd place.[/QUOTE]

I disagree with you there. The series has always been about arcade style racing, and switching to a more realistic approach would be entirely against what the series has been about.

PGR, GT, and Forza have the realistic market pretty much covered.

And 42 cars + a ton of customization does not = a small handful. I personally don't like how slow it is to unlock the cars, but it's a decent number. The only similar open world type racing game that also features a day/night cycle is Burnout, which doesn't have to worry about licensing.
 
Holy crap. Finally picked up the wheel today on clearance, and damn does it make this game hard.

I think I'll have to go back to the controller until I buy the garage.
 
Which special ability did you guys go with first? I can't decide on which one to pick since none of them really tie into the way I race.
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']Which special ability did you guys go with first? I can't decide on which one to pick since none of them really tie into the way I race.[/QUOTE]

I chose the roar , I think Linkin did too .
[He has the Level 3 Roar achievement]
 
Yeah I went with Roar...not sure if it was the best decision...emp works great, its the one I'm working on now, focus is also pretty good if you're having a problem doing sharp turns.

Cochese have you tried checking out the guides out there?
 
Is EMP level 1 a radial effect or directional? I went with Roar and it's saved me a few race wins thus far, but it seems I really have to line it up for it to have any effect on the other cars.

Getting money is sooooo slow-going in the game. I can't imagine when I'll ever be able to afford any of the higher-end cars. I'm still using the Nissan I bought to start off the game.

That said, it's still tons of fun though. I'm not getting distracted by having to look down at the race map so much anymore.
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']Is EMP level 1 a radial effect or directional? I went with Roar and it's saved me a few race wins thus far, but it seems I really have to line it up for it to have any effect on the other cars.

Getting money is sooooo slow-going in the game. I can't imagine when I'll ever be able to afford any of the higher-end cars. I'm still using the Nissan I bought to start off the game.

That said, it's still tons of fun though. I'm not getting distracted by having to look down at the race map so much anymore.[/quote]

It's radial.
 
You guys still working on this game? I've grown attached to the first car (240SX) and have been doing all the races so far in it. Do you eventually hit a wall on how far you can get in the game with any one car or can you just keep going, 'cause the guy keeps telling me to switch to muscle cars.

Anyone made any new customizations? I really enjoyed seeing them here. I'll put mine up once the Social Club goes back up again.
 
Couple car pics:
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Been using the Nissan exclusively. I just tried out the vinyls on the Mazda. I wanna add stuff to the passenger's side of stripe vinyls ('cause it's bare save for the flag), but I don't know what.
 
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