Midnight Club: Los Angeles Message Board  

This is a list of cars that will most likely be in the game, they were listed on Wikipedia as appearing in various the videos and screenshots that have been released so far:

- Ford Mustang Boss 302
- Lamborghini Miura
- Lamborghini Gallardo
- Mitsubishi 3000GT
- Saleen S7
- Cadillac Escalade
- Mazda RX8
- Kawasaki Ninja ZX14R
- Nissan 350Z
- Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX
- 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
- Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R
- Chevrolet Cobalt SS
- 2008 Dodge Challenger
- Chevrolet Camaro concept
- 2008 Cadillac CTS-V
- 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee
- 2007 Audi RS6.
- Mercedes Benz S600
- Aston Martin Vanquish
- Mazda RX7
- Lamborghini Murcielago
- Saleen Mustang S281
- 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse
- Pontiac Solstice
- Ford Focus Hatch

Obviously there will be a lot more cars so I'll update this post of make another one when more information is made available.

[Edited by SuperSkyline89, 7/31/2008 3:43:04 PM]

Midnight Club Evolved: Dub Edition Vs. Los Angeles

Australia, August 5, 2008 - Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition was definitely one of our favourite arcade racers of the last generation of consoles. It was fast, brash and packed one of the best soundtracks since WipEout. We've been hanging for a sequel ever since, but instead of rushing one out, Rockstar San Diego has taken its time with Midnight Club: Los Angeles (MCLA). In fact, it's been three years since the last game first hit stores, and it's a real eye opener seeing how far gaming has come in that time.

We went to RockStar's Sydney offices to get some hands-on time with the new game, then dug up our copy of Dub Edition to check out how the series has changed. Obviously the graphics are leaps and bounds ahead of what was possible on PS2 and Xbox, but the gameplay has evolved a heap too, which is what we'll be primarily focusing on for this feature. Points, work your magic.

A Mystical, Fantastical LA

To be honest Los Angeles isn't the IGN AU team's favourite city in the world. It can be a depressing place at times; full of concrete, freeways, ratty palm trees, smog and homeless people. So many homeless people. Thankfully, Midnight Club's LA is more like the LA we wished we'd been visiting for the last ten years. The colours are rich and saturated, the sun beams in a clear, azure sky, and those epic streets and winding freeways that sprawl between the interesting parts have been transformed into raceways. Rockstar San Diego has essentially distilled the essence of LA into its map - this isn't the whole of LA, it's a condensed 'best of' that's been extensively tweaked for racing. Naturally, all the major landmarks have made it in, and those who've visited LA will get a kick out of seeing which places they recognise. Hell, we even went searching for Amoeba Records. (It's there.)

And of course, like previous games, the city is chock full of short cuts, back alleys and jumps. It's a big city, but it won't be long until you've got a good handle on getting around. Mind you, you might spend a bit of time cruising, just checking out the level of detail. Where GTA IV's Liberty City had a tendency to look a little grey and washed out at certain times of day, this title - which also runs on the RAGE engine - has no such problem, with great lighting and colours, and plenty of detail. From the cracks in the pavement and reflections on the cars, through to the crisp frame rate and draw distance, this is an impressive looking title.

Second Comes Right After First

Unlocking new cars, parts and racing options in MCLA is done by earning reputation points, but in contrast to Dub Edition's system, where you'd earn cash no matter how you did in a race, but could only make progress by coming first, MCLA relaxes things somewhat. In this game, you'll earn rep (and cash) even if you come last. Sure, you won't earn much, but what this means is that you can theoretically unlock every race even if you're consistently coming last. It will just take a very long time.

This system means that you'll never get stuck, needing to come first on a particularly hard race in order to progress. What we're hoping is that Rockstar San Diego will use this to make races quite challenging, so only the best racers will be eking out consistent first places. Regardless, much like MC3, it only takes a couple of races for options to open up across the city.

Only One City?

In Midnight Club 3, only San Diego was open to the player at the beginning, with Atlanta, Detroit and Tokyo (for those who picked up Remix) unlocked as you progressed through the game. In MCLA, there's obviously only the one city and it's basically completely open from the beginning. Three/four cities versus one? Don't worry - Los Angeles is pretty huge.

Day and Night of the Living Dead Bums

While Midnight Club 3 had three distinct times of day - dusk, midnight and dawn, Los Angeles has a full day/night cycle, with traffic density that changes dynamically depending on the time of day. Weather will also change on the fly, and it all adds up to a much more visually diverse world, even if it does mean less of an emphasis on the iconic night racing the series is known for.

Tricks of the Trade

Midnight Club 3 had some very nifty special abilities that were unlocked as you progressed. First up was Zone, for tuners, exotics and sport bikes, which allowed you to go into a slow mo mode, letting you defy the laws of physics to weave through traffic, pull out of an imminent crash or make an impossible U-turn at speed. Second was Agro, for SUVs, trucks and luxury sedans, which allowed the player to literally plough through traffic, blasting away the cars in your path. Last was Roar, for muscle cars and choppers, which sent all the traffic ahead of you swerving out of the way. It was perfect for clearing a path or sending traffic careening into rival racers ahead. Midnight Club Los Angeles will have all of these, and you can assign them to any car type (but probably only one per car). Very cool. Oh, and there's a new one as well – EMP. This lets you kill the electronics of any cars that are close by, letting you zoom past.

Tricks of the Trade II: Electric Boogaloo

Okay, so we've detailed the more specialist moves available in MCLA, but the old favourites nitrous, slipstream turbo and weight shifting also return. Quickly, then - nitrous lets you equip nitrous tanks to your vehicle for quick bursts of speed, but that's not the only way you can earn it. By slipstreaming behind a rival racer you can also build up a nitrous boost, which you have a short period of time to unleash. Weight shifting, on the other hand, is a way to negate rivals trying to slipstream behind you, allowing you to take your car onto two wheels. It's also an extremely showy (and largely unnecessary) way to squeeze through gaps in traffic.

Be warned, however, weight shifting is now subject to the game's physics system, so unlike MC3, where you can almost do entire races on two wheels, in MCLA it's very easy to overbalance and wind up on your roof. Of course, that just makes using it deftly even cooler.

We Like Speed

Right from the get-go MC3 had an intense sensation of speed, and MCLA will be no different – this game flies along, whether you're in a Mazda RX-8 Shinka or a 1969 Mustang Boss. There's a believable sense of weight and inertia to the vehicles too, with robust physics underpinning their mechanics, and variety in feel clear between different vehicles.

One thing we did notice, however, was that the boost you get from slipstreaming another racer seems a little less intense in this game. Whether that's something that's still to be adjusted or a conscious gameplay balance decision remains to be seen. Regardless, we're sure there'll still be plenty of thrilling finishes where you manage to draft whoever's coming first with the finish line in sight, then boost past for victory.

Loading Your Life Away

Fans of the series will be very happy to hear that they can say goodbye to load screens. Yes, unlike Midnight Club 3, which went to a load screen whenever you entered or ended a race, went to the garage or did... well, almost anything, Los Angeles is basically load free. Relocating for the start of a race sees the gameworld pan out to the real-time top-down map of LA before zooming back down to the start of the race. It's incredibly cool. In fact, it's worth a point of its own . . .

Best. Map. Ever.

Okay, so the map system in MCLA is very reminiscent of the one from Test Drive Unlimited, but the team has taken that basic concept and made it even more impressive. As mentioned above, switching to the map (a.k.a. accessing your GPS system) gives you a top down view of the whole of LA, and the zoom back down to street level really is incredible, as the behemoth of a city resolves into street level detail.

Most impressive of all, this isn't just a static map – it's a 3D representation of the city. From here you can see where other racers are (with info such as race type and what they're driving) and where petrol stations are (drive through to refill your nitro). You're also able to zoom in on the map. From the most extreme view you can only see the major arteries, but as you get closer street names pop up, you'll see more and more detail, and you can shift the viewing angle away from top-down to give you a better sense of depth. It's the perfect way to check out prospective shortcuts ahead of a race.

Like previous titles, you have a radar on-screen as you're racing, but you can also pull up a larger overlay map onto screen by hitting up on the d-pad, which is a nice way to give you a little more info without pulling you out of the world and onto the full GPS screen.

The Thin Blue Line

The cops had a presence in the last game, but their role was scripted into specific races, whereas in MCLA the cops are entirely dynamic. They can come after you at any time if you're going too fast or driving dangerously - whether you're in a race or not. Thankfully you'll have something of a heads-up if there are cops in the vicinity; they appear as dark blue triangles on your radar when close and you'll also hear a click sound. One of the most appealing aspects of the cops is that they're equal opportunity law enforcers. They'll go after everyone in the race – not just you. This adds a little extra unpredictability to races, as well as the potential for a cop to take down an opponent in the lead for you.

The role of the cops doesn't stop there. Once they're on your tail, you can actually opt to stop and pay a fine, or try to outrun them (with associated rep reward of course). Better still, you can pull over, let them get out of their car, then scream off – hopefully with enough of a head start to get away. So long suckers!

Freeway Shenanigans

Anyone who has spent time in LA knows just how many freeways there are in that town, and MCLA would be crazy not to use them. As opposed to other race types that have a set start, end and checkpoints, freeway racing is completely dynamic - just flash your headlights at any racer on the freeway and you'll kick straight into a race, with the finish line determined by where you started racing. This mode is great because it's got its own unique vibe - more weaving through traffic at ultra high speeds than taking shortcuts and avoiding cross traffic.

Our Favourite Race Types Return

Two of the most demanding - and fun - race types from MC3 are back. The first is Unordered Races, where you have a number of checkpoints to get through, but can do them in any order. The second is Red Light Races (although they weren't called that in the last game), where you have a start point and an end point, with no checkpoints in between, and must find your own route. Both these race types are brilliant fun, encouraging you to experiment, learn the city and really maximise every turn. Oh, and the Red Light Races also give you the option to race back to the start point.

And Then?

Of course, MCLA has plenty more race types. Sure, there are old standards like Ordered, Circuit, Time Trials and Tournaments, but there's also Series, Wager, Pinkslip, Delivery, Payback and Telephone Challenge. Let's quickly go through those. Series races are based out of the Hangouts across the city - the first driver to win three races wins the series. Wager races are one-on-one contests that you can bet money on. The higher the bet, the higher the difficulty. Pinkslips are one-on-one races where the winner takes both cars. Delivery challenges charge you with delivering a car from the Hollywood Garage to its owner within a time limit. Get it there without a scratch and you'll get double the cash. Trash it completely and you'll get nothing.

Payback sees you trying to do damage to target cars. Finally, Telephone Challenges let you customise a race against a challenger.

The Race: The Prequel

In the last game, you'd get to a flare indicating a race and the game would load you in at the start point. In Los Angeles, on the other hand, if you challenge another driver you'll be given the option to race him to the starting point for the race, thus keeping you moving and in the city. You'll get additional rep and money for beating these mini-races.

Make Like a Tree and Explode

One thing that has bugged racing fans for years are items in the environment that can stop you dead. How frustrating was it to hit a lamppost at 200kph... only for the lamppost to win. Midnight Club 3 let the player mow down such objects - lampposts would be torn from the ground, while trees would be shredded at the point of contact. From what we've seen MCLA has a slightly different solution, with the player's car basically glancing off these kinds of objects. We're not sure why they made the change, and really only wanted to mention it so we could use the subheading above. We're creatures of simple pleasures sometimes.

A New Perspective

Midnight Club 3 had a great first person perspective, but no bonnet cam or ****pit cam. MCLA introduces both, with the ****pit cam being the most significant. The interior of each car has been fully modelled, and while you lose some visibility in this mode, it's more than made up for by how much more believable and intense it makes the experience. We should also mention the action cam - the default third person perspective, which doesn't stay locked in, instead moving subtly to increase the sensation of motion.

Killer Choons

The previous games had absolutely killer soundtracks that really suited the style of racing on offer. We especially loved ripping around MC3's cities to techno and aggressive drum'n'bass - nothing like it. While we don't have any specifics for the new soundtrack, we've no doubt that Rockstar will come up with another great set for this game that will suit the modern day LA setting. The vibe was definitely good during our hands-on. Expect a mix of up-to-the-minute tunes and classics, across a number of genres, like electro, hip hop, techno and rock.

So the quality is unlikely to change, but one thing that has changed from MC3 is the delivery. It really bugged us in Midnight Club 3 that each time you started a new race, or restarted a race, the game would start playing a fresh track. MCLA will keep the vibe going.

Eight Tray Gangstas

MC3 was pretty progressive in terms of its online offering - it had eight player online racing on both PS2 and Xbox across a wide range of modes, with stat tracking and car clubs. If that was testing the water, we can't wait to see what Rockstar San Diego do with this game. First people to organise crips and bloods car clubs win!

A Masterful Rim Job

The last game had some pretty extensive customisation options, but honestly, they were a drop in the ocean compared with what you can do in MCLA. It's a bit overwhelming to go through so we'll just give you some examples. Take your rims - you can still increase and decrease the size of front and back separately, but now you have two colours within each rim, and can also choose the style of paint - brush, chrome and paint. And if you want to get even more involved, not only can you (still) paint your brake calliper, but you can choose its manufacturer.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is the ability to completely customise the inside of each car, from the types of seats through to the look of the gauges on the dash. There are five sets of colours you can change in the interior, plus two gauge colours. It all adds up to some seriously wild possibilities, and we wound up creating a pastel and neon nightmare... with scissor doors. Just because we could.

Then there's the external paint (with sparkle, gloss, mat or pearlescent with a two colour fade in the direction you want) and vinyl editor. For the latter you can work with a ridiculous number of layers and completely customise every single external panel. Vinyls - as you'd expect - are divided into categories, with animal, auto, fades, flames, flourish, evil, manufacturer, stripes, tattoos and tears a few of those on offer. Why you'd go past 'evil' we have no idea. Vinyls can then be moved, stretched, flipped, skewed, coloured and more. You can set the level of transparency, plus the shade, and copy layers from one side to another.

It's an embarrassment of riches, basically, and as you'd expect, all the parts and accessories you can modify your ride with are fully licensed.

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So that's Midnight Club: Los Angeles - quite a step up from MC3 in many ways, no? We'll have more details on the game - including a detailed look at its online functionality - soon.

Rockstar just launched the official Midnight Club Los Angeles website. Some sections of the website include:

The Hollywood Section - Link
See what it’s like to cruise the Sunset Strip in style, with some of the hottest exotics and baddest muscle cars in the world – namely, the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Dodge Challenger Concept DUB Edition, Corvette Z06, Ford GT and Saleen S302 Extreme. Just a few of the vehicles in the game that we will be revealing over the coming months. The Hollywood section features intense videos of in–game racing, glorious screenshots, and details on each car. Look for the launches of the Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills and Downtown LA sections coming soon – with a range of specially–selected featured vehicles to suit each distinctive area of town.

Downloads
- The Midnight Club Los Angeles Screensaver A special, full–screen, stylized presentation of in–game views of vehicles in signature Los Angeles locations, ready for action. If you have a broadband connection, this screensaver will dynamically update in the future with more cars and locations.
- A wide selection of official Midnight Club Los Angeles desktop wallpapers available for a wide variety of formats -- from handheld devices like Blackberry and PSP®, to widescreen and double-monitor desktop spreads -- and all the standard sizes in between.
- Official buddy icons & avatars – to let everyone know Midnight Club Los Angeles is among your most wanted.

Sadly, it looks like SUVs and Pickup Trucks aren't going to be in this latest installment. It really is too bad as that was one of the best features on DUB Edition.

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS

Midnight Club Los Angeles continues the tradition of offering some of the deepest vehicle customization you will find in a videogame. The hottest licensed cars and bikes in the world are at your disposal – kit them out, supe them up, and personalize them down to the last detail to make them all your own. Visit the Club’s in-game garages located in Hollywood and Santa Monica and let your imagination run wild – tweaking and fine tuning through the three different types of vehicle modifications: Performance and Handling, Exterior and Interior.

Interior
Don’t embarrass yourself by pulling up with an outrageously kitted-up car that has a me-too factory interior. Not a good look! Spend time making your vehicle unique, inside and out.

- Swap out your steering wheel with a range or designer options from Italian racing accessories specialists, Momo
- Customize the fabric colours and textures to suit your mood, right down to the colour of the stitching on the leather
- Add interior lighting to glow as you blow by the competition . . .
- Tweak the colour of the backlighting on your dials . . .
- Customize the gauge on your dashboard . . .
- Drop in racing seats by Racetech or Seibon . . .

You’re going to be spending a lot of time behind the wheel – so, renovate and make yourself comfortable

Exterior

Why even bother street race if you’re not going to do it in style. Here in La La Land, everyone is trying to upstage the next guy and stand out amongst a concentrated crowd of attention seekers. For the Midnight Club, stunting is a habit, and its clandestine Los Angeles garages have all the big boy toys needed to ensure heads turn in this jaded town.

From making sure your car is dripping in candy paint, to adding unique body kits, to dropping jaws with rims to fill your wheel well to the brim – the garage offers practically limitless possibilities to personalize your vehicle with aftermarket accessories and customization options.

Body kit modifications mean you can swap out hoods, change bumpers and add a spoiler for a more aggressive profile. Pop on rims by famous makers like Dropstar, Lexani and Davin, adjust size and profile, and upgrade your treads to maximize performance with brands like Pirelli or BF Goodrich. Lift the back axle for a classic hot rod look, or drop the whole chassis to go low rider with it. Spend time with the paint shop to make your Aston Martin the same colour as your favourite football team, or finesse a two-tone fade to match your favourite pair of Nikes . . . why not! Finish it off with a metallic high-gloss sheen or matte for a more subtle approach.

Then tint out your windows in a variety of colours and opacities – or go sci-fi with neon under-lighting.

Top it off using the vinyl editor with a range of preset designs or load up the custom vinyl creator – let your imagination go wild creating your own designs to adorn your moving masterpiece.

Performance and Handling

The difference between being a winner and being a poser starts under the hood.

To become a street legend, you’re going to have to tune your vehicle for maximum performance. The garage offers three levels of upgrades for virtually every component on your vehicle.

Adjust the key performance groups – acceleration, top speed, and handling – by upgrading your exhaust system, adding forced induction for higher RPMs, tuning engine settings to enhance torque horsepower, or replacing stock brakes with high-end replacements from Brembo and Project Mu.

With over ten different individual car components to upgrade, and a long list of licensed aftermarket accessories, it’s up to you to craft the winning combination that will give you the edge up on the competition.

For an automatically updated news feed, video and screenshot source as well as useful links see my CHU profile.

GamesRadar: 10 reasons Midnight Club Los Angeles will rock your pants

See that fast-approaching blur in the rearview? That’s Midnight Club: Los Angeles, about to pull into the garage of an Xbox 360 or PS3 near you. So rather than bore you with a standard hands-on preview, we broke MC:LA into 10 bite-sized chunks of awesome we found impressive. Give it a skim, busy reader. You’re bound to find something that gets your motor a-runnin’.

1. This IS LA...
Like it or loathe it, the photorealistic City of Angels is yours to tear through. Sure, it’s gorgeous, with all the next-gen glitz we’ve come to deserve, but the devil is in the details. As much as we generally ***** about in-game ads, the actual billboards, vendors and landmarks provide authenticity, creating a living, breathing city that, say, Burnout Paradise lacks. Populating the city with actual people doesn’t hurt, either. You can stay in touch with vocal competitors with an in-game cell phone that helps organize events, and there are even pedestrians to avoid. Or not. (“I think I just ran over Harvey Weinstein!”)

See that fast-approaching blur in the rearview? That’s Midnight Club: Los Angeles, about to pull into the garage of an Xbox 360 or PS3 near you. So rather than bore you with a standard hands-on preview, we broke MC:LA into 10 bite-sized chunks of awesome we found impressive. Give it a skim, busy reader. You’re bound to find something that gets your motor a-runnin’.

1. This IS LA...
Like it or loathe it, the photorealistic City of Angels is yours to tear through. Sure, it’s gorgeous, with all the next-gen glitz we’ve come to deserve, but the devil is in the details. As much as we generally ***** about in-game ads, the actual billboards, vendors and landmarks provide authenticity, creating a living, breathing city that, say, Burnout Paradise lacks. Populating the city with actual people doesn’t hurt, either. You can stay in touch with vocal competitors with an in-game cell phone that helps organize events, and there are even pedestrians to avoid. Or not. (“I think I just ran over Harvey Weinstein!”)

3. Streamlined, baby
We’re not talking about just the cars. Once any challenger pops up on your radar, you flash them with your headlights to start up a race. We spotted a hotrod on the freeway, flashed him, and a high-speed Freeway Race started lickety-split. However, most Street Races require you to zip to a starting location.

Don’t care to race to the race? You don’t have to. You can skip straight to the starting line, although careening to an event location offers more opportunities to gain Reputation points, which are used to unlock tracks, missions, etc. And hey, you don’t have to complete every event to progress, so no pressure.

4. Arcade/Single-Player Synergy
You know the drill: You’ve got a single player campaign that lets you roam around an open-world environment with some story elements for immersion’s sake, and an Arcade mode that lets you jump straight into events. Well, now you don’t have to worry about starting over from scratch in one after playing the other, because they're integrated together. All the money, cars and Reputation points earned in any of the 10-plus race types are transferable to and from either side. Plus, Arcade mode lets you customize stuff like time of day and traffic flow, and there’s a nifty Hollywood-esque cam that throws you seamlessly from a satellite-view into the driver’s seat. Whoosh!

5. Oh yeah! There’s cars.
Carrying over a welcome tradition from Midnight Club: DUB Edition, MC:LA’s got plenty of licensed cars. Forty of ‘em, to be exact, under the categories of Tuner, Muscle, Luxury and Exotic. And as in previous installments, we’re also getting bikes this go-'round.

We got to test-drive an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster (Exotic), and an exquisitely tricked Mazda RX8 “Shinka” (Tuner). But for a more delicious treat for car geeks, we got to paint the pavement with the spiritual twin to Steve McQueen’s ride from Bullitt, a '69 Mustang Boss 302 (Muscle, derr).

6. DUB All-stars
Just because this edition doesn’t come with the legendary custom-car magazine emblazoned across the title, it doesn’t mean they’re not involved. DUB magazine will be contributing as-yet-unnamed whips, tricked out exclusively for Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Downloadable content has never seemed so likely.

7. Gas up
Ordinarily, no one is ever happy to pull up to the pump, but breezing through one of the many stations scattered about LA can repair a damaged vehicle mid-race, as well as refill nitrous. But you’ll have to go back to your Performance Shop for intensive repairs, and/or any fine tuning.

8. Ye Olde Performance Shoppe
Think of Midnight Club’s gas stations as a quick fix, like dressing a wound on the field of battle. But oh, the Performance Shop. Accessible from two garages, this is where you’ll finely hone your vehicle to the highest of specification. Splurge your hard-earned cash on premium parts and tires to enhance performance, or sufficiently pimp your vehicle with the ridiculous amount of cosmetic customization. Spoilers, decals, vinyls - it’s all here. Plus, you can stretch, skew, alter and affix designs to your heart's content.

Even the interior of your car has absurd amount of custom options. Of the numerous camera settings, of course there’s an adequate view from the ****pit. So, if you want a mahogany steering wheel with neon-pink seats, that’s your business, mister.

8. Ye Olde Performance Shoppe
Think of Midnight Club’s gas stations as a quick fix, like dressing a wound on the field of battle. But oh, the Performance Shop. Accessible from two garages, this is where you’ll finely hone your vehicle to the highest of specification. Splurge your hard-earned cash on premium parts and tires to enhance performance, or sufficiently pimp your vehicle with the ridiculous amount of cosmetic customization. Spoilers, decals, vinyls - it’s all here.