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I think the market for this type of game bottomed out with NFS Pro Street.

This whole concept of "Pimp your ride then drive around a city trying to be cool but looking like a prick in a car that no one in their right mind would want to be seen in, let alone drive (tm)" has been milked to within an inch of a yoghurt pot.

I for one lost interest with Burnout Paradise for arcade racers (after PGR4 everything else has been half-arsed IMO).

It looks nice though. ;o)

While i agree, your statement about the cars being something noone would want to be seen in or drive, is so wrong.
A skyline is an amazing piece of machinery, but what they do to the cars, in terms of "trickin out" just ruins their beauty, AND their preformance (500kg subwoofers in the trunk? i think not, i'd rather be able to drive it)

I'm purely going on the kind of nonces I see driving around my home town on a Saturday night. Bombing about with their back-boxes stapled on with the music so loud that you wander how they can talk to each other, let alone concentrate on driving, just boils the word "Tosser" from deep within.

I agree that the cars are great (especially the aforementioned Skyline), it's just what these DNA-redundant morons do to them that's the problem. That's what I meant!

So we are in agreement then! (The Tricking out bit was what I was referring to!)

Thanks for the vid! I'm still on the fence about this game.

Blim- I think one of the reasons people haven't bothered to take a look at it is because they didn't release a demo. That was a missed opportunity by Rockstar and every racing game should release with a demo IMO. Especially when reviews have complained about the cheap AI being the one main flaw in the game.

I have the game and love it. I agree with 2pintsof insulin, I hate these boy racer types who bling their cars out but for me this is just a simple pick up and play game.

It's nice to drive the souped up cars on 2 wheels and do crazy things but it is all in fun and purely arcade action.

It is much better than NFS Pro Street, it's similar to Burnout but it's the graphics and gameplay of rme that make this stand out. It has cool weather effects as well and I'm really enjoying playing it despite all the big hitters (games) being released around the same time.

This is really a great game but the rubberband AI actually is quite cheap and those police chases - boy do they take long ... apart from that, top-notch racer. Kudos to Rockstar and their impressive TableTennis engine!

You're selling it, keep going!

:o)

Y'see, I LOVE driving games, just a little put off by the context. But you guys seem to be hitting on points that I would consider essential for a good arcade-style game; could be a rental opportunity at least.

best arcadey racer out.

I would've bought it if it was out for PC.

To my surprise, my wheel/pedal (Logitech G25) works great in this game. Actually much better than I could get the wheel to work in GRID. If you're into racing/sim game and looking for pleasant diversion, this game works so much better than any NFS or even Burnout. The physics of the car are well done, especially the steering and if you happened to have the G25, clutch works right out of the box. The graphics supposedly runs @ 1080p (upscaled perhaps) on the PS3 and the dynamic time/weather (although it seldom rains in LA) are well done and the city is especially great at sunset and night. The AI competition is stiff which makes for a heart pounding race. The scale of the city is even more so than Burnout Paradise and even after almost a week of playing MC:LA, there are still time when I came across new parts of the city. While the car modeling is not Gran Turismo 5, you do get to customize parts/interior/exterior tp you hearts content Unlike Burnout, MC:LA does include replay of the races (though you can't save 'em). I've yet to try the online component.

Now racing games are too (fill in blank) and ticking people off lol. Makes me smile. I like that they played Hi Haters. Very fitting and currently my sister's favorite song. I'll be picking this up when I can. Looks much better than some of those bland boring racers out there.

I think this game is fantastic in spite of the rubberbanding A.I. and the resulting frustration that usually brings when you're about to lose a race on the last corner and have to restart it... again!!! This game is *hard*, no question about it.

There's just something about it that keeps me returning to it for one more quick go then ends up being a five hour session. The city is certainly immersive, there's people walking around and tons of traffic, it feels more alive than anything NFS or Burnout Paradise have managed. The smack talk adds personality to the game (and rarely repeats even in over 25 hours of play!), the police chases add some extra tension and excitement when you least expect it and the customisation options keep you playing so you can pimp out your cars (and, at least, here there is a photo and replay mode so you can check them out!). The handling is also fantastic, very responsive and the sense of speed is insane in the faster cars... it's real edge of your seat stuff racing at 200mph and avoiding all the traffic, it's done here better than any other game I've played this generation. It also doesn't hurt that the game looks and sound fantastic. The framerate is fantastic with no tearing and nary a framerate drop. Only some occasionally ugly texture seaming and rare instances of slow texture loading mars the presentation. Even the map to ingame transitions and the way they seamlessly blend into cutscenes is superbly done. Restarts only take seconds too even if it has to return you to the other side of the map (Criterion's excuse for leaving the Restart option out of Burnout Paradise was that the loading times would be intrusive! LOL ).

MC:LA is my favourite racing game of this year even with the flaws. Highly recommended provided you have the patience to keep retrying races.

I thought I read that you don't have to redo any of the races if you don't want to. You just earn more rep if you finish higher making the unlocking go faster. Could you elaborate a little? I'm still considering picking this up. thanks

And I agree, very poor excuse from Criterion regarding restarts. They made a lot of mistakes with Paradise. Hopefully they'll redeem themselves with the next one.

It's a great game, but the car list sucks. Half of the cars I don't even want to drive or modify.

How does this compare with MC 3, guys, I mean besides the obvious graphical and audio improvements?

Does it blow the pants off that game, or..?

The car physics and handling is much better, more responsive, LA is a more interesting city to travel around, loading is quick, and yes, it's a better game than MC3.

what about the size of the city; how does that compare?

Overall is there more (or at least as much) space to drive, compared with the tri-city of the previous game?

Did they go crazy with the alternate routes?

where is the second part?

You have to be a paying member for that feature.

Wow, visually this game is mighty impressive. Once again Rockstar shows how competent they really are at making a city come to live (as far as technology let's us this day and age).

Might try this one, it's been a while since I enjoyed a good racing game. NFS can kiss my ugly butt, this looks way more compelling.

it brings back more of the jumps and whatnot that seemed to be missing from MC3. It's a good mix of 2 & 3