Beautiful LA and a dangerous curve, learning curve that is.
I love the MC series. Especially 3, it was beautiful, fast and all I ever wanted in a PS2 street racer. When I heard LA was coming out, I just had to pick it up.
Now to be fair, I'm not far in the game, actually I've been spending most of time earning money and rep just to be able to unlock parts and buy them so I can actually win, but more detail about that later. Let's talk about the map.
LA is large and beautiful. Never having been to LA, I'm not familiar with well known landmarks, but I can say this, I am thoroughly impressed. Loading times are near nil, with the only exception in the beginning, similar to GTA4. The map is huge as well, making races either very long, or annoying if you lose and have to restart. Though the back of the box says "The best way to enjoy LA is at 390 km/h", I'm having a little trouble with weaving through traffic and my lack of sense for the roads. Overall, the map is great, but I just wish the traffic was a little less troublesome.
If you've never played a MC game, don't worry, it's pretty much the same as other racing games. Story is the same, race, earn rep, get money, more cars, customize, the same old. Sure you might not like your character, I sure as heck don't. But hey, at least he screams when I crash and end up being upside down. Racing in MC: LA feels a little different than it did in MC3. I remember being able to pull off sharp turns thanks to the weird physics, in this one, turning doesn't feel quite as smooth, but there's a great sense of speed. The problem is, it all goes away the moment you hit something.
So how are the races themselves? Well besides being extremely frustrating and difficult, they are plausible. I beat the AI's Cobalt in a series race with my hardly customed 240SX, though it was extremely difficult, and I didn't get any actual reward, I had a feeling of satisfaction yet at the same time, glad it was all over. The main problem with the races are that they are long, I assume this is the case because the ramped up difficulty wants to give you the time to catch up. But the problem it doesn't work, the AIs are clever and fast. That and I have not seen their car crash a single time, strangely enough, they plowed through traffic while I hit a car head on and the camera goes slow mo to see me crash. In the end, the AI are just frustrating, while some AI races are pink slip races, meaning you can win their car if you win.
How about the cops? Well they're frustrating. I spent half my time being chased down for not "following the rules of the road", yet I've done nothing. They simply like chasing me I suppose, the problem is I didn't even know there was a police radar until I noticed red bars flashing under my speedometer gauge. Which doesn't help being there since I HARDLY look there, always needing to see the map and traffic, I tend to switch my eyesight of the street to the bottom left of my screen. I've yet to actually get away from a police chase, they are so darn fast and there's hardly a moment to catch your breath when they start looking for you. In the end, just stay away from the police. I end up giving up by simply quitting the game.
Customizing is great, easy and nicely done. You pretty much rotate around your car and select parts you want to change it to, "Adding it to the Cart" concept is shown here. Enabling you to remove any parts you didn't want or didn't know wouldn't look as good from a different angle. Vinlys are back, this time with a one time fee for all packages, or why not make your own set of vinlys? Sadly custom vinlys are really limited in terms of free customization all over the car. You can only set a vinly, you can't move it around or anything.
There are also a lot of cars available for you to chose from. Less than 3 if I remember correctly. Though you might never get to the point of unlocking all the exotics, you can always win them in pink slip races or time trial. There are roughly 3 bikes, so bike fans of the previous series, you'll be dissapointed here. Currently I haven't bought a new car yet, I've stuck to my starter 240SX this entire time and it has served me well.
Online mode is also interesting. With online tournaments, cruise and rating other people's rides. It's neat and adds a little more taste to what MC: LA already offers.
Overall, this game is great if only it weren't so difficult, races weren't so long and collisions didn't mean boosting for 2 mins before catching up. There are plenty of race modes to chose from, freeway races, pink slip races and much much more. All of which should add up to a great deal. In the end, I love MC: LA despite it's flaws, I will continue to play this game.