Amidst all the chaos that was this year’s E3, there were still a few games (and games companies) who preferred to do things their own way. Rockstar’s presence at the event was almost non-existent aside from the Nintendo press conference announcement that an all-new GTA DS game was in the works, Grand Theft Auto: China Town. Beyond that, not much at all. Which is why Rockstar Sydney had a helicopter waiting for me at the airport when I arrived back home from LA to whisk me out to their Surry Hills offices to show me Midnight Club LA (they could have just given me a car while I was in LA and told me to start racing fools on the street, but I guess that’s not their style. Ah well, maybe next time).

We had a pretty good hands-off look at this awhile ago, and that session had me walking away feeling fairly confident about the product, though at the time I was still a bit dubious about the visuals. I can tell you right off the bat the game - in its current form - is coming along very nicely in the presentation area, both cosmetically and functionally.

The cars (all of which are once again licensed thanks to the Dub partnership) look impressive and equally once again carry with them a full damage system that, while not nearly as robust or dynamic as Criterion’s Burnout series, works for the game in the context of what Midnight Club is all about: accessible racing with an open-world emphasis on freedom, skillful race lines and speed, speed, speed.

Midnight Club LA is the crowning achievement in what this series has strived for from day one. At the Rockstar Sydney offices I’m watching the preview build run in native 1080i (not sure if it’ll hit the “p” plateau) and it looks damn good. There is still a bit of pop-up here and there, but this particular build is still some two months old meaning Rockstar San Diego still have plenty of time to iron it nice and flat and wrap it in a pretty bow for its intended October 10 release here in Australia.

One of the key (and stand out) features of this new iteration to the series is its overall look and feel. The game’s map, a seminal aerial snap-shot of greater LA at night, gives you a broad overview of the game-world at large. You can set markers and waypoints as you see fit and when you’re ready to get rolling the static aerial shot breaks free from its Godly hinges and sweeps down into a cinematic, real-time positioning behind your car. What looked ultimately two-dimensional before has transformed into a realistic three-dimensional city mapped and modeled directly from most of Los Angeles. If you’ve ever been to the City of Angels, expect to see almost every landmark of notable worth represented in the game, right where it should be.

Before handing me control of a car to roll around within this virtual LA, my Rockstar cohorts also give me a quick visual refresher, just to show me how it’s done. A simple checkpoint race is demonstrated and I once again get to see just what it is we should all be pining for. I’m a big fan of the last Burnout and Need For Speed is a great series, but there’s something ultimately engaging about Midnight Club, whether it’s the robust, living world around you replete with pedestrians, functioning traffic lights, cops or NPC (non-playable cars) AI or the seemingly infinite number of race lines available to you as you aggressively progress through the game, Midnight Club just feels more like the definitive street racing game.

Okay, enough already. Give me the controller Rockstar! Giving in to my demands I’m handed the Xbox 360 controller and set loose in greater Los Angeles. The first thing I can tell you is just how this game feeds the sensation of muscle to you as soon as you accelerate. The controller’s force feedback and the sheer power of the car on screen are represented with such vigour, you’ll likely ease off on the accelerator the first time, just for fear of what’s in your hands.

Driving around the city is a pretty natural task. After all, the game is modeled off a real-world location. The idea is to cruise around until you see a target, then you simply flash your headlights at him (Y button) and the race begins. Before you’re officially grinding gears though, you’ll race to the start line to net yourself a bit of extra cash, it’s not necessary for you to win either contest; in fact you can come last in every race and still progress through the game (it’ll just take ages), but winning will make things a bit easier for you as you’ll earn more money, more cred points and therefore have more access to all the goodies Midnight Club LA has to offer.

Racing has maintained a fairly similar feel to the other iterations in the series. We’re running things off the Rage game engine, which is the same one used for GTA IV, but the physics here are a bit tougher and far more forgiving. There are almost no hard-fail situations (unless you hit a building head on, but even then it’s easy to keep moving and stay in the race), meaning you’re rarely ever scolded for bad driving.

Within each race you have one nitrus boost you can use, however, finding a slipstream behind any car in the lead and holding position long enough for your nitrus meter to max out will give you a second boost for a short period of time. You can also cause your rival to crash but doing so simply buys you a little more time in the lead.

There are a few different race-modes, I dabbled in three: Ordered Races, Freeway Races and Red Light Races (there are tons more, but for the purpose of this preview I’ll talk about the ones I played and leave the others for our review).

Ordered Races are basically checkpoint races where you drive from one point to another while following a race line dictated by yellow flares (checkpoints). Missing one will mean you have to go back and check it in order to finish properly.

Freeway Races are pretty much just as they sound; roll around on the massive freeway that surrounds the game-world and wait until you find an opponent. Flash him and away you go. Obviously the impediment here is the huge amount of freeway traffic in your way as you attempt to break the finish line.

And finally, Red Light Races see you taking on an opponent from one point on the map to the other – how you get to the finish is entirely up to you. The cool thing about these races is you can opt to race your opponent back to where you started after you finish the initial race.

What was cool about all my attempts at these race modes was I actually only came first once. Why is that cool? Well because despite coming last I never really felt like I’d ultimately let myself down. You still earn cash and cred just for competing and the more I raced, the more the game-world opened up for me. But then actually coming first was even more rewarding because I could see just how much of a boost doing so will give your in-game self.

Beyond the race component, I was also shown the incredibly extensive and deep car customization options. You can spend your hard-earned cash on not only buying cars, but also modeling them however you want (well, within reason). New spoiler? Why not. Wanna make a new set of vinyls for your mustang? Maybe some super rad flames up the side? Go ahead. You can stretch, alter, layer, colour, gradiant... whatever you want. It’s essentially a virtual photoshop within the game.

Another cool feature I got to see was the new day night system that utilises a sunset and sunrise model directly from real-life LA. The sun will rise from the right part of town and set in the right part of time. This is a good thing because LA is actually a very different place at night as opposed to day, and this is reflected perfectly here in the game.

Rockstar are going to be giving us some hands-on time with the multiplayer component fairly soon, so be sure to stay tuned for details and a preview of this element, but for now rest assured this game is coming along nicely. The sense of freedom at hand is absolute and the new accessible nature of the game-world, race modes and in-game progression is incredibly welcoming. You can check out all of our related Midnight Club LA media from our game page, otherwise, stay tuned for more details soon.