The past 12 months have seen plenty of racing games spread across multiple genres and publishers, but the street-racing scene was largely the most hyped of the bunch. The year started strong with Burnout Paradise, an early-January release that was more than sufficient to keep things afloat for the following two quarters. Then Need for Speed Undercover and Midnight Club Los Angeles appeared in close succession, both of which offering an open-ended feel a la Burnout Paradise but in a very different vein.
Midnight Club Los Angeles was probably the most hyped, at least in the early stages, because its game world was to be a reproduction of Los Angeles. The final product isn't nearly as large, nor do all LA landmarks appear in the game, but what's there is certainly entertaining. What's there also has fantastic production values, from the graphics (the best in any racing game this side of Gran Turismo 5) to the voice acting to the character animations during the campaign. The gameplay, however, is a slightly different story.
