I figure since I’m in a gaming state of mind I’ll write about my initial impressions of Midnight Club II, the latest offering from Rockstar. I had a chance to check it out in depth this week, and after fucking around with my video drivers and DirectX 9a to get it to run at high resolutions I was ready to roll with my tricked out vehicle in check. Word.
Midnight Club II has the same sort of tone as GTA. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but there’s something that Rockstar is laughing at behind all the goofy Street Racer characatures. I suppose they are chuckling at all of the money they will make off of the Fast and the Furious fanboys who will eat this game up. I found my character was being called “guy” a lot and it got pretty annoying. Plus every time you challenge someone to a “race”, it mysteriously involves reaching checkpoints. I know this is supposed to be an arcade game, but along with the almost non-existent damage effects it was hard to take the game seriously. And what’s with the inner monologue? When you challenge someone to a race, they talk to themselves for a bit, saying how “uncool” you are and then say out loud “ok guy let’s race” or some such nonsense. Kind of lame, I just wanted to race the fucking cars. I suppose it’s fun as brainless entertainment, in the same sense that I played Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Not a great game, but still fun to drive your car around while being chased by the cops.
The graphics are pretty, and provide some nice ambient lighting effects. Rockstar definitely took care in creating these urban envrionments, making them slightly more realistic than the ones presented in Liberty City. The soundtrack is equally fitting, which busts out hip hop and dance beats for you to nod your head to while cruising.
Playing MC2 has kind of gotten me interested again in EA’s foray into the Street Racing subculture – Need for Speed: Underground. Unfortunately in MC2 I have not yet seen any way to mod your car between races – instead you just win cars off your opponents and drive it as is. Kind of boring. EA looks to be picking up the slack in this department, offering the potential to customize your cars with real-world components. Along with the multiplayer features this game may prove to be a success with fans of street racing that don’t have the balls or the money to do it in real life.
