August 1st, 2008

Midnight Club LA Trailer 2 - What You May Have Missed

Published at 7:32 PM PST

The second trailer for Midnight Club: Los Angeles was very short, however in just over a minute it gave away some major hints at game play to expect as well as a look at whats new, whats been beefed up and what has been overhauled. Most of which may not have been noticeable. If you're like me, you watched the trailer several times to pick up on a few of these, if not well we've got you covered.

We have scooped through each frame of the video to find all these little hints and placements so we can get a better understanding of why this is going to be Rockstar's most ambitious project yet.

Real-life, licensed vehicles

Like it's predecessor, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition; Midnight Club: Los Angeles will feature licensed vehicles from the real world. From the trailer, we see examples of the

  • Saleen 2008 S302E   (Game | Real)
  • Kawasaki 2007 Ninja ZX-14 (motorbike)   (Game | Real)
  • Chevrolet Impala LS (Cop Car)   (Game | Real)
  • Mercedes-Benz 2007 S600   (Game | Real)
  • Audi 2008 R8   (Game | Real)

If you'd like a full list of cars seen in screenshots, the two trailers and mentioned in magazines, then we would recommend this post by a moderator at forzacentral.com which is comprehensive and quiet accurate.

Advertising and billboards

Unlike Grand Theft Auto IV, Midnight Club Los Angeles will have a large number of real-life companies advertised and placed throughout the city rather than having parodies of those real-life companies. So similar to the approach with having real world vehicles, the game will also have real world companies and franchises. We found:

  • DUB - Since Midnight Club 3, Rockstar and DUB Magazine have been working together and the DUB logo appears throughout the games on vehicles, parts and around town.
  • TIS Modular - Wheels, and more to the point, very customized wheels. This could mean vehicle customization that we saw in the previous game will return, perhaps to a large extent.
  • Pizza Hut - A popular Pizza restaurant.
  • Zaxby's - Chicken and fast food.
  • The Coffee Bean - Coffee, cookies and cake. A good 'ole Coffee Shop, just like Starbucks really.
  • Pioneer - Popular electronics company.
  • Quiksilver - Clothes and other apparel.
  • BVLGARI- Jewelery and watches.

Features

  • Reflection on paint jobs - We saw in the first trailer that there was reflections on helmets and rims, but now it appears the same principle is at work on the vehicles paint work. See here
  • Very realistic, the trees are even life-like - One thing games have always failed at is, oddly enough, trees. They are hard to model, however it would appear Rockstar have got them just right for MCLA, they fit into the feel of Los Angeles just right. See here
  • Characters much like GTA IV's - The characters in the game, that of which we have seen so far, do appear very life-like also and carry similar animations to that of GTA IV. In the past, due to Midnight Club being primarily about cars, not much detail was put into other objects such as characters and peds. It would appear to be different this time. See here
  • Protagonist - In the past games you we're just a racer, nothing more, nothing less. You never talked, never showed emotion and never really existed. In MCLA, you appear to play a realistic person, with emotions and a voice. If you watch through the trailer, you can see that your character has movements, similar to GTA IV again. See here and here
  • Detailed car interiors - The interiors of the cars is more detailed than we've ever seen, well in any racing game to be exact. A working speedometer, moving steering wheel, clock and other gadgets that are normal in our real world. The interior even has lights on buttons and controls during night driving, classy! See here, here and here
  • Realistic crashing similar to IV - As the game runs on the same engine as GTA IV (RAGE), most of what was seen in GTA IV can be seen in MCLA. One of those is crashing. It appears at the moment to be very similar to that of GTA IV. We wouldn't expect the ability to fly through the window and such, but it does seem to be along the same lines. See here

Music

  • The song in the second trailer was Royal Gregory by Holy Fuck ...interesting band name isn't it?

If you have not yet seen the trailer, best do so now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkcqA3N559Q

Or you could check out the first trailer again and our analysis on that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c68cg6Y3aiE - Analysis

Overall it would appear the game is a very ambitious project, and we look forward to seeing the final copy in October.