| | Burning Rubber and Taking Names
Adrenalin-addicted Xbox gamers can finally get their fix thanks to the arrival of Rockstar Games' Midnight Club II, the new street racing title developed by Rockstar San Diego.Drive the way you've always dreamed. Take any route you like through massive cities in slick, customized cars and motorcycles at insane speeds.Meet other members of the street racing underworld and build a reputation in the game's strong Career mode, or challenge real people on Xbox Live.
The Club's accepting new members.
Live Life a Quarter Mile at a Time
At the heart of Midnight Club II is the madly addictive, open-ended Career mode that even incorporates an element of roleplaying by letting you cruise around town and choose who you want to race and when. You can do everything short of stepping out of the car to kick out someone's taillight.
First, you'll meet Moses, a big-hearted lug (or as close as you'll get in this game) who helps break you into the Midnight Club, a worldwide network of underground urban street racers. He'll take you through your first race with a somewhat gentle, if insulting, hand, until you beat him and win his car. After that, Moses reappears on your radio, grudgingly offering tips on how to use the new unlockable control options, chastising you into finding someone to race against, heaping abuse on your abilities, and dishing out other handy guidance. Moses delivers a tutorial that doesn't feel like a tutorial, and that's a good thing. 
TJ Hooker's recurring nightmare.
Winning's Winning
Once you win Moses's car, you're ready to try your hand against some less-friendly types—and considering the way your pal Moses badmouths your skills sometimes, that's saying something. The streets of Los Angeles are now yours for the taking, if you can back up your challenges with speed. First, you'll need to find someone to test those skills against. A minimap in the lower left HUD (with a handy zoom feature) shows where nearby racers are roaming the streets. (During races, it also marks checkpoints.) This gives you an opportunity to explore the city, marking routes and shortcuts for future reference—you'll need to learn these streets like the back of your hand to beat some of these challengers.
Find a fellow speed demon, and flash your headlights. See? That urban legend is true, at least in Midnight Club II. This will lead to the first step in every challenge: chasing the trash-talking racer you're looking to beat all the way to the starting line. Once there, the main opponent explains the type of race and begins the countdown … and you're off! Five different control sets give you plenty of flexibility. (I settled on Manual B—good ol' gas and brakes on the triggers, and the right thumbstick operates the gearshift). But, the most important controls are probably the handbrake—which lets you take corners at speeds that should leave you a smear on the pavement—and the nitro boost. Nitro provides a satisfying "warp-speed" burst at a crucial moment, but it is finite, especially in the first few cars you win, so save it for when you absolutely need it. 
A true speedster handles two or four wheels.
Smoke 'Em
Midnight Club II incorporates variables into Career races that make each challenge a new experience. Some races might require you to follow a set series of checkpoints in order, dodging police helicopters and cruisers as five other racers (including the rival you challenged) try to put you away. Others give you the chance to take checkpoints in the order you choose, and odds are, you'll need a practice run or three before you take this kind of race.
Races unlock new abilities, like in-air weight distribution and slipstream turbo, and beating most opponents will even get you a new car … theirs. As you progress through your career in the Midnight Club, you'll eventually make it to Paris and Tokyo, which brings international variety, new Club challenges, and more heaps of entertaining verbal abuse.
The game's recreation of the "illegal street-racing culture," though a little exaggerated (I hope—a lot of pedestrians are getting run down in this game), seem faithful enough to someone who's never raced, but has gotten his share of speeding tickets. The variety of great-looking vehicles is just right, the races are exhilarating and creative, and the corny dialog and exuberantly stereotypical characters are so over the top that the game's comic element actually works. It's got flash, style, open-ended play, and most of all, speed. Xbox gamers have a wealth of choices when it comes to racing games, but Midnight Club II is one no video game library should be without. By Danny Chihdo |
