As a child, Sega’s OutRun series had me captivated in the arcade. Fixed in its vivid crimson cockpit, I fed the hungry beast dollar after dollar, determined to beat the game. Racing was against the clock, but the challenge came not from an opponent or the track itself, rather from the waves of law-abiding drivers clogging the road. The unpredictable nature of drivers oblivious to your complete and utter recklessness made each narrow opening a heart-pounding thrill, more satisfying than winning itself. As gaming developed and realistic simulations began to dominate the genre with the rise of Gran Turismo, the arcadey thrills of old became overlooked by the desire to replicate reality.

In the year 2000, as the import scene began to thrive in popular culture, Rockstar Games took their first stab in the racing genre delivering a racer inspired by the real life seedy underground street racers of Tokyo, delivering a game rooted in a realistic world but with a focus squarely on blistering speeds and arcadey fun. Such was the birth of Midnight Club. Now in its fourth instalment (discounting remixes), Rockstar have finally brought the series into the next generation.

Welcome to Midnight Club: Los Angeles. From the Hollywood hills to Santa Monica beach, this is the city of angels in all its glory. As a cocky, trash talking driver from the east coast, you’ve made your way out to LA to school the west coast punks. Kicking off your path to the victory with your choice of one of three mistreated rust buckets (well not quite, a 240SX would do me just fine) you begin climbing the ranks, accumulating reputation, unlocking new parts and padding your bank balance. The race modes on offer are vast and plentiful. The city is always a hive of activity, almost dauntingly so. If there isn’t a wager to be made, a time trial to be beaten or a tournament to be won, there’s a racer prowling the red lights or the freeways looking for a challenge. Taking a leaf out of GTA IV, friends and acquaintances will contact you on your mobile with both important news or at times just looking for a race. Fortunately, unlike GTA, they don’t turn around and cut themselves when you don’t want to hang out.

As you progress, the stakes become higher and pink slip races for one are an absolutely terrifying experience, especially when you lose. And no, turning the console off just before you lose won’t save your pride and joy. I found out the hard way. It was the first time in 20 years of gaming that I’ve honestly, seriously considered smashing the controller through the TV, but fortunately the game isn’t quite that cruel. Lose a vehicle and you can challenge them back for it. Just be aware that you are challenging your own finely tuned stead. Payback is the only letdown of the game modes. Equipped with a rough and tough muscle car care of the local auto shop, you need to go and revenge on unpaying customers by wrecking up their ride. Achieved solely by pursuing and smashing into your target, catching them is never hard but inflicting damage is an often-arduous affair. It just feels messy compared to the likes of Burnout’s Road Rage game mode. Fortunately Payback only forms but a small part of what is an immensely large game. After clocking up 30 hours of gameplay, I had only just hit the 50% mark out of the total career races.

Where previous outings in the Midnight Club series have focused on multiple cities, Rockstar have chosen to condense gameplay into one massive city and with its network of complicated freeways, LA couldn’t be a better choice. The city serves as a collective ‘best of’ rather than a direct mapping of LA. All the memorable touches are there, from Rodeo Drive to the Viper Room, and in roughly the right spots, but the route has simply been refined to make for a better racetrack. Sticking solely to one city does mean that locations become familiar, but this works to the game’s benefit. With the track ever changing, traffic A.I. independent and unpredictable opponents, Midnight Club isn’t about learning a circuit and patterns, it’s about learning the entire city and precaution. Not all is lost for beginners, the Google Maps-style GPS system allows you to see a full three dimensional view of the city, with the ability to zoom in closer to view any hidden shortcuts. The map system is vital, even though at times once you start you might find yourself a little dependent upon it for directions. As the speed increases and your understanding of the city improves, the path tends to become more obvious and awareness refined. Once you become familiar with the world, failure comes not from the track but from failing to recognise danger ahead in the form of the ever changing traffic that congests the city streets. Winning is equal parts knowledge, skill and a touch of luck.

Multiple locations aren’t the only factor to receive the chop. Vehicle selection has now been condensed, with Choppers, SUVs and Trucks nowhere to be found. Instead the focus has returned to faster means of transport, namely Tuners, Exotics, Bikes, Luxuries and Muscle Cars. Some may be despaired by their loss, but there’s always the promise of downloadable content in the future. Each class of vehicle has its own ups and downs, but more importantly each class, not to mention each car, has its own very distinct handling. Vehicle handling is nigh-on perfect. Locking into a drift feels simply natural, at all times you feel in control. When screaming down the wrong side of the freeway at 200mph with traffic fast approaching, the last thing you want is to be working against the controls. Running on Rockstar’s proprietary RAGE engine, last used in GTA IV, everything not only feels amazing, but looks stunning to boot. Lit by a strange sunset haze or plagued by midnight downpour, MC:LA never ceases to impress in the graphical stakes, although as speeds increase strain becomes evident as textures will at times struggle to load promptly. The game’s unique Action camera serves to highlight the game’s graphical beauty with all manner of subtle effects. If you read my preview of the game earlier this year, you can disregard my complaints about the Action camera, it has now become my view of choice when riding motorcycles.

For those returning to the series, rest assured that it has not forgot its arcade roots. The focus is still very much on speed and the core mechanic of slip stream boosting is still very much present, allowing you to climb your way from the back of the pack with careful skill. Also returning are special moves like Agro, which allows you limited invulnerability to plough through traffic, and Zone, the game’s version of ‘bullet time’, which help to swings things a little in your favour. Unrealistic? Yes, but when they mean the difference between a win and loss you’ll be thankful.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is by no means an easy game, right from the get go you are fighting an uphill battle stuck in 1st gear. Being artificial intelligence, your rivals might still be susceptible to the odd crash with traffic but are less likely to overshoot a turn due to human error. Until you really start to learn the map, racing can at times feel unfair with evident rubberband A.I. hot on your tail. What Midnight Club does to alleviate this pressure is implement a reward system that honours not only victory, but participation also. Similar to grinding in an RPG, with each and every race you take part in you earn rep points and typically money as well. Simple tasks like outrunning the cops or racing your opponent to the start line earn you rep also. Coming from a very start-stop-restart style of play with the series’ earlier roots, I had to gradually wean myself off perfection and accept defeat to better succeed. If you plug away at the game long enough, no matter how well you’ve done, you will sure enough unlock all the features the game has to offer and much better machinery with which to tackle it with. MC:LA is hard, yes, but if you find yourself losing simply take a step back and you will soon progress. There are more than enough easy races early on to build up your skill before you tackle the main career.

In addition to a satisfyingly long single player experience, Midnight Club: LA boasts a robust selection of multiplayer game modes and online connectivity. Jumping in and out of online play is instantaneous as you enter an online cruise around the city, a hub to meet new drivers and start racing, show off your ride and just generally cruise around. Players can propose a race and those willing can jump straight in. Online play allows for up to 16 people to compete, but any more than eight and traffic is automatically turned off. In Midnight Club, I’ve always felt that overcoming the traffic itself was the biggest challenge in a race, especially when riding a motorbike. Traffic has always the counterbalancing trade off for the bikes’ nimbleness and speed. With traffic levels ranging from minimal to non-existent, a lot of that challenge, and ultimately thrill, is lost. With a fully tuned Kawasaki Ninja, you are all but unstoppable. Perhaps with the community only just spawning in recent days I’m merely being speculative, but I don’t see myself taking the keys out of the Ninja anytime soon. Online support extends far beyond simple racing though. Through the Rate My Ride mode and integration with Rockstar’s Social Club, players can view and rate the performance and designs of other drivers, forming a true sense of community. Coupled together with an easy to use race editor and just about everything you could ask for from multiplayer has been included.

With Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Rockstar have once again managed to capture the essence of street racing; the illegality, the spontaneity and most importantly the breakneck thrills. Playing through the game these past couple weeks I forgot to eat, I forgot to sleep, I was late for appointments and I missed more than a couple of lectures; all for the sake of just one more race. Even when I was being absolutely blitzed time and again in last place, I couldn’t stop plugging away for the promise of earning precious rep points for my effort and to better understand the curves and shortcuts of this vast living city. With a massive city to explore, seamless online integration, breakneck speeds and fantastic control, you don’t need to be a hardcore tuner to appreciate the thrills on offer. Midnight Club: Los Angeles might steer away from realism, but it is hands down one of the most fun games I’ve played all year.