PS2 REVIEW: L.A. RUSH

What happens when you mix some fast cars, an enormous city, a cliché story, and West Coast Customs? Well, you get L.A. Rush, of course!

Your name is Trikz. You worked your way to the top and now you're a big time street racer. All your rides are all pimped out and your life is a party 24/7. What can go wrong? Nothing.....right? WRONG. You've just pissed off one of the biggest thieves in L.A., Lidel, and now he's going to make you pay. After you come back from training, you find your garage empty and you're left with empty pockets. Who could've done all this? Lidel, of course!

So now it's your job to get all of your cars back and show Lidel what you think of him. So how are you going to get all of your stuff back if you have no cash?!? There are different ways of doing this, well, actually only one: racing. Street races give you the chance to earn some money by racing against three other racers. Depending on if you come in first or last place, determines how much money you will be getting. Place in last, though, and you get nothing. There are also Stunt Races, Bonus Races, Cross-town Races, Acquire Races, and Endurance Races. With the exception of Cross-town Races, Acquire Races are probably the toughest races in the game. In these kinds of races, you start off in another car which you must return to your home in order to be able to "own" them. And while you're trying to get the car back to your place, some of Lidel's crew comes after you, crashing into you and trying to drain your cars "health" bar. Get it too low and you'll have to start over, but if you make it home, depending how much damage the car took, you'll have to pay to get it fixed.

The graphics of this game are at best, just average. The cars look very nice; tinted windows, 20" rims, etc. The "city" is also good looking; not too detailed but it gets the job done. Also, because the environment is so huge, you will eventually see a couple of load screens when crossing from one city to another. And, for example, when you're in second place and just about to take over the lead and a load screen pops up, that's all it takes to mess you up.

We've all seen that most racing games either have hip hop or rap music in there games but this isn't so in L.A. Rush. At least in L.A. Rush they let you choose from hip hop, techno, or rock. I'm not a fan of either hip hop or techno, so I chose rock. I was disappointed in the kind of "rock" music they chose, but I must admit that it was rock and they at least gave me what I asked for. As for the sounds in the game, they are fairly average. The car crashes, slamming the breaks, the sirens blaring from the cops, and the sound of the wind as your racing across the city are all average. Surprisingly, the voice acting was actually okay, with the exception of the announcer, the cops, and the people walking around in the streets.

The controls are easy to use, as they are with most racing games; left analog to steer, right analog to brake and go, etc. No real problems with the controls.

The only problem in the game play, with me at least, is crashing. When you crash, the game suddenly slows down in order to show you all the parts flying and the explosions. The first couple of times it was cool, but after a while it gets old and it starts to get annoying. If you're racing at 200 mph and all of a sudden you crash, you want to get right back in the race. You don't just want to let everyone else catch up. I just wished that this "feature" could be disabled.

Remember all those times your mom told you to stop playing those video games because they were never going to get you anywhere? Well, looks like she's right with this one. The dull plot and repetitive game play can get boring after you play it for a couple of hours. The only true replay value this game has is with multiplayer because it has no online support. So take your mom's advice and go read a book instead.

Click For Media
System: X, PS2 & PC
Dev: Midway
Pub: Midway
Release: Oct 2005
Players: 1 - 2
Review By Luis
RATING (OUT OF 5)
OVERALL
2.5
GRAPHICS
3.0
CONTROL
3.5
MUSIC/FX
3.0
VALUE
2.5
Preview By Vaughn
  

One of our alltime favorite arcade style racers (at least according to the tastes of some past and present CCCP Crew members) was the wild San Francisco Rush 2049 Dreamcast game, which was based on the arcade fave.

Midway has taken far too long in fulfilling our needs for a new itineration of the series and we can't wait to get our hands on the upcoming L. A. Rush. Having spent much time in La La Land during E3 we're pretty sure we'd be able to find our way around the recreated digitial streets of LA - we're hoping our favorite wateringholes are represented....yeah....uh huh....right....

In L.A. Rush, join the crew at West Coast Customs to pimp your ride and live the fabulous lifestyle of an L.A. street racer. Feel the rush as you race over 36 licensed rides including muscle, tuner and exotic vehicles as well as exclusive tricked-out racers designed by West Coast Customs and Rides Magazine. An exciting and unique story-driven experience will allow you to race through 5 fully-open Los Angeles city re-creations while finding treacherous shortcuts and surviving death-defying jumps. L.A. Rush will be the next evolution in the highly addictive Rush franchise!

Features:

  • Rush is Variety: Race, modify, steal and pimp over 50 rides – exclusive tricked-out street racers designed by West Coast Customs and Rides Magazine plus licensed muscle, tuner and exotic vehicles from manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Cadillac and Chevrolet.
  • Open World Racing: Race across a fully-open and recreated Los Angeles through Hollywood, Santa Monica, South Bay, South Central and Downtown while surviving death-defying jumps and finding treacherous shortcuts.
  • Pimp It & Add Some Juice: Spend your hard earned cash at West Coast Customs to visually upgrade your rides and tune your performance at this world famous chop shop.
  • First Racing Game “Story Mode”: Re-acquire 30 cars taken from your personal possession and gain back your respect and street credit through the following missions:
    o Reacquire Missions: Race to earn respect, street credits, and clues to the whereabouts of your cars
    o Retribution Missions: Steal your enemies’ prized rides and then chop them for revenge and extra cash.
    o Retribution Damage Missions: Trash an enemy’s property.
  • Intense “Head-to-Head” Racing: Pit yourself against a buddy in split-screen racing on routes opened previously in Story Mode.
  • Exclusive, Customizable Soundtracks: Decibel pumping, exclusive hip hop & rock music soundtrack including never-before-released music tracks from Twista and Lil’ Kim’s “The Jump Off,” plus much more from hip hop’s finest.
  • Upgrades Galore: Tune the performance of your car through an array of aftermarket parts from manufacturers such as Mopar, Advanced Engine Management, ProCharger, BF Goodrich, Yokohama, Pirelli Brembo, Directed Electronics, House of Color & more.

Car List:

* 2005 Dodge Magnum RT
* 2005 Dodge SRT-4
* 2004 Dodge RAM Rumble Bee
* 2004 Dodge Viper SRT-10
* 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
* 2006 Dodge Charger R/T
* 2004 Cadillac Escalade
* 2004 HUMMER H2
* 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
* 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454
* 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
* 1967 Chevrolet Camaro COPO 427
* 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS
* 2005 Pontiac GTO
* 1966 Pontiac GTO
* 2004 Chevrolet SSR
* 1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
* 1987 Buick GNX
* 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
* 1971 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
* 1959 Chevrolet Impala
* 2000 Chevrolet Impala SS
* 2006 Pontiac Solstice
* 2004 Lotus Elise III
* 2005 Lotus Exige
* 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
* 2002-2004 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO V*
* 2004 NissanZ
* 2004 Nissan Sentra SE-R SPEC V
* 1995 Nissan 240SX XE,
* 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R
* 2005 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab
* 2005 Nissan Titan
* 2004 Infiniti FX45
* 2004 SALEEN S7
* 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

Customization Parts

* Dayton Wire Wheels
* Extreme Dimensions
* Carbon Creations
* AEM & DC Sports
* B&M Racing & Performance Products Inc.
* Nitrous Express
* Borla Performance Industries
* Piloti Driving Shoes
* ProCharger
* Vogue Tyres
* MOPAR
* NISMO