Previews// Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Multiplayer

I am informed, however, the tracklist hasn't been confirmed yet and that he's already had his favourite song removed. So, although the genres would be the same, no specific songs or even artists could be definitely confirmed. The genres seemed pretty standard fare: a bit of drum and bass, some rock, a little bit of this synth-rock/pop that seems so popular with developers these days; no classical orchestral pieces or Norfolkian folk-pop, certainly.

It becomes obvious fairly early on that this game is still a way from completion; buildings pop into existence in the middle-foreground; windows and skyscrapers flicker like moths on a lightbulb, and mirrors reflect back a vampiric nothingness, all of which is rather disconcerting.

I also have a few narrow squeaks when large lorries disappear moments before I plough into them at speeds of 200+ mph. This is while playing in an online situation. I am promised that all these bugs that will be sorted before launch (at the time I'm seeing the game, Rockstar still has a few weeks to go). But after the lags, bugs and invisible obstacles which have sent me flying in GTAIV on several occasions, I'm reserving belief in this until I see the final product.

As the last couple of journos arrive we are asked to pop up the mobiles (yup, mobile phones have bled over from GTA IV) on our screens and select an 'ordered race' with Golf R32s. There then follows a very filmic swoop to the plan view of the city where, by pressing the triggers, you can zoom in to view the circuit in more detail: 'Cheating', as I call it.

The satellite-like view is beautiful both day and night and there are resounding "Oohs!" as the camera takes us from miles above the city to the starting line in one second. The map is laid out in a very similar way to GTA's (again) but with yellow smoke added to the floating, hallucinatory arrows. This is very useful because it means that when I inevitably take a wrong turn it's easier to head back in the right direction. The same goes for the mini-games like King and Keep Away.

I plough ineffectually into walls (but not as madly as Carl Edwards); and narrowly avoidening the pedestrians that the Rockstar boys laughingly tell us are impossible to hit as they also remark on how odd it is that this is the first thing journalists always do. They then note that this pedestrian/car slammin' is also the first thing that journalists berate the Rockstar for.

I remind them of my appalling but innocently-motivated driving skills and am given a couple of pointers. The tips include how to pop a wheelie (rather than 16 boners), how to get slipstream, how to stop others from slipstreaming and how to fill up the boost by going through the garages arranged around the route (how very Burnout Paradise – which is no bad thing) - although there aren't garages in all races. Boggling, I step it up and come in a valiant last, followed by 4th when we moved on to the smoother handling RS4s.