L.A. Rush Hands-On

The Rush arcade series has apparently had its fill of Northern California, as the latest game is abandoning San Francisco and migrating south, specifically to the City of Angels. LA Rush is currently in development by the folks at Midway, and today we got a chance to get our dirty little fingers on a recent build to see how the game is shaping up prior to its October release.

Our lasting initial impression of this build of the game was the sheer size of the drivable map, which seemingly re-creates Los Angeles in its entirety. Midway producers told us that, from the start, LA Rush players will be allowed full access to this huge area--with no load times to suffer through as you speed around a virtual Los Angeles that will feature, among other areas, the Hollywood Hills, South Central, downtown, Santa Monica, and Marina Del Rey. If you happen to slow down in the game long enough to enjoy the view, you might recognize some LA landmarks, including the Hollywood sign on the hill, the Santa Monica pier, and Long Beach's famous Queen Mary. In our time with the game, we even sped by a virtual Los Angeles airport, complete with the well-known white LAX sign just outside the gates. The open-ended nature of the environments will mean you have a variety of routes to choose from when running races or avoiding the cops, who will sometimes be on your tail. And with more than 80 individual race events at your disposal, there will be plenty to keep you happily speeding along.

LA Rush will feature a number of different modes, from traditional circuit and point-to-point races to a freestyle roam mode that basically makes the streets and highways of Los Angeles an open playground for you to experiment on at your leisure. Winning races will earn you cash, which you can use to enter tournaments to win even more money. We particularly enjoyed the cruise mode, which plays a lot like the central conceit of the film Speed. You'll have a minimum speed you'll need to maintain throughout the entirety of the race. Dip below that speed, or crash your car altogether, and your race will be over. What's interesting is that, in cruise mode, acceleration is taken care of for you. So much like Sandra Bullock in the film, your only concern will be steering the car and doing whatever you can to avoid oncoming traffic. Furthermore, traffic is highly scripted in cruise mode, so with enough practice, you can figure out the correct route to your destination.

Speaking of traffic, while it may be hard to imagine a high-octane racing game taking place on the jam-packed highways and byways of Los Angeles, a city renowned for its choking traffic problems, the producers of LA Rush have been tinkering with just how accurately they wish to model the game's virtual traffic congestion. In our hands-on time with the game, there were certain sections we played that had very heavy congestion, and our cars suffered because of it, but there were also roomier sections of road that allowed you to really cut loose with the gas pedal. In the end, the producers hope to strike a balance between the challenges of weaving in between other cars on the road and fulfilling each gamer's need for speed.

In LA Rush, your cars will take damage as you smack into traffic and scrape embankments. In fact, you can total your car if it suffers enough damage, complete with requisite slow-motion crashes. Should you total your car in a circuit or point-to-point race, your race won't be over; your car will reset and you can continue on. Couple impressive crash animations with car models that feature damage modeling along with a decent overall sense of speed, and you have a graphical package that seems to be coming along nicely.

With 36 licensed cars from makers like Subaru and Saleen, as well as 20 concept cars for your driving (and crashing) pleasure, it's safe to say you'll have a lot of variety when it comes to the type of ride you wish to drive. Cars will have different properties, as you might expect--muscle cars make up for a lack of speed with a tough hide, while concept cars are built for little more than pure unadulterated quicks. Which car you choose will have an effect on how you approach the many missions in the game. There will be two methods for unlocking new rides: either by "reacquiring" (read: stealing) them by being at the right place at the right time on the world map, or by successfully completing stunt mode challenges. You enter stunt modes by collecting stunt coins in the environment, which immediately transports you into this special mode. In stunt mode, you'll be challenged to collect a number of coins scattered across the map. Collect them all and you might unlock a car; fail to do so and all you've lost is a little bit of pride.

Stunt coins aren't the only thing you can pick up while driving around--there are also nitro coins, which will give you an impressive boost of speed when activated. You can only have a maximum of three nitros at any one time, so you'll want to save them for when they're most needed, such as for passing opponents or avoiding the fuzz. Getting busted by the cops will cost you money. That money could be put to better use by entering tournaments or upgrading your ride, so you'll want to do your best to stay out of the way of the police.

You've already heard about how you can get your crash on and leave your hooptie a flaming, twisted wreck if you like. If you're looking to give your ride a dash of panache, so to speak, you'll have the skills and personalities of West Coast Customs (of MTV's "Pimp My Ride" fame) at your service. Upgrading your cars seems to be more of a hands-off process in LA Rush, as the type of upgrades you get will be predetermined in-game. During one visit you might get upgraded rims; during the next, you might get a carbon fiber body kit or a fish tank installed in your car. At the very least, after a few trips to the WCC, your customized ride will be truly your own.

This being an early build, much of LA Rush's interface is scheduled for an upgrade, particularly with the HUD. That said, we like what we've seen so far of the game's open-ended nature, speedy pace, and impressive scale. Look for more coverage of Rush throughout the coming months as we approach the game's fall release.