"To get my bearings in the game, Rockstar put me in a "Shinka" edition of Mazda's crazy rotary-engine-using RX-8. Which is a damn nice gesture considering that the game normally puts you in a Volkswagon Scirocco or Rabbit as your first ride. The RX-8 is a tuner class car, while the other vehicles are divided into the four classes of: tuner, luxury, muscle, and exotic. Bikes are also an option, but considering my terrible driving skills even when behind the wheel of nice cars, I didn't want to chance a go behind a wiry motorcycle. Overall, the controls feel pretty standard -- both the overall feel and the handling somewhat resemble the sensation of driving a decent-to-high-end car in GTAIV (which uses the same RAGE engine)."

"It's not just in the overarching cityscape that Rockstar's phenomenal behemoth Grand Theft Auto IV makes its presence felt in Midnight Club, however, as key to the game's interface is a mobile phone much like the one that aided Niko Bellic through his escapades. A fully branded T-Mobile Sidekick (which, for European dwellers, is much like the now ubiquitous Blackberry) acts as an in-game menu alerting you to events and races throughout the city, and also delivering much of the game's narrative. The story, or the very little we know of it, centres on the New Kid, an eager upstart racer who's just relocated from the East Coast of America to the game's West Coast setting. It's a nice personal touch that should help usher the game along with a further sense of progression throughout the game's myriad modes."

"This level of traffic was a theme throughout the city and wasn't only confined to the freeways. We ran the risk of a fender bending T-bone at each intersection we passed in the game, and Rockstar has finely honed the balance of this traffic to get your attention levels at the perfect level for each race (i.e. not blinking for the duration). This is more than we can say for the uncharacteristically barren roads of Paradise City, which left us wondering where all the carnage had gone."