L.A. Rush Preview

E3 Preview 2005 

You’ve zigged when you should have zagged and the result is a head-on collision with oncoming traffic. That is, in itself, tantamount to dropping from first place in the street race to back into the pack. But what makes it worse is that you did it on purpose. 

To say that the collisions in L.A. Rush are spectacular is an understatement. They are jaw-dropping, eye-popping, breath-snatching goodness that will illicit a few barely audible (remember, it took your breath away) exclamations of “WOW!”

L.A. Rush is Midway’s entry into the street-racing genre (not the first) that employs a new graphics technology to create a “living, breathing, go anywhere Los Angeles with highly destructible environments.”  The game was on display with time to sit back and grab a controller during a Pre-E3 event held recently in San Francisco. 

The game has a variety of racing modes, with plenty of traffic to dodge (or not), and actually allows players to find and use shortcuts. Some of the courses employ landmarks and the destructible nature of the game just begs you to enjoy each moment of it.

A street race has you race up a hill, then powerslide into a turn off road and to a small take-off spot. Hit it all right and you will launch through the air and straight through the giant Hollywood letters. What a blast! Of course, there are a bevy of police cars waiting at the bottom for you, so you will not have much time to relish the feat. There is always the selected racecourse, and then the shortcuts you can find. You can, for example, trail the streets around, or you can hit a small ramp with enough speed to jump up onto the top of a warehouse, roar across it and jump down onto the street and back onto the track, ahead of those who followed the course.

Penalty? What penalty? It only matters if you cross that finish line first.

The game locations track players across Compton, LAX (the airport), Hollywood, Beverly Hills and out onto the beaches of Santa Monica. There is also a story mode within the game’s frame.

The controls are exactly what one expects from the type of game – easy to use, and the sound (though somewhat muffled by the noise of the event) seemed like an adequate support to the true star of the game, the incredible crash graphics.  

The courses do have overlays, floating arrows, and there are power-ups available for that nitro boost to give you that extra power just when you might need it. 

The time spent with this game was all too brief, but most enjoyable. This is one title to truly keep an eye for when it releases later this year. L.A. Rush will be available on both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 console systems.