Grand Theft Auto IV isn’t the only game to look forward to from Rockstar Games, this coming September (9/9/2008) they present us Midnight Club: Los Angeles which brings the series to the West Coast’s largest city.

Utilizing the impressive RAGE engine, MC:LA will feature customization of the interior and exterior of the extremely detailed cars and motorcycles. After a race you’ll have the opportunity to use a new “quick fix” option that will restore your car driving ability but not it’s looks, so actually totaling the vehicle at all is not possible anymore. In order to repair your car’s exterior back to pristine condition you will have to drive to a repair shop to get the work done.

Also for the first time you can drive around the city with day-to-night cycle that will include dynamic weather effects, and traffic that changes throughout the day based on real traffic patterns.  It is also interesting to note that the Los Angeles map used in the game won’t be exactly as it is in real life but similar enough that if you’re familiar with the city’s layout should be able to navigate without much difficulty, the changes made are mostly tweaks made to enhance your enjoyment as you speed through the city faster than the actual streets were intended to driven while providing an extremely realistic representation of Los Angeles that is as close to the real thing as Rockstar San Diego could make it.

Developers also placed a great emphasis on eliminating load screens, stating that the player can literally jump from career mode to an arcade race in under ten seconds.

Rockstar recently released these MC:LA screenshots for you to check out, continue reading and watch the trailer.

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Joy of Tech shares this explanation of why Nintendo can’t ship enough Wii consoles.

Jeep is releasing a new vehicle that is styled after a Halo Warthog while letting you be like Master Chief by helping save our planet with a unique li-ion/diesel engine that is said to get more than 110 miles per gallon.

The following is Chrysler’s press release info:

2008 Jeep® Concept
The 2008 Jeep Renegade Concept is a sporty B-segment-sized two-seater ideally suited for the all-weather delights of off-roading and dune surfing. Featuring a cut-down speedster windshield, a roll bar, openings in the door lowers and a hose-out interior, it is an “eco-friendly” vehicle with minimized use of materials - designed for those who want to enjoy the earth while taking care of its future. The propulsion system combines a 40-mile lithium-ion battery pack and a small-displacement BLUETEC diesel engine. The result: fuel economy of more than 110 miles per gallon.

Specifications
Length: 153 inches (3885 mm)
Width at H-point: 62.9 inches (1598 mm)
Height: 56.3 inches (1431 mm)
Wheelbase: 101.6 inches (2580 mm)

[source: Chrysler]

This photo was taken 11/12/07 in Halo 3 by BigToe67 entitled ‘Band O Brothers’. Click the picture to view full detail.

This Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (November 23rd), Target stores will be having some great deals on video games starting at 5:00am.

They are offering a free $60 gift card with purchase of a Halo 3 Xbox 360 and Halo 3, which ultimately breaks down to getting Halo 3 for the free. A $10 gift card with purchase of Nintendo DS Special Edition bundle with free Zelda or Nintendogs game. 5 free UMD movies with purchase of new PSP.

Cheap games you want? Okay, for $48 you can get Heavenly Sword, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box, PGR4 or skate. Cheaper yet? Fine, $38 will get you Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds, Spider-man: Friend or Foe, NCAA 08, Gears of War or Boogie for PS2 and Wii.

Even cheaper games … for $28 you can get NBA 2K8 or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Naruto, Big Brain Academy and Smarty Pants for Wii. And for $17 you can pick up Lego Star Wars II, Saints Row or the Simpsons game for PSP.

Oh, and we forgot to mention the Xbox 360 wireless headset, $48 and PS2 wireless Psyclone Guitar for $38.

Click the picture to see the entire scan of the Target Black Friday game ad.

Here are the top ten games for Wii, PS3 & Xbox 360 this week in America, followed by notes on the interesting data for the week:

Notes:

• Madden NFL 2008 sold roughly 1.8 million copies in one week. The game is going to do at least 3.0 million units across all platforms. The Wii, Xbox, GC and PSP versions - combined - accounted for fewer than 10% of the 1.6 million. By an overwhelming number, the 360 and PS2 versions sold best, with the PS3 version emerging with a decent debut.
• Nintendogs is in the top twenty - two years after release.
• Mario Party 8 is closing in on 1 million units. Wii Play and Twilight Princess are closing in one 2 million units.
• Persona 3 and Rune Factory: Harvest Moon DS had better debuts than I expected. Luminous Arc and the Heroes of Mana did worse than I expected.
• Despite nearly 1 million units sold in one week, Madden did not drive 360 sales significantly higher than last week. The same is true for PS3.
• Motorstorm sales were just over 15,000 units this week. Since the Motorstorm data in the chart includes Motorstorm sales with the new PS3 SKU that means the new PS3 SKU sold at most 15,000 units. Since PS3 sold 47,000 units this week, that means the new PS3 SKU has yet to account for even 1/3 of PS3 hardware sales.
• This week Activision was only the third largest publisher of games.
• In the top 200 charts this week, there were 21 Xbox 360 titles, 10 Wii titles, and 4 PS3 titles to have sold over 250,000 units lifetime.
• A total of 12,862,636 current generation consoles (Wii, PS3, 360) have been sold in the Americas. To date, Xbox 360 accounts for 52.5% market share, Wii accounts for 33.0% market share, and PS3 accounts for 14.5% market share in the Americas.

[source]

Can’t wait for Killzone 2 to be available for PlayStation 3? Expected sometime in early 2008 there is still a bit of a wait, these six new screenshots may help tide you over until Sony’s flagship title is available. Click any of the following thumbnails to view full screen.

Here is a bit of Killzone trivia regarding the trailer shown earlier this year.

• One of the on screen character models of the E3 2007 trailer use the same amount of polygons as an entire level of Killzone on PS2.^[source]
• It has been revealed that the one Killzone 2 level shown at the pre-E3 event weighed in at roughly 2.05GB.^[source]

[source]

Inspired by the previous post, I wondered how the DS vs PSP would compare when using Google Trends. Looks like there is more PSP search inquires, while DS leads in news references.

This image shows a portion of the upcoming EGM print review of Lair, Factor 5’s upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive. This review contrasts the only other review submitted at this moment (July 31st, 2007) that gave Lair a 90 by Play Magazine.

Here is a quote from the Play review:

Lair has come together beautifully… With its stunning visuals and incredible soundtrack, Lair may well be the single most powerful experience that a man can share with his $5,000 home theatre system. Play, August 2007, p.64

[source]