Buckle up, rev the engine, drop the clutch and blast off in Midway’s high-octane arcade racer, L.A. Rush. In L.A. Rush, players join the crew at West Coast Customs to pimp their ride and live the lifestyle of an L.A. street racer. An exciting and unique story-driven experience allows players to race through five wide-open Los Angeles city re-creations filled with all of the heart-pounding treacherous shortcuts and death-defying jumps that have made the Rush franchise so addictive.

Feel the rush as you race over 35 licensed rides including muscle, tuner and exotic vehicles from manufacturers such as Mitsubishi and Chevrolet as well as exclusive tricked-out racers designed by West Coast Customs and Rides Magazine while modifying and pimping your ride with an array of licensed aftermarket parts. With celebrity voices and high-profile licenses, LA Rush will be the next evolution in the highly addictive Rush franchise!

L.A. Rush Features:

• Race, modify, steal, and pimp more than 50 rides.
• Race across a fully-open and recreated Los Angeles through Hollywood, Santa Monica, South Bay, South Central, and Downtown
• Spend your hard-earned cash at West Coast Customs to visually upgrade your rides and tune your performance
• Re-acquire 30 cars stolen in the first-ever Rush Story Mode
• Intense head-to-head split-screen racing
• Exclusive soundtrack featuring hip-hop and rock including exclusive tracks just for the game
• Tune your car with a vast assortment of aftermarket parts from top manufacturers

GCM:	Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the team behind L.A. Rush.
Pall Palsson:	My name is Pall Palsson and I’m an assistant producer working on LA Rush. The team is very enthusiastic and not afraid of a challenge, clearly, as LA Rush is technically very impressive with the expansive city of LA and the level that we’ve managed to populate it to.

GCM:	Story has never been a huge concern with the Rush franchise. Just how involved is the story now that we are headed to Los Angeles?
Pall Palsson:	Story Mode is the main mode in LA Rush. It gives the player a sense of purpose as he attacks the races, stunts and missions and it gives him an urge to explore the environment. Through Story Mode the player unlocks new events and new cars that can be raced both in Story Mode and Quick Race.

GCM:	Race fans have had the chance to drive in L.A. in countless other titles before this. What are you planning to do to keep this version of Los Angeles fresh and original?
Pall Palsson:	We are bringing “The Rush” to LA… that means you’ll see the city of angels like never before… you’ll see the city from above as you send your car flying through the air off a massive ramp, as you race on the rooftop of the LA Convention center, as you smash through the Hollywood sign… our version of LA is more fun than it’s ever been.

GCM:	San Francisco gave us the opportunity for massive “air”. Other than congested traffic, what does L.A. contribute to the game design?
Pall Palsson:	L.A. contributes a fantastic backdrop for our story and some well known landmarks… the landmarks are important for a number of reasons: they make the story and the city feel more real and there really is nothing like smashing through the Hollywood sign in your tricked out 67 Camaro…

GCM:

The current car count is at 55+ (35 licensed cars and 20 concept cars). What was your criteria for choosing the cars to include in this game and do certain races favor a certain car type?

Pall Palsson:

We wanted to include as many different types of cars as we could: sports cars, classic muscle cars, SUV’s and super cars as well your run of the mill family cars. LA Rush is very arcade in its structure so there are few restrictions. You can take any car into any race and try your luck… your H2 Hummer might just win a race against 3 Nissan Skylines if you know the track well enough and are not afraid to “throw your weight around”.

GCM:

Licensed cars and damage models are like oil and water in video games. Were there any restrictions placed on you by the manufacturers when it comes to trashing their cars?

Pall Palsson:

We worked closely with the manufacturers to ensure that we demonstrated realistic damage and showed their vehicles in a way that they were comfortable with. LA Rush is an arcade racing game, not a racing sim, so when you have a heavy crash in the game the car is reset to pristine condition afterwards. The manufacturers understood that the crashes were an integral and fun part of the game. Once they realized the context in which their cars were being shown, they were completely supportive.

GCM:

L.A. Rush promises a robust upgrade system to enhance the look and performance of our rides. About how many parts and upgrades are going to be available?

Pall Palsson:

LA Rush is not an import tuner game, it’s an arcade racing game aimed at a more casual audience than some of the other products out there (but that’s not to say that hardcore racers won’t like it too). With that in mind we simplified the tuner aspect of the game, instead of the player having to go to a garage and select which of 20 exhausts gives him a slight performance boost you simply take your ride to WCC and they pimp it out for you. I know there’s no one I would trust better to pimp my rides, including myself.

GCM:

How did the involvement of West Coast Customs come about, and just how much did they contribute to the overall game design or content?

Pall Palsson:

West Coast Customs was a great fit for the game. We were looking for specialists to simplify the “tuner” aspect of street racing games so that the game would appeal to a more casual audience and they were looking to get into the interactive entertainment market. The result was a match made in heaven where we sent over 3D models of the vehicles that were to be used in game and the WCC guys pimped them out for us. What you get in the game is exactly what you would get if you took a car to WCC to get it pimped out.

GCM:

350 miles of L.A. is a lot of territory to cover, especially in Free Roam mode. Explain a bit about the GPS system and how it works.

Pall Palsson:

We quickly found that we needed a great GPS system to help people navigate through the streets of LA; I’m sure anyone who has attempted to drive in the real life LA without one will agree. The GPS system is easy to use: to start it up just go to the in game map and place a GPS marker over your destination on the map. The GPS system will then kick in and show you the street route to your destination… if you miss a turn it recalculates the route just like a real GPS unit.

GCM:

What kind of races can we expect to find in L.A. Rush and how many race events are actually in the overall story mode? With the Free Roam mode, will there be random races?

Pall Palsson:

In Story Mode you can expect to find: point-to-point races, circuit races, bonus car races, acquire missions, retribution missions and stunt courses. In addition to those game modes Quick Race has two unique game modes called Low Rider and Cruise. In Cruise your vehicles minimum speed is locked at say 80mph and you need to get from the start of the course to the finish without dropping below that minimum speed. Sounds simple but it’s the most played game mode when we take the game to shows, people really enjoy the challenge.

GCM:

Of the hundreds available, I’ve only seen one screenshot with a police car. Is there a “police presence” in L.A. Rush or are we free to leave our radar detectors at home?

Pall Palsson:

Only one, how is that possible?!? LA is full of cops, both the real version and our digital counterpart. If you smash into traffic, take down some fences or break the traffic law in the game, the cops will be all over you. They have been described as “brutal” and “suicidal” by people who have played the game so they are definitely there. The higher your wanted level is, the more they try to find you and pull you over. To lower your wanted level you can duck into alleyways and wait for the heat to pass.

GCM:

L.A. Rush promises exciting split-screen head-to-head racing but are there any plans for online multiplayer or even something as simple as online rankings or scoreboards?

Pall Palsson:

With LA Rush we wanted to make the best single player and “buddy” experience possible. That’s why we focused on offline content like Story Mode. In addition to the split screen racing, Cruise is great fun with multiple people where people take turns trying to set the highest score on a course. On the XBOX the game is Live aware and features downloadable content so you can go and download new skins for your cars free of charge. I can also say that we are looking heavily into multiplayer for future iterations of Rush.

GCM:	Will there be any type of course editor that allows gamers to plot their own waypoints through the city and challenge others?
Pall Palsson:	LA Rush does not feature a course editor but we are looking into adding this feature to the future iterations of Rush.

GCM:

With the new story mode and massive upgrade system it seems that you might be taking the franchise away from its hardcore arcade roots and trying to compete with the other “street racing” titles (Juiced, Midnight Club, SRS, NFSUG) out there. Is this a fair assessment or do you plan to keep the primal arcade thrills alive in the core gameplay?

Pall Palsson:

LA Rush does not just pay lip service to the Rush name; at heart LA Rush is an arcade racing game, you can feel in the physics, the way we’ve constructed our races and you can definitely see it as you are racing across rooftops and jumping over container ships in the harbor... Just because the technology wasn’t ready to create a free roaming city, accurately model licensed vehicles and convey a story when the classic Rush games were made doesn’t mean that those elements aren’t quintessentially “Rush”. We’ve included elements that people expect from a modern racer in LA Rush, but only if we think it will enhance the arcade experience.

GCM:	The Rush franchise has always been known for those “WOW” moments that you want to relive and share with your friends. Will there be an instant replay system and/or the ability to save your favorite moments to a memory card or hard drive?
Pall Palsson:	LA Rush has the “WOW moments”, though in house we call them “Rush moments”. When you do something spectacular in game the camera cuts to a cinematic slow motion view of the action so you can see just how incredibly high that jump really was… In LA Rush there’s no need to save the “Rush moments”, there’s always another one lurking around the corner.

GCM:

From what we’ve seen so far the visuals are quite stunning. What can you tell us about the soundtrack and how you went about selecting the artists and songs?

Pall Palsson:

With LA Rush we wanted to try to bring the hip hop culture that surrounds street racing to life, especially since we were featuring an in-depth story mode in the game that’s set on the underground street racing scene. To this end LA Rush features over 75 songs from over 25 artists including Lil Kim, DJ Rap, two unreleased tracks by Twista and four original songs by Damian Valentine. If hip-hop’s not for you then you can switch the in game soundtrack to rock or techno or on the XBOX create your own custom play list.

GCM:	Thank you again for your time. Do you have any final words for our readers regarding L.A. Rush?
Pall Palsson:	If you are looking for something a little different from your racing games, something a bit more controllable, a bit more arcade, a bit more “over the top” give LA Rush a try :)

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