Come 12th March Midnight Club: Los Angeles, which received generally favourable reviews, will get a pretty substantial update. Rockstar’s downloadable South Central (an iconic district in LA) content will hit both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for free, with an extra premium pack costing $9.99 (which should be around £6.80, but I bet we end up paying more) or 800 Microsoft points.

The free portion of the content - which was accidentally leaked back in December - will add a new area to the game’s already large map that includes new online races. The premium pack adds 9 new vehicles, 26 races, 12 battle maps, 10 delivery missions and more. Vehicles include the ‘2008 Range Rover Supercharged’ and the ‘1970 Chevy Chevelle’.

Sounds worth the price to me!

EA has a habit of churning out updates of the same series year after year (see The Sims or the FIFA franchises) and the Need for Speed series is no exception as it’s now on it’s twelfth installment. I don’t have a problem with EA milking a franchise as long as they actually put out a decent game, and the Need for Speed series has had some pretty decent installments. For example, although racing games aren’t my absolute favourite genre (my brother, however, loves them) Need for Speed: Most Wanted was an absolute blast to play. However, you also get the less than stellar installments, such as Need for Speed: Pro Street (although zooming around a track in a Bugatti Veyron is pretty damn cool) but I suppose you can’t win them all. Fortunately the upcoming Need for Speed: Undercover looks to right the wrongs of Pro Street (even the developers admit Pro Street was average), leaving the track and returning to the streets.

The above video doesn’t show much gameplay wise but it gives you some sense of the story. You’ll be playing the part of an undercover cop infiltrating the underground racing club, which reminds me a bit of The Fast and the Furious. While the storyline probably won’t win any awards it still beats driving around the same track over and over again (this may be ok for other pro racing games but were talking about souped up street cars that are more at home screaming around city streets). Being the undercover cop and all you’ll be returning to race the streets while trying to avoid the police (as they don’t you’re undercover, so doing all that damage to their cars is suddenly all ok!), but it won’t be the same as always. One new feature is the highway battle, which see’s you driving down the long highway connecting the three in-game city areas and battling with an opponent. While this is nothing more than a fancy race in spirit there’s also a lot of traffic to avoid at high speeds, which sounds a little like the Burnout series (another game that recently went free form).  Oh, and there’s also the traditional zooming to the chop shop while being chased by every cop in the state. All this returns to the open world which made Most Wanted so fun.

While you may think it sounds like more of the same it’s still good to see EA returning the game to its roots and will probably be a refreshing and welcomed return to those disappointed by Pro Street.  I know my brother will probably be playing it anyway, that’s if he can tear himself away from FIFA 09.

With typical EA style it’s set for release on pretty much everything that plays video games on November 21st.