Have you been wondering about the state of the Midnight Club series? Well, we've got some good news for PSP owners, as well as some not-so-good news for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. Learn more after the jump!

Rockstar Games has said that Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) is the company's most ambitious title to date. Now, we won't have to wait indefinitely to see if they're right. Rockstar Games has just announced Midnight Club: LA's release dates for U.S. and Europe. Not only that, they are releasing a PSP version too. More details after the jump.

In order to bring more life to games such as Top Spin 3, Unreal Tournament 3, Midnight Club Los Angeles and Grand Theft Auto IV, the respective game developers tapped ImageMetrics to craft the games' facial animation.

A video is also included to show of the things brought to life by ImageMetrics' technology. Check it out after the jump!

The cars found in Rock Star San Diego's Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Xbox 360, PS3) are nothing short of sleek and sexy. With us right now are eight new screens from the fourth installment in this open-world racing franchise that shows off the Saleen 57 and other cars as well. If you're hungering for some loving, get your fix from the cars that are featured in the full article.

When we first learned that Rockstar San Diego is currently developing the fourth installment to the widely-successful street racing franchise Midnight Club, we can't help but be excited. The series is well known for excellent environment re-creation as well as top notch physics simulation surpassing the expectations of the period it was released.

The next entry will be dubbed as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and is expected to be released on platforms Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. While Rockstar has yet to give an official release date window for the game, the developer dished out the first ever screenshots for the title through its dedicated Midnight Club web page.

We are still not certain if real vehicles will be appearing in Midnight Club: LA but judging from the screenshots, it seems that Mazda and Kawasaki have already joined the fray. It should be remembered that past iterations featured fictional vehicles because the manufacturers didn't want to be associated with illegal street racing.

Anyway, updates as we them! In the mean time, just enjoy the screenshots below.

See the other screenshots after the jump!

There's been a good deal of positive feedback coming from the media and the fans regarding Rockstar Games' latest project, Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Some have dared to say that its environments are looking better than those of Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3 and 360), and who could blame them?

A Rockstar spokesperson said that Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the development firm's "most ambitious project to date" with its top shelf graphics and accurate re-creation of the city's streets. Asked to comment about this, the Rockstar rep said, "It's just the beginning."

The San Diego-based developers found it very convenient that they're only a couple of hours away from the city they'll be bringing to life in the game. Midnight Club iterations have had a strong tradition of living up to their own hype, and we certainly hope that Midnight Club: Los Angeles carries on with that reputation. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is slated for the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360.

If we are not mistaken, the Midnight Club franchise is probably one of the first titles that featured street car racing. It's owned by Rockstar Games (San Diego) and the earlier versions always used fictional vehicles because automobile manufacturers didn't want to be associated with the illegal sport.

That didn't stop Rockstar though from creating more titles for the series and in fact, it just announced fourth installment Midnight Club: Los Angeles for platforms Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3). There's still no details available for this game but Rockstar promised that it will remain true to the franchise's open-world racing-at-break-neck-speed setting.

Midnight Club series producer Jay Panek mentioned that their goal with Midnight Club: Los Angeles is to evolve on all possible levels and stay true to the hardcore gaming experience the series is known for. Likewise, Rockstar Games Founder and Executive Producer Sam Houser commented,

Rockstar San Diego looks to once again push the boundaries and expectations of what a racing game can be. Rockstar San Diego has always been the technology leader in delivering the ultimate racing experience, and with this game, they are looking to re-define the idea of a completely immersive racing game experience, both offline and online.

Given the relative success of the franchise, we wouldn't be surprised if real cars will start appearing on this game. As always, you'll hear about more details as soon as we get them.

Games Radar reveals what Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) had to say about Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360) Okay, if you've managed to read them off the scans, well and good, wait for the next update from the internet about Rockstar's jewel. If not, as the title suggests, the word of the day is NO.

As in "virtually" no familiar GTA faces, for starters. This might mean that although there may be references to the prior games in the series (GTAIII onwards, plus both Stories and Advance, were single-universe - heck, you can argue even all the way to at least the second GTA), the characters from those games might not make any significant appearances in IV's storyline.

Too bad, though. A seven-way brawl among the leading con men of GTA would have been an interesting sight.

Yes, still no planes - although you do get helicopters - but Rockstar hopes there will be no loading screens either, all over the entire game. That means: no loading between islands, no loading between interior and exterior sets... that's all Games Radar mentions off OPM, but the best-case scenario would also be no loading between machinima and gameplay sequences as well. In fact, the best case scenario is that the only loading should be a save file and the start of the game.

Another "no-no" is no character customization a la CJ. Niko doesn't hit the gym or the GAP (what was that shop again in San Andreas?). Also in the "non" list is the fact that Niko won't be able to access all buildings in the environment, although there wouldn't be much of a gameplay reason to, although there also won't be any "pointless spaces" in the game either.

One final no is "no-holds barred". This is a collaborative evolution between three studios: Rockstar North, Rockstar San Diego and Rockstar's New York studios.