Midnight club in L.A. Sould you be worried? No, not a lot anyway.
First off, this is one game that you CANNOT foresee the full game in the fist five minutes, more so if you don't use the 240SX to start with.
Secondly, while the voice acting is very good, you will probably turn off the characters voices, due to the fact they all talk as much trash as Phil Jackson but execute the insults(all in race)about as effectively as the Clippers. Fortunately someone at Rockstar noticed this and there are two voice options, one for driving and racing, then a separate one devoted to cut scenes.
Next is the cars and gameplay, but there is really nothing to explain here. they all look very nice but that's not a challenge anymore is it? Basically, if you played Midnight Club 3, you have seen most of what's here, but I can report that 1) the physics engine has been tightened up somewhat, 2) Trucks and SUVs are notibly absent, and 3) DUB has returned.
Customization is, as usual, in depth and worthwhile. While yes you are limited to certain 4-5 options most of the time, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
But that brings me to the menus, the torn in the side of the entire MC Series. They've never been a huge deal breaker, but they've never been that good either. MC:LA is an improvement from MC3, but still lacks that immersive detailing seen in other games, Need for Speed Underground 2 comes to mind.
At the end of the day, yes the difficulty is a bit obtuse, yes the camera can be difficult, and yes the upgrades seem few and far between, but you can't look at this game that way because if anyone has ever told you "I beat Midnight Club." you are going to stop and listen because it is more of a challenge than Need for Speed games.
In this way, I consider Midnight Club: Los Angeles a good game, and it will be a great change of pace from games like Blur, Split Second, and GT5. But for sanity's sake, rent it first.