Midnight Club: Los Angeles is having false starts like a student driver trying to master the subtle art of the manual transmission. After being initially announced for a release early this year, the game was pushed to September 9, then again to October 7. Now the Rockstar street racer is being held back once again, as Take-Two today revealed another push for the game in its quarterly earnings report.

If there’s any consolation for fans awaiting the game, it’s that the delays are becoming sequentially shorter. This latest push is only two weeks, with Midnight Club: Los Angeles and the PlayStation Portable offshoot Midnight Club: LA Remix set for a North American release October 21. Europeans will be able to get behind the wheel October 24.

In an investor conference call, Take-Two chief financial officer Lainie Goldstein said the game was moved back to "a more favorable market window." While Goldstein didn’t identify any specific market conditions, online retailers including GameStop and Amazon.com are currently expecting Sony’s PlayStation 3 racer MotorStorm: Pacific Rift to arrive October 7.

By Brendan Sinclair