Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

"Great if like your arcade racers fast and stylish, but its the same old same old"

Introduction/Story - This is Rockstar's third addition to the Midnight Club series. For those of you who are not familiar with the series, Midnight Club is basically just a street racer, you start off as a nobody, with barely any cash, and after taking on the big boys (and girls) of the cities, you get more money, cash, street cred etc.

The aim of the game is simply to get yourself a new car, do what you can with it with your funds, race against some people with similar cars, in races that your vehicle can cope with, and then to get more cash, mod your vehicle, or just sell it off, and buy a better one.

Gameplay - If you like your arcade racers, and don't mind the fact that cars in real life can't skid around a narrow bend, full of traffic at a 110 degree angle, going at 120 MPH, then you'll feel right at home with the cars controls. As said in the introduction, you will start off with a pretty average road car, that won't look too good, and won't drive too fast either, and this will be familiar to gamers that have played many games like this, especially Need for Speed. But, after a few hours of play, you should have gathered enough money either to heavily mod your current vehicle (cosmetically or engine wise) or you could either use the cars won from certain races.

Now, onto the races. You will be racing in three different cities throughout the game; Detroit, Atlanta and San Diego. Each race you play in the game will be using some part of each of the city. For example, lets say you are racing in Atlanta, you will use a different route around the city for each race you play, with some being very similar, and some could be in areas you never knew existed. This can be both good and bad. You could be the type of gamer that likes being around familiar environments, so you know where all the short-cuts are, or you could be the type of gamer that constantly likes changing environments, and likes exploring during free-roam.

To complete the game 100%, you will have to play with different types of vehicles, not just cars and jeeps, motorbikes too, two different types to be precise, super bikes and Harley style bikes, the big heavy ones. The super bikes handle as you would expect, extremely fast, responsive and fluid, sadly, so do the bigger bikes, slow, heavy, and very challenging to control in this type of game.

Depending on how good you are with this type of game will determine how enjoying or how annoying and frustrating you find it. If you enjoy your street racers, you will love to carry on with the, lets be honest, repetitive races, but enjoy the unlockables and rewards you get along the way. Some of the unlockable mods in the game, especially the DUB ones, will make any fan of cosmetic mods mouth's water, but they can get a bit pricey. On the other hand, if you are more used to the realistic Gran Turismo method of driving, you may well find the way the races go frustrating. On many occasions, you could be driving excellently, leaving your opponents in your rear-view mirror, you see the big red beam indicating that your race is nearly over, and then BAM! The game conveniently spawns a van in your path, and you just lost the same race for the fourth time in half an hour.

Your cars also have "powers" which are activated with L3 on the analogue stick. The fastest cars and super bikes are able to slow down time, and make slight but precise movements that could save you the race. The muscle cars and 4X4s are able to ram cars well out of the way, as well as rev the engine to move traffic away.

However, once you get used to it, the game starts being generous, giving you great cars for free, great engine and cosmetic mods for a price, which could keep many players playing.

Score - 7/10

Graphics - Something game developers and publishers know that will attract petrol heads, or just young kids whose parents buy them anything, is that sticking a fully modded Escalade with 28'' gold rims will get your game noticed. This doesn't change in-game. The looks of the cities and of course the cars look all shiny and smooth, and there are no real flaws at all with the looks of the vehicles. However, even though the environments do look great, the game gives off a blur effect while speeding past, which hinders the looks of the city, which otherwise does look good.

Score - 8/10

Sound - The engine sounds of the vehicles do sound genuine, and the sounds of the environments also sound believable. As for the game's music, hip hop, rap and dance are the different genres available, and are relatively up to date, seeing as how the game was released late last year. You can also skip sounds you don't like by pressing the left or right buttons on the D-pad.

Score - 7/10

Overall - Long story short, not too bad an edition to the series. Having said that, I still don't think that it will last that long in your PS2. If like me you get a new game, play them constantly until they are done, then this might not last you long at all. Lets say you just get the game, and try to complete it 100% as fast as you can, not allowing any real time for roaming, then this game might not last you 2 weeks.

Score - 7/10 - Just above average street racer

Buy/Rent - If you really do like your street racers, and can see yourself playing them over, or playing online or with friends, then maybe buying is the best option for you, but I would strongly recommend either buying the game for a cheap price, or just renting it, and playing as much as you want in the time given, because the replay value just isn't there in my opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/06