11-May-2005 Hailing from the hotbed of the street-smoking Essex Riviera (Southend-on-Sea), I've seen the rise in car-modding culture first hand. Every Friday night, bastardised hairdressers' cars cruise the seafront, giving us something else to laugh at when all the scrapping chavs have been carted off in a meat wagon. In the States the scene is much bigger. Tattoos are the new fake Burberry, and laughing at a fellow enthusiast's burger-munching girlfriend won't get you a slap, it'll get you shot. It's serious business, so American car mod mag DUB must be serious about lending its moniker to this racer too. Luckily, Rockstar's latest has got just what it takes to do the scene justice...
Firstly, forget the furious; this game is very, very fast. Edge of your seat, make your eyes bleed, pack a spare pair of pants fast. Few games have been able to emulate the sheer speed spectacle that was Burnout 3, but MC3 does a damn fine job. NPC cars zip past in an stylised blur, and strapping into the first-person perspective is truly terrifying. It's a shame then, that this sense of urgency isn't conveyed during the frustratingly long load screens that precede each race, but hey.
There's certainly nothing new here, but MC3 still remains more fun than playing roadkill snooker at 90mph along the M4. The beauty of each race is that aside from the odd track-based time trial, there are no strict circuits as such. Instead, marked waypoints (that are so bloody obvious they look like 100ft-high burning piles of chav caps) show the general path you should take. Every track is a testing, punishing meander through the accurately recreated streets of San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit, and you'll be visibly shaking after doing 190mph through a twisting alley barely wide enough for your vehicle. Indeed, using the Force (or praying, depending on your religious persuasion) is the only way to navigate certain sections. We know how an X-Wing pilot must've felt flying into the Death Star, only here slamming into a wall won't result in your mates being blown to smithereens by a camp Imperial commander; you'll simply lose a couple of not-so-precious seconds. Often learning an exact route between stages (and the best time to kick in a nitro boost) is the only path to victory.
What MC3 does do with panache however, is provide a decent-sized freeroaming environment to play in. As in Need For Speed Underground, you can trawl the streets for like-minded players in Cruise mode. Marked on the accessible map are tons of non-essential races you can participate in for cash, to buy new cars, or tweak the shit out of your existing motor (see In Gold We Trust, page 072). Bodywork, paint, rims, tyres and decals can all be added and adjusted for a modest fee. Build up enough green and you can afford to ramp up your beast. Transmissions, clutch, and the onboard computer are just several aspects you can bolster to improve your performance. This level of depth is practically expected in street-racing titles nowadays, but if it all seems a bit baffling, just opt for the indispensable Auto Upgrade feature and hey presto - you're an instant headache to law-abiding citizens with your roaring exhausts and speed camera-busting ability. You can own as many different vehicles as you like, and when you factor in the huge amount of customisation on offer, this racer's got the mileage to run and run.
Then there are the compulsory competitions. Face off against one of the many different characters for multi-tiered races and win, aside from several large ones, a shiny new car and a whole truckful of spares to go with it. This is also where you'll gain access to all the sexy bikes MC3 has on offer. Unbelievably quick to accelerate and nimble to manoeuvre, they're a top choice for loads of races, though your rider's vulnerability means just one wince-inducing smash will set you back. The general learning curve is very well measured, and lets players build up just enough cash and spare parts to comfortably compete in the next event.
Thankfully the cars themselves look decent enough, and display some really nice lighting and reflections. It's a shame there's no real damage modelling - the only sign you've been driving your beauty like a psychotic dodgem operator is the odd scratch or broken windscreen. That said, you shouldn't have much cause for this thanks to the excellent handling physics. Even the relatively basic models hold the road well at speed; drop a few inches and slap on some decent tyres however, and they'll grip harder than a chav girl's scrunchie. This again adds to the immediate accessibility of the title, and at these ridiculous speeds, is a godsend. Rain-drenched races are a tad trickier, where the wet results in a significant loss of traction, and some comical smashes. To complement this, each class has a special move, which, when pulled off at just the right time, is a race-clinching moment of goodness (see Night Moves, page 071). In a refreshing touch, AI enemies aren't pre-programmed to take the same route through a level, so races are never the same. Either incredibly frustrating (if you're on the receiving end of vicious shunt from behind) or immensely satisfying (sending them careering into the central reservation), their fallible nature is a great touch. The majority of roadside scenery is destructible, though the pathetic puff of leaves as you plough unaffected through the council's foliage efforts is disappointing.
Aside from the substantial career mode, MC3 offers up a huge arcade mode. You can choose to race any unlocked track using any of the vehicles in your garage, purely for fun. One step better than this is the fantastic multiplayer, where up to eight players can duke it out over any unlocked, gorgeously lunar-lit lap. There are tons of game modes on offer, including Capture the Flag, Tag and Paint. With full Xbox Live capabilities, this should be an absolute blast online. You can even take custom tracks from the Race Editor online and challenge other racers - it's a fantastic and virtually limitless option.
In its effort to become an accessible, purely arcade racer, MC3 is a resounding success. Your car is virtually indestructible (a token health meter is largely redundant - to inflict any serious damage you'll need to drive like a myopic Eddie Irvine for the entire race), so any notion of careful driving gets thrown straight through the front windscreen. This will prove a real boon to the majority of gamers, but if you're after something even remotely sim-like, steer well clear.
That said, take Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition for precisely what it is, and you've got an extremely fast, and more importantly, very fun racer. If you're burned out from other racers yet still have a hankering need for speed, this slick street racer should be right up your alley. Chuck in the countless car-tweaking and customising options and brilliant multiplayer modes, and it easily slipstreams ahead of the other modding racers around.
Official Xbox Magazine staff
// Overview
Verdict
Slick, stylish and great fun. Screams off the grid with a ton of modding options and a throbbing engine of multiplayer goodness.
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