Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

DUBious or DUBlicious? DUB.

Despite often being seen as the underdog to EA's mighty Need for Speed games, Rockstar's Midnight Club street racing series has gone from strength to strength in recent times. After only 4 months the relatively new Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition now finds its way onto PSP.

Quite possibly the biggest surprise about the PSP version is that it retains nearly all the features the console game had. That says an awful lot for the PSPs technical power and the UMD platform it uses. However there were a few compromises made to get MC3 onto the handheld system. Firstly the loading times are absolutely dreadful! Take any random level in the expansive single player career mode and it will take close to or over a minute just to load that one level, this is made worse by the fact it has to load twice between levels because of the cruise format in the main career mode. All this loading seriously hinders the quick-fire fun the game can offer.

Like the previous games in the series there are 3 huge living cities to race in. You start off in San Diego then as you gain respect move on to Atlanta and finally Detroit in a massive single player career experience. There are over 50 licensed vehicles in total each with their own impressive set of unlockable upgrades and accessories which is now a major part of the game. Unlike its closest competitor Need For Speed Underground Rivals, you actually have some really desirable cars to choose from. Some of the licenses MC3 boasts are Lamborghini, Mclaren, Hummer and Cadillac which certainly beats the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza's tuners must be bored beyond belief with by now. As you progress though career mode more of the 'better' cars become available meaning you always have an incentive to continue playing.

In terms of gameplay MC3 has seen very little change from the console versions. It has a strong arcade feel with slightly exaggerated physics geared towards massive jumps and high speed mayhem. As is the norm with most street racers it is up to you to choose the best route provided you pass through all the checkpoints in order. Each city has a whole load of alleyways and shortcuts to keep you thinking while you race making the whole game much more of an open experience. However if you don't know the huge cities inside out (which lets face it the average player won't) the game may seem 'trial and error' to a certain extent as you find out which routes actually work but Midnight Club has always been that way.

Something rather unusual to MC3 is the special moves you unlock as you progress through the game. Tuner cars get a slow mo move that with increased manoeuvrability can really help get you trough some sticky situations, whereas big trucks and muscle cars use a blast for chucking traffic out the way. The final special move is called 'Argo' and can be used to dish out damage on your opposition racers. Although this may all sound a little strange it actually works really well in stopping the game from becoming repetitive and encouraging players to try out different vehicle types for different races.

Graphically MC3 is ok, but not great. As the name suggests all the racing takes place during the night which can be a little difficult to see when playing your PSP in a bright environment. Many of the larger buildings are well lit and highly visible, however you can often find yourself crashing into small objects you didn't know were there. The motion blur effects used in the console versions to help give the game its chaotic sense of speed have been significantly dumbed down resulting in the PSP version feeling a little slower than its console counterparts and many other PSP games for that matter. With all this said the graphics as a whole aren't too bad, the game boasts excellent textures and detail along with brilliant car models.

Overall the Sound in the game is good, nothing has really been compromised in the way of audio to get MC3 over to the PSP. The trademark soundtrack consisting of mainly rap and rock music remains perfectly intact. Despite the occasionally repetitive engine noises the screeching sounds of the cars sliding round the corners and the whoosh of nitrous boosts help bring back that sense of speed a little.

The main mode to speak of in MC3 is its gigantic career mode which takes anything between 20 and 25 hours to complete depending on how involved you get with the car customisation aspects of the game offers. The other modes such as Quick Race and Arcade aren't as much fun on there own but good from the 'pick up and play' perspective you may want from a portable game. The 6 person multiplayer option is a good addition to the game but requires all players to have copies of the disk, unlike the Game Sharing ability Burnout Legends has for example.

Overall Midnight Club 3 is a good game but is flawed most garishly by its awful loading times. It is both more expansive and more entertaining than its closest competitor Need for Speed Underground Rivals but lacking the intense thrills both Ridge Racer and Burnout Legends offer. If it is between the PSP version and any of the console versions, go for the console version unless you plan on a lot of travelling. However If you are just a PSP owner looking for a street-racing game to keep you amused with plenty of tuning options and a deep single player career mode Midnight Club 3 is the game for you.

71%

By Steven Embling