Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (PSP) - Review
High: Very fun and fast-action racing game, with fairly good graphics and physics.
Low: Loading times can be unbearable (upward of 60 second waits)
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is overall a fairly good game for the PSP. Rockstar Games tried to cram too much onto one small disc, also leaving some major things out. The load times are unbearable, especially since you have to switch between races, cruise mode, garage mode, cities, the menu, and everything else. The framerate for Midnight Club 3 is anything but perfect also. There are also, every once in a while, some sound bugs and the car damage is very minimal.
Like the other Midnight Clubs I have played, this game is similar, city wise that is. You start off in the big city of San Diego, eventually unlocking a moving garage which in turn opens up Detroit and Atlanta. Moving to another city requires more patients though because the load times are even longer, most of the time upward of 70 seconds.
Each city is full of plenty of back alleys, shortcuts, killer ramps, and 15 rockstar logos, which can get you special goodies. There are two good things about cruise mode: first, it helps you know your share of alleys and shortcuts, considering most of the races in Midnight Club 3 are sprints of checkpoints. And second, it's just fun every once in a while to go full NOS into a gas station or the side of a tour bus. The races can sometimes be frustrating if you enter a particular race where you have some tough competition, and you don't know where any of the nooks and crannies are that you can slide through and blow your competitors away. Fortunately there are circuits and other races that can split up the misfortune of losing checkpoints over and over again, so there is a little variety to the game.
Midnight Club 3 is a total arcade racer. If you like total realism in your racing games, don't pick this game up. The physics are based around tight turns at high speeds, exaggerated crashes, big jumps, and tons of action. The controls are pretty easy, though it can be hard to get the physics of different cars, trucks, and motorcycles. There is a huge variety of over 60 licensed cars, from tuners and muscle cars to SUV's and choppers.
If you didn't know already, cars and motorcycles in the game can have different moves, or abilities. It really isn't too bizarre, but personally I have never seen a car driving down the street, then all of a sudden all of the cars in front of him dart for the walls. Big intimidating vehicles have a move called agro, which basically deals more damage to all cars that you hit, while speedy vehicles like tuners can slow down time and speed insanely increasing control of your car, enabling you to weave in and out of traffic while going 150 MPH. Even though these abilities might be cool, they are very useful. The abilities take a while to be able to use and they dont last for very long.
The AI in the game is very good. If you slam into a wall, you still have a chance of winning because the other cars have just as much of a chance to hit the wall as you do. If you do manage to catch up and gain the lead, you opponents can't all of a sudden fly past you from far behind you.
Most of the time, if not all of the time you spend playing Midnight Club 3, you will be playing career mode. You start off with about 20k in your pocket and you get to meet the local garage owner, who gets you your car and gets you in with some races. The story focuses mainly on racing, which is very welcome from overused attempts at other driving game stories.
There are multiple types of races, including checkpoint, point-to-point, and time-trials. As you complete races, different clubs will start challenging you and if you win their races, then you get in the "in" crowd with them. There are some clubs that race nothing but motorcycles, or nothing but tuners, in which case you would need a motorcycle or tuner to be eligable to race in those races. There are plenty of tournaments that usually pop up around the time a new club challenges you. In the tournaments, you can win money and usually a new car or motorcycle that you can use in the races from the club that just challenged you. In the tournaments you can even win "Dubbed Out" cars, which come fully stocked with complete upgrades that you can access so far. There are also side races, which don't help you progress through career mode at all, but simply supply you with some more cash.
The car-customization is probably one of the better features. As you play, new upgrades for your engine and new body kits become available to you. There are body kits, decals, custom paint jobs, wide variety of rims, and more. If you want it, they probably have it. Even though these body parts dont help you performance wise, its always fun to have a awesome looking car driving down the road.
The career mode is plenty lengthy also, around 18 to 20 hours depending on how much you race, how good you are at racing, and how much you mess around in cruise mode. There are other modes though also, where you can races single player races not through career, or you can even go over wi-fi with your friends to do races like capture the flag, tag, and paint games. Though these games aren't too much fun, you can race your friends in just regular races also.
One of the better features that were on PS2 and XBOX were that of the sense of speed. The motion blue effects, the great framerate, and minimal graphic issues made everything in the game feel a lot faster than on the PSP.
The audio is pretty weak also. Most of the sounds in the PSP version are repetitive and sound a lot alike. Also there are glitches in sound, for example sometimes when you try to do a burnout before a race starts, the sound won't even come in of your tires screeching, or it will be incredibly late. The music is decent though, with a wide variety of rock, hip-hop, dance, and electronica, including such name acts as The Game, M.I.A., Kasabian, Queens of the Stone Age, Beenie Man, Nine Inch Nails, the Ying Yang Twins, and Jimmy Eat World. Plus, you can seperate the genre of music while your in race, for example you can select just rock songs, or just hip-hop songs.
PSP-owning street racing fans would probably like this game, even though Rockstar seemed too excited to get Midnight Club 3 onto PSP and didn't spend much time on it. Some things are forgivable like the sound glitches, but other things like the increased loading times and the horrible frame-rate bring the game down a lot. All in all, it is a good street racer but is a lot better as a console version.
High: Very fun and fast-action racing game, with fairly good graphics and physics.
Low: Loading times can be unbearable (upward of 60 second waits)
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is overall a fairly good game for the PSP. Rockstar Games tried to cram too much onto one small disc, also leaving some major things out. The load times are unbearable, especially since you have to switch between races, cruise mode, garage mode, cities, the menu, and everything else. The framerate for Midnight Club 3 is anything but perfect also. There are also, every once in a while, some sound bugs and the car damage is very minimal.
Like the other Midnight Clubs I have played, this game is similar, city wise that is. You start off in the big city of San Diego, eventually unlocking a moving garage which in turn opens up Detroit and Atlanta. Moving to another city requires more patients though because the load times are even longer, most of the time upward of 70 seconds.
Each city is full of plenty of back alleys, shortcuts, killer ramps, and 15 rockstar logos, which can get you special goodies. There are two good things about cruise mode: first, it helps you know your share of alleys and shortcuts, considering most of the races in Midnight Club 3 are sprints of checkpoints. And second, it's just fun every once in a while to go full NOS into a gas station or the side of a tour bus. The races can sometimes be frustrating if you enter a particular race where you have some tough competition, and you don't know where any of the nooks and crannies are that you can slide through and blow your competitors away. Fortunately there are circuits and other races that can split up the misfortune of losing checkpoints over and over again, so there is a little variety to the game.
Midnight Club 3 is a total arcade racer. If you like total realism in your racing games, don't pick this game up. The physics are based around tight turns at high speeds, exaggerated crashes, big jumps, and tons of action. The controls are pretty easy, though it can be hard to get the physics of different cars, trucks, and motorcycles. There is a huge variety of over 60 licensed cars, from tuners and muscle cars to SUV's and choppers.
If you didn't know already, cars and motorcycles in the game can have different moves, or abilities. It really isn't too bizarre, but personally I have never seen a car driving down the street, then all of a sudden all of the cars in front of him dart for the walls. Big intimidating vehicles have a move called agro, which basically deals more damage to all cars that you hit, while speedy vehicles like tuners can slow down time and speed insanely increasing control of your car, enabling you to weave in and out of traffic while going 150 MPH. Even though these abilities might be cool, they are very useful. The abilities take a while to be able to use and they dont last for very long.
The AI in the game is very good. If you slam into a wall, you still have a chance of winning because the other cars have just as much of a chance to hit the wall as you do. If you do manage to catch up and gain the lead, you opponents can't all of a sudden fly past you from far behind you.
Most of the time, if not all of the time you spend playing Midnight Club 3, you will be playing career mode. You start off with about 20k in your pocket and you get to meet the local garage owner, who gets you your car and gets you in with some races. The story focuses mainly on racing, which is very welcome from overused attempts at other driving game stories.
There are multiple types of races, including checkpoint, point-to-point, and time-trials. As you complete races, different clubs will start challenging you and if you win their races, then you get in the "in" crowd with them. There are some clubs that race nothing but motorcycles, or nothing but tuners, in which case you would need a motorcycle or tuner to be eligable to race in those races. There are plenty of tournaments that usually pop up around the time a new club challenges you. In the tournaments, you can win money and usually a new car or motorcycle that you can use in the races from the club that just challenged you. In the tournaments you can even win "Dubbed Out" cars, which come fully stocked with complete upgrades that you can access so far. There are also side races, which don't help you progress through career mode at all, but simply supply you with some more cash.
The car-customization is probably one of the better features. As you play, new upgrades for your engine and new body kits become available to you. There are body kits, decals, custom paint jobs, wide variety of rims, and more. If you want it, they probably have it. Even though these body parts dont help you performance wise, its always fun to have a awesome looking car driving down the road.
The career mode is plenty lengthy also, around 18 to 20 hours depending on how much you race, how good you are at racing, and how much you mess around in cruise mode. There are other modes though also, where you can races single player races not through career, or you can even go over wi-fi with your friends to do races like capture the flag, tag, and paint games. Though these games aren't too much fun, you can race your friends in just regular races also.
One of the better features that were on PS2 and XBOX were that of the sense of speed. The motion blue effects, the great framerate, and minimal graphic issues made everything in the game feel a lot faster than on the PSP.
The audio is pretty weak also. Most of the sounds in the PSP version are repetitive and sound a lot alike. Also there are glitches in sound, for example sometimes when you try to do a burnout before a race starts, the sound won't even come in of your tires screeching, or it will be incredibly late. The music is decent though, with a wide variety of rock, hip-hop, dance, and electronica, including such name acts as The Game, M.I.A., Kasabian, Queens of the Stone Age, Beenie Man, Nine Inch Nails, the Ying Yang Twins, and Jimmy Eat World. Plus, you can seperate the genre of music while your in race, for example you can select just rock songs, or just hip-hop songs.
PSP-owning street racing fans would probably like this game, even though Rockstar seemed too excited to get Midnight Club 3 onto PSP and didn't spend much time on it. Some things are forgivable like the sound glitches, but other things like the increased loading times and the horrible frame-rate bring the game down a lot. All in all, it is a good street racer but is a lot better as a console version.
Scores:
Graphics: 85
Audio: 80
Gameplay: 70
Replay: 70
Overall: 76
Graphics: 85
Audio: 80
Gameplay: 70
Replay: 70
Overall: 76
