Latest Game Reviews

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Review - Xbox

6th May 2005 by
90%
The Midnight Club series is back for its third installment, but it definitely has worthy challengers this time round. Need for Speed Underground 2 was released some time ago and has already established itself within the street racing genre, Juiced was supposed to come out several months ago but is now due out shortly, and both Gran Turismo 4 and Forza Motorsport, the two key driving simulators of this era, both have several street racing tracks. Where does this leave Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition? Stuck in an incredibly competitive genre. It does however have its franchise. The Midnight Club series is well known for putting things on the leading edge when it comes to street racing, and that’s why Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition deserves all the attention it can get.

Gameplay

Racing will never be the same. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition puts you in the hot seat of cars that go through the city faster than you can say “Rub a DUB DUB”. You can get all sorts of street racing cars, ranging from Nissans to Lotus’ and even Lamborghinis. Midnight Club 3 even lets you take control of utility vehicles, which can take a big chunk out of the money you’ve earned. Money is a fairly easy thing to come by in Midnight Club 3. You get at least $1000 every time you win a race, and that only increases throughout the game. There are plenty of optional street races all over the place too, so there’s no chance of you running out of cash.

Not only are there plenty of optional races, but there are also loads of races to further your career status, including championships, club races, and racing other people for their car, and a bit of cash on the side. The championship events are the only ones where you don’t get money as you progress through each race, but if you come out victorious then you can expect a mighty fine cash load, as well as usually a car or some items unlocked in the garage.

DUB Magazine helped for a large part of the development of Midnight Club 3, so we expected the cars to be as detailed as they can possibly get. To our surprise though, the driving simulator games have far more in-depth modding and upgrading of the cars than Midnight Club 3. This game is still following the basic system of upgrading each of the main parts, and unfortunately there are only about twenty different types of performance upgrades that you can perform. This doesn’t deteriorate from the gameplay at all though, because the racing is as fast as it gets. Think XGRA in a vehicle that you might even own, and you’ve got Midnight Club 3.

All of these upgrades can be performed and modified in the Garage, and this is where you can show off and modify all your vehicles, as well as check out other vehicles for sale. The only downside about this is that you have to wait (continued next page)
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