Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
In my tragically long history of playing video games there are few types of games which I dislike almost out of habit.
These genres typically include sports, dancing games, anything with Barbie in the title and racing games.
Like any rule however there are exceptions and to this day I am fond of a very few titles within those genres – and let's face it, the Barbie horse adventure game just rawked.
The racing genre however has held a peculiar position within my gaming experiences.
Racing titles have in general disagreed with me and despite their acclaim and praise I never enjoyed games such as F-Zero, Wipeout or even the Need for Speed line.
Somehow though some titles slip through the cracks of my wall of animosity, so while I dislike the majority of the genre and even dislike it on principal, I do love a few select games.
Games like Burnout 3, the Rush series and now Midnight club 3 have managed to appeal to me for one reason or another.
The only real common thread that ties these games is that they are all "Arcade" style racers and that they all stray away from the standard racing formulas. The rest of the tricks and goodies that were unlockable from the previous Midnight Club game are available from the get go.
That means from the beginning of your very first race you can power-slide, weight transfer (drive on two wheels) and use slipstreaming for a turbo boost.
They help a bit with the overall play and flesh the game out a bit right from the get go. And now for something not completely different
Midnight Club 3(MC3) has forged its own niche in the fact that it is attempting to simulate down and dirty street racing.
This equates to racing without walled off courses while traffic and pedestrians roam the streets.
It also means that there are shortcuts whereever you feel like making them, as the drivers can do things like cut through malls, yards, alleys and even jump off of overpasses.
There is also the fact that you can just cruise about the various cities between races if you so please.
All in all, this design concept gave me the feeling of GTA only maybe a bit more 'A' and a bit less 'T'…
Grand Auto or Something
MC3 presents a sort of story, however it is largely irrelevant.
Your character apparently just likes to race and as such you buy a car and start racing. Through the clout of some entity (we will assume it's a parental figure) named baby your befriended by a mechanic or two which will help you out with customizations to your ride and new info on who and where to ride.
Take this paragraph and judiciously add some random slang words throughout and you have the story almost word for word.
All of this takes place in about 60 vehicles and across three cities; starting off with San Diego followed by Atlanta and finally Detroit.
Each stage has just enough in the way of unique race routes and required racing events to get your cars up to par and ready for the next city.
Fortunately this all happened at about the same time that I began to feel a bit bored with the cities and with familiar routes.
Like all racing games the gameplay boils down to be a fairly simple task of holding down the gas button while ideally avoiding walls, obstacles and other vehicles.
Of course the simplicity of that task is highly dubious especially when one must consider that the streets are full of traffic, there are frequent 90 degree turns and the average speed seems to fall somewhere between 120 mph and "Oh expletive, I am going to die!"
That is, however, where the basic similarity and simplistic gameplay ends as some of the biggest improvements in this game, graphics aside, are related to gameplay refinements where Rockstar wanted to add some depth.
Now at the start of a race it is possible to burnout by pulling your hand brake while flooring the gas causing your tires to spin out.
Time the brake release correctly and you'll fly off the start line. Mess it up and you will find yourself in everyone's dust.
Something else new to the game is the special abilities for the various types of cars.
There are three of these abilities: Agro, Focus and Roar; each of which can only be used in specific cars and each of which happens to have a unique way to build it up.
Agro allows the driver to plow through any vehicle in its path sending it flying and is built up by smashing into everything you see.
Focus, which is gained by driving clean and not running into anything, slows time around the player allowing for an effortless weave through traffic and the ability to make sharp turns with ease.
And Roar makes a big roaring noise (go figure) that will knock everything away from you in a radius.
Each of these is only available on their appropriate vehicles; you won't see a sports car performing Agro, but a big truck will.
Escalade big, Escalade smash!
In the garage the player will be able to customize their vehicle with a moderately in depth customization system.
The vehicles core engine components come in three different tiers which are unlocked as the player wins races.
The overall customization here however is relatively limited, though the player can simply choose the auto upgrade option to minimize their time spent upgrading the engine.
The real meat of the upgrade system lies in the aesthetic line where the racers can deck out their vehicle in "Pimp my Ride" fashion.
Each race tends to have a reward at the end whether it be a pile of money, a new ride, or new toys for your vehicle.
With the money won the player will be able to purchase new parts to enhance performance or aesthetics.
The performance portion of the upgrades focuses entirely on improving the speed, acceleration and handling of the vehicles (the previously mentioned three tiers).
Each tier is unlocked over time as the racer completes new races and wins new components.
On the aesthetic end, the upgrades are the more visible car kits, neon under-lights, wings and more, of which none really impact the way your car handles but just how it looks.
One of the phatest aspects of the aesthetic system comes in the form of the custom color selection options.
The player is offered a grid of colors that covers just about the entire spectrum from which to choose.
Beyond that you can even choose anywhere from two to five colors for some of the more advanced paintjobs such as the color shift and pearlescent.
Between the two different modification types and the wide selections of licensed vehicles, most players should be able to piece together the car of their dreams.
The cars themselves are broken down into one of seven different categories; Muscle cars, Luxury cars, Tuners, SUV's, Trucks, Hogs and Sport bikes.
Each category is then separated into the classes D, C, B, A and Exotics.
Each class is composed of progressively higher end vehicles, eventually leading up to vehicles which run half a mil or so.
By the end of the game you will have raced in everything from a Mercedes SLR Mclaren to a '64 Chevy Impala.
Lotus vs. F150. Who Wins?
The physics of each and every vehicle is slightly different due to their weight, power, mass and various handling attributes.
This means that different vehicles will suit different drivers for various reasons.
Heavier beastly vehicles like Escalades and other SUVs or trucks tend to have overwhelming mass which means slow to start and hard to stop (it also means they plow through most vehicles on the street like a sledgehammer through butter).
Sporty tuners and some of the luxury vehicles are a bit spiritedly with better acceleration and handling.
Of course bikes rule the world when it comes to fast acceleration and handling… but then again you are also far more likely to crash and skid across the ground into hamburger.
There are a few different types of races to partake in, each of which has its own flavor.
The club races are limited to certain types of cars and for that very reason they tend to be the most balanced races.
The challenge races focus primarily on just beating one of the racers, allowing any type of vehicle to enter, often resulting in unbalanced races where I would take my sport bike against a bunch of trucks and SUVs.
Finally you have your Trophy style races which again allow any vehicle and incorporate roughly 3-5 races in a row where the overall highest placed racer wins.
I have always wanted a drive through a window in a mall
This game really separates itself from the pack in its most basic gameplay concepts.
No more closed circuit races, no invisible walls, no barriers, and no strictly set routes. Instead the race is dynamic.
You turn where you want to turn (well sometimes it's actually before or after you wanted to turn due to impacts with other cars, going to fast etc.) and can generally find shortcuts to and from just about anywhere.
There is also a basic arcade mode which is worth a bit less interest than the Career mode.
In arcade mode you can race on any of the courses unlocked through career mode with any of a few modifiers applied to the race.
Still the general focus of the game is on the career mode with a bit on the Live aspect as well.
There is also a race editor which is ultimately simple, yet somehow capable of producing some very complex races.
Using the editor allows you to place down check points in any of the cities, tailoring custom races forcing any twisted route you can think of.
This of course means that you do not build the track manually but instead can design a race that rewards players for picking certain routes and shortcuts.
I like shiny things
Graphically the game is leaps and bounds above any racers I have had my hands on to date.
Burnout 3 was my previous pinnacle of racing graphical goodness and Midnight Club 3 has dethroned it.
The cars are unmistakably modeled based on the real deals and there is little doubt in my mind that they are accurate enough in detail to be sufficient for even the most strict enthusiast.
Beyond that the reflections on them are so impressive that at times I felt like having a Matte colored car so the shininess wouldn't distract me from racing.
The effects don't stop there as the blurring of lights at speed made things seem more realistic in a strange way.
The weather effects are also fairly amazing especially concerning the rain, and while it made it harder to race, it was so cool to look at that I would turn it on anyway.
Despite the impressive graphic quality and taking into consideration the size of the stages and the amazing amount of objects on screen, the game maintains a steady and acceptable framerate free of much slowdown.
There is the occasional drop when a large number of racers are on screen and a large number of destroyable objects are spreading debris all over, though still it keeps within an acceptable range and it is an impressive feat considering everything that is going on.
Thanks for the "Phat beats" but I like to race to Country
On the sound front I was equally impressed as the vehicles sounded like they had sufficient guts behind their motors.
No frustrating high pitched wailing engines here - the rides sounded almost menacing at times.
The voice acting was of a good caliber as well though the writing was slightly frustrating for me.
I personally get tired of the stereotypical speech patterns that are often used in this style of game.
The music stays interesting as it offers a fairly large sampling from many genres including rock, rap and a variety of techno styles.
More important than that is the fact that this is one of the few games to allow custom soundtracks, and if you are anything like me then you most likely already have one setup.
Half GTO half ricer and all pink
This game is without question the most complete underground street racer I have seen on the market to-date.
With a number of unique additions and interesting creative approaches it has set itself apart from the rest.
The speed in this game is so readily apparent that even the menus show as much action as a John Woo movie.
And let's face it; most of you will never get a chance to pimp your ride. This is the perfect opportunity to race that bright pink GTO with flashing neon ground effects you've always wanted.
