Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix

More cars, more songs, and another city - Midnight Club 3 is back, but is it good enough for another ride?

	Version Xbox, PS2	Developer Rockstar San Diego	Publisher Rockstar	Genre Racing

By John Gold

You can't judge a book by its cover, or so the saying goes, but sometimes, just sometimes, covers are a good sign of what's to come. No one ever picked up an H.P. Lovecraft novel expecting characters to whisper sweet nothings to each other and after glancing at the cars-'n-cityscape identikit cover of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix you'll likely already have a good idea of what to expect from Rockstar San Diego's latest.

The developer has taken its deservedly well-received street racer and tuned it for another run. Assuming that you've played the original game, then, the question becomes whether it's worth your while to pick this one up as well.

In a word, yes. But it's a qualified yes. If you loved the first iteration but wished it lasted longer, this is what you're looking for. The same sense of speed, breadth of garage and wealth of modes are here, as, unfortunately, are the slight flaws that hampered the game at its original showing.

The big addition to Remix is an extra city, Tokyo, which is filled with exactly the sort of stuff you'll find in the San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit. The Project Gotham Racing-level attention to detail that distinguishes the cities from one another may not be present, but then that's hardly what the game is about. The Midnight Club Racing series is about speed and cars and Remix has those in spades.

The original line-up of 60-odd cars (and bikes) is boosted for this game with another two-dozen or so motors. The arcade-focussed gameplay means that they still drive similarly, though there is enough of a sense of variation to keep you from deciding against experimenting with the various styles of automobiles. And besides, you'll need to expand your garage if you want to accept challenges from all the car clubs that demand you be behind the wheel of the right kind of vehicle before they'll even look at you.

Modding your cars is a fun diversion where you can exercise your sense (or lack) of style. You'll be able to construct gaudy eyesores begging for compaction but it's simple to take a standard sedan and get it looking like you mean a damn in almost no time. It's all rather superfluous, though, since it doesn't affect your performance. Far more worthwhile, if egg-headed, is upgrading all aspects of your cars. As you gather funds you can tinker with all the important bits, though if you're lazy (or have the money lying around), you can let the game upgrade everything at once for you.

And it's good to see that that money is well spent, because you'll notice the difference on the crowded streets straight away. Getting from point A to point B (and back to point A again, depending on the race type) is about as fun as games in the increasingly crowded lifestyle racer genre get. The cars handle well and the sense of speed is tremendous (in spite of the occasional slowdown); this is aided in no small part by the traffic that shunts you to and fro, providing yet more obstacles for you to get around. The game is well structured in that you'll seldom find yourself running short of cash when an all-important race comes that demands extra tuning (unless you've blown all your money on decals and bumpers, and then it's all your fault).

The cities themselves are at once the greatest asset and liability for the game. They usually offer several paths to the next glowing beacon threading you through to the finish line, but you will need to repeat races from time to time when you outsmart yourself by taking new routes that send you straight into intervening buildings and not quite along the short cut you had envisioned. There is a free driving mode you can while away your time with (perhaps as you listen to the new songs added to the soundtrack), which will help you acclimatize to your host cities.

Is it just more of the same? Yes. But in this case that's hardly a bad thing. And when you consider that Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix goes straight into the budget lines on both PlayStation 2 and Xbox, you'll realize that this is a hell of a lot of racing for not very much money. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Mercedes waiting to be painted pink.