Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Preview

By Patrick Garratt Published 21 July, 2004

Rockstar powers upwards and onwards with its dubbed-up free-roamer, but can it stand the heat from the EA juggernaut and its insatiable Need for Speed?

'Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition' Screenshot 1

You can almost see the look of horror on the faces of Rockstar San Diego bigwigs when the Christmas 2003 charts flopped onto the doormat. "Like, crap, dude," said one, probably. "I'm pretty sure Need for Speed wasn't supposed to be this successful."

But it really was. Underground came from nowhere, what with its abilities to mod cars and pinpoint accuracy market-pitch, and took second place in the UK Christmas charts, second only to the risible Medal of Honor: Rising Sun after some heavyweight TV pimping from the good old E of A. The boss man at Rockstar SD was probably less than impressed.

"Now what?" he possibly screamed at his boardroom full of cowering acolytes, slinging his 10 gallon hat against the wall, huge moustache flapping in the drilled border sun. "We need a hook, and we need it right now! These gosh darn Helectornic Earts people are gonna crush our prairie oysters to milk powder! What the hell do we pay you for?"

"DUB," said the best looking one, grizzled Marlboro voice cutting the room's molasses atmosphere like a branding iron, throwing a magazine on the table where it came to rest under the steer horns above the boss man's head. "Call these guys. Let Need for Speed make Ford Focuses as rude as it wants. Midnight Club 3 will give the kids Mercedes and Ferrari. We'll let them make $100,000 changes to $80,000 cars. We'll give them dreams. There's your hook, boss. Now what was that about pay?"

Rub A DUB DUB

'Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition' Screenshot 2

Midnight Club 3 is using American magazine DUB - which features highly modded cars of rappers, fashion mogels and other famous types - to sell itself this time round, in the face of extreme competition in the genre. Need for Speed Underground 2, Juiced and Burnout 3 all hit Europe at roughly the same point as the Rockstar game, but the people behind GTA are focussing squarely on the DUB aspect right now. It's all about wanting to put 20" rims on Mercedes coupes.

The cosmetics look as though they're not going to detract from the game, a criticism fairly levelled at NFS Underground at the end of last year. More than 50 licensed cars and bikes, including choppers for the first time, make an appearance, and you're going to get full damage modelling as well. Tearing a wing off your Impala isn't going to affect handling, however, as Rockstar is more than aware that Midnight Club 2 was far too hard. It's arcade racing. Simulation doesn't belong here. The man in the big hat knows this.

Instead, Rockstar is sticking to what it knows best for Midnight Club, which is frantic open city arcade speeding. Midnight Club 2 may have been difficult, but shortcuts, point-to-point action and a superb online mode - reinstated for the third game with eight-player options - made it a little classic of its type. Midnight Club 3 brings huge levels of customisation to the cars, overhauled graphics and three new cities to bear. Vroom.

Watch Me Now

'Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition' Screenshot 3

San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit have all been loosely modelled for DUB Edition, using well-known landmarks and trademark adrenaline-based routes to maintain interest. The formula is likely to be lifted nicely by the enhanced tech this time out, and the sheer weight of modifications, damage and licensed cars may yet again produce a game to keep well on your radar. Bells and whistles during play, even at this stage in development, are enough to excite. Trains scream past, sirens wail, NO2 injection causes blurring; there's enough potential polish on display for a whole fleet up beefed up Ferraris. We only saw it in action briefly, but given the pedigree and the enhancements, there's plenty of promise here.

The modifications are the most obvious addition to Midnight Club, and let players add up to five layers of paint to cars, feature licensed body kits and allow rim customisation (hush your filthy mouth). We saw a Lancer Evolution VIII receiving the treatment in a demo last week, and the level of customisation is impressive to say the least. The prospect of being able to work on cars in this then let players take them online must be having Rockstar rubbing its hands with glee.

But, as previously mentioned, competition is seriously fierce this time out. We weren't allowed to actually play the game, but have been assured that we'll be asked back soon. "There's always been competition," said Rockstar PR nonchalantly when we ask how they feel about the upcoming battle for Christmas car dominance. "We're aiming to be the biggest illegal street racing game."

Meanwhile, the man in San Diego is looking out of his penthouse across to Mexico and nervously stroking his moustache. We'll have more on this soon. In the meantime, check out these screenshots.

Picture of Patrick.

About Patrick Garratt

Read more articles from Patrick by visiting the Patrick Garratt archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ssuellid #1 8 years ago

    How strange. Just been saying in the forum that MC2 was my worst this gen games purchase and up pops an article about the sequel.

  • patlike #2 8 years ago

    That's because we're psychic. This really did look pretty good.

  • BLACKSHEEP #3 8 years ago

    For the PS2 I found MC2 just too bland looking, I hope this will be corrected as it does look and then maybe i'll enjoy it more.

  • Foregone Reality #4 8 years ago

    Dub Edition?

    For a second I thought MC was going to hit the streets of Dublin.

    Now there's the ultimate driving test..

  • mrharvest #5 8 years ago

    I liked MC2 though it's one of the few games I didn't finish. A bit too difficult.
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/04 @ 18:23

  • Grom #6 8 years ago

    five layers of pain eh?

  • chronom4n #7 8 years ago

    i have just borrowed nfs underground for the ps2. in terms of graphics they are real lame. the modelling of the cars does not warrant any level of awe. well for me anyway. i am not the least bit impressed with the level of graphics. BUT.... the speed of the game and the way the cars handle is pretty impressive. even the most basic car really speeds along and gives a great sensation of speed. I just hope MC3 DUB will sort out that for. well that is enough from me.

  • ralphwolfenstein #8 8 years ago

    By all accounts, EA were caught by equal degrees of surprise at the success of NFS... they only realised they'd spawned a monster about three months out from launch...

    When you think that that kind of good fortune could conceivably happen to any publisher - you know, a cutting edge risk taker who pioneers ambitious and original product, or champions quirky foreign classics to delight the hardcore – you have to start wondering whether there IS a higher power. Because if there is, he’s clearly a FIFA man rather than a Pro Evo man.

    And I think that explains a lot about the world today.

  • killzone #9 8 years ago

    oooo...wow bikes yay dumb ass

  • Feanor #10 8 years ago

    I found the high difficulty is MC 2 to be very annoying at times, but having finally gotten 100% in the game, now all I can remember is the good parts. So I guess I hope MC 3 is a little easier, but not too much easier. Perhaps having Normal and Hard difficulty levels is all that's needed to satisfy everyone.
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/04 @ 18:25

  • Freek #11 8 years ago

    Why bother with fugly Cadilac Escalades(or other lame @ss rapper cars) when you can be playing Burnout 3?

  • 3william56 #12 8 years ago

    "San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit have all been loosely modelled for DUB Edition, using well-known landmarks"

    Soooo... what well known landmarks would those be - known to anyone outside of the relevant city, that is? "Cool - passing the Cadillac Factory, and that place wot got blown up during the Olympics... yay!"

    It might do well for folks across the pond, but with DUB unknown over here and the city selection not exactly the first that spring to mind as exciting driving destinations (unless they do a Max Power version with tracks in Milton Keynes, Bradford and Staines - arf!*), it's got to be on a loser in PAL land.

    It's like Juiced - it might well have a spiffy game underneath, but without a serious Unique Selling Point, like my beloved Crash mode in BO2, it's gonna struggle against the rash of same olds. Ruining a big bucks Merc with wanky spoilers and a toss paint job might be fun, but is nothing compared to smacking into a truck at 150mph and watching carnage unfold.

    BTW: It's fashion MOGULs

    *Substitute local motor lad mag and terminally boring cities for other Euro countries

  • el_pollo_diablo #13 8 years ago

    This is just lazy. I thought that Rockstar were one of the (few) innovators alive in the industry today. So what do they do? Steal other's ideas and jump onto the back of their success. NFS underground brought in customisation, so Rockstar decide........to do EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

    Well done Rockstar. My opinion of you has just dropped. I can't wait for your trademark 'edgy' marketing of this game that will say something along the lines of "MC3: The REAL underground experience"

    I shall not be buying this on principal.

  • magicpocket #14 8 years ago

    I thought customisation came to consoles with GT......

  • magicpocket #15 8 years ago

    As i said about their pictures.... shiny cars, racing at night, nice reflections..... yawn

  • el_pollo_diablo #16 8 years ago

    "I thought customisation came to consoles with GT"

    You may well be right there. I don't know, it all just seems so lazy

  • andyk #17 8 years ago

    MC2 was a superb game. check out the EG review - it hits the nail on the head. I agree that the colours were a little bland but the gameplay was some of the best available. Once the faster cars were unlocked and you know the track layout it is possible to have some extremely memorable races. It is also the first game that I consider the AI to be a challenge - where on many occasions, that suggested more than coincidence, I would be side swiped into other traffic. Compare this with BO2 and NFSU, (the latter being a great example of overhype) which are ultimately far too easy. BO2 in particular, offering "gimmes" half the time you should have had a collision! plus the traffic was far too repetitive on each lap.
    Obviously everyone has their preferences and after playing the demo of BO3 which you can pick up in GAME, it does look very neat and tidy, but I don't think that MC3 should be written off yet. I would suggest that those who did not like MC2 first time around read the EG review and play up until at least the later parisian levels and you may change your opinion. Then look out for MC3 – that is top of my wish list. Customisation doesn’t blow my trumpet though, but if that sells more copies for them then good luck.
    Edited by 1 at 22/07/04 @ 16:32

  • Feanor #18 8 years ago

    good post

  • BLACKSHEEP #19 8 years ago

    I like you andyk(in a non-sexual way) ;)

    The AI was indeed devious which made the gameplay win over less than stellar visuals and those bikes :D

  • andyk #20 8 years ago

    Cheers

    didn't mention the bikes, but everytime I used them I would dress up i my pvc and get everyone to call me trinity.

    still so sure about that non-sexual remark BS? ;)

  • Feanor #21 8 years ago

    The graphics moved so fast that they looked fine to me, especially in Paris.

  • FatherChristmas #22 7 years ago

    This sucks... Amazon said the release date was January 14th but now it's been put back to April!

  • andyk #23 7 years ago

    It is out. I have only played a small part (10%) but looks very promising. It has been a little easy so far, but the racing is quick and manic with some good battles. if you liked 2 it is def worth a look.

    Not sure about the race selection though, seems a little messy - but it may settle as I get used to it. Not sure about you, but I just want to crack on and play harder races rather than mod up the car. but since I had to upgrade I put some fat spoilers and bumpers on my Golf - when in Rome as they say...

  • andyk #24 7 years ago

    It is out. I have only played a small part (10%) but looks very promising. It has been a little easy so far, but the racing is quick and manic with some good battles. if you liked 2 it is def worth a look.

    Not sure about the race selection though, seems a little messy - but it may settle as I get used to it. Not sure about you, but I just want to crack on and play harder races rather than mod up the car. but since I had to upgrade I put some fat spoilers and bumpers on my Golf - when in Rome as they say...