Midnight Club 3 Review

By Kristan Reed Published 21 July, 2005

Pimp my PSP.

Version tested: PSP

The PSP is truly a thing of beauty. Just holding it in your hands with the power off is entertaining enough on its own. Turn the unit on and gawp at that screen and everyone in the vicinity is compelled to stare at it, lost in the moment. It's like the future has arrived in your hands and someone forgot to announce the fact. And then you play some of the games and suddenly you're snapped back to the reality of the situation: horrendous loading times, sluggish frame rates, ill-considered conversions. This wonderful machine deserves a better fate than this.

The recent U.S. release of Midnight Club 3 PSP is a textbook example of what publishers should avoid doing. Handheld gaming is a distinct subdivision of gaming that has evolved to cater for the way people play games when they're on the move. The most successful handheld games are the ones you can pull out and have a few minute session on and always feel sated. Gamers should be able to whip out their console and be in the action within 30 seconds tops: on, skip logo, start, load, in-game. Simple as that.

Shovelware

But the grunt behind the PSP has given publishers the chance to raise the stakes and port the kind of games we're all playing at home on our lounge TVs onto a handheld format. The trouble is, in the rush to get these games onto the PSP, some publishers haven't stopped for a second to consider that shovelling exact replicas of their chart-topping hits onto a handheld isn't necessarily what gamers want - or deserve.

'Midnight Club 3' Screenshot 1

Looks swanky in the stills...

There are so many fundamental issues with the U.S. PSP version of Midnight Club 3 (now available from your favourite import retailer, and the version we have playtested here) that it's hard to even know where to begin. But before we go down that rocky road, let's just be clear about what Rockstar Leeds has tried to do.

The clear intent is to simply translate Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition onto the Sony handheld as faithfully as possible. And you know what? In so many hugely impressive ways it has succeeded brilliantly. It looks the same (if anything, on the razor sharp confines of the PSP it fools the eye into making it look better), with the car detail spot on, the city's gloriously represented and a myriad of lighting and reflective effects making the game look every bit as stunning as the original.

Club together

If you're clued-up about the PS2 or Xbox version you'll also be aware how much there is to do in the game, with a vast number of races spread across three real-life US cities (San Diego, Detroit and Atlanta), taking in sprints, circuit-based, point-to-point, and unordered checkpoint challenges. Factor in a whole wealth of club challenges, general street races and tournaments, tons of performance modifications and car customisations, vehicles types and manufacturers, and it's arguably the best street racing game of its type. It'll certainly take a long time to unlock everything and win every race, that's for sure.

'Midnight Club 3' Screenshot 2

Not as good as my Mini.

But regardless of the fact that the game looks gorgeous, or that it's the full-blown PS2 version in the palm of your hand with all the features that come with it, that novelty soon wears off once you realise just how much time you spend watching a spinning loading icon. This isn't what handheld gaming is supposed to be about. In fact, once you factor in the amount of time it takes to load the game up from the beginning, the tedious amount of time it takes to load in a graphical representation of a car, and the 75-second load time on each and every race you're probably already halfway to your next destination. In fact most early races don't last much longer than the time it takes to load them, and by that stage you've probably lost half the enthusiasm you once had for the game. The fact that this is the finished version released to the U.S. audience is truly amazing, although Rockstar has stressed it is using the extra time between the U.S. and European launch to tweak and optimise these issues. Let's hope it does.

What really adds insult to the injury that is the U.S. PSP version of Midnight Club 3 is the questionable frame rate. Sure, it's playable enough, but the true test of any racing game is how it performs out there on the track. Not only does it feel sluggish, choppy and unsatisfying, but the overall sense of speed that coursed through the veins of the original is almost completely lost.

Elastica

And much like the original, the AI is just too damned generous. It seems no matter how badly you mess up, the elastic AI will always let you come back into the race, and steal victory. Equally irritating, even when you're doing exceptionally well you never really get that far ahead of them, so a perfect race that's marred by an untimely slip near the end can have disastrous consequences. It's a system that just isn't thought through all that well, and one that almost rewards failure more than excellence. Elastic AI: death to you.

'Midnight Club 3' Screenshot 3

Imagine if it took 75 seconds to load this screenshot.

Of course, you can eliminate the perils of CPU AI by playing the Wi-Fi mode with up to five other players. But seriously: how likely are you to ever find five other friends with a copy of this to play against? Online play is one thing, but a local network is a big ask. Needless to say, we found it impossible to test this side of the game, but for determined types you can play all of the multiplayer modes featured in the full-blown version (Tag, Capture The Flag, Ordered, Circuit, Frenzy, Unordered and Paint). Expect the same frame rate issues to blight this side of the game too, though.

On balance, there is fun to be had here, but it's fun that's better spent sat on your favourite couch playing the original. Torturing yourself with frankly ridiculous load times isn't acceptable, nor is the choppy frame rate or the sound stutters. It's important to emphasise that Rockstar is apparently working hard to optimise the game for its European release in September, but it'll have to go some distance to right the wrongs on display here.

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • Eighthours #1 7 years ago

    *cough* CONKER *cough*

  • roofles #2 7 years ago

    Please please please review Conker before I go on holiday tomorrow :(

    I don't even own an Xbox or N64.

  • therev #3 7 years ago

    It'd also be nice if someone released some software for the PSP that wasn't a racing or sports game now and again.
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 13:28

  • Ted Cuntablast #4 7 years ago

    Why do people keep whining about bloody Conker - there must be dozens of reviews elsewhere. And didn't Kristan say an another review that it was crap?

    Oh, and 75 second loading times, way to go!

  • onyxbox #5 7 years ago

    the load times on the PSP is the biggest downer. Before the PSP was released everyone was worried about the battery life. I personally think the battery life is pretty impressive and certainly a non issue for me but the looooaaaaadddd times drive me up the wall.... so much so that half the time I just don't bother and opt for the DS when I go to the sh!t house.

  • kangarootoo #6 7 years ago

    Sorry to go off topic EG. Is there a news short in the pipeline about WoW being huge in China? I think that might open some interesting chit chat.

  • RobTheBuilder #7 7 years ago

    ...and THIS is why I havent bought a PSP yet.

    Note to Rockstar, lower detail (texture) levels also equal lower loading times AND faster frame rate.

  • Huntcjna #8 7 years ago

    *cough* Killer 7 *cough*

  • #9 7 years ago

    This game just reminded me why I'm buying a Xbox 360 at launch, PGR is the best Arcade racer around, and PGR3 is looking like it's going to be amazing!

    Look at this!

    Before

    &

    After

    Spot the difference?

    P.S And that fidelity won't take 75 seconds to load. :)

  • wattoo #10 7 years ago

    i hope the load times are sorted out in time for gta

  • l_p_4_7 #11 7 years ago

    i will love taking my xbox360 on the train :p

  • Feanor #12 7 years ago

    Game Informer said this game is Region Protected! I haven't seen anything else about PSP games being Region Protected so I hope they're wrong. I want to be able to buy Japanese and European PSP games for my American PSP,

    So when Eurogamer gets a European PSP could you try playing MC 3 on it and see if it works? Thanks.

  • Feanor #13 7 years ago

    You can avoid loading a game from scratch every time by leaving your favorite PSP game loaded up and putting the PSP to sleep rather than turning it off.

    Doesn't help with in-game load times, of course, but it does help.

  • corkyhat #14 7 years ago

    Putting my PSP into sleep makes the already short battery life even shorter :(
    Everytime I pick the damned thing up it needs charging it seems - whereas my DS seems to work for ages.

    Thanks for the review - I find the loading times on Wipeout to be way too long, if they're loger than that ... :(

  • onyxbox #15 7 years ago

    You can avoid loading a game from scratch every time by leaving your favorite PSP game loaded up and putting the PSP to sleep rather than turning it off.

    the problem I find with this is that if you want to listen to some music in the meantime you have to kill your game. The PSP would have been much more usefull if you could suspend a game then play some music or watch a film and then resume your game. Becuase you can't it's a case of leave the PSP in game mode or suffer loss of game progress and mega load times again every time you want to use any of the device's other features.

    I must admit howver that I've left my PSP in standby for about a week with little or no impact on the battery life.
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 15:09

  • AOFanboi #16 7 years ago

    So, then.

    PSP: Short battery life, long load times, bad frame rate, gets a ton of ports of existing games, expensive and not yet in Europe.

    DS: Long battery life, near-zero load times, gets a ton of original content (even though a few are in Ninty's franchise spew), not particularly expensive and has been in europe for months now.

    Gee, who'd win?

  • drumbaby #17 7 years ago

    MEH!

  • krudster #18 7 years ago

    We do now have a European PSP and it works fine.

  • dr_zoidthrob #19 7 years ago

    Just think what the load times are going to be like for GTA (also developed by Rockstar Leeds) :-/
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 15:40

  • ishigo #20 7 years ago

    only games i've played with crap loading times have been shoddy ports, eg. NFSU.

    games developed for the platform with the restrictions in mind have been fine (er, apart from Mercury. wtf was up with that?)

  • onyxbox #21 7 years ago

    PSP Games I've got with good load times:
    o Ridge Racer
    o Lumines
    o Hot Shots Golf

    Not too bad load times:
    o Wipeout
    o Mercury (once you get going)

    Bad load times:
    o Ape Escape
    o Untold Legends
    o Darkstalkers

    I can't speak for the rest because I haven't played 'em.

  • corkyhat #22 7 years ago

    So, then.

    PSP: Short battery life, long load times, bad frame rate, gets a ton of ports of existing games, expensive and not yet in Europe.

    DS: Long battery life, near-zero load times, gets a ton of original content (even though a few are in Ninty's franchise spew), not particularly expensive and has been in europe for months now.

    I *WANT* to love my PSP but I find that I'm using the DS 8 out of 10 opportunities and the PSP because I feel I SHOULD use it occassionally. I'm even considering selling the PSP while I can still get a good price :(

  • onyxbox #23 7 years ago

    I *WANT* to love my PSP but I find that I'm using the DS 8 out of 10 opportunities and the PSP because I feel I SHOULD use it occassionally.

    Thats exactly how I feel at the moment, I'm hoping things are gonna get better. It's weird, I want to like the PSP and it is a very nice bit of kit to take out with you but it doesn't cut it on when your out and about mainly because the games are home console games.

    I think the first section of this review sums up the problem very well.

  • onyxbox #24 7 years ago

    <a href='http://media.psp.ign.com/articles/635/635528/imgs_1.html '>this</a> colud be usefull when your in Mc D's

  • Syrette #25 7 years ago

    nice to see the PSP is being given a chance.

  • krudster #26 7 years ago

    Yeah Matt, nice and constructive.

  • OldWormsFan #27 7 years ago

    Was I seeing write? Half the article on loading times?

    Get over it springs to mind.. :)

  • Feanor #28 7 years ago

    That's like your wife telling you to get over it after you catch her in bed with the milkman. The whole thing is spoiled by the load times/milk delivery.

  • Teeth #29 7 years ago

    blah blah PSP vs. DS.

    I feel certain the PSP will have some lovely software in the future. It's too early to let it go. It's also got the nice ability to swap batteries out, and if you're in the home and for example cooking your dinner, then the PSP is ideal. portable doesn't have to mean the bus or tube, it's a perfectly good home entertainment platform too.

    Every PSP thread seems to turn into a DS vs PSP war and it's unnecessary. Even though I have my own feelings on the subject both platforms have their ups and downs and the software can only get better.

    Don't sell your PSP yet, you may regret it in the future.

  • asphaltcowboy #30 7 years ago

    PSP Games I've got with good load times:
    ...
    o Lumines..."

    Sorry, what? Is that what PSP owners call a good loading time? The only games I've played on my friend's PSP are Wipeout and Lumines. Wipeout was already loaded in time attack mode when he let me play, so I have no idea how fast it is. But Lumines? It took ages especially when you consider the fact that it's not all that complex-looking... Had me begging to go back to the instant-loading busom of my DS. Sorry, if that's a good loading time, I dread to think what a bad one is like!
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/05 @ 23:54

  • beep #31 7 years ago

    Load times should be a thing of the past, goddammit!

  • tpfkanep #32 7 years ago

    The NES (~20 year old technology) has no loading times. Progress is a great thing.

  • AOFanboi #33 7 years ago

    Another Code isn't crap, but it's dissapointingly short, simple and linear, especially when compared to point'n'click classics like the KQ/SQ series and Lucasarts' SCUMM games. Even the GBA version of Broken Sword is more complex.

    But at least the touch screen means the DS can have point'n'click games. A revamped Dune II would rock. (By revamped I mean the ability to select more than one unit at a time. Keep the simlpe graphics.)

    The PSP so far suffers from conversionitis, and with apparently limited knowledge of the platform, we end up with results such as this.