Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (Xbox)

Physics

Arcade style all the way with this one, big jumps, impossible speeds and mad crashes all combine with a pretty good damage system that lets you know how bad your car is, break it and you’ll respawn, to race again. Go…go…go!

Replay that again?

It’s got a good replay camera that keeps the action nicely focussed on your car, even putting in bullet-time like rotation if you do a big enough jump, you can activate the usual camera controls and watch the replay frame by frame, or pause it.

The bottom line, Vroom baby, Vroom!

Well that’s about it to be honest for MC3. The game runs well on both systems and there’s only a few points difference between the Xbox and PS2 version, it’s certainly not a battle of the titans by any means regarding MC3. If you like slightly better graphics and the option of a custom soundtrack, then you’re going to want the Xbox version – you’ll definitely want it to play online, as the various modes and unlimited races from the game’s players add to the replayability.

It’s a solid game and an excellent title, it does have the annoying catch up but even then it can be forgiven and for an Arcade race-addict like me, it’s got enough tuner bits to keep me going for ages pimping out cars and doing them up. The arcade style mix of high-octane driving and punishing special moves and powerups with an Arcade mode makes it a highly enjoyable thrill-ride that deserves to be driven to destruction.

A winner from start to finish.