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Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition - Hands On Preview
Chris Leyton
01/04/2005
Arcade racers may be thick and fast, however Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition most definitely has a point to prove...
TVG recently took a trip to RockStarās London office to check out a near complete build of the forthcoming Playstation2 and Xbox arcade racer, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. Sandwiched between last yearās Burnout 3: Takedown and Need for Speed: Underground 2, and 2005ās Burnout 4 and Juiced, you may well be thinking that an arcade racer is the last thing you need to add to your collection; however a number of neat touches, a strong online component and a game that definitely knows its own identity all add up to a compelling reason to cast aside this initial belief.
Being a virtually complete build of the game allowed us to sample a smidgeon of everything the game has to offer, bar taking it online and checking out what that has to offer. Given that weād already seen a fair amount of DUB in action and enjoyed a first Hands-On opportunity last year, it seemed that there wasnāt a lot left in store to surprise us, but how wrong we were.
The demonstration began with a quick look at the Garage and how itās progressed since the last time we saw it. Throughout the game youāll spend a lot of time here tweaking and tuning your motors to perfection, so thankfully itās good to see the Garage providing an effective structure to the millions of customisation possibilities available while also being able to move the camera around effortlessly to check out your work. Tuning options are categorised under a variety of lists ranging from tinted windows and side decals, to how fast you want the neon light to flicker underneath the car!
A phenomenal level of customisation is at the fingertips of the gamer which should only enhance the online experience, as you create your own online identity that is unique to everybody else. A nice touch is the colour wheel which works identically to that of any image editing software, allowing you to easily merge between two colours and create the car of your dreams. Weāre assured that the assistance of DUB has ensured a level of authenticity that surpasses anything beforehand, bringing a level of credibility that whilst not particularly renowned in the UK at present, is likely to grow and grow over the coming years. Given a short amount of time we were able to knock up a couple of absolutely abysmal creations that wouldnāt look too dissimilar if Homer Simpson had been on the drawing board (what do you mean you canāt have a La Cucaracha horn?); but the experience did prove how easy it is to bring your vision to life, and suggests a vibrant online community being built around the game.
One of the main issues targeted by RockStar San Diego during the development of MC3: DUB was to eradicate the hard and unforgiving elements featured within its predecessor; as such the learning curve and sense of progress through the game has been starkly improved ā“ and thankfully motorcycles are a lot less frantic then before. One feature that permeates throughout the entire game is the adaptive difficulty, which changes dependant on your skill and should smooth the frustrations that became very apparent during MC2.
So onto the actual track where one further surprise soon became apparent. The Midnight Club series has always rooted itself firmly in the arcade/fun sector despite the realism offered by licensed vehicles; Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition takes this to the next level however with the addition of a variety of offensive techniques/moves to use throughout the game.
Dependant on the classification of your vehicle, one of three techniques are at your dispersal such as "Zone" for sports cars and motorcycles; "Agro" for trucks and sedans and finally "Roar" for the muscle cars. The technique to acquire these is essentially the same, although each has a distinctly different requirement.
"Zone" requires you to drift in between traffic, which in turn builds up a gauge and allows you to slow-down time by pressing the left thumbstick ā“ similar to bullet-time. As youād expect the sheer pace of the game makes this a worthwhile technique to master and can easily make the difference between a win and loss.
Similarly "Agro" builds up a gauge, but this time rewarding those with less skill as hitting into cars is the technique to building up the bar. Again pressing the left thumbstick pulls off the technique, resulting in a seismic charge around your car pushing away any vehicles that are in your vicinity.
Saving the best for last however is the "Roar" technique, which requires you to drift around corners in order to raise the gauge. Having topped the bar youāll be able to part the sea of traffic down the middle, allowing you to pass by easily like Moses in a Mitsubishi!
Chuck in the lean techniques allowing you to drive on two wheels and the unbelievably insane jumps/tricks and you have an arcade racer that most definitely knows its own identity. Unlike Need for Speed: Underground 2, Midnight Club 3 doesnāt find itself confused as to whether it wants to be fun or realistic, and in this regards its more akin to playing a Mario Kart game then a more conventional racer.
The handling and physics are naturally very much eschewed towards the make-believe side of realistic, and as such thereās a light sensation to the overall handling of your vehicle that may not suit everyone and a distinct lack of subtle touches such as weight transfer or track differences. Instead itās all about handbrake turns, intense speed and jumps that would make Evel Knievel think twice; the lean button becomes increasingly useful throughout the game, granting you greater control over the bikes and allowing you to break every law of physics as you twist and roll a Skyline through the air.
The demonstration ended with a look at the multiplayer mode, and gave us the chance to take our abdominal creations onto the streets of Detroit. The game features a wide selection of different game types that would look more at home in a first-person-shooter, which despite sounding as logical as putting a DeathMatch mode in Mario actually provides one hell of a ride to play. Largely because of the open-ended city design, games such as Capture the Flag work surprisingly well and most definitely ensure Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition continues to mark its own place on the racing map.
The special techniques listed above are removed from the multiplayer modes, instead replacing them with a variety of pick-ups that are scattered throughout the environment. These range from reversing the controls of your opponent to quad damage, extra nitroās to blowing away an opponent when he gets too close to your car; the insane nature of these continues the Mario Kart like feeling to the whole experience and provides a nice balance between the need for racing skill and utilising offensive techniques. Itās still very much a racer and often the person who single-mindedly concentrates on winning the race will come out first, and those who donāt like the sound of them can always turn them off before the start of the race.
Finally we were treated to the all-improved Race Maker mode, which should easily allow anybody to create their own tracks in a matter of minutes and racing around them either online of off. Entering the mode sweeps the camera to a top-down perspective and simply requires you to drift around the town dropping check-points and various other factors wherever you wish. After the stubborn nature of MC2 itās welcoming to note that RockStar San Diego have gone back to the drawing board and come up with a system that is efficient and effortless, ensuring that this game should quickly become an online favourite.
