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Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Preview
Jon Wilcox
01/07/2005
TVG dons the bling and the badass attitude to test drive the first Rockstar title on the PSP...
This week sees the North American of Rockstar San Diegoâs Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on PSP, and to coincide with that our friends at Rockstar London invited TVG up to check out the handheld port of the street racing title. Laying the foundations for Rockstarâs other foray onto PSP, namely GTA: Liberty City Stories, how does the street racing title shape up so far on Sonyâs portable platform?
Midnight Club 3 PSP looks set to become one of the key titles when the potable console launches on September 1st, and there are two very good reasons why this seems to be the case. Firstly, MC3 PSP really is the complete MC3: DUB Edition and is most certainly not a âdietâ equivalent thatâs been dramatically cut down. Secondly, and just as important, is that just as Rockstar North has been on hand throughout the development of Liberty City Stories, Rockstar San Diego has been helping the companyâs Leeds studios every step of the way to ensure that Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition feels as close to its home console equivalent as possible.
What is most impressive about Midnight Club 3 on PSP is that every car, every component, every alley of every city, every game type (plus one more), and every song from the home console versions are on the PSPâs UMD. Itâs quite a feat thatâs been accomplished at Rockstar Leeds and it certainly bodes well for their other PSP title.
As with the PS2 and Xbox versions, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition PSP is set in three US cities that have particular affinity with the car: Detroit, Atlanta, and San Diego. All of the shortcuts and ramps that gamers took their time to discover earlier in the year return in September, so veterans of MC3 will be at a slight advantage over newcomers of the game during multiplayer modes. Visually the environments looks as good if not better than PSPâs elder brother thanks to its LCD screen and a 16:9 aspect ratio that helps convey the speed of a playerâs much loved vehicle. All of the lighting models and visual effects that formed part of the step forward made by Midnight Club 3 feature in the game, and in terms of visuals DUB is shown off in all its glory by a machine that rarely looks to be breaking into a sweat.
The game returns with the same 60 licensed vehicles from the home console environments (including the bikes), so too the phenomenal amount of customisation thanks to the wide range of amongst other things bumpers, neon lighting, spoilers, tyres, wheel trims, etc. Although Rockstar did show some of the garage, we werenât able to give it too close a look, but rest assured that what we were shown was impressive. Rotating the cars through 360 degrees displayed the reflections and customised detailing to a high quality, although the movement was a bit jerky at times, which Rockstar explained was down to the game running off the dev kit hooked up to a PSP and not through a UMD.
As well as the various gametypes featured in the home console versions, Rockstar Leeds has also included a mode that âquick-fixâ gamers will enjoy. With the somewhat original title of âQuick Raceâ, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition PSP allows players to boot up the game and within one button press, experience full speed street racing action. Working on the principle of ârandom car and random raceâ Quick Race will certainly come in handy on those not-so-long journeys.
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition PSP will also feature all of the multiplayer modes available on the home consoles, with up to six gamers able to take part in a range of options from âCruiseâ to â Capture the Flagâ â“ all courtesy of the consoleâs Wi-FI capabilities. Sadly we werenât able to experience any of the multiplayer game modes, but again if the option lives up to expectations and the rest of the game, then that side appears to be in very safe hands.
So how does Midnight Club 3: DUB actually play on the PSP? Although thereâs only two buttons on the handheldâs shoulders the effect on the gameplay itself is pretty minimal. With one of the âabsentâ button in control of the viewpoint PSP games will have to press start and change to the view that best suits them from there. That doesnât seem to be much of a problem however since most people will have their preferred viewpoint meaning that the preference will rarely have to be changed over, itâs a small niggle, but when brought into context, itâs hardly something to worry yourself about.
Controlling the car via the PSPâs ânippleâ does take some time to get used to but after a couple of races we quickly got used to the âfeelâ of the car and its handling. The handbrake finds itself on the right shoulder button with acceleration, braking, nitro, and special movies (Zone, Rage, and Agro) taking their respective places on the right hand-control buttons. Rockstar commented that Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition will feature some control customisations although no details were confirmed â“ personally using the shoulder buttons as acceleration and braking would be our preference. Having said that the controls did seem to be quite responsive, and once we got used to the nipple controls, we were sliding our car around the streets of Detroit like pros with the light trails whizzing by.
With a much smaller screen it would have been all too easy for Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition to feature a cluttered HUD filled with various meters and the all important map. Thankfully a relatively happy balance has been met with Rockstar Leeds managing to squeeze every dial from the Xbox and PlayStation2 equivalent and place it firmly onto the PSP HUD â“ although the widescreen of the console obviously played an important part in that. The HUD doesnât interfere with the game although like the control system it does take a short amount of time to get used to glancing between the action and the map at the bottom left of the screen.
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Date Added:Thu 25th Jan 2007 13:38
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