Midnight Club 3: DUB edition (called simply MC3 from here on in) is Rockstar’s answer to Syndicate Street Racing and Need for Speed Underground, and personally I think it’s the best street racing game available for Xbox. It’s full of action, variety and most of all fun! From screaming around city streets in SUVs trying to become the winner of the Big Boys club, to hooning around on a Chopper looking for Rockstar Logos, the game will provide hours of enjoyment for all but the hardcore serious racing fans out there.

For those who don’t know, DUB is a car magazine dedicated to premium automotive-customisation and urban celebrity cars. The cars in it’s pages are hotted up and blinged out to the max. We’re talking 24 inch rims, gold plated girls, spinners, spoilers, neon and nitrous. In MC 3, those of us too poor to even look at these types of cars not only get to customise our own cars, we get to race them too!

Staring out with a few measly 20K, you get to choose from a number of cars, add parts such as turbo ,breaks, engine, nitrous and so on, and race around San Diego for fame and money. The more you race, the more money you’ll get, plus more notoriety. Certain racers will let you know they’re available, and you can seek them out using the handy city map, and then as your fame grows, you’ll be invited to race in certain club events and tournaments. To race in the club events, you’ll need certain types of car – for example Tuners, Choppers or Sports Bikes, American Muscle or SUVs. As you win races, parts, vehicles, accessories and the other two cities become unlocked.

Whilst upgrading your vehicle is fairly limited compared to a game such as Forza, the real fun here is to be had pimping your ride. With real world parts and sponsors, and with everything under the sun customisable, you can have the most unique and expensive looking car imaginable. I made my cars look absolutely ridiculously pimped out, and yet somehow they all still looked cool when racing.

And the racing is fast and furious, quite possibly the most intense of any arcade racer since Burnout. Opponents bash you, cops chase you, and other traffic gets smashed out of the way as you race down wide highways or through garbage-strewn alleyways. You’re also awarded an extra edge for driving well. Depending on the class of car, you can gain either “Agro”, “Roar” or “Touch”. Agro makes you indestructible, allowing you to plough through traffic and props. Roar sends a massive grunt of power out from you, pushing opponents and bystanders out of the way. Touch gives you bullet-time and precise control, allowing you to take impossible corners and squeeze into improbable gaps.

The driving AI of the other racers is pretty good, as they don’t follow the same path as each other time and time again, appearing to be much more organic in nature than other racing games, making for some intense competition. The previous version of Midnight Club was criticised for being too tough, but MC3 learns how you are playing, and adjusts accordingly. You’ll notice the game will get steadily harder, but the difficulty will plateau or even drop a little if you’re not doing so well, so the impossible does seem more possible.

MC3 looks and sounds the part too. Reflection is in everything – from the sheen on the road to the glint of the setting sun off the high rises to the beautifully detailed cars themselves, everything is shiny and sleek. I think it looks even better than Burnout3, although the game does take a framerate hit when there’s rain and a lot of effects going on. The sound is fantastic, from the grunty sound of the American Muscle and Choppers, to the swoosh of the turbo on the Imports. Even the music is good – ok, so the hiphop is a little over the top, but the inclusion Dance Hall, Rock with groups such as NIN and Queens of the Stone Age, Drum and Bass with legends like Omni Trio and Calyx, and even classic techno tracks like “Nights of the Jaguar” and “Flash” by Fix really surprised me. Of course, if this isn’t your style, you can customise your playlists according to what’s on your xbox’s harddrive.

Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition is an unabashed arcade racer that captures the glitz and glamour of street racing and will provide hours of fun upgrading and racing your car through 3 of America’s greatest cities. Although upgrading your vehicles is very basic compared to simulation games like Grand Turismo and Forza, the real world car component companies give the game legitimacy over its other arcade competition such as Syndicate Street Racing and Need for Speed Underground. The races themselves are challenging but not impossible, and the added bonuses you get for driving well give you more edge over your competition, allowing for some very close adrenalin pumped racing.