It would be fair to say that Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition was a long time coming. There have been a number of new games to try and take some of the limelight away from the Underground racing genre but Rockstar essentially created it and anticipation for their next Midnight Club game has been extremely high. Would the graphics get a boost? Would the racing be just as frenetic? Would there still be loads of massive jumps? Would there be some kick arse online play? Happily I can report that the answer to all these questions is a big YES!

One of the biggest changes to the series would have to be that now we finally choose from 65 real cars to purchase, race and modify to our hearts content. No more generic looking 'made up' rides that you never really feel attached to, these babies are all real from manufacturers such as Cadillac, General Motors, Dodge, Chrysler, Lexus, Lotus and even some true super cars from Lamborghini, Saleen and McLaren. What's that I hear you say? You prefer 2 wheels to 4? Well if driving your G500 Benz around up on its side just isn't good enough; Midnight Club 3 (from now on MC3) features plenty of Choppers, Kawasaki's and other 2 wheeled monsters to satisfy all your speed cravings.

The racing in MC3 is extremely fast, and at times, absolutely scary as hell. The cars and bikes rocket along at insane speeds and keeping an eye on the checkpoints whilst dodging the large amount of traffic on the roads will take all the attention that you can muster. There are plenty of ramps to get monster air to clear freeways, buildings and the other racers, in fact, some of the later jumps in the game are so huge that you're literally airborne for 3 - 5 seconds at a time. In a nutshell this is what MC3 is all about. Racing your bike at speeds so fast that bugs will smash your teeth and pimping your classic rides out to the max.

The Midnight Club series may have started the whole underground racing genre but a few of the recent competitors really upped the stakes with some great racing and the amount of modding that you could do to your car, but honestly, who really thought that filling your boot with speakers, amps and nitrous bottles was that interesting? Thanks to Rockstar Games affiliation with DUB Magazine MC3 offers customisation options from dozens of real life companies. Nitrous kits, brakes, body kits, rims, tyres and many more components are all on offer and even some DUB edition gear exclusive to the game.

You could be excused for thinking that MC3 has opted for 'quality over quantity, and while this is true, the amount of customization options remains extremely high and you can easily while away the hours making your Lexus GS430, Nissan 350Z, Ducatti or 1968 GTO as unique and distinct as you like. Everything from the paint (with gloss, metallic and colour shift eventually all being available), decals and other body upgrades can all be customised and coloured to your liking and with the high number of rims (that you can even choose the width of) you can quickly create some stunning looking creations. I know I'm going on about this side of the game more than I need to, and you probably get the point, but none of the content in this side of the game is superfluous and this is one area that MC3 excels in compared to the opposition, yes, even with less items to purchase.

Those of us looking for engine options might go away a little bit disappointed as there are plenty of upgrades available but there are no options to do any fine tuning on the dyno, adjust gear ratios or any other advanced engine options at all. To make things easier and get you back in the action, MC3 features an 'Auto Upgrade' option that automatically selects every available upgrade in your budget and then lets you add them all instantly. This keeps perfectly inline with the arcade style and gets you back on the streets nice and fast. Whether it's the engine or the appearance of your cars, modifying your ride in MC3 is loads of fun and it's great that things aren't drawn out either as after a couple of quick easy races you will quickly amass some funds to spend on your beloved vehicle.

The races themselves are spread throughout 3 huge cities, San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit. In the Career mode you're able to cruise around and compete in any of the races that appear on your map or find other drivers to challenge. There are a number of different event types to compete in such as standard checkpoint racing that can be found just by driving around and activated with the 'white' button when you come across them and are one off events purely for cash. Other event types are Tournaments where you're awarded points for how you place after 3 races and the racer with the highest points wins. There are also City Races and Club Races that require you to have a certain type of car before you can enter. The arcade mode lets you select from a few more race types such as Tag and Frenzy and also gives you the option of enabling power ups, some of which are truly hilarious such as reversing your opponents steering or disabling their brakes while they continue to accelerate.

If you enjoyed the multiplayer side of MC2 then you will love what MC3 has to offer and it extends the games replayability quite substantially even once the lengthy career mode is completed. Once again Xbox Live is supported and races online have been nice and lag free, even when going up against overseas gamers or some mates from around Australia. The race editor makes a welcome return and lets you place checkpoints around any of the cities unlocked in career mode.

My only complaint with the racing is that while MC3 is nowhere as hard as MC2 (to begin with), the game gets repetitive and this is more noticeable once the races begin to get more difficult. On average it would take me 1-2 attempts to learn the track layout due to the large size of the maps, where any shortcuts are, where to save your nitrous boosts for and then another 2-3 attempts to actually come first and win the race. There were a few races that I blew through and won first time, but this didn't happen very often. The game exhibits little of that 'rubber band A.I' that ruins some games and while it is there in tiny amounts, thankfully it is on your side more often that not. But saying that, the A.I gets extremely competitive as you progress and like the last game, you find yourself winning or losing races by a split fraction of a second.

In many races where I had crashed or missed a checkpoint, I found myself just restarting it over again rather than trying to catch up. The career mode is fairly lengthy and presents a great challenge however many of us might just give up without seeing it through to the end. Rockstar can't be faulted for this however as if the game was too simple it would no doubt draw complaints for that reason. The A.I in the game drives fast, knows all the shortcuts and would probably be even more aggressive at times than many players online! They aren't perfect though and frequently you will see them smashing through light poles, into each other or wiping each other off the track. It causes some great action and makes the races in MC3 very exciting.

The graphics in MC3 honestly, look great but also aren't as clean as I was expecting from all the great screenshots we've seen over the past year. The cars do look good but feature their fair share of jaggies that hurt the clean visuals I was expecting to see. Of course MC3 isn't an Xbox exclusive game so PGR2 level graphics can't be expected and in the games favour, the cities look great with great lighting and reflections on the cars. One surprise was the high amount of traffic driving around on the roads as I didn't think that there would be as much as what there is. The framerate even stays pretty solid but isn't up there with the silky smooth 60 frames per second that we saw in Burnout 3 and when the rain kicks in it can take a slight hit.

There's so much going on and with the blur effects and constant weaving in and out of traffic, you probably won't have any time to admire the scenery anyway. MC3 is no slouch in the graphics department, but I just thought everything would be a bit cleaner and free from the dreaded jaggies. The damage that the cars take is entirely superficial and has no effect on the cars handling, they can be destroyed if you hit petrol pumps or take too much damage and generally every race will see your prized ride twisted, scratched and smashed almost beyond recognition at the end of each race. Luckily repairs are free!

MC3 features a pretty decent sound track with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Sean Paul and Queens of the Stone Age on board, but I found the rest of the tracks to be just average so the music volume got turned down after a few hours of play. You can always create your own custom soundtracks anyway thanks to the Custom Soundtrack support. The cars and bikes sound great though and the city traffic, opposition racers and the crashes and bangs have plenty of impact. The voice acting during the career mode is pretty decent as well and rounds off a pretty good effort from the Rockstar sound department.