Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

MC3 works surprisingly well on a PSP, despite the grand setting and detail put into the original.

If you are lucky enough to have 5 friends with copies of the game, then 6-way wireless play is catered for, with the usual selection of races and team-based games making for an excellent diversion.

Your pride in your ride will keep this as addictive as it ever was. If you already own it on PS2, then multiplayer is the only new draw, but it's still a cracking game. Get it. [PSM2]

MC3 kicks the heck out of the past couple of PSP racing games. What it lacks in graphical delivery the audio department and depth of gameplay more than make up for.

As long as you don’t get frustrated with the long load times and the cumbersome way in which you must unlock things, Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition is a fantastic game. The sheer amount of content that Rockstar was able to cram into the PSP version is very impressive, and you’re sure to get your money’s worth.

The minute plus load times, for a portable game, are more unacceptable. Rockstar Leeds was able to accomplish a lot with the game and this is almost enough to make up for the shortcomings.

Despite the load time issue, an occasional problem with being able to see certain cars and roadside objects that blend into the dark backgrounds, and a slightly reduced sense of speed overall, there's very little to criticize here.

Even with its small share of problems and the exclusion of a few features here and there, Midnight Club: DUB Edition for the PSP is a Must-Have for gamers that are in the mood for arcade racing at its most fun.

Insanely long load times are the only major flaw in this amazingly thorough conversion of a console game to the PSP format. Vroom!

I encourage you to pick this up, even with the load time issue. Really, it’s because they tried to fit too much game in this one. It’s simply too big for the tiny PSP to handle.

Truly an amazing game, and the best on the PSP, but I simply can't overlook its one glaring flaw [load times]. [Aug 2005, p.106]

A paradox in game form. It's both a technical marvel and a technical disaster. It's a great game, but it's also just a port. You're going to have to decide which of these aspects is most important to you, but one thing is certain: Midnight Club 3 absolutely wipes the floor with other street racing games currently available for the PSP in both multiplayer and single-player options.

A complete recreation of the original's depth of races and modifications (and high speed fun) with allowances made for the smaller screen, DUB looks set to enjoy a new lease of life in the portable world.

It seems PAL gamers got the good end of the stick here, with load times cut in half and everything making the cut that was in the American version. This is a racing game to seriously consider.

If you love arcade style racing, you’ll love MC3.

If only some of the graphic quirks and loading times had been addressed, we would have had the kind of racing game that could've sat alongside Ridge Racer rather proudly. As is, it's still recommended for its fast gameplay and stacked features, as well as its multiplayer attachments.

As long as you can stand the loading times, I see no reason why I would not suggest picking up Midnight Club 3.

There's less oncoming traffic to compensate for the smaller screen, and I didn't quite feel the classic Midnight Club sense of speed like Demian did.

The racing in Midnight Club 3 provides for some fast and furious fun. However, if the load times were as fast as the racing, the game would be a lot more enjoyable.

Sure, it's still a mostly fun and sometimes exciting street racer, but when put up against competition like "Ridge Racer" and "Need for Speed Underground Rivals," it seems a lot more ordinary.

Is it overly harsh to pound on a game for having dreadful loadtimes?... On the other hand, it's a good game deep, deep, deep down inside.

The multitude of customizable features for the cars is the most impressive selection seen on PSP, but the gameplay doesn’t compare with titles such as "Wipeout Pure" or "Ridge Racer."

A good game but is flawed most garishly by its awful loading times. It is both more expansive and more entertaining than its closest competitor Need for Speed Underground Rivals but lacking the intense thrills both Ridge Racer and Burnout Legends offer.

It does an admirable job of re-creating a complex console game on the PSP ... admirable but for the ridiculous load times. They truly put a damper on the rest of the game, turning what would have been a fantastic, console-like experience into a decent, console-like experience.

Sixty-second load times every time the player moves from one event to another are almost unbearable, and had these been removed our review would have been much more gracious. It is almost tragic that such a wonderful game could be crippled by this singular flaw.

As impressive as it is to see the entire game ported to a handheld, the PSP version will always be known for extreme load times.

The Final Assessment. Frankly, Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition is a broken game. The loading screens will take up many hours of your life if any substantial play is put into the game – I kid you not, hours.

If you have the patience of a Zen master, MC3:DE can definitely be fun. Unfortunately, for most the amount of time required to get to the fun just isn't worth the wait at all. [Sept 2005, p.84]

The poor control compounds the dull and lifeless handling of the cars.

I loved this game on the Xbox but this is totally unacceptable and an excercise in extreme and total frustration. Unless you are a Zen master avoid this game like the proverbial plague.

What’s here isn’t really worth the insane load times. While it manages to emulate the console version in terms of content, Midnight Club 3 comes to a screeching halt in its technical problems and overly simple racing.

Torturing yourself with frankly ridiculous load times isn't acceptable, nor is the choppy frame rate or the sound stutters. [U.S. version]