The music, the rims, the neons, and the decals, it's all about style and love for speed and popularity. Midnight Club 3 shows all the flash and speed that you would expect coming from these games. You have the cars, the upgrades, the bad boys to talk smack, and tons of races to prove that you are the supreme racer. Midnight Club may not be as big as other racers, such as Need for Speed, but that doesn't mean it can't be better.

The game runs smoothly, just like a racing game should. The cars, while not as spectacular as Gran Turismo 4 or Need for Speed, look really good. There’s tons of shine and color to them. They reflect lights and things around them just like they should. It does give you a great feel of speed, but still at the same time feels real. The Xbox version is the better choice just because of the fact it runs smoother and has less FPS problems, but it still has them every now and then. Truthly, you will be to much into the racing to notice the graphics most of the time. There are some neat effects like blur and slow down looks really nice. It's cool to see that you can take some pretty heavy damage and your car will have dents, scrapes, and even busted glass if you get hit hard enough. This is truly a cool thing to see after playing other games that merely forget the fact that your car is suppose to be real. As much as I love Gran Turismo games, it always felt weird that no matter how hard you hit, you just split apart with out one detail of a scratch or anything.

The sounds of the cars in the game are really nice and loud. One thing that I really liked in the sound department are the crashes. When you run into something you hear the shattering of glass and it actually feels like you have wrecked. In other games this is kind of a second thought but here it's the best benefit of crashing. The main thing you will be hearing in this game though, are the songs. As a rock listener and guitar player, of course I am expecting to be disappointed because most songs are centered around rap themed songs. Even I liked a few of the songs in the game, so that’s saying something. The only thing that was disappointing was the rock songs that ARE in the game are not that great. So if you’re into these kinds of games the music is absolutely nothing new. However, for the xbox there is hope, you do have the option to play your custom sound track instead (thank you). Aside from in game music, the voice acting in the cut-scenes are well done and doesn't sound like cut and paste. It's fluid and they tried pretty hard to get the "street" style dialogue down pat.

Cars with different powers? That actually works? This game proves it and adds something new to separate it from other racers. According to what car you are using at the time, you can do things from move traffic out of your way, slowing down time, to causing more damage to cars that you hit. You might be thinking "Yea I know arcade racing games but that’s just kind of weird" but it works very well in this case and makes it even more fun to play. For those mainly interested in the single-player aspects of the game, you will be happy to know that the career mode is very long and will take you at least 15-20 hours to beat. You have the career and the arcade mode. The arcade mode has multiplayer races that can get old pretty quick, and also the races from the career mode. The career was what I was most interested in, as will most be. What is great is that, its got so much to do and in depth but not TOO much. This is what makes the game long, but still fun to play. The cut-scenes are nice and give you a sense of accomplishment. You have normal races around the city and city tournaments. Also, you can go meet a person a location to race them in a certain amount of races. This way you can unlock different parts in the shop and also get new cars/bikes. All in all, this fits perfect because it gives you a reason to keep on wanting to win these races.

The game obviously still uses the cruise mode so you can go find your races on your own. I didn't really like this feature on Need For Speed: Underground 2, but this game made the cruise mode a lot better to me. They will kind of give you hints on places to go at times and that’s what I like. I never was really into the whole "put them here, and let them go do what ever". I like to be told where to go and beat that then move on. It will not tell you where to go all the time, and even if it does you don't really have to go that way. Of course, not everything is perfect, there are some kind of annoying things about the game that you will see rather quickly. For one, it’s considered a plus that you can race in any way that you want. Meaning if you don't want to follow the computers route you can go find your own way to get to the next check point. It's really easy later on in the harder races to get really confused at exactly which way you need to go to get to the next check point. You will be going so fast that all of a sudden you will look on your map and notice you missed the road to get to the next check point, kind of frustrating. You will find yourself going back again and again until you find the right path of your missed check point and more then likely there will be more then one in a race that you will have a problem getting to. This is what makes the game fun though, its total freedom while your racing, you can sometimes find better routes to take then the computers will and you can get a really good jump ahead of them. Of course, what would a game like this be without the good faithful garage? Here you can upgrade and manage your rides. Adding decals, paints and neons is only half the fun. You really start having fun upgrading in the performance. While many will know exactly what they want to change to their car, it’s very nice that they added a auto upgrade feature for people like me. I'm not a car genius nor do I read up on all the new engines or anything even similar to that, I just enjoy racing games. So this is really user friendly to those who think "yea I just want my car the best it can get", like me.

Now down to one of the best part of the game that drives the gameplay to be almost perfect. The A.I. in this game are awesome. I mean this game feels like a real race, not a one sided computer owns all. Of course, we have all thrown controllers against the wall after leading the pack in a 4 lap race, only to wreck once and it’s all over, with no hope of gaining your leading position before the race is over. Well my friends welcome to a real racing game. Not only can you wreck once, but probably twice and you probably still have a chance to catch up with the others. You may think that this makes the game too easy but it really doesn't, it just makes it feel real Of course this does not mean that you can always expect to get first place after wrecking 2-3 times, but you have a good chance if you race well and don't get off track. I have wanted a racing game to feel like this for a long time, and I don't really see why it's so hard to make it feel realistic in this sense.

Overall, this game is just easily rated as awesome. It has the style, and the gameplay of a true great racing game. If you stand Need for Speed: Underground 2 up to this game, I would say this game offers more of what you would want from an arcade racer. Not everybody will feel the same, but this is just what I feel. In any case, you can't go wrong with this game. Also nice to know that both PS2 and Xbox versions can be played online. Buy or rent? I'd say if you are a fan of racing games or just like to play one here and there, I'd still buy this game. It's worth the money.