This game is quite possibly the best arcade racer available. Now that I've had the chance to play with it for a bit over 10 hours, I have a pretty good feel of the game. While I may not touch on all areas of game play, you'll get a good idea of what stood out to me. If you've played previous games in the MC series, most notably MC2, you'll be right at home here with the game play. Its basically the same - same control, same over-the-top arcade-style racing action, same sprawling metropolitan cities. Sometimes staying the same is good, but they don't keep it 100% the same. They've added new "tricks of the trade" into this game. In MC2 you had several unlockable "moves" that you could use to one-up your opponents. In MC3, you start off with all those at the beginning, but there's three new unlockable "moves" that mix up the action a bit and add some variety to the well-known game play. While racing, you'll probably notice that there is much more traffic than there was in MC2. This is really a two way street. While some of the traffic AI is a little weird (cars parked for no reason in the middle of the street), overall the more traffic there is the more real and alive the city feels. That's something that other arcade racers lack, in my opinion, and it's a lot of fun weaving in and out of all the traffic on the freeway going 200 MPH. The sense of speed and danger is amazing. Speaking of AI, your opponent AI is much more balanced than in previous MC games. This time around opponents actually make mistakes, get held up by traffic and cause massive accidents, as well. Of course, all this mass carnage doesn't go unnoticed by the law enforcement officers in whatever city you're tearing up. Naturally, they come after you. The police AI could use some work, as their cars are like brick walls, while most other traffic is easy to push out of the way if you get into a tight spot. Overall though, the AI in this game is really nice and adds to the realism of the game. In career mode there's a seemingly endless stream of races to participate in, as well as special silver Rockstar logos (R*) you can try to find - 12 in each city - to unlock special features. So, there's plenty to keep you busy. As you complete races, you'll gain cash to upgrade your ride, new unlockables (in the form of visual or performance upgrades) that are shipped to your garage for your use and, of course, the respect of your fellow racers. What I always loved about the MC series is its open ended game play and the fact that you don't have to finish every race or get first in every race to advance to the next city. The same holds true here. Have a tournament that you just can't seem to master yet? Just come back to it later once you get more experience under your belt and a faster ride. The various different types of races keep things fresh and challenging, yet not too difficult. Once you learn your way around whatever city you're racing in, things get even easier. I must admit, the graphics show little improvement over MC2, but MC2 didn't have the worst graphics in the world, either. The visual presentation is still very solid and enticing. There are some rumors of big frame rate drops and such, and you may experience some in specific situations, but truthfully, I haven't seen this during races at all - not even when weather effects like rain are active. The game plays real smooth and the controls are tight and responsive. The big change in this game is the addition of licensed cars and parts and complete customization of every aspect of your vehicle. You have your standard customization options such as paint jobs, front/rear/side body kits, vinyls and decals, but you can also customize your license plate, the text on your decals, the color of your vinyls and a plethora of other things. You can literally spend hours and hours in your garage making visual modifications to your vehicles. You can also make performance modifications, although these are a bit simpler and take the form of different levels of upgrades in different categories. As you progress through the game, you unlock more visual and performance upgrades, seemingly to no end. The on line component of this game is much more robust than MC2, as well. There are many different type of competitions you can take part in, including the usual circuit races, but also capture the flag and many other mini-games you can play with other players. This adds massive replay to the game as well as a chance to see different cars and play styles - perhaps even learning from your opponents. All in all, like I said earlier, this is one of the best arcade racers available and, personally, much more deep and robust than Need for Speed: Underground 2. The awesome arcade racing combined with a deep customization system and over 60 licensed vehicles makes this a very fun and rewarding game to get involved in.
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