Midnight Club: Dub Edition 3 (Xbox, PS2)

(Herald rating: ****)

Oh no, not another street-racing game. That's what I thought when I received an Xbox copy of Midnight Club: Dub Edition 3. We have already seen updates of the Need for Speed Underground and Burn Out series this year. I also hate the idea of sequels - they rarely work in cinema and fare only slightly better in the gaming world.

If I was familiar with Midnight Club's two predecessors, I might think differently, but I thoroughly enjoyed the driving experience it offered, which is superior to the two rivals mentioned above.

As a Rock Star title, it has all the sensibility of the clever Grand Theft Auto series but without the excessive violence.

You never set foot outside your vehicle in Midnight Club, instead you buy whatever car you can afford with the $20,000 handed to you at the start of the game and trade up by winning race money and one-off tournaments.

There is nothing original about that, but the best aspect of the game is its simple, free-form racing style, where you chose whichever route you wish to get you across town, be it San Diego, Atlanta or Detroit.

Towering beacons of light in the distance tell you which direction to drive in. Short cuts take you down blind alleys, across six-lane motorways and even through a football stadium.

The racing is surprisingly thrilling because Rock Star isn't too preoccupied with reality and throws in some useful effects to play with our minds.

Cars blur as they swerve around corners as though we are following them with a video camera. They bounce off walls back into the action, and even a head-on collision with oncoming traffic won't hold you back for too long.

Decent sound effects heighten the tension, though I turned off the inane music soundtrack. Your car, one of 60 real models, is virtually indestructible. Everything from the lumbering Hummer to a classic Cadillac can be raced and modified in a back-street garage straight out of the TV series Pimp My Ride.

Gran Turismo beats the rest when it comes to realistic racing action but Midnight Club delivers mindless street racing in style.

* $100