Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is the recently announced third entry in Rockstar Games' street racing franchise, which originally debuted on the PlayStation 2 in 2000 as part of the first wave of PS2 games. At the time, street racing hadn't quite made the splash like it has in the racing genre lately, so the game was viewed as a stylish and unique arcade racer that served as a fine showcase for the newly minted PlayStation 2's power. The second entry in the series expanded to the Xbox and PC as well as the PS2, and it stayed true to the original game's formula of open-street racing. The addition of online play to the mix helped keep the franchise evolving as well.

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition will be the first entry in this street racing series to feature real-world licensed vehicles. The subtitle of the game refers to its affiliation with the influential DUB Magazine, which is providing creative consultation on the project.

This latest entry in the series, once again developed by Rockstar San Diego, builds on the previous entries in the series with the same refined graphics and gameplay. However, in addition to those expected sequel elements, Rockstar is tossing in a healthy dose of style thanks to its partnership with DUB Magazine, an automotive lifestyle publication that has been very influential in the rap and hip-hop traditions. We had the chance to take a brief look at an early work-in-progress version of the game to get a taste of what to expect.

We were able to see the PlayStation 2 version of the game. An Xbox version is also in development, though there are no plans for a PC version at this time. We saw the game's slick-looking menu system followed by some racing through the late-night streets of Detroit. Here we got to see a good amount of pedestrian traffic and some extremely fast racing action as the game's refurbished graphics engine strutted its stuff. Truthfully, we didn't get to see more than a few minutes' worth of racing, but we did get to see actual gameplay. We didn't see more than a few different vehicles, and the damage modeling wasn't implemented in this build, either. Now let's talk about what we found out.

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition will make use of the same basic framework as the previous entry in the series, in that it will feature arcade, career, a race editor, and online modes to explore. There will also be a garage in which to fully customize one's collection of vehicles. This time out, the game will place a much heavier emphasis on customization thanks to its incorporation of over 50 licensed real-world cars and tons of different authentic aftermarket parts, which is a departure from the made-up vehicles seen in previous Midnight Club games. Rockstar's partnership with DUB Magazine will give you the opportunity to fully customize your in-game wheels, which will come courtesy of well-known manufacturers such as Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, and Ducati, to name just a few. The game's emphasis will be squarely on high-end, high-performance luxury vehicles, including sports cars, sedans, SUVs, and motorcycles.

Vehicles like the ever-popular Cadillac Escalade, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III, and the Mercedes CL 500 are just a few of the highly desirable rides that will be featured in the game.

The gameplay will supposedly throw some new twists at you in order to keep the experience fresh while retaining the open-ended nature of the series that it is known for. Once again, players will have the freedom to navigate from checkpoint to checkpoint at their discretion, and they will have to outmaneuver aggressive computer-controlled vehicles (or human players, in the online mode) to get to the finish line first. One subtle change this time around is that the game seems to move even faster than its predecessor--but the streets have also been lengthened, resulting in what seems like insanely fast (but not unmanageably fast) inner-city racing.