Pimp your ride.

The Midnight Club series is about street racing, usually at night when there are a few less pedestrians and innocent traffic. It's also about using your winnings to mod cars in almost any way you see fit. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition brings together, in an obviously harmonious union, the video game about modding cars and DUB, the magazine about modding cars.

A racing game about street racing and modding cars is bound to be more about style than racing itself, and Midnight Club 3 is no exception. The scenery is slick, with neon lights seemingly reflected from every surface and menus that retain the glitzy coating throughout the entire expemrience. You can drive around the city all you want to get a feel for the streets and possible shortcuts. You'll start in San Diego, but soon Atlanta and Detroit open their arms to you, too. And there's just enough detail to everything to make the city seem alive, even late at night.

There's lots of recognizable in-game music to choose from, and you can limit the play list by genre if you like. Once the play list gets old, as any list does, the game (Xbox version only) supports custom soundtracks so there's no need to suffer if what you want isn't included. But when it comes to customizing cars, it's hard to imagine there's anything missing. On the inside, you'll be able to boost speed and mess around with suspensions. On the outside you can adds all kinds of stuff - fenders, ground effects, cool paint jobs and, of course, rims. The system is extremely slick and makes sure every piece matches the car without looking like it's tacked on and doesn't fit. The end result is a range of options that will be tough to exhaust.

The racing is slick, too. As expected, you'll have a very limited budget for your first car. But you won't have too much trouble moving beyond stock. The racing in Midnight Club 3 takes place at the choosing of the characters in the game, so you'll be driving around town when you get invited to different events. You'll nearly always be outmatched early on, but there are few times when you'll actually be challenged. Once you have the course figured out - and that includes shortcuts, because a lot of the races have no rules about how you get to the last checkpoint - all you have to do is not screw up horribly and you'll win most of the time.

And that's because the racing is, to put it mildly, forgiving. You don't have to worry too much about running into objects on the road that seem like they'd be impediments to speed - light posts, for example - because they'll go flying out of your way without your car skipping a beat on its way to the red line. Pedestrians dash out of the way at the last moment (which is fun to watch) and other cars (those not racing) are your only real obstacle. But those are so few and far between most of the time so it's rarely an issue.

Your opponents don't offer much resistance, either. Even though you'll be outclassed often, it seems like the other guys have simply decided to not use all the gears in the box because you'll speed right by cars that should be much faster than yours, at least until the competition gets stiffer later in the game. All these things combined leads to one inevitable conclusion: The offline career mode serves as a means to an end. Get as much cash as fast as you can so you can start customizing and going online. Once you get rolling, you'll have plenty of money to do what you will to your ride.

That's where you'll find some fun competition. With racing that's arcadey and extremely rough on your fenders, the competition against real people is extremely satisfying. It doesn't have the sense of speed and destruction of Burnout, and it's not even close to being realistic, but the game's unique style and the customization options make interacting with other players online worth the effort.

The game supports Car Clubs, which serve as a great way to add to your friends list. Race types include checkpoint races from point to point, time based affairs, capture the flag variants and a few others, including Frenzy, which doesn't allow breaking and forces copious use of nitrous. It's fun for a while, but the novelty wears off. You can also hook up for a Cruise, which has no rules or racing whatsoever - you just log on and drive around showing off your car. If it seems utterly pointless on paper, keep in mind that people do it in real life every single night.

The only part of the game that seems a bit out of place are the special moves. Depending on the car, you'll have a certain ability. Big cars and trucks can become even more like tanks by shoving everyone around farther than usual, for example. Some cars can slow down time so you move even faster and other cars can cause extra damage. None of the abilities seem all that helpful, so the system isn't much of a factor except in a few really tights spots.

With 60+ cars to choose from and many, many different mods to combine, including paint jobs, there's a lot to keep the aspiring auto artist busy. The options in Midnight Club 3 may not be as limitless as the work at West Coast Customs, but you'll definitely end up with a unique garage to show off online. And the racing, against real people, is fun and varied enough to keep you entertained while you show off your new rims.

Also, I'm personally the type of racing game fan who likes to actually race more than micro manage a stable of vehicles and their parts (excluding visual upgrades, of course). I was especially thankful when I saw that Rockstar included a little "Auto Upgrade" option, which takes your current winnings and instantly purchases the best performance upgrades for your car of choice. A very nice touch, that will help keep you on the streets more than in the garage.