It seems that Rockstar has been brought up on some solid working class values. Sure its game – Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition – celebrates gratuitous customisation and ostentatious displays of wasted wealth but, with the release of the Remix-ed version, there are very obvious signs of pragmatism that can be summed up in the phrase 'waste not, want not'.
This is reference to the inclusion of a whole new city, Tokyo, for the budget release of its street-racing odyssey. While other publishers feel that knocking 20 quid off the retail price is enough to entice bargain hunting consumers, Rockstar has multiplied the content by 1.33 recurring!
The 'waste not' bit comes from the choice of city, as Tokyo was one of the three cities that appeared in the excellent Midnight Club 2. This was the game that really established Rockstar as leaders in the street-racing game genre with its open cities that were riddled with shortcuts and heaving with meddlesome traffic.
It was also a game that required brain frying levels of concentration and the reflexes of a caffeine-wired squirrel to complete. Consequently there are many Midnight Clubbers that never got to see Tokyo as it was the last of the three cities (LA and Paris were the other two) to be unlocked.
Fortunately this shameful waste of a beautifully crafted street-racer play-area, is being righted by Rockstar's canny piece of recycling. The big difference is that the Japanese capital has been Midnight Club 3-ified which means the dark footprint of the city from MC2 has been laced with neon and sprinkled with lighting effects.
