Racing games have never been my favorite genre. Usually the artificial intelligence is like a communist rubber band that will never let you get too far away from the lead pack, or there are countless hidden items and boring tasks to unlock new racetracks. Fortunately, the gaming industry has started to develop new games that find creative ways of sidestepping these problems.

Currently on the market are several new titles for all platforms titled Grand Turismo IV, Need for Speed Underground II, Midnight Club III and Burnout Revenge, coming this week. All of these games are sequels and will no doubt spawn more imitations. Why are there so many racing games being made for consoles? A chief reason is that these games are far better than their predecessors.

To discover how much better racing games are now, I recently picked up Midnight Club III: DUB Edition. I was immediately disappointed with the game’s load time, which would take up to two minutes to load in certain menus.

However, even though this occurrence is extremely annoying and distracts from the game, it does not slow down any of the actual racing. Midnight Club III has expanded the types of races to encompass several unique styles.

Midnight Club III places all of its racing in busy downtown streets with immense maps filled with alleys and sidewalks that you can speed along as well.

Some of the races require navigating through crowded streets with only a destination and the hope that your route will be faster than your opponent’s. Included in the game, are more traditional races with marked courses or guiding checkpoints along the way.

Regardless of any particular race’s objective, there are usually numerous barricades, vehicles and people to crash into at any time, and even small cars if you are driving the H2 Hummer. Even with expert driving skills, collisions and fender-benders are inevitable.

These minor crashes do not slow down the game; they are simply a product of the massive interactive background. This is one of the better features of the game. Midnight Club III has so much motion on screen at any given time that it is amazing.

The game includes six-lane highways filled with streaming traffic. This reduces the detail of the graphics, but the sheer volume of motion makes for a more intense race by dodging trucks and aiming for lampposts.

As the game progresses, the player is forced to become familiar with the maze of streets and proficient in upgrading cars. Customizing cars is crucial later in the game to defeat the toughest opponents. I prefer racing compared to the slow menus of customizing my car with wheel rims and neon lights. However, upgrading the vehicle’s engine and handling does add another dimension to the experience.

For more racing, there is the multiplayer mode. Up to eight players can fight it out in all of the exciting modes. The multiplayer is the long-term value of this game.

The online play is up to par with the rest of the game and surpasses it with fresh competition and strategies. This is when the nearly indestructible cars are vital to block and knock opponents out of the way. The multiplayer, with all of its aggressive tactics added to the single player mode, makes Midnight Club III a good game to check out.

However, how does this game compare to the new Burnout Revenge and the rest? I cannot say that Midnight Club III is the best racing game out there, though it does have some new ideas and a touch of an arcade-feel to it.

Hopefully racing games will only improve, because there are a lot more to come. I enjoyed Midnight Club III: DUB Edition, but not enough to keep me from trying to find a better racing game.