Road rage at its most fun, Midtown Madness 3 is the third instalment in this popular series as seen on PC. Now it’s on the Xbox, and at its best, Midtown Madness 3 definitely lives up to its name. Screech around corners, smash through parks and send pedestrians scattering to safety as you race your way to victory.
Midtown Madness has several different options open to gamers; play as a single player or as a multiplayer game with a system link for up to eight people.
The game is set in two cities: Paris and Washington DC. You choose the city, and your missions are decided accordingly.
Single player mode sees you take on the role of an undercover agent who must infiltrate the criminal underworld. You take on jobs that include delivering pizzas, chauffeuring, stunt driving and getting behind the wheel of an ambulance. There are different mission-based challenges along with each new career — usually involving you being the first to deliver pizzas or get from A to B in the quickest time. You also have to contend with jealous colleagues, who want nothing more than to see you fail. What follows is an interesting, if somewhat frustrating, journey. Interesting because you can crash into practically everything en route to your goal; frustrating because no doubt it will take several attempts to finish the mission and move on to the next career, so before you know it you’ve lost an entire weekend.
After a while, the single player missions may seem a bit boring; if you’ve done one, you could start to feel that you’ve done them all. There are 54 single player missions to work through. This is where the multiplayer mode steps up and takes control.
With Xbox Live looking set to launch in Ireland this year, we are bound to see more and more Live-enabled games hitting the shelves. Midtown Madness 3 is one such game. There are exclusive Xbox Live game modes and you can challenge players online. Up to eight players can compete in games like tag, team battles and races around the cities. Be the first to get the goal and hide it, or try to smash into your opponent to snatch it.
The cities are recreated excellently; monuments and neighbourhoods have an impressive amount of detail. Pedestrians and traffic litter the streets, giving the game a realistic feel. Drive at a pedestrian and they will leap out of the way — an impressive change from the dull AI of some other racing games.
The number of cars you can race is also quite impressive. Vehicles range from the comical looking smart car to the high-powered Lotus Espirit Turbo. Over 30 vehicles are available to players throughout the levels.
However, that is where the realism ends. The feats you pull off behind the wheel in MM3 would never be allowed on the streets of Paris or Washington, and certain parts of the scenery can be lifted easily out of its moorings, as if they weighed nothing. Lamp posts bounce off your bonnet, street furniture skitters out the way. It’s escapism at its best. The crashes can be fantastic, flipping your car over and over. Cause too much damage to your car and you will find yourself slowed down for a little while — a time penalty, almost.
Midtown Madness 3
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers