My only complaint is that the hemmed-in mini-maps used for some games don't always take into account exactly how awkward the boundaries might become - streets metamorphose into lengthy dead ends, which can be devastating in a game of car tag. It's a very well done and compelling way to keep people coming back to the game. Jumping into the cities and racing or playing a nice game of Capture the Gold, which is sort of like a super speedy car-based CTF, is a hell of a lot of fun and works as seamlessly as you've come to expect an Xbox Live game to - sure, we're all aware that the voice breaks up a bit from time to time, but it's seamless, and the interface as always echoes the rest of the XBL library. The game's a fun weekender for its single player action, but its longevity is entirely based around its Xbox Live play. The game has just about as much story as it can bear - no excessive cinematics, just some hilarious one-liners and clever rivalries with psychotic female drivers. While the game offers a lot of different jobs, everything more or less boils down to "go from point A to point B," and is probably best enjoyed in short bursts. In fact, the first few challenges are anything but challenging, and anyone with a cursory familiarity with the genre should have little problem accelerating through. Picking up and playing the game is easy - there's no god-of-technique learning curve like Gotham. This does mean that the game doesn't really excel in either context - but when you view the thing as a whole, it's rather cool that DICE was able to pull off an engine that works both angles so well. Its controls are solid enough to let the game function as a racer in a pinch, but simple enough to be applied to the arcadey task of dropping off taxi passengers. Sure, the cities in Project Gotham might be more realistic and the balls-out arcade physics of Crazy Taxi might be more satisfying, but MM3 has a great synergy between all of the things that make those games good.
Midtown madness 1 logo full#
The cities are so alive and vibrant, and even more so than other games that MM3 resembles - with pedestrians everywhere, and full of chatter from the patients, prisoners, and passengers you pick up along your way. DC, like many American cites, is designed in a sensible grid formation, allowing for precise driving - but the open lawns around all of the historical monuments add real variety to the terrain.
The small streets allow you to make quick changes in course, but the confusing nature of the city can throw you off easily as well. The two burgs chosen for the game are great foils - the twisty, tiny streets and old world grandeur of Paris offers plenty of places to lose yourself in. The game runs smoothly and consistently at 30 frames per second, which is acceptable, but I wish developers could get the performance out of the Xbox that I thought they were going to when it first came out. While the cars may not be up to Project Gotham's nearly photorealistic standards, everything definitely looks very solid. While neither is going to win awards in the detail arena, it's still so nice to see the Xbox just casually chuck around these huge environments. The real stars of the game are the two cities, which are huge arenas ripe for careening around in. It's too kind-hearted and camp to be offensive, and is typically worth a chuckle or two. Both sides of the coin have the same gameplay and the same sort of mediocrely-presented, just this side of too corny story starring a host of amusing, if stereotyped, characters.
Midtown madness 1 logo movie#
In both Washington, DC and Paris you're placed in the shoes of an undercover cop trying to dig up dirt by posing in a variety of different driving-oriented jobs - pizza delivery boy, taxi driver, chauffer - which will allow you to investigate a kidnapping plot against a famous German racer or the seedy machinations of famed movie directors. It's also got a spiffy Xbox sheen, and has proven to be great fun. Consequently the game's flavor has changed, somewhat, gathering some campy Eurohumor. Angel Studios, the originators of the series, have since been subsumed into the gaping maw of Rockstar based on their success with the Midnight Club games, and Microsoft has handed the franchise to DICE, a well-known European developer.
Midtown madness 1 logo Pc#
The Midtown Madness series was close to becoming an institution with PC gamers - but since Microsoft shifted focus to the Xbox, it's now a console franchise, and it makes a good one.
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