Midtown Madness 3

"A unique racer to add to the XBox collection..."

The Midtown Madness series came to fame on the PC as games that gave you a wild ride in licensed cars, through real life cities. Midtown Madness 3 (MM3) follows the same suit as you can race in various modes such as blitz, checkpoint, tag and capture the gold or work undercover doing often random jobs, whether it be chauffeuring Mrs. VeryWealthy or picking up and dropping off people in a taxi, à la Grand Theft Auto. On top of the standard and extra modes, MM3 is unique because it is a very humorous game, which are hard to come by in these days of dark plots and cold violence.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The best thing about MM3 is that it has a good learning curve, meaning anyone can pick it up. Not only that but you can drive over 30 vehicles, from a garbage truck to an Audi TT, across two massive, real life cities, Washington D.C. and Paris. There are 7 different modes to my knowledge. Undercover is the single-player campaign which has you carrying out various tasks such as protecting money in armored cars and chauffeuring people in limos. This can become tedious and boring, and is easily the worst aspect of the game. Blitz on the other hand is crazy or mad as the title would suggest and has you racing through the cities, with a time limit, going through each checkpoint. Checkpoint is similar to blitz and also has you going through checkpoints. Cruise lets you wander the city at your own leisure, which is the best way to find all the shortcuts before racing. Tag is exactly what it sounds like. One person is ''it'' and must tag someone else with their car before the timer runs out or they lose. Runaway has one person who is ''it'' but they are running from everyone else who are the cops, until the timer runs out. Lastly, capture the gold is the racing version of capture the flag, simple enough. The best part about these modes is that most of them are playable on XBox Live. Paris and D.C. are simply amazing. Having been to both I was surprised how I recognized that every monument and street was mapped out exactly. Besides the map there are the 30 different vehicles, all licensed. You can unlock these by completing the various mode. Included in the line-up are such cars as the Audi TT, Mini Cooper S and Esprit Turbo, as well as vehicles you wouldn't expect to see in a racing game such as a garbage truck, limo and armored car. On top of the different modes there will be downloadable content from XBox Live and there are also paint cans spread across the two cities which unlock new paint jobs for each car, adding to replayability. My only complaints with the gameplay is that there could have been more cars (this may sound like a ridiculous criticism but half the cars you really don't want to drive. Also, some of the last races and tasks are very hard requiring you to do them over and over to get it right. Other than that MM3 has exactly what it promised.

GRAPHICS: 10/10
MM3 runs at a solid 30 FPS and it has not dropped at all for me so far, meaning it is very enjoyable to watch. You will hit stuff all the time, which is pleasing to watch as sparks fly from street lamps or telephone poles or glass shards fly through the air. Besides that, the cities looking amazingly realistic with pedestrians roaming around and licensed cars on the streets. After Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City many expected that more games would have massive cities to roam. We have not seen too many, but MM3 has not only used the XBox's power to make these cities run without error, but they have made them look beautiful too. The cars also look exactly like their real life counterparts right down to the different paint jobs you can collect around the two cities. The only complaints here are occasional jaggies.

STORY: 7/10
The story is just an excuse to carry out different tasks in single-player. You work for both the Paris Police and Washington Police depending on the city, as an undercover agent. In Paris, you are tasked with protecting a famous German race car driver visiting Paris. Strangely enough you must pick up and drop off passengers in a taxi, and chauffeur a rich lady around, as fast as you can. In D.C. you are working to investigate two movie directors filming in the city. You do the same old stuff there as well. Not much else to say.

SOUND: 10/10
The characters in the single-player mode are hysterical with their cheesy French accents. There are many funny one-liners to brighten your day and the tasks, you are assigned, add a comical feeling to the game. Even better than the cheesy voicing is the sounds of the city. Ambient sounds include pedestrian comments as you make them dive out of your way and the traffic around you. When you hit poles, signs, etc...they make the sound you would expect them to make, especially that glass, shop window you just smashed through. No complaints here, besides the fact that some people may hate the cheesy voicing.

CONTROLS: 9/10
The controls are modeled off of nearly every other XBox racing game, with the right trigger for the accelerator and left for brake. You may use manual or automatic transmissions, in which case you use the B and X buttons. Pretty standard stuff. The only complaint here is that IMO, it would have been much better to use A for the accelerator, or any button for that matter instead of the trigger, as I found my fingers hurting after an 1 hour of playing.

REPLAYABILITY: 10/10
I think you understand why I gave this a 10. On top of unlocking new cars, finding paint cans and system link there is XBox Live play with the different modes. You don't need me to explain why this adds infinite replayability.

RENT OR BUY: I would definitely say buy unless you either absolutely hate racing games or want something that is dark and packed with suped-up sports cars, in which case you should go with Midnight Club II.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/03, Updated 06/22/03