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Midtown
Madness 3
Score: 8.0 / 10
It’s a given that driving games will
feature bigger and more realistic environments as time goes on and
computing hardware becomes more powerful. A step in that progression is
Midtown Madness 3 (MM3), which features two of the most complete
real-world cityscapes that I’ve ever driven.
Just because I had nothing better to do, I did a bit of research. I
examined maps of the areas that are replicated in MM3: Paris and
Washington, DC. The street layouts are very, very close to real world
conditions, including the major landmarks – and DC is full of them. Each
city also sports subway systems that can be explored. The attention to
detail is extremely good and it makes the driving experience all the
more “realistic”. However, even with the traffic setting pushed to
“heavy” the streets seem vacant, especially compared to the extreme
traffic of Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions.
Like Wreckless, MM3 has high production values for both audio and video,
although the voice-over work – especially the French accents – goes way,
way overboard.
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Instead of being comical, I found it
annoying. The action moves at a very smooth clip, whatever the time of
day or season. There are some strange clipping issues. Smashing into
anything inorganic usually results in a shower of sparks or broken
glass, but hitting organic matter such as trees or people results in…
nothing. You sail through them like they weren’t there (except for
specific trees).
The biggest downside to |
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MM3 is the unimaginative missions strung together by the barest of bare
stories. The majority of MM3 is spent driving through checkpoints
(delivering newspapers, pizza), racing against a few AI opponents, and
finishing first. The good thing is that the checkpoints can be
approached in any order, which makes a familiarity with each city
essential to score the best times. Some missions nod to the cab-driving
theme of Crazy Taxi, where you pick-up and drop off fares. The only
twist is that you have specific fares to pick up. But…
There’s no diplomatic way to say this, it never feels like you have
anything interesting to do across MM3's many missions. These are
wide-open cities why not offer an option in the vein of Tony Hawk’s Pro
Skater 4 where you can pick challenges? Challenges like, longest jump,
destroy your car quickly, get up to 80 mph on the freeway and don’t hit
any cars, longest skid mark, escape from the subway before it completely
floods, and so on. The included missions are fine, if somewhat
repetitive, but more could have been done beside the hidden paint jobs.
The upside is that the challenge is great. Not too hard or frustrating,
not too easy -- just the right balance.
The vehicle roster is extensive. From the hulking garbage truck to the
Mini-Cooper, you’ve got just about every flavor of vehicle you could ask
for. Predictably, they all handle differently. The garbage truck,
available right from the start, is my favorite even though it’s the
slowest vehicle available. The best part is heading down the wrong lane
of the freeway, knocking over oncoming traffic like dominoes. The
roadsters are fun too in the way you can whip around blind corners at
unsafe speeds. It doesn’t matter which vehicle you’ve chosen or have
been assigned for a mission, they’re all tank-like in the amount of
damage they can take. Even the eggshell-like cars can take obscene
amounts of head-on damage before showing dents (unlike Wreckless, which
modeled every bump). This sticks to the arcade-racing theme Midtown
Madness has cultivated over the last two outings. Don’t expect to find a
simulation buried in MM3, even with the accurately re-created cities.
Those connected to Live will find a satisfying online racing experience.
Capture the Gold, Tag, Hunter, and Stayaway can be played split-screen
and over Live and extends the replay value. Capture the Gold is along
the same lines of Capture the Flag. Hunter tasks you with hunting down
the other players and tagging them -- in turn those tagged players
become hunters. The last person who is Prey wins. Tag and Stayaway are
opposites from each other. Tag sticks to the mechanics that have always
made tag a playground favorite. Stayaway reverses the roles -- you want
to be It and stay away from everyone else. Hunter and Capture the Gold
should suck up most of your time.
Like feature film DVD’s, all games should ship with behind the scenes
extras. MM3 features a very funny short film about motion capture,
featuring an eccentric mo-cap artist. It’s a good extra for those that
are tired of the same old “Previews” of other games. It might bump up
the cost of the overall development, but I like it.
Overall, racing fans shouldn’t have any qualms about picking up Midtown
Madness 3. It’s not the best of the genre, but it does what it does in
an appealing way with lots of different cars and two accurately modeled
cities. The missions could have used some more imagination but MM3 still
manages to be fun.
- Omni
(June 29, 2003) |
