Midtown Madness 3

Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Developed by Digital Illusions C.E.
Platform: Xbox
Released - Out Now
Price : £39.99

After two very successful titles on the PC, it was always going to be highly likely that Microsoft would bring the Midtown Madness series to their debut console. In fact if you think about it the Midtown Madness series has the potential to work well on the Xbox. The Controller S is very good for driving games and with the series always boasting an excellent online element, it looks to be ready made for Xbox Live. Let's take a look at how the series has adapted to becoming a console game.

Like the PC versions of Midtown Madness the game is based around two cities. In Midtown Madness 3 the cities on offer are Paris and Washington DC. It was a wise decision to appoint Digital Illusions C.E. as the developers for Midtown Madness 3. They were responsible for Rallisport Challenge which is an excellent title and has proved to be a successful title. Midtown Madness retains the excellent control that Rallisport Challenge had. You use the right and left triggers for accelerating and braking. The left control stick is used to steer and the right analogue stick is use to change your view and you can temporarily increase the map size by pressing the stick down. The black button changes the camera and the white button knocks on the vehicle lights, which is recommended for night driving.

The single player game offers a choice of Cruise, Blitz and Checkpoint drives as well as a Work Undercover mode. Cruise mode is basically an unlimited drive around the city of your choice. You get to choose the traffic conditions, the season and whether or not you'd like the police chasing you (if you do you can set the density of the police coverage). To further spice up the Cruise mode you can also collect bonuses such as extra paint jobs for the vehicles. There are around 40 different Blitz and Checkpoint races for you to try and win and doing so will lead to the unlocking of extra vehicles (there are over 30 in total). Work Undercover mode is comprised of 14 different careers, 7 in each city. These careers, that range from the delivery guy to the private eye, have to be completed in order and involve high speed racing in one form or another.

Whilst you can have split-screen and system link races the Xbox Live experience is something else. We still don't have Xbox Live here at Deaf Gamers, however, I have been fortunate to experience Midtown Madness 3 on a friend's Xbox who has Xbox Live and all I can say is WOW! This has to be the ultimate use of the Xbox Live online gaming system so far. A collection of superb games have been included. Capture the gold is were you have to drive around collecting as much gold as possible. Stayaway is the 'reverse' of the game called tag with the idea being you have to be 'it' for as long as possible as being 'it' earns you points. Tag is the opposite of Stayaway in that you have to avoid being 'it'. If you're 'it' for too long you're eliminated. Hunter sees one player as the hunter and as he makes contact with the other cars they too become hunters and turn on the remaining drivers. All the games are very simple to set up and you can customise them too (team play is also possible in most games) to make them even better.

Graphically Midtown Madness looks good. Some of the textures look a little bland but all things considered it looks good. The framerate is generally good too. There are some occasions where slowdown occurs but these are not too common (usually when you're driving with the camera behind the car and the traffic is heavy) and do not spoil the gameplay. I thought it was a particularly nice touch that in Cruise mode you could set the weather and season of the city you are driving around in. If you want to see Paris in the winter it'll have snow on the floor and likewise Washington DC has that distinct late October look to it when you select Autumn (Fall). It's also great to be able to ride around famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in cruise mode too. What is strange though is whilst most trees and lamp posts can be driven straight through you occasionally come up against one that is solid which stops you dead in your tracks. It would have been better if they all had been the same.

Midtown Madness 3 is absolutely fine for deaf gamers. You can enable subtitles and although there are one or two omissions, like the introduction cutscenes to the Work Undercover mode, everything is subtitled so you're going to be able to fully enjoy the game, which is brilliant.

Midtown Madness 3 is a bit difficult to evaluate. The single player game is good and will keep you busy for a while but it's probably not something you'll keep coming back to and I would only give the single player game a 7/10. However if you have Xbox Live then the picture changes dramatically. The Xbox Live games are excellent and if I were to give a rating to the Xbox Live content it would receive a definite 10/10.

Overall Game Rating: 8.3/10
Midtown Madness finally breaks away from being confined to the PC and gives us a good single player game and a top notch Xbox Live title.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Mostly subtitled so you'll be able to enjoy the high speed mayhem of Midtown Madness 3.