Midtown Madness

The Good
If you have a force-feedback steering wheel, this game is an absolute blast!

The ability to drive wherever you want. Sprawling pedestrians trying to get away from my driving. Smacking into other cars as you race through soldier field or a shopping mall. Flipping over police cars as they try to spin you out or chase you down.

Technically the game has "good" graphics, but see below for more on this topic.

The sound is really good, and the music can really put you in a mood. You can also play your own CDs (try popping in Rage Against the Machine or Nine Inch Nails while playing) just like a real car. It's a nice feature that is totally appropriate.

The challenges and races are really good at the beginning. They don't require a professional race driver, yet they aren't so easy they're boring.

There's actually some places you can interact with by driving on or through.

The Bad
Rule number one: Don't attempt this without a steering wheel. It adds a whole other dimension to the game. You can play the game without a steering wheel, but you just won't get the right amount of control over the car, and you'll wonder why it's so difficult to steer.

The graphics had some problems. Glitches and skipped frames are the norm on slower PCs, and even sometimes on faster PCs.

The later races get really tough, and the rewards you get for completing them is sometimes an after-thought.

How long can you drive around Chicago before things get a little old?

The Bottom Line
This is a blast of a game, and if you can find it at a discount, go all out for it. It's not worth $40 (the original price) because there isn't a lot of replay value, but it's always fun to sit someone down at a steering wheel for the first time and watch them struggle to go straight, let alone avoid other cars.

If you have a force-feedback steering wheel, and can't find Midtown Madness 2, this will wet your whistle until you can find it.

The Good
I like that this game is rather fun just driver around in Chicago, a well-detailed Chicago, in a matter of fact.

It is fun racing too, with it's 3 racing-modes.

The Bad
I don't like that it's impossible to do a burnout without the panoz GTR-1.

The Bottom Line
I would describe this game as a fun racing game, but it's rather boring that it's some kind of traction control and ABS in every car, except at the winter...

The Good
The idea about cruising and racing around town is very nice, as at the date of publishing there were not many games with city racing theme that allow freedom of movement. The challenges are quite difficult and you have to make a lot of tries before you can win all the races.

The graphics are nice and the game allows you to use higher resolutions, so it can look nice at the present time. The choice of cars cover different types from different periods. It is also possible to drive with a bus or a big truck, but these cars are unusable in races. You can just drive through city and nobody can stop you.

The Bad
The game is absolutely ruined by the cars physics. There are settings from arcade to realistic behavior of the cars, but the only thing changes is the grip of the tires. For example at most arcade settings, the car turns like hell but if you have a mustang, bus or truck and drive more than 20mph, your car will flip on its side in the first turn immediately. Most realistic settings means no turning at lower speeds - practically, when you skid and find your car not in the right race direction, the race is over, because you'll never get the car into the right direction. The turning ability is bounded somehow to speed (at faster speeds turning is better). I used a joystick, maybe it's better with a wheel.

And another thing I didn't like were the cops, when in pursuit - they fly around you like some turbo-fly and it looks very funny, but not realistic.

The Bottom Line
Midtown Madness is nice game ruined with poor execution. If you like a challenge - try it. If you want good racing game and fun - avoid it.