Midtown Madness 2

Moby ID: 2460
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Description official description

In Midtown Madness 2, players get to race a greater variety of vehicles than in the original Midtown Madness. New vehicles include: a Mini, a Panoz roadster, a Ford pickup and a Greyhound bus. Gameplay is essentially the same, being arcade oriented with simplified handling and physics, and pure action modes.

The roads, hazards and visual style of London and San Francisco are incorporated. A Crash Course Career mode allows players to take the role of a stunt actor or a taxi driver. The races are short and simple, but the player should expect tight turns and tighter time limits.

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Credits (Windows version)

75 People (56 developers, 19 thanks) · View all

Producer
Lead Designer
Director of Product Development
Business Support
Lead Programmer
Technical Director
Programmer
Tool Programmer
Audio Programmer
Vehicle/Pedestrian AI Programmer
Vehicle Dynamics
Lead Artist
Art Director
3D Artist - City
3D Artist - Vehicles
2D Artists
Animator
Sound Designer/Composer
City Layout
Game Analyst/Production Assistant
Tester
City Level Editor
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 42 ratings with 5 reviews)

Excellent game

The Good
You can pick from a large selection of cars built into the game, as well as downloading more cars from the internet. The Online multiplayer feature is very well done, as is the entire game.

The Bad
The damage levels are a bit off, taking a few 100- mph head-on collisions to total a car. Also there should be speed limit signs, and more AI and detail for the traffic vehicles.

The Bottom Line
A great game, worth buying, especially if you like freedom to drive anywhere in the city

Windows · by Jon Buder (8) · 2001

A good follow on, but maybe not quite as good as the original (then again, maybe it is).

The Good
New places to drive, new obstacles to overcome. Different cars, different races. Basically all that you would ask for after playing the first game. Force-feedback steering wheel support.

Having the choice of two different places is really nice. The bypass in San Francisco was better than Chicago's for all-out speed.

The graphics were maybe a little bit better than the original, but not a show-stopper. The sound is still good.

The Bad
The graphics suffer from some major glitches. Eventually I got accustomed to it, but I felt like an epilleptic having an attack. On a GeForce 2 Ultra, I expect better. I still haven't fixed the problems. The game also seemed to require a heftier machine. I wouldn't dare run this on my old 266 like I did the original.

Eventually, the selection of cars and "winning" the rights to new cars becomes annoying.

The Bottom Line
Overall, not bad at all. If you've got horsepower in your PC, grab this one. If not, you might want to consider the original (if you can find it).

Either game MUST be played with a force-feedback steering wheel. You physically can play without one, but it's like trying to eat ice cream without a cone.

Windows · by Cyric (50) · 2001

Great fun, but not as good as I expected.

The Good
As with the first Midtown Madness game, this is real hoot. Driver may be a better game in most ways, but it just can't touch this for pure driving enjoyment. If you've got a Sidewinder force-feedback wheel, then it just doesn't get any better than this.

As well as the collection of road races and time trials, there are a couple of mission based games to play. You can play either a London cabbie or a San Francisco stunt driver - a nice diversion, but nothing like the in-depth story of Driver.

Graphically, this game looks pretty good. The buildings and landmarks are not exceptional, but they do pass all but the most sternest examinations, and as with the first game, the cars you get to drive are accurate and well-drawn.

The Bad
Actually, quite a lot. Prepare yourself for a long moan.

1.) While the quality of graphics in this game look on a par with its predecessor, the game runs considerably slower. I can run Midtown 1 at 1600x1200 with all the options on and in runs like a dream. This game struggles at 640x480. Since the graphics don't look any different, I have to ask "Why?"

2.) The force-feedback feels a lot less convincing than before. There is a very fine line between "nothing's happening" and "I can't hold the bloody thing straight".

3.) The non-player cars (or mobile road-blocks) are really, really awful. They looked better in MM1 - these look too blocky and are mostly unrecognisable. The few cars you can identify, like the Range Rover, are painted lime green with a tan roof. Yuck! Get some taste, guys!

4.) And worse of all are the maps.....

When playing MM1, I always wondered, "Hey, I wonder how realistic this map is?". If their map of London is anything to go by than the answer will have to be "Not at all, matey." Let me explain...

I live and work in London, and I pass across the area in this game every day, so I know what I'm talking about. This map is hopelessly inaccurate. I looks like it was put together by a guy with an old roadmap, a few picture postcards and no sense of scale. I'm not asking for 100% accuracy. I just want to get a feel for driving round London, but other than a few randomly-placed landmarks and few red buses, there's absolutely nothing to say that this is London. I don't want to go into too many details, because I'd be here all day, and you'd get really bored. Suffice to say that not one road is right - the lengths, the widths, the bends - none of it. And the same goes for the landscape - Where's the Queen's back garden? Where are all the trees in Hyde Park? What happened to Picadilly Circus?

All I can really say is that even M25 Racer has a more accurate version of London.

The Bottom Line
I may have a small problem with the representation of London in this game, but that doesn't stop this game being a lot of fun to play. It's actually quite challenging in places, but not enough to really piss you off. Which is good, because what you really want to do is just drive around. Whether you want a gentle cruise around town, or a mad blast across the city, nothing can touch this.

Better than the first game? No. But a welcome addition.

Windows · by Steve Hall (329) · 2000

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Inaccuracies

Pacific Bell Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants Professional baseball team since March 2000, is not in this game, even though it claims to encompass all of San Francisco's landmarks.

Online servers

The game's online servers (which were hosted on MSN Gaming Zone) were shut down on 19 June 2006 in the wake of MSN Games' shift from "CD-ROM matchmaking service" to casual online games.

References

Look at the signs on the roofs of the cabs. They have "advertisements" for Motocross Madness and Monster Truck Madness, another game by the same company.

Information also contributed by Chris Martin

Analytics

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Steve Hall.

Additional contributors: Brolin Empey, Kasey Chang, James Isaac, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Victor Vance.

Game added November 8, 2000. Last modified March 20, 2024.