Midtown Madness 2

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.