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
The graphics are beautifully slick, and they run so well. I can run this game at 1600x1280 res with no problems, whereas most driving games get run at 640 or 800 if I'm lucky.

You can tell this game was designed with the MS Sidewinder wheel in mind. It's absolutely perfect with the wheel. You get a gte sense of feel and control, with the ability to precisely place your car on the road - damn handy when you're tanking down the freeway at 120mph.

The racing games are fun, and they are enough of a challenge to make it worthwhile. The cruise mode is stunning, allowing you the freedom of the city. You can either play your own games in this mode, My favourite is Speed. Get the bus, start out on a loop of the city, and keep your speed above 50 - see how many laps you can do. It's amazing that stuff like this doesn't even get boring.

The Bad
The car handling is a little suspect. If you turn down the physics realism, the the Mustang becomes a real handful. Turn a corner too hard and you're on two wheels every time. Although the cars themselves can take damage, nothing else does, except cops.

And speaking of cops, when cruising around obeying the rules, they'll come at you for any minor infraction and try and destroy you (a bit like Driver). Break the speed limit by 1mph and they try and kill you? Hmmm....

The network game is a joke. The collision detection is atrocious, and the way the other cars jump around the track shows up some bad coding. The set races are OK, but there's no league so you have to keep starting new races. The other games are really lame - the cops and robbers games get really dull after you realise there's only a few places the 'gold' will appear.

The Bottom Line
As a network game it sucks, which is a pity because it could be really good. As a single player game, it is fun, but the races/leagues don't last that long. This game would have a lifespan of a few weeks, if it weren't for the fact that it is so wonderful to drive.

Here's hoping they fix all this for the up and coming Midtown Madness II.

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...