I couldn't wait to buy Midtown Madness. I was looking for a driving
game that gives me the freedom and physics of Carmageddon but with
opponents that are focused on racing rather than crushing you to death
with their vehicle. I wanted to be able to perform the amazing reverse
180's and 90 degree power slide turns I did in Carmageddon (and
especially Carmageddon 2) in order to win the race Midtown Madness
seemed to offer this plus another desirable I hadn't thought of: driving
in a REAL American city with modelled traffic and everything. Midtown
Madness delivers the latter but falls a little behind in the physics and
stunt driving compared to Carmageddon.
The graphics are very good with reflections and pleasing textures. The
"civilian" cars are modelled much more simply to accomodate their sheer
number, but the opponent cars have as much detail as your own car. The
environent however seems a little washed out in the colors they chose;
Carmageddon2 seems so much more vibrant. There are neat attentions to
detail that I really enjoy; like the flying garbage when your car
smashing into a garbage can and drags it down the street, the doppler
effect as opponent cars drive by you honking, and civilian traffic
obeying traffic signals. It does seem wierd that smashing your car into
a light post will topple the post but a thin tree is a totally immoble
pole in the MM world.
You get the choice of 4 different play styles: cruise (great for just
driving around the city running red lights, honking obnoxiously at other
cars, and weaving at 120 mph down the highway), timed (race yourself
against the clock through check points), check point race (a race
against opponent in a live city, the path you take to the check points
is your choice alone), and track (where you race against opponents in
blocked off route through the city). All of them work pretty well, and
the computer AI is a good challenge. Too bad you can't change
difficulty levels of the computer opponents.
Multiplayer is fun even through a 33.6 modem on the internet. But as of
this post (May 1999) Microsoft *** Zone isn't ready for MM play on
it's server because of lack of a released "DirectPlay" update. Besides
the races, multiplayer will also allow you to play "cops and robbers"
where 2 or more teams race to find the "gold bar" and bring it to their
"home base". This game is fun.
There are 9 vehicles to drive, but most are locked until you win some of
the races. The vehicles range from VW bug to mustang to Ford truck to
city bus and more, allowing many different styles of driving, and they
handle accordingly. The cars have a strong (artificial) habit of
staying upright and besides the handbrake spin, the engine doesn't
really allow much stunt driving (Carmageddon2 wins here). The cars
sustain damage, but are not visibly crushable (like Carmageddon2). But
MM is a cleaned up Carmageddon for the sensors; you can't kill anyone.
Pedestrians are always able to jump out of the way and or hug a wall to
"avoid" being killed. There are also cops which try to maintain law and
order in the Windy city.
But what's great about driving in MM is the fact that you are in the
very real city of Chicago. Supposedly New York and San Francisco add
ons will be made available too. Although simplified (generic buildings,
no back alleys, only a few landmarks), the city is reasonably modelled
to scale. The bridges over the river are always up (totally
unrealistic) but it makes the game more fun with the necessary bridge
jumps.
Overall, this is a fun game and worth buying. It's still just a racing
game and the novelty of being the obnoxious driver in simulated America
that you can't be in real life will fade, but it's fun while it lasts.
It's the "cops and robbers" of multiplayer that will keep me coming.
Honking, cutting off, and crashing into people in real life means
trouble, but doing the same thing to the same people in Midtown Madness
is entertainment and laughs for all.
--
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Actually the bridges go up and down.
Joe
>The bridges over the river are always up (totally
They go up and down, though they do seem to be going up nearly every time you
approach them! I actually 'rode' on top of the brigde opening as it went up and
down the other day.
~daxe
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> >The bridges over the river are always up (totally
> > unrealistic) but it makes the game more fun with the necessary bridge
> > jumps
> They go up and down, though they do seem to be going up nearly every time you
> approach them! I actually 'rode' on top of the brigde opening as it went up and
> down the other day.
> ~daxe
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Whoops... you guys are right... actually I must have left out a word
because what I meant to say was that the "bridges are almost always up".
I must have omitted the almost.
--
- http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach
- Healing from Carpal Tunnel and other RSI's:
- http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach/rsi
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