Midtown Madness 3

It might not take as much effort to overcome or offer as much content as arcade stalwarts "Midnight Club" and "Burnout," but neither game has the same depth online, and only hot seating Burnout's crash sections with a few friends can rival the Hollywood playground DICE has built here for sheer fun.

What’s truly remarkable is that Digital Illusions has done a wonderful job retaining the essence of the previous Midtown Madness titles.

Lives up to its hype, but we can't help but think how much better it would have been with a better choice of cities. [Aug 2003, p.84]

If you own Xbox Live and like racing games, MM3 is a no-brainer. In fact, if you like racing games at all, this is a reason to get an Xbox and Xbox Live.

The multitude of gameplay options also makes this one of the most customizable racing/driving games available.

MM3 is a 100% arcade-style racer. The focus is on fun, and that's just what you get.

I enjoyed MM3 but it did start to become a little repetitive in the single player mode, although there are lots of challenges, tracks and cars to unlock at some point you seem to be racing just to unlock the next track or particular vehicle and not because of the race.

The one compliant that I have about the Xbox Live part really has nothing to do with the game as it handles the online play flawlessly, but rather the players who show up. I suppose it’s just the price you have to pay to be online, but do I really have to hear people that are just plain mean-spirited and vulgar every time I go online? Probably.

There is a nasty bug which ensures that you will hear the same song, over and over again, until you're ready to kill someone.

Nearly everything in your way can be smashed or bowled over, which becomes almost illegal fun when your bug is replaced by a city bus. [July 2003, p.79]

DICE has done a respectable job of transferring the Midtown Madness experience to the Xbox.

There are some clipping problems and some slightly unrealistic crashes, but otherwise the game does look good and the damage models are fun and entertaining.

Offline, the game is ordinary and without much originality to it. Online, though, it is another kettle of fish all together, and there are few games out there that can match it for thrills, chills, and spills. The variety of play is just incredible.

And as long as you follow good online etiquette and choose good people to play with, this is possibly the best example of how the Xbox Live experience should be... exactly how you want it to be.

Your own music, non-artificial intelligence and some of the most realistic recreations of real-life locations we've seen, and having it easily playable online through your television is a wonderful thing. We've been waiting for stuff like this for years.

Players looking for a terrific online racing game won't be disappointed.

The good thing with Midtown Madness 3 is that it doesn’t take itself at all seriously.

There’s no diplomatic way to say this, it never feels like you have anything interesting to do across MM3's many missions.

They simply traded realism for a little wreckless abandon. If that’s music to your ears, we can finish the paperwork in my office. If you’re driving solo though, you might want to lease before you buy.

The real stars of the game are the two cities, which are huge arenas ripe for careening around in.

A refreshing multiplayer showing overshadows the humdrum single-player game.

Although the single-player feels like a bit of an afterthought, the action-packed, entertaining and well-executed multiplayer is first-rate - and with the genre still so sparse, it's probably the best online racer you can buy on any console platform.

While the physics are far from perfect, it’s a combination of strong multiplayer gameplay and excellent graphics that make this a title worth getting, if only just so.

When put up against the likes of Midnight Club 2 it fails to impress because the single-player part of the game is just horrible.

An all-around solid game, there are a few significant potholes. Two immense cities - Paris and D.C. - are just not enough... More precision and distinction between the vehicles would have upped the replay value.