Midtown Madness 3 (Xbox)

By JON MINIFIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Some of you will remember Midtown Madness from a few years ago, but even then it felt like a console game that had somehow ended up on the PC.

For the series' first appearance on a console Microsoft recruited development whiz-kids Digital Illusions (DICE), who will already be well known to some of you as creators of the Xbox launch title RalliSport Challenge and EA's much-loved PC shooter Battlefield 1942.

True to form, they have done a bang-up job in preparing this former PC racer for the Xbox. Midtown Madness 3 retains all its original wit and charm but features a number of innovations, such as an objective-driven story mode and noticeably larger 3D environments.

Set in Washington DC and Paris, Midtown Madness 3 features around 30 vehicles, ranging from Minis and speedy sports cars to slow, unwieldy garbage trucks, buses and everything in between.

Both cities are huge and crowded with detail. You can interact with almost everything you see. This is most evident when you mount the footpath, bowling over parking meters, trees, newspaper stands, cafe tables but never pedestrians — this is no Grand Theft Auto.

Graphically, Midtown Madness 3 won't disappoint. Some of the most eye-catching effects are seen during the night-driving sequences (in changeable weather).

Each vehicle handles in an authentic manner and boasts accurate handling physics. Frequent crashes result in serious panel damage and sometimes total vehicular failure.

Work Undercover is the main single-player game. Here, players must prove themselves behind the wheel in a variety of vocations, starting out delivering pizzas, driving cabs and limousines and eventually moving on to bigger and better things (and cooler cars) as a cop or a private eye.

Other single-player challenges include racing against the clock, checkpoint races, or you can cruise around either city at your leisure. This sounds innocent enough, but generally ends with a car chase and your eventual arrest.

Single player is a hell of a lot of fun, but Midtown Madness 3 was designed more with multiplayer in mind and there is an array of choices to support that theory. Xbox Live features aside, players can use split screen or system link to challenge their friends.

Many of the single-player games will work this way, as well as mini-games like Capture the Gold (which is capture the flag, only you smash your car into your opponent's rather than shoot them), Tag and Stayaway.

Price: $119.95

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