Midtown Madness is horribly addicting. I've played a lot of driving games
including the NASCAR series from Sierra, considered to be one of the best
driving game series out there, but MM beats them all. In MM2, you can
drive in either San Francisco or London in anything from a Mini (old and
the 'new' version coming to market shortly) to a city bus. The London
Taxi is very good at the narrow streets of London, but pretty useless in
San Francisco. For the US city, you want good heavy iron such as a
Mustang, Cadillac, or full sized Ford duelly pickup. There are fast cars
including a Panoz roadster that gets up to speed very quickly, but you pay
for that speed in lack of mass and handling when you come to corners. The
graphics are superb with full cities being rendered. You can play on the
freeways, through downtown, and if creative, on the roofs of
buildings. Be careful of some of those tall hills in San Fran though- go
too fast off a couple of choice streets and you'll end up in the
Bay! Sleep with fishes!
A standard game lets you drive with other traffic and that can be kind of
challenging actually. Make a mistake and the police will be after
you. Pedestrians do the politically correct thing and move out of your
way, even while you're on the sidewalk or in a shopping mall. If an
accident happens, that intersection will be blocked for quite a while
requiring some creative 'detours' on your part to get around.
A network game is the best. It can be done on the Internet easily. My
favorite is Cops and Robbers where everyone drives around the city looking
for a bar of gold. You drive under it to 'get it'. Then you'll be
running like crazy to your home flags where you 'deliver' it. While
carrying it, your car will be carrying an extra 1/2 ton so that sportscar
will turn into a slug for speed and handling. The heavier vehicles don't
even notice the extra weight. Other players will come crashing into you
trying to make you drop the gold so they can steal it. Depending upon
your choice of vehicle and the city you are in, it can be quite a
challenge to make your getaway. Down back alleys, quick 180's, knocking
down utility poles to block your path behind you... it's great. The Mini
and the London Taxi both are great in London where narrow cars and narrow
streets really help. Speed demons like the Panoz are at a disadvantage
since they have all speed and can't maneuver in the tight
corridors. Skill is more important than horsepower.
And as a final tip: The Mini can *not* outrun a subway train!
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