Midtown Madness 3

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For the racing series, see Midtown Madness (series)

Midtown Madness 3

Developer(s)	Digital Illusions CE
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Release date(s)	17th June 2003
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Platform(s)	Xbox
Media	DVD-ROM

Midtown Madness 3 is a free roaming racing/arcade sequel, part of the Midtown Madness series. For the first time in the series, the game was released only on the Xbox, with a Windows version rumoured for later release, but ultimately scrapped.

The game was developed by Digital Illusions CE (of Battlefield 1942 fame) and published by Microsoft Game Studios. This marked a change from the developer of the first two games, Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego). Ironically, Midtown Madness 3 was released in Summer 2003 against Midnight Club 2, created by the developer of the first two games, Rockstar San Diego.

The Xbox only release, and change of developer, heralded a significant graphical improvement, to maintain the console's graphical standards. Although such a graphical improvement is inevitable as the graphical power available increases.

1 Available cities
2 Available vehicles
3 Multiplayer
4 Criticisms
5 External Links

[edit] Available cities

Paris and Washington DC are available as free roaming, yet dimensionally limited, city locales in the game. They represent a smaller area than the real life cities, yet are larger than the locales in Midtown Madness and Midtown Madness 2.

[edit] Available vehicles

There are a wide variety of over 30 famous vehicles to choose from, such as the Audi TT, and the Saab 9-3 Turbo. Each vehicle includes a number of unique paint jobs.

There are two completely undocumented vehicles you can earn in the game, called the Serpent MKII, and the ASP. The latter is derived from another racing game from DICE, Motorhead. One can earn them the same way one earn's paint jobs, but they are more difficult to achieve.

[edit] Multiplayer

The game supports Xbox Live for online multiplayer gaming, and a split-screen for offline multiplayer. Extra downloadable content is available via Xbox Live to expand the game's original premise.

The game supports the following online multiplayer modes:

Capture the Gold	Gold is stashed around the city and you have to grab it and take it to your hideout. Whether as a solo player or playing in teams, this mode is the most fun, with cars flying around, stealing the gold from the other guys and taking off down the street as everyone follows in hot pursuit.
Checkpoint	Race against others on pre-defined tracks around the city.
Cruise	Just cruise the city while chatting with others. Often ends up being a glitch hunt.
Hunter	One player starts off as the Hunter and everyone else in the game is Prey. As the Hunter nails Prey, they in turn become Hunters, and the last person who is Prey stands alone as the winner.
Stayaway	Whoever holds the rabbit for the longest time wins. Bust out some jukes in order to stayaway from the other players.
Tag	When the clock counts down to zero, you better not be It. Nail another player to make them It, and take off.

[edit] Criticisms

Many fans were disappointed by the game's console release, as no Windows version was produced, despite rumours that it was in production. The community's involvement in the game began to slowly decline.