Midtown Madness 2 - PC Games

Building on the huge success of the original Midtown Madness title, Angel Studios, publishing under the Microsoft banner, are back with what promises to be the finest racing game to feature on the PC in a long time.

With an expanded range of cars, featuring some rather nifty European models, two cities (London and San Francisco) and improved car and street modelling, MM2 really looks the business and handles like a dream--especially when combined with a decent force-feedback steering wheel.

In addition to a handful of race modes, which encompass checkpoint-to-checkpoint action and pure flat-out speed racing, there are two new action modes for your dangerous driving enjoyment. The first, set in London, involves high-speed taxi navigation, the second (and most fun) is stunt training in Frisco--a discipline that involves huge and dangerous-looking car tricks including a rather excellent jump onto the back of a moving ferryboat. MM2 is a polished product which pushes realism aside in favour of quality gameplay. At 1024x768 my P400s frame updates were nice and smooth, pedestrians made impressive attempts to dive out of the way and the weather effects made for some interesting driving conditions.

It's difficult to say why the Midtown Madness series are so thoroughly engrossing, they just are! A combination of speed, two-way traffic and the varied races and missions, plus the opportunity to "drive" some quality hardware adds up to an experience that's rarely matched.James Gordon