Midtown Madness 3

For the racing series, see Midtown Madness (series)

Midtown Madness 3
File:Midtown Madness 3 Coverart.png
Developer(s)	Digital Illusions
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Andreas Roman
Platforms	Xbox
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

Midtown Madness 3 is an open world racing game, part of the Midtown Madness series. For the first time in the series, the game was released exclusively on the Xbox, with a Windows version rumoured for later release, but ultimately scrapped.

The game was developed by Digital Illusions (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). Coincidentally, Midtown Madness 3 was released in 2003 against Midnight Club II, 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.

Gameplay

Paris and Washington, D.C. are available as open world recreations in the game. They represent a smaller area than the real life cities, let alone larger than the locales in Midtown Madness and Midtown Madness 2.

Single player

In single player the player can freely roam, race, or complete objective-based missions. In "Cruise" (free roam) mode, the player can choose the amount of pedestrians and traffic, change the weather, the time of day and the season, and collect car-specific paint jobs, in a car selected by the user. In "Blitz" races, the player goes through all the given checkpoints in any order and races to the finish line before time runs out. In Checkpoint Races, the player goes through the checkpoints in any order and gets to the finish line before his opponents. In the "Work Undercover" mission mode, in Paris, the player works as a delivery guy, taxi driver, chauffeur, security guard, ambulance driver, police officer, special agent, whilst in Washington D.C. the player works as a pizza deliverer, rental car driver, limo driver, car salesman, stunt driver, police officer and private eye, completing objectives.

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 the player must take it to a hideout. Other players will attempt to steal the gold.
Checkpoint	Race against others on pre-defined tracks around the city.
Cruise	Freeroam around a city with others.
Hunter	One player starts off as the Hunter and everyone else in the game is Prey. As the Hunter captures 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.
Tag	Players chase each other and try to bump each other's cars.

Backwards compatibility

Midtown Madness 3 is not currently backwards compatible on the Xbox 360.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 80.24% Metacritic 76/100 Review scores Publication Score EGM 7.33/10 Eurogamer 9/10 Game Informer 5.25/10 GamePro Game Revolution B GameSpot 8/10 GameSpy GameZone 8.2/10 IGN 8.7/10 OXM 8.9/10 Entertainment Weekly D

The game was met with positive reception, although slightly less than the first two games. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 80.24% and 76 out of 100.

External links

• Midtown Madness 3 at MobyGames
• MM3 Mockumentary Video