The framerate is smooth, managing no slowdown even with heavy roadside calamity and all eight racers on-screen. The cars are well detailed with plenty of gloss and sheen to the paint jobs. The sense of speed is readily apparent as you whip through the city streets smashing through poles, garbage cans, bus stop stalls, flower stands, pylons, barricades, traffic meters and so much more. Just grab them all before any of the CPU racers. Checkpoint racing is a series of AI races through several established checkpoints that can be hit in any order the driver chooses. Blitz is your basic time trial where you race against the clock. Cruise is your standard take-a-drive mode where you can leisurely tour the streets of each city to take in the lay of the land for the real races.

The single-player modes are truly old-school staples.

You’ll drive everything from Hummers and buses to several high-performance sporty little numbers, which then become available for the Cruise, Blitz and Checkpoint races against CPU drivers. You won’t find much ‘fresh and new’ in the all-too familiar checkpoint driven single-player Career mode known as “Work Undercover.” You choose from a list of thinly veiled checkpoint related jobs as a Driver. It might be a three-year old gaming experience, but it’s fresh and brand new for thousands of console gamers. Thankfully, Midtown Madness 3 is not much different. The no-nonsense online multiplayer really thrust the series into the upper echelon of fast-paced arcade style motor-rollin’. In truth, the first two lacked depth and innovation, though they made up for it by doling out plenty of mayhem, allowing you to careen through massive cityscapes with an untold level of interactivity. But while the original and its sequel were developed by Angel Studios (who later went on to bring us the Midnight Club games), the third iteration has been handled by developer DICE, the race heads who brought us the excellent Rallisport Challenge. It was a breath of fresh air, and ever since I have awaited each installment with starry eyes. The First Midtown Madness graced my dilapidated PC keyboard with its total disregard for human safety and pedestrian rights.

Midtown madness 4 free