Midtown Madness 2

For the racing series, see Midtown Madness (series)
Midtown Madness 2
Developer(s) Angel Studios (Now Rockstar San Diego)
Publisher(s) Microsoft
Designer(s) Jay Panek
Programmer(s) Gabriel Valencia
Platform(s) Windows
Release date(s)
  • NA: September 22, 2000
  • EU: October 6, 2000
Genre(s) Racing
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer

Midtown Madness 2 is a free roam racing/arcade sequel to Midtown Madness, part of the Midtown Madness series, developed by Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) and published by Microsoft, which features a range of vehicles that can be driven around London and San Francisco.

Gameplay

Driving Freightliner Century in a race

The game features Blitz, Checkpoint, Circuit, and Cruise modes, which are all derived from the original Midtown Madness game. Winning Blitz, Checkpoint and Circuit races allows the player to access unlockables, and the Cruise mode lets the player roam freely around the two open world recreations of London and San Francisco.

A Crash Course can be completed in each of the cities. The Cab Driving School in London follows an extremist view of a London Cab driver, where a player must complete objectives in a London cab. The Stunt Driver course in San Francisco allows the player to gain experience in stunt driving for a Hollywood movie, using the Ford Mustang Fastback.

Players can change the visual appearance of the game before starting a race, such as the weather and time of day. Additionally, the frequency of how many cops spawn around the city can be modified, along with the amount of traffic and pedestrians. In Cruise Mode, this can change where the player starts off.

Every race or cruise begins with a commentator introducing the course. These commentators would also be heard at the end of a race saying something that depends on the player's position upon finishing. The commentators would be different for each race, and they are different for each of the two cities. The commentators can be turned off.

One of the game's most entertaining aspects is its humor; for example, the new age retro hippie in San Francisco singing out-off-tune variation of John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance. In most races and Cruise mode, people in cars and pedestrians can yell comments at players in different languages.

There are a wide variety of vehicles to choose from, such as the Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, Freightliner Century and the Mini Cooper. Each vehicle includes a number of unique paint jobs. The unlockable special paint jobs accessed by completing certain races or Crash Course challenges, which range from animal print designs, racing schemes, and a paint job that makes the Panoz GTR-1 transparent.

Midtown Madness 2 features an original soundtrack composed by Paul Lackley. During the final lap, or the last checkpoint of a race, the song will switch to a faster and sometimes a much more frantic version of the song. This also happens when the player is pursued by the police.

Multiplayer

Support for multiplayer gaming via IP address, serial cable, and analogue modem is built-in. Additionally, the game’s multiplayer menu includes a link to the MSN Gaming Zone, which offered Midtown Madness 2 lobbies until 19 June 2006. Similar online gaming sites still support multiplayer gaming and also through instant messenger clients. Multiplayer clients use Midtown Madness 2's built-in DirectPlay support to launch and manage multiplayer sessions.

Vehicles

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings79.03%[1]
Metacritic78/100[2]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[3]
Edge6/10[4]
Eurogamer9/10[5]
Game Informer8.25/10[6]
GamePro[7]
Game RevolutionB[8]
GameSpot8.1/10[9]
GameSpy86%[10]
IGN8.5/10[11]
PC Gamer (US)81%[12]

Midtown Madness 2 was met with positive reception, as GameRankings gave it a score of 79.03%,[1] while Metacritic gave it 78 out of 100.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Midtown Madness 2 for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Midtown Madness 2 for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ Couper, Chris. "Midtown Madness 2 - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  4. ↑ Edge staff (December 2000). "Midtown Madness 2". Edge (91).
  5. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (October 5, 2000). "Midtown Madness 2". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ Brogger, Kristian (December 2000). "Midtown Madness 2". Game Informer (92): 134.
  7. ↑ Wight, Brian (September 29, 2000). "Midtown Madness 2 Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 9, 2005. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ Sanders, Shawn (September 2000). "Midtown Madness Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  9. ↑ Poole, Stephen (September 25, 2000). "Midtown Madness 2 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ Accardo, Sal (November 2000). "Midtown Madness 2". GameSpy. Archived from the original on January 12, 2005. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ Lopez, Vincent (September 28, 2000). "Midtown Madness 2". IGN. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Midtown Madness 2". PC Gamer: 168. December 2000.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.