I just wanted to throw out a little blurb about how much fun I have had in
the last couple nights playing Midtown Madness Multiplayer both in the MSN Zone
and also IP to IP.
I don't really have much experience racing real sims online agaist other
people for an assortment of reasons, the only thing I have done much of was
Monster Truck Madness at the Zone, and I get into the 'King of the Hill' style
rumbles there. I know how juvenile and silly it is, but spare me the criticism,
please. Everyone has to like something and this isn't exactly what I would have
expected to enjoy, but I do.
Anyway, with Midtown Madness, I have been playing a 'Cops and Robbers' kind
of thing. In the Zone, you are limited to 4 players (not so IP to IP).
Basically, two people are cops and two people are robbers. You can choose your
car to some extent. A few of the cars are locked out, and I think you have to
be a Mustang GT police cruiser if you are a cop. No info on the allcars cheat
working or not.
There is a little map of the city in the lower right corner of the screen
and a floating directional arrow at the top of the screen. Gold appears
somewhere in the city and a little dollar sign shows up on the map at its
location. The arrow also sort of points in the general direction. Everyone
speeds off to try and grab the gold (Which has specifiable variable weight to
affect handling differently). The Chicagoan announcer notifies you when either
a robber or a cop has the gold.
You then race to your goal, the robbers have a hideout and the cops try to
return it to the bank. Both of these are just banners over the road and are
marked on the map with a skull or a little bank building. As soon as that
'round' is complete, another stash of gold appears somewhere else on the map.
The gold is a floating yellow bar with brackets around it. When you are holding
it, a $ sign appears to float over your car and you become the $ on the map.
Similar to this is a free-for-all, where everyone is against everyone to
grab the gold and race towards a common goal. 8 player multi IP -> IP is pretty
chaotic with everyone trying to grab the gold and race to the goals. You can
slam in to the other cars or run them off the road, etc, and they will drop the
gold and you can grab it. There is a running tally for each player and a chat
area superimposed on the left side of the screen. It is also possible to align
yourself with others in teams (red and blue) and the game keeps an individual
total as well as a team total. The strategy of blocking for your teammate or
grabbing the gold if they get slammed is an added fun element.
The action is absolutely non-stop with people racing through the streets of
Chicago. There is no traffic in the times I have done it, but there are
pedestrians. It may be that you can specify traffic if you are hosting. I
havent hosted a game, so I don't know for certain. One good thing..those pesky
cops are nowhere to be seen, except the other players playing as cops. I logged
on and joined a free for all last night, 2 1/2 hours later I looked at the clock
and realized I had been sweating and driving as hard as I could for that whole
time! No wonder I am sore today! Funny thing is..I can't wait to do it again.
There are also circuit races available for multiplayer, but I havent tried
them yet, so I can't report.
So, if you aren't too obsessed with *** sim racing and can afford to
kick back with some intense competitive fun (I use the Panoz AIV roadster,
breaks easily but runs great) I can recommend this experience to you. On the
technical side, I have a 33,6 dialup and experienced very little warping. The
game runs great on my P2/450 oc to 504, 256MEG, V3/3000, MSFF, SBLive! (4
speaker surround w/sub blasting) and ViewSonic G810 21" monitor. Yee haw!
Back to Chicago..
~daxe
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