rec.autos.simulators

Again, I do enjoy the game very much.

However(and a BIG however), I truly don't think the game was play tested
enough because of the fact that there are certain things in the game
that are INCREDIBLY annoying, to the point where it really detracts from
the experience.

#1-The cops in this game, who pursue you during the circuit races are
divebombing-kamikazees. The developers should have made them more "human
like", able to be evaded, not willing to use his car every time like a
battering ram at 100mph. These guys are, in traffic or in groups, next
to impossible to get away from, especially when you HAVE to get past
them to get to the next flag.

Their AI is seek and destroy. Literally. They will fly past you
regardless of your speed, like you are standing still, and use their
cars like instant roadblocks. One would think that you could try to
swerve to avoid that roadblock, but the police car weaves back and
forth, like the damn thing is dogfighting with you. Not to mention the
fact that they defy all the laws of physics, laws that in the game make
you spin like a top when taking a corner too fast, they will cut it at
an almost 90 degree turn like its on rails.

 I think the game would be better served by easing the AI up a bit on
the Robocops. It should be, at least slightly possible that you can lose
them in a circuit race (or any other race for that matter) or at the
very least there should be a patch to not make their cars completely
indestructable.

#2-There is not enough here...to the game I mean. The gameplay options
are 1)cruise the city 2)Blitz race-drive solo as fast as you can through
a preset course though the city in a certain period of time-incredibly
annoying because the game gives you exactly enough time to get through
the course provided you know the streets and you dont hit so much as a
bug on your windshield-those who have played the game know what I am
talking about. This gameplay mode reminds me of the license tests in
Gran Tourismo. You have to go through them 10,000 times to get it
exactly right...I dont find it very entertaining 3)Checkpoint race-The
best mode in the game(IMHO) This is actually extremely fun up until
about track 6 where the designers of the game decided to add an unreal
amount of the aforementioned robocops. It gets to the point(level 5-6
and up) that, once you hear the siren you reset the level-you cannot
make it through the course without them slamming into you until your car
basically explodes.4)Circuit race-racetracks set in the city. They take
the best feature of the game, freedom of movement, and they put you on a
restrictive racetrack...its not too bad though.

There is no high speed cop chase through the city option, although with
the cops that are in the game I can guarantee it wouldn't be what I
would be hoping for. I would have liked this gameplay feature the most,
as the structure of the game SCREAMS for it, but only if the cops were a
bit less suicidal and again, if it was possible with a few deft driving
moves to ditch or outrun them.

3)The control even with the wheel is so-so. The wheel was initially
intolerable, but I took someones advice on this newsgroup and set it
within the game as a FF joystick instead of a wheel and it got MUCH
better.

Do not get me wrong, the game has glimmers of a classic. There was one
checkpoint race where you started off in the middle of the city and
ended up on the highway in the beginning of rush hour. Blasting through
the highway traffic at 140 was the best part of the game so far. There
are just not enough of these to outweigh the aggravation. At least not
yet.

For the sake of replayability, I hope they patch this game and tone down
the AI(for the police) and I could deal with everything else.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is not known for supporting the enduser of its
products and except for bug fixes, I doubt a game enhancement patch in
the cards.

I welcome all opinions in regards to the post... Feel free to tell me
I'm wrong, but take a minute to say why I'm wrong.

It isn't exactly what you are talking about, but you can specify the 'cop level'
in the cruise mode.  You could sort of map out a course in your own mind and try
to avoid the cops while getting there...

I agree the game is not perfect, but it is a lot of fun.  I do find myself
grinning and laughing, which is always a good thing.  The boundaries of the city
become apparent after a couple hours of play, though.  I sincerely hope they
offer some more cities, the fact that it announces "Chicago Edition" while
installing may point to that.

I am enjoying some of the seemingly impossible blitz races, but I am finding a
couple of the circuits frustrating.  As someone else mentioned in another MMM
thread, the only car that seems to handle worth a damn is the New Beetle, but it
is SLOW.  I keep thinking the Panoz AIV would be able to take a corner without
understeering into the corner of a building or an EL support, but it doesn't
seem to want to.

Here is something noteworthy about it:  I always try to get my wife to sit down
and play whatever the latest driving game/sim is.  Sometimes (usually) she just
refuses, sometimes she tries halfheartedly and says 'very nice, dear' before
getting up and leaving.  With MMM, she immediately started having FUN, and
eventually yanked my MSFF wheel completely off the keyboard tray.  Later, in her
e***ment,  she pushed the pedals too far away and yanked the connector out of
the soundcard  (No screws on it)

This game is very cathartic for me.  I drive in traffic and on highways all day
for a living, and being able to wantonly drive around slow, stupid people into
oncoming traffic or on the sidewalk, or to simply shove them out of my way, is
VERY satisfying.  Worth the price of admission right there.

~daxe

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I thought so too, but I love the Mustangs now.  It was all about taking the
corners at the right speed without breaking friction (as it would be on a 90
degree
turn on asphalt).  Use the speed-brakes.  They are great!!!!

Joe

Once you get tired of the races (it didn't take long for me) then the only
thing left is cruise mode where you drive around the city smashing things
with your car.  Well, that wears thin rather quickly (although it was fun at
first).   Another thing is the limited extent of the city streets.  This is
an area that Microsoft really talked up.  After maybe two hours of driving,
I knew just about every inch of the city and, with the exception of several
of the major landmarks of Chicago, there was nothing in the city's
appearance to distinguish it from any other.  Most of the buildings are just
generic buildings -- don't expect to drive to some location and find
anything recognizable from the real world unless it is the Sear's Tower or
something like that.  And did you know that it takes all of a couple of
minutes tops to drive around the entire perimeter of the city as modelled?
I'll grant Microsoft that nobody's done anything quite like this before, at
least to my knowledge, but what they promised and what they delivered are
worlds apart.

Joe

If you drive the police cruiser, the other police won't chase you!!!!!

For my 2 cents as an arcade fan, I must say that Midtown Madness is an awesome
idea that's really well executed, but falls down in replayability. I agree
with all the comments in the post, but it should be noted that, for an arcade
racer like me, MM is lightyears in the right direction next to the impossible
Carmageddon 1/2.

The immersive environment in MM could almost be a game by itself. It's just a
shame about the cops, and one other thing that I think should be mentioned.

A lot of the races start out with a couple of meatgrinder areas that cause you
to restart very early, because if you've got smoke in the first 20 seconds or
so your odds of finishing the race are slim. Hell I've had races where all of
the other cars are dead, and I'm limping to the finish, trying to obey the
traffic laws, and get killed by those random accidents you see sometime.

What I'm getting at is that in some of the races, cutting across avenues is
sometimes too tedius, because you could aviod the traffic if the AI wasn't so
agressive. But if just half of the AI players get through ahead of you, it
won't matter whether you make it or not. I think creating super dangerous
situations in a game where already half the AI players don't finish is
pointless. I wish they would have considered it since so many times I had to
restart after 30 seconds, making me hate the announcer more each time.

Sure it's dissapointing that there's no say Police mode where you
chase cars around or something, but MM will hopefully provide a good model for
some future game like this that will be much better.

And maybe with Driver coming out later on this Summer we may get that game
after all.

Sander

Then I bought MM - didn't even think she'd be interested in it.  She
comes in while I'm playing it, laughs her ass off as I slam into some
vans and get my ***whupped.  She takes the gamepad from me, starts
playing and having a blast.  After a while she looks at me and says -
driving with this gamepad sucks - can't we get a wheel or something?

Yes!  A wheel!  Never thought I could justify the cost before, but
now.. she wants one!  Whoopie!  So, the following week I order a wheel
from Outpost.com (free overnight shipping for a wheel - those guys are
nuts).  And she loves it.  So I buy Need For Speed 3, which she
loves... and we're racing.

I gotta give MM two thumbs up just for that.  And it's a hell of a lot
of fun.

Joel

M

Z.

There is a solution.  Get another computer.  I have anywhere from 3 to 6 on my
LAN at home at any given time.

:o)

daxe

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