How's she look?

Remodeling an old car

The graphics of the original Midtown Madness were gorgeous, not of the utmost realism by any means, but very enjoyable to watch and wreck. The cars look great. Great? No, great is an understatement; they look amazing. The paintjobs are radiant. The metallic hues carry light, and the cars twitch and flinch around every turn without ever losing their incredible appeal.

Chicago is a gorgeous city, but it is riddled with flatlands. This is partially the reason that the developers chose Chicago as the setting for the original Midtown Madness, as it had few hills, and didn't put too much strain on the system. There have been advances in both software and hardware since the original Midtown came out, and we are now privy to a new and improved experience. The City By the Bay, the home of Golden Gate, the place where Tony Bennett lost his heart (and should have died a grisly death): San Francisco.

The thrill of victory.

And this is only the first level of training to be a cabby.

Authentic!

As a pseudo-resident of San Francisco I can say that the virtual equivalent in Midtown 2 is incredibly detailed. Every landmark you could think of is there, every single one; from Golden Gate to the phallus-like Coit Tower.

London is equally detailed. You'll find yourself bumming about the two cities as though you were a lost tourist, albeit a tourist with a screaming engine and six cops on his tail.

Damn Yankees

But I want it!

The two cities are very open, in any given race you can opt to say to "To heck with winning!" and drive off into the sunset. You won't win, but you will enjoy yourself. Will the game get screwy and lose personality if you do this? Will it be a scene out of the 13th Floor where you come across random structure lines? No, both London and San Francisco are teeming with life, even if you end up getting miles from the race zone you'll be getting accosted by traffic, and there will still be cops cars about to chase you.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous, and surprisingly, it doesn't put too much strain on your video card. Your frames will consistently stay through the roof, partly due to a few tricks here and there. Foremost amongst these tricks is an incredible one; (similar to the Kyro and Gigapixel hardware rendering schemes) the only polygons rendered are those which only the viewer can see.

You thought we were kidding about this game making you a bad driver.

Another one way street? This is an authentic San Francisco.

Another trick, though a much more base one, which needs mention is a lack of detail in certain areas. In real life, the ambient traffic of the two cities can be very dense, as San Francisco and London are epicenters of the world. To prevent this from making your graphics card implode, the developers have made the amount of detail on the ambient traffic is ridiculously slim. It can leave a sour taste in your mouth when you ram your bumper down in the midst of a Bootlegger and you can count the number of polygons you're able to see on one hand.