Super Street Game Reviews
| Genre: Racing |
| Console: Playstation 2 |
| Publisher: Rockstar Games |
| Hot: New "railbranching" technology and photo-realistic cities |
| Not: We don't have a copy of the game yet |
To be honest, when we first heard that Midnight Club was going to get a sequel game we were interested, but not that excited. We liked the first Midnight Club, but it came out around the same time as Driver, and we have to admit that Driver had our attention. But not too long ago, we received some press material on Midnight Club 2 and couldn't help but sit up and take notice. Rockstar seriously re-designed and re-tooled the whole game adding a lot of new technology to vastly improve the game on every level. There are several new things to look forward to when this game hits the shelves at the beginning of April.
A new nonlinear racing environment allows players to choose their own path through the cities in a new technology called "railbranching." This means that the game "understands" there are limitless routes through any of the cities, and it will react to make decisions (to win the race and beat you!) based on what is going on in the race at the time.
Game producers have added motorcycles into the mix, as well as more than 28 new tuned vehicles. Not only that, the physics of Midnight Club 2's vehicles will look and respond just like actual street racing machines. Plus, you can't have your car racing in anything less than a photo-realistic city can you? Three locations; Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo have been recreated in amazing detail--if you've seen The Getaway, you know how amazing Midnight Club 2 is going to look.
A few cool things the vehicles can do: burnouts, wheelies, 360 spin outs and even haul-ass on two wheels down an alley.
Since street racing is illegal--even on the Playstation 2--be prepared to have ruthless cops chase you, helicopters track you down and road blocks set up to take you out. It's going to be up to you and your driving skills to get you out of those situations.
In an effort to continue to push the online gaming platform, you can take your new monster machine online and race up to seven other drivers in one of five unique multi player games. How's that for fun?
Midnight Club 2 is out in just a couple of weeks, and if you're a fan of racing games, this game has got to be at the top of your list. We hope the makers of Driver 3 are paying attention.