Anyone have it yet?

FS

Anyone? Beuller? I'm picking this up today...

FS

Great... then you can tell us all how it is.

I spent a few brief moments looking at this at e3... looked cool.

i think gameinformer gave it a 5.25. um, not too good... YMMV

THat's the only bad review I've seen so far. People who have the game on other boards are calling that review nuts.

FS

www.gamerankings.com Learn it, use it, love it. Looks like pretty good reviews so far.

another quality racing title for xbox. seriously, Xbox has the best racing games of any console by far (with the one exception of GT3 for PS2).

But that don't mean jack unless xbox has a good steering wheel. I really wish logitech would make an xbox-compatible wheel. or microsoft could take one of their wheels for PC and make it compatible for xbox.

I am very interested in this game, I enjoyed the first 2 on the PC and this looks really good as well.... I wouldn't put too much faith on Game Informer, they seem to hate every game I love, heh.

ah, it's up. overall, it seems like a decent game.

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you'd think microsoft could make a steering wheel like their sidewinders for the pc. how difficult could that be? USB, right?

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i agree about the gameinformer mag. if it hadn't been practically free, i'd have never gotten the subscription.

I got it yesterday and played a little last night. I have enjoyed it so far. There are only 2 cities but the maps are huge. So far I have just done the first few mission delivering pizzas and getting rental cars to places quickly. It can be pretty challenging if you don't know the maps well. One wrong turn and you may lose the race. The races are open like MC2 where you can do checkpoints in different orders if you wish.

The graphics look great and the pedestrians are quite funny. I have never seen so many people carrying packages on a street in my life! Unfortunately...try as you may, you can't run over them like in Midnight Club 2. They do say some pretty funny things though.

The cars seems to handle a lot like what you would expect. The garbage truck is slow, lumbering, and can knock anything over. The VW Bug is quicker but moves like a VW Bug. I look forward to unlocking all the cars. There is a pretty large variety from buses to hot-rods.

I really like the cruise mode. The cruise mode was a favorite of mine on Driver & Driver 2. You can set the weather, time of day, how many cops (up to 5 although it seems they are everywhere) & both pedestrian and car traffic. I just love cruising around demolishing things and then have the cops chase me. I just wish some of these driving games would incorporate the car-jacking option like Driver 2 had. Nothing like wrecking the hell out of your car and then car-jacking a shiny nice new one which the cops aren't looking for.

I played split-screen with a friend and it seemed the graphics suffered quite a bit on that mode. There was no car traffic at all on split-screen mode either which sucks.

Finally I got online for about an hour and played it on LIVE. I had a lot of fun. There are a good variety of games to play besides just racing a circuit. I had a lot of fun with "Tag" and "Hunter." This will definitely keep me busy.

MM3 also lets you use any car on LIVE. I got on MC2 the other day and people were all bitching or laughing about how few of cars I had unlocked or how slow my cars were. I won't be going on LIVE on MC2 for quite awhile.

One guy I was playing with on MM3 lives in D.C. and commented how stunning the details of the maps are. He found his address and house! (or so he claims )

Anyway, I am definitely glad I bought it and look forward to playing on it quite a bit. Now that I have NFS2, MC2, Burnout2, and MM3, I am in arcade racer heaven. If I only had the time to play all of them.

I don't really need another racing game after Burnout 2... but being so close to DC makes me want to buy it just to check out how accurate it is.

OK my comments...

Ignore the GI review...they don't even make one comment about online play, which is the appeal of the game.


THe online games are fun...although if allowed to, everyone picks the fastest car. I prefer a game where everyone is forced to have the same car...

Graphics are good, nothing amazing, but the games are fun enough to make up for it. Handling of the cars is great...

I give it a 'must buy'!

FS

I'm quite familiar with DC and I must say the map is EXTREMELY accurate. Quite amazing, actually...

Looks like so good reviews so far. I think I am going to pick this one up. It sounds alot like Crazy Taxi.

Picking it up tomorrow, cant wait to get it on LIVE

I had the recent Crazy Taxi (#3 I think it was) and it is a lot better than that. So if you liked that Crazy Taxi, I think you would enjoy MM3 even more.

I am so glad tha they let youuse any car on-line because I can't get past the 2nd Pizza mission in DC!!!! (and I frickin' LIVE in DC!!!)

The DC maps is VERY accurate but there aren't that many residential areas on it so I don't know where that guy lives. I can drive to about 3 miles outside of where I live on that map.

Anyways, Hunter is great and the On-Line play adds soooo much replayability! This is my first time playing on-line and it has been great so far. Only drawback is when people ask "What's your age and theyare all in their teens and you are 35! (bit I still kick their a$$!)

Sam (Royal Icing)

Sam, I am 30 and an "old man" on LIVE as well. Look for me online and I will send you a friend request (though I will be on a cruise on vacation all next week).

OK I have a stupid question for this game.

Do the cars suffer real damage like Burnout2?

They definitely suffer damage. I smashed one up so much the other day that it would only go up to 40mph. I finally smashed it completely...then suddenly...nice shiny brand new vehicle. Gotta love modern technology.

Also when I was playing "Tag" online, I actually damaged myself out of the game. So be careful when you are speeding thru and hitting buildings. I did not know it would do that at the time.

MM3 is great online.
I love the way you change roles in Hunter. One second everyone is running from the cops, and the next you're all cops trying to chase down the last guy. I never get over the complete 180 in thinking it causes.

Stay Away is another get mode. It reminds me of the old schoolyard game 'Smear the Queer' (back then, such names were more acceptable). There's a huge pileup and suddenly one guy breaks free and everyone is on his tail.

Capture the gold is like CTF but it just doesn't work too well. I can't explain way, it just feels off.

Checkpoint is old school arcade racing, gotta love it.

D

Hopefully I can try MM3 on Live tonight, and if that doesn't satisfy me, I'll probably end up selling the game. I feel like driving skill doesn't come into play near as much as memorizing the maps in single player, which I don't like... I'd rather be able to out-drive someone instead of out-memorize them.

I'm with you. In fact, that was one of my main problems with MC2. I can't say that I get that same feeling with MM3...

hey, i'm just wondering, can guests play on live?

The maps are okay. Very accurate at some parts, like being able to go to DuPont Cir if you're on the right going SE bound on Mass Ave. or stay on the left lane to go under the DuPont Circle, the facades of stores/shops on M St. in Georgetown, and the Kennedy Center overhang on Rockcreek Pkwy.

But before you hit the Kennedy Center, the Watergate Hotel is on your right and the hotel doesn't have its characteristic cylindrical shape but is angular (trying to save on rendering, here?).

Worst of all, when you're driving W on Penn. Ave, right in front of the White House, you should be able to continue on Penn which angles off in the NW direction when you hit 17th, but there is no Penn Ave, so you don't have the nice looking World Bank to look at. But if you make a left turn onto 17th, the Old Executive Building facade on your left (white and grey) looks pretty authentic, though. As you make a right on F St., you'll be hitting Foggy Bottom, and this part is not as commercial as you pass 20th. In fact, all the buildings on F past 20th (heading W) are very residential looking (GW offices in town-house looking homes on the right and apartments and town-house-ish looking homes on the left). In fact, all of Foggy Bottom looks commercial, which it isn't....

Oh yeah, when you head E on Constitution, from 20th, the left lane next to the double yellow are accurately shown to be left turn only at intersections. But you can't keep on heading straight from these left-turn only lanes b/c you'll end up getting into the left-turn only lanes heading in the opposite direction. But in the game, you can. In other words, there should be 3 lanes eastbound right before an intersection and right after, there should be 2 eastbound lanes.....

Overall, not bad. I could almost say that it's good, but for the omission of the Pennsylvania Ave west of the White House.....

[appended 8/2/03]
correction: I think that the Watergate is correctly shown to have round facade, and the hotel does appear to have an angular facade on the Potomac River side....but then again, who cares as long as you're having fun?