Midtown Madness 2

Midtown Madness 2 (sometimes abbreviated as MM2) is a free roam/racing sequel to Midtown Madness, which was released on September 22nd, 2000 in the US and October 6th, 2000 in Europe. It was developed by Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) and published by Microsoft. The game features a range of twenty vehicles which can be driven around San Francisco and London, as well as many others, thanks to a multitude of fan-made mods.

Gameplay
Midtown Madness 2 has six unique game modes, each with their own set of rules. Despite this, most races allow the player to modify aspects such as traffic and pedestrian levels, weather conditions, time of day and the likelihood of running into police vehicles (upon those features being unlocked after races are completed). There are two difficulty settings to choose from when creating a new profile: "Amateur" and "Professional."

Crash Course
''The Crash Course is the "career" or "story" mode of Midtown Madness 2. It consists of a series of "lessons" and "exams" to help you enter work as surreal forms of a taxi or stunt driver. Completing a group of three lessons will unlock a Midterm exam. Finishing that will unlock a new paint job for a vehicle, while completing all three will unlock the final exam. Finishing that successfully will unlock an entirely new vehicle.

Checkpoint
''Checkpoint is the main racing discipline in Midtown Madness 2, with 12 races in each city. It involves racing between "checkpoints" against opponents, placed throughout the city, which may be visited via any route, in any order, before a final checkpoint is revealed when the others have been passed. Completing each race will unlock a new one, while completing six will unlock a new car. Victory in all checkpoint events will unlock a special paint job for those cars.

Circuit
''Circuit is a racing discipline in Midtown Madness 2, with 10 races in each city. It involves racing around "circuits" marked out with red/white barriers, against opponents. Completing five races will unlock a new vehicle, while victory in all checkpoint events will unlock a special paint job for those vehicles.

Blitz
''Blitz is a racing discipline in Midtown Madness 2, with 10 races in each city. It involves racing between "checkpoints" against the clock, which may be visited via any route, in any order. Completing five races will unlock a new vehicle, while victory in all checkpoint events will unlock a special paint job for those vehicles.

Cruise
Cruise is Midtown Madness 2's "free roam" mode, which allows players to explore any city, in any car, in any way. Some players would consider this as the main attraction that the game offers, due to its open, endless nature.

Cops & Robbers
Cops & Robbers is the game's only multiplayer-exclusive game mode, which is similar to "capture-the-flag" game-modes seen in other games. In this mode, players must collect the "gold" and return it to their "hideout," aiming to collect more than the other team(s).

Vehicles
As with all driving games, vehicles have a big part to play, but Midtown Madness 2 is renowned for its unusual selection of 20 unique vehicles, which very dramatically between each other ten than Midtown Madness 1.
 * Mini Cooper Classic
 * Volkswagen New Beetle
 * London Cab
 * Cadillac Eldorado
 * Ford F-350
 * Ford Mustang GT
 * Ford Mustang Cruiser
 * Ford Mustang Fastback
 * Panoz Roadster
 * City Bus
 * Double-Decker Bus
 * Freightliner Century
 * New Mini Cooper
 * VW New Beetle Dune
 * VW New Beetle RSi
 * Light Tactical Vehicle
 * Audi TT
 * Aston Martin DB7 Vantage
 * Panoz GTR-1
 * American LaFrance Fire Truck

Cut Content

 * 1959 Cadillac Eldorado (originally cut from Midtown Madness 2, but available in MM2 Revisited)
 * Silver Eagle Fire Truck (originally cut from Midtown Madness 2, but available in MM2 Revisited)
 * Moon Rover (originally cut from Midtown Madness 2, but available in MM2 Revisited)
 * Monster Truck (originally cut from Midtown Madness 1, but available in MM2 Revisited)
 * Red Rocket (originally cut from Midtown Madness 1, but available in MM2 Revisited)

Cities
While the original Midtown Madness only allowed players to roam around Chicago, Midtown Madness 2 brings players to two different cities: the sun-kissed San Francisco and historic London.

San Francisco


The second-largest city in California, USA, San Francisco serves as the main location for Midtown Madness 2. The area depicted sits between the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges and includes multiple boroughs, such as Presidio and Russian Hill, as well as many landmarks, such as the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower.

London


As capital of both England and the United Kingdom, London is the second city to appear in Midtown Madness 2. The featured area sits between the Tower and Lamberth Bridges, which covers Westminster, Paddington, Kensington Lamberth, and The City, but still features many landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Announcer


The announcer returns for Midtown Madness 2 featuring multiple sportscasters rather than only one featured in Midtown Madness 1, few for London, few for San Francisco, and an advisor to guide the player through Crash Course sessions.

Of course, not all of them are used. See the the article for Midtown Madness 2's unused dialogue on The Cutting Room Floor for more information.

''The types of sportscasters are listed below. Click on their audio files to hear a sample.''

Mods
As one of the oldest free-roam racing games, while its fun and enjoyability hasn't aged, its graphics and hardware is nowhere near the current industry standard. As a result, MM2 has attracted a huge modding community, aiming to bring the game up to speed and port almost any vehicle imaginable into the game.

This is a list of mods related to Midtown Madness 2:


 * MM2 eXtreme
 * MM2 Revisited
 * Police and Traffic Mods
 * NOS Vehicles
 * Drive On Water Mod
 * London Mod 1
 * San Francisco Pro Dragracing Mod
 * Golden Gate Racepack
 * Breakable Traffic Cars Mod
 * Midtown Madness 2 HD
 * Most Wanted Ultimate SF Edition
 * Imperial London Racepack
 * New York City New Races Mod
 * HQTM Team
 * Classic Madness
 * Police and Traffic Mods
 * Traffic Mod/Traffic H2
 * Testzone
 * MM2 Riva
 * Riva's Traffic Mod
 * Police and Traffic Mods
 * Riva's SF Police Mod
 * MM2 Brasil
 * Shader Mod 2 Gold
 * MM Archive
 * San Francisco Race Mod
 * MM2 Revisited
 * Drive On Water Mod
 * San Francisco Pro Dragracing Mod
 * Unbreakable Cars
 * London Bus Lanes

Installing Mods
Although some mods have their own installers, many are simply provided as compressed files, which need to be extracted to be used in the game. Common file extensions are:


 * .zip - designed for Winzip (and is the only type of file the software can open)
 * .rar - designed for WinRAR (which can compress files to a much higher standard and is the most common file type used for MM2)
 * .7z - designed for 7zip (which is capable of opening all three of the above file types)

When you have opened the file, using the relevant software, extract the .ar file(s) inside (files which MM2 can recognize and use) to the Midtown Madness 2 directory.

Often, when multiple complex mods are used, Midtown Madness 2's "heap" may overload and cause game crashes, meaning you may need to remove some or several mods in order to continue play, but remember to never delete the file containing the car you were last driving, otherwise you may never be able to use that game-save again.

Trivia

 * If you look closely at this game's front cover, you can see this game's predecessor, Midtown Madness, being promoted on the front end of the cable car in San Francisco, alongside the Racing Madness pack, which contains the same Midtown Madness installment, plus Monster Truck Madness 2 and Motocross Madness.
 * The game was released in Japan with almost all commentary and text dubbed and translated in Japanese. This version is extremely rare. However, RacingFreak purchased a copy of this version online and showcased it on his YouTube channel. Additionally, a fan-made translation mod for the game exists, specifically an Italian translation made by SuperSecret that translates almost all text, which is available for download at Midtown Madness 2 eXtreme.

System Requirements
Minimum prerequisites and relating information:


 * The following is a set of minimum requirements to be able to play Midtown Madness 2.
 * Windows 95/98 with DirectX7.
 * Pentium-II 266Mhz CPU.
 * 32MB RAM.
 * 640x480 screen resolution.

Additional Notes
To enjoy better quality visuals you should run higher specs than the bare minimum with at least a 4MB dedicated video card. You should also apply any patches that you may require for optimal performance, for example the Intel810 patch which resolved problems users with Intel graphics chipsets were having. You should also ensure your product is up to date. There are also various additional third party patches which address issues with Windows XP, nVidia chipsets and users using wide screen resolutions. You should be aware that third party patches can also create issues in your game environment.