Midtown Madness 3
Xbox, £39.99 Microsoft, ***
Although it lacks the style of the Grand Theft Auto series, Midtown Madness 3 is a solid urban driving game. Getting behind the wheel of one of the 30 cars on offer, your aim is to race around, doing chores as an undercover policeman.
These normally involve basic delivery tasks or catching up with the criminal fraternity. And while these missions are relatively simplistic, the handling of the cars makes the game fun enough to play for a while.
Unfortunately, a lack of variety makes the single-player option redundant too quickly. But the multiplayer mode drags Midtown Madness 3 into three-star territory. There are plenty of choices that make this a great party game, although it is when going online with Xbox Live that the real fun is to be had. A simple interface makes it easy to find fellow players, and the unsophisticated nature of the racing is well suited to battling human opponents.
By focusing on only two cities - Paris and Washington DC - Midtown Madness 3 has gone down the realism route. While nowhere near the scale of The Getaway's London, both Paris and DC are full of authentically recognisable locations. So if you ever wanted to take a wrong turn around the Champs Elysées or do a handbreak turn outside the White House, then MM3 is for you.
Graphically, this is an above average Xbox game. The cars and cities have a crisp look, although the pedestrians are less impressive. If as much thought had been put into the single-player game as the multiplayer, then MM3 would have been a potential hardware shifter, rather than the solid city racing game it is.
Greg Howson
American Conquest: Fight Back
PC, £29.99 GSC/CDV, ***
GSC has a particular way of doing realtime strategy, and the word is epic. We're talking big orchestral scores, micromanagement down to the gold running out in the middle of battle, and armies of 16,000 units per side. It's not to everyone's taste. So why does this stand-alone mission pack for American Conquest work so much better than the original?
Fight Back covers the period 1517-1804 and adds 26 levels and five nations to the dozens we already had (which are included in the price). It makes no attempt to reduce micromanagement, which still goes through so many levels as to be a burden. Combine this with enormous maps that are constantly hidden by the fog of war, and multiplayer support for up to seven people, and you have an interface that always struggles to keep up with the gameplay.
Yet despite this, Fight Back succeeds because of level design. The new missions have much clearer objectives and far more freedom. There is also a new battlefield mode featuring 10 more levels played out in minute scale with identical forces - a nod to the Total War games, perhaps, but adding even more value to a game that will undoubtedly receive further support online.
The biggest problem is price - not bad for one-and-a-half games, but still a tenner too much for those left cold by the original, especially when the publisher's website has given away whole campaigns free. The Cossacks formula worked fine in the 17th century, but isn't this the 21st?
Mike Anderiesz
Pro Beach Soccer
Xbox, PS2, PC, £39.99 Wanadoo, ***
Perhaps it was the success of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that sent minor publishers scurrying around trying to sniff out obscure sports to turn into games. French outfit Wanadoo hit upon beach soccer, which is growing in popularity on the continent.
In real life, beach soccer is a moderately diverting spectacle - five tanned, chunkier-than-average players on each side run barefoot around a sand pitch, producing the odd flash of skill and rasping shots propelled by oversized thighs and backsides.
This style of play has been faithfully transported to the virtual world. The players are somewhat ponderous but, cutely, you can flip the ball up with one button-press, teeing it up for a shot, and each player has a skill move. There are power-ups, which seem somewhat unnecessary, the cut-scenes between quarters are awfully cheesy and the artificial intelligence is not credible, but Pro Beach Soccer is fairly enjoyable to play.
Naturally, with only five players per side, it seems laughably simple and lacking in subtlety when compared with full-blown football games such as Pro Evolution Soccer (whose latest incarnation will arrive soon), but despite the round ball, it is really a different kind of game. Those who seek instant entertainment that can be consumed in bite-size chunks will appreciate it; others may find it too basic.
Steve Boxer
