Midtown Madness 3 is hotter than hot in the community. Digital Illusions C.E. is taking the Midtown Madness franchise one step further. We sit down with Andreas Roman, lead designer for Midtown Madness 3 and asked him some questions. Would you like to know more about this highly anticipated title? Read on and find out what’s coming right at you in the first quarter of 2003.Monty: We’d like to thank you for taking time to talk with us about this highly anticipated title. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
AR: My name is Andreas Roman. I am the lead designer for MM3. |
Monty: Let’s kick off with a short question. How many people are working on MM3?
AR: Roughly 30, I would say. |
Monty: As in every Midtown game, the city will be realistic but modified to increase the gameplay. How do you make a huge city like Paris or
Washington DC realistic? How much time is spent on research?
AR: Research is done all the time, though the groundwork is very focused at the beginning of the process. We had parts of the art team fly to the different cities and photograph and film them. We constantly revisit this material to make an accurate image of Paris and Washington, while still being aware that gameplay and technical issues require compromises on some level. However, I think it’s safe to say that you can use your game as a tourist map quite accurately. If you found no other use for it, that is. 😉 |
Monty: Cars in MM3 will sustain visual damage; in what ways will this have effect on your car’s performance?
AR: In lots of ways. We’re going for a more general damage model. Midtown is not about building your car between races, it’s about crashing your way to the end. Crash hard, you’ll notice performance drops. Sometimes it’s the engine, sometimes it’s the springs. |
Monty: As in any racing game, artificial intelligence is an important factor to make a game feel realistic. What can we expect regarding the A.I. in MM3? Can players hold a true ‘legal cruise’, following the traffic rules and such.
AR: We have ambient traffic on a realistic level, as well as AI cars that behave mostly like you would – ignoring the boundaries and heading for the goal. AI in this game is a bit devious, it takes different routes and has different personalities. It’s possible to play a legal cruise game mode, you can follow the traffic rules and the cops won’t come after you. But I dare say that’s a trial of patience worthy of any Yoga master. 😉 |
Monty: MM3 will support multiplayer and online play. Will the popular ‘Cops n Robbers’ be included once again? Are there any new multiplayer modes?
AR: It will. We will have a bunch of new modes, and actually avoid the most conservative ones on purpose. You won’t be disappointed, though, the multiplayer modes are not cheap twists on already existing modes but new concepts designed for multiplayer alone. |
Monty: In the last couple of months, high resolution in-game screenshots have been published on the internet by Microsoft. However, a regular TV does not have such a high resolution as the in-game screenshots. Will players notice a big difference?
AR: I don’t think so. Midtown’s beauty lies mostly in the level of detail and the style that our art team is aiming for. It’s not a character intensive game in a visual context, and it’s not about close-up expressions. It’s about size and realism, and for that, you don’t need to see every pixel clear as crystal. |
Monty: So far we have only seen screenshots of Paris. What about Washington DC? Where is it?
AR: It’s in the north-eastern part of the U.S. The President lives there. 😉 It’s also in our game, and it’s substantially different from Paris. This affects gameplay, since races are adapted to fit each city’s theme. It’s coming along very nicely. You’ll see some shots from DC in the near future. |
Monty: Will both cities feature in-door areas, such as parking garages? Are these areas going to play a large role in player’s cruising behavior?
AR: They might. And if they, hypothetically speaking, are there, it’s up to the player to use them in creative ways. Leaping from the fourth floor of a parking house with a sports car, hitting the ground, pushing the pedal and speeding away from the confused police is great fun, though. Hypothetically speaking, of course. |
Monty: Can you tell us something about the “Story-mode” that will be making its way to MM3.
AR: You’re working undercover in Washington or Paris. Each city has its unique story and you don’t have to play them in any particular order. You move between different covers to unravel the plot in the city, and we promise a lot of drama! Kidnappers, Italian movie producers, German racing stars, old ladies, raging mad poodles� You’re going to work as a delivery driver, taxi driver, chauffeur, paramedic, security guard, secret agent, a stuntman a lots more to reach the climax of the story. We’ve got special characters walking around in the world for this purpose, characters that appear and reappear, AI competitors with personalities that haunt you like a nemesis. This is where the game starts to TALK. You’ve never really competed against an opponent in a racing game until you’ve tried this. You also have new themes here, car chases, surveillance missions and driving people around are all ideas new or evolved to this instalment of the series. |
Monty: Any chance a PC version will be released as well?
AR: If you bug MS about it real hard, who knows what they could come up with? Actually, there will be a PC version, although the release date has not yet been determined. |
Monty: Final question� In your opinion, what will really set MM3 apart from the previous two games?
AR: The story mode, the multiplayer modes and Live! In practice, that’s a LOT! You should consider previous Midtowns as starters, and this game as a huge main course with so much stuff in it, you won’t know where to begin. Best of all, though, you can eat until you�re completely satisfied. |
Monty: Thank you for your time and for answering our questions. We all look forward to the third sequel of Midtown Madness.
AR: Thank you. I hope the fans will enjoy this title, we’re doing our outmost to conserve what’s good with the previous ones as well as expanding on new stuff. This one’s for you. |
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