Portal:Chicago/Selected article/74

Midtown Madness is a racing video game developed for the personal computer by Microsoft Game Studios and Angel Studios, and published by Microsoft in 1999. A downloadable demo was released on January 21, 2001. The game is set in vehicles on the streets of a recreated simulation of Chicago, with numerous game modes available. There is no storyline; the goal of the game is to obtain all the available cars and win all the races. As well as having multiple game modes to choose from, players can manipulate the weather and traffic of Chicago. Midtown Madness supports multiplayer gaming over a LAN or the Internet. Midtown Madness distinguished itself from other racing games by the amount of freedom given to players; where traditionally they would be restricted to a race track, Microsoft and Angel Studios added numerous shortcuts and bonus destinations to the Chicago they designed. The game was generally received positively and scored highly on aggregator review websites. The game was praised for its fun aspect and general gameplay, though some reviewers pointed out that the game's non-player graphics were poor.