Remember Bullitt? Midtown lets you play out your Steve McQueen fantasies - even if the setting's Chicago rather than San Francisco

The only thing insane about Midtown Madness is that nobody's thought of it before.
Matthew Pierce

Adding to the alliterative series that already boasts such Madnesses as Monster Truck and Motocross, Microsoft have chosen the slightly more esoteric 'Midtown' as the setting for their latest racer. A sort of ultra-realistic Carmageddon, Midtown's remit is to plunge you into a living, breathing city, populated by both ambling pedestrians and congested rush-hour traffic. It's a kind of contemporary Turbo Esprit, in which civvie road-users go about their day-to-day business, obeying the Highway Code and generally making the life of a law-breaking racer, (ie. you), problematic.

Eschewing the previous two titles' well-designed, but predominantly barren courses, Midtown thrusts you into the sprawling metropolis that is modern-day Chicago. The Windy City, like most American conurbations, is a convoluted affair. Granted it's based on a grid system - and as such doesn't feature the kind of tortuous tarmacadam and one-way systems that characterise the UK's inner city sprawls. Conversely though, the abundance of right-angles and pavement litter naturally gives rise to a surfeit of messy, high-speed handbrake turns.

In fact, simply cruising leisurely around Midtown's streets and back-alleys is a tough task. There might be a race on between yourself and six other vehicles, but try telling the Greyhounds, Cadillacs, vans and lorries. Picture London's West End on a Saturday afternoon, and you'll be some way to imagining the sheer volume of traffic going on.

Each race takes place in a different part of the city, and, aside from the obligatory checkpoints to pass through, how you reach the finish line really is your prerogative. There's never any set route to travel, and short-cuts (the feature which traditionally lends racing games their longevity), are legion.