The game's online support features a good number of options, but it's a little sparse in spots. Instead, you're limited to specific points. This is a nice addition, but it would have been nicer if you had been able to truly place your checkpoints anywhere on the map. These custom races can then be saved and taken online. The game also has a race editor mode that allows you to place your own checkpoints and configure your own races. The arcade mode lets you cruise aimlessly, race a number of laps on a variety of predetermined circuits, replay any of the checkpoint races you've completed in the career mode, and enter eight-player battle races, which let you play in either a standard sort of capture the flag game or a bomb-oriented variant called detonate, where players race to pick up a detonator and drive it to a scoring spot on the map to earn points. Thankfully, the rest of the game's modes are a little quieter, though you can only access cars, races, and cities that you've opened up in the career mode. The large cities are extremely cruise-worthy, and it's obvious that a lot of work went into putting the environments together, but you'll want to cruise in the game's arcade mode, as you're almost constantly harassed by annoying radio chatter when cruising around in the game's career mode.

You start out on the streets of Los Angeles, but you'll eventually move on to Paris and Tokyo. Once you've done so, you're thrown into one checkpoint race after another, challenging various hookmen and winning their cars as you defeat them. You then have to stay on their tail until you've proven yourself worthy. You challenge these racers by rolling up behind them and hitting your high beams. This adventure comes in the form of hookmen, who are racers that patrol certain sections of the city. At first, you're set loose in the city in search of adventure. Like the previous game, which was a PlayStation 2 launch title, Midnight Club II is about giving the player access to a gigantic citylike environment, complete with back alleys, monuments, and plenty of intricate shortcuts. Midnight Club II brings easy-to-learn arcade-style driving together with a competent eight-player online mode. And while the PC version of the game can be fun on the right setup, it shows its console roots a little more than it should.

The Midtown Madness series may have gone on to become an Xbox-only franchise, but the developer of the first two games in the series went on to create the similarly themed Midnight Club series, which is making its way to the PC for the first time with Midnight Club II. While most PC driving games tend favor realistic simulation over arcade-style racing, the PC was also the birthplace of the popular Midtown Madness series, which featured real cars racing wildly through the open streets of real cities.

Midnight club 2 pc