Rockstar, who created the incredible Grand Theft Auto series, has kicked out Midnight Club II just in time to go with 2 Fast 2 Furious. It's a car racing dream!

Rockstar obviously has a lot of experience with cars-driving-through-streets with the other games they have put out. You can see that in Midnight Club II. You can ride in Tokyo, Los Angeles or Paris, each done quite realistically. This isn't a "course" like other games where you stay on the path. You can pretty much go anywhere you want.

The races are great. You ride up to someone and flash your lights at them, saying you want to race. Off you go! Down side alleys, avoiding pedestrians and other cars, crashing into street lights and swerving to make that corner.

It's very much like The Fast and The Furious or 2 Fast 2 Furious, with its down and dirty race style. You can go anywhere you want and do anything. The different cars have different styles of handling, from acceleration to braking and cornering and more. If you learn how to best use your car's individual qualities, you can win.

On the down side, the graphics are not quite stellar and some of the in-game graphics (like arrows) are hard to decipher at times. So it's more of an arcade game in that sense, unlike the brilliant graphics you get from the Vice City series. Maybe with the next version they'll make a street racing game with Vice City style graphics. If they did, they'd have a game that was truly able to be played for years!!

Well recommended for any racing fan who enjoys a "street dirty" style of racing, with alleys and obstacles, rather than a controlled circles-round-a-track type of race.

Buy Midnight Club II from Amazon.com