Stroke of Midnight Club for PC and Xbox

Midnight Club II is set to appear on PlayStation 2 sometime in the spring, the follow-up to a perhaps underrated city racer which now pales in comparison to the likes of Grand Theft Auto. Still, publisher Rockstar has a lot of faith in developer Angel Studios and has green-lighted Xbox and PC ports of the as-yet unreleased game, expected to hit both platforms shortly after the PS2 version ships.

Midnight Club offered a decent level of street-based racing, and the follow-up will do very much the same. You join a line of competitors making up "the world's most notorious drivers" (of course) and meet for races in LA, Paris and Tokyo, driving high performance cars and bikes. It's "find the fastest route" stuff, which makes a nice change, and as there are no rules per se, it's an opportunity to go wild within the relative confines of a complete cityscape.

Naturally though, having endured State of Emergency in the direct aftermath of GTA3, we're acutely aware of anything Rockstar puts its name to directly after a DMA Design Rockstar North release. A bit cynical, perhaps? Maybe. But wait for the reviews this time, eh?