Midtown 3 content plans

When we reviewed Midtown Madness 3 in July, the promise of downloadable content had the airwaves buzzing during games of Hunter. "I heard they were going to release a new city," chirped one liar. "It'll start soon though," we all agreed. How wrong we were.

In fact, it's been nearly four months (longer in the US of A) and it's only just starting - and the first content package is a bit disappointing. Four new cars are included in the first car pack - an American muscle car called the Trasher, a 40s luxury car called the Ambassador, a sports car dubbed the R4000 and a quirky motorised shopping trolley - all unlicensed, natch - and none was enough to keep us interested for more than five minutes.

Fortunately these four damp, shiny metallic squibs will be joined sometime in November by a couple of track packs and three more cars, which should go some way to restoring our sanity. Both track packs will include 20 (count 'em) tracks; 10 checkpoint, 10 blitz. The first pack will be for Washington DC and the second for Paris. In between those, we should also get our hands on three more cars - a two-door sports car called the Furious, a sports coupe dubbed Carica and a mystery vehicle called the LastKraftWagen.

Also snuck in there at some point will be a bug fix for the custom soundtrack bug, which occasionally repeated the first song over and over again.

If you still haven't played Midtown 3, then we'd encourage you to read or re-read our review and at least consider it - it really is a lot of fun. And if you're thinking of opting for a new Xbox this Christmas, then you'll be pleased to hear that Midtown 3 forms part of a money-saving bundle, complete with two months' free Live subscription - more than enough time to lap up all these extras.