Game | | Crazy Taxi 3 | Format | | PC CD Rom | Publisher: | | Empire Interactive | Release date: | | Out now |
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Having played the original Dreamcast version of Crazy Taxi, I loaded the Crazy Taxi 3 on my PC with great anticipation. Starting the game there were the familiar menus which on this version gives you three different areas to drive like a total madman in, and 12 cabbies to choose from. The main idea of the game if you haven't played it before is to basically drive around the different areas picking up fares and getting them to their destination as quickly as possible, having absolutely no regard for the highway code, other drivers or pedestrians>
In fact, the crazier you are (as long as you are fast as well) the more cash fills your pockets, tips come your way for overtaking and crazy maneuvers, you can earn more in 10 minutes than a London Cabbie earns in a week (hard to believe I know). The first area is West Coast, which gives you a nice intro to the game as the roads are quite open, with plenty of short cuts to get the max out of your customers.  | | Tony had fun being a cabby but says it's nothing new. |
Next comes Glitter Oasis with all the high rollers and bright lights of a real Vegas, and finally Small Apple, with the hustle and bustle of the big city, skyscrapers, tighter streets, and plenty of traffic to jump over. The graphics are OK and do look like console style graphics on a PC, with plenty of colourful characters. One thing that did bug me was that the game does not support the Geforce 4 MX range of cards, which seems strange as these are the budget range of cards I'm sure a lot of people have. Controls in the game seem to be very jerky when using the keyboard, a drawback but a small one at that as the driving does not require total accuracy to get yourself around the streets, I mean its not trying to be Grand Prix 4 is it. One of the extras Crazy Taxi 3 offers is Crazy X, which is a section where you can use the different skills learnt, there are though some bizarre tests ranging from getting your car to the end zone trying to avoid all the other on rushing cars, to driving up and down hills jumping your car to destroy UFOs... Hmmmmmm. Overall the gameplay does not offer anything really different if you have played previous versions, and wears a bit thin after a while, although for first timers it would be worth a try, but on a console version instead. 5/10 Tony Bravo
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