Midnight Club II's three worlds -- Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles -- give new meaning to the word, "Brobdingnagian."  These worlds aren't just huge; they're jam-packed with detail.  Not just graphical detail either.  There are more passageways, more shortcuts and more hidden areas than one person could ever find in a week or even a month.  The career mode will help you out a little; many of your opponents will use shortcuts in order to win.  All you have to do is follow them, memorize the location (which is not always easy) and use that information to your advantage.  Regardless of how well you know the area, it's rarely easy to win a race in this game.  The first few are easy enough for a video game novice to complete; the remaining 90% will test many of your past gaming skills and require you to learn some new ones.  I really hate to use the word cakewalk, but rest assured, that is something this game is not.

Back to the subject of the game's size, LA's freeway is incredible!  You could get on it and drive forever without ever coming to a dead end.  Eventually you will hit an exit, but there are so many paths to take along the way that you could feasibly cruise the freeway without ever exiting or making a U-turn.

The controls are super-tight.  Every car varies in its handling, acceleration and top speed, but all of the controls are highly responsive, enabling you to weave in and out of traffic without batting an eye.  Think Crazy Taxi, only better.

Most-definitely the coolest thing about The Fast and the Furious was its speed.  The vehicles in that movie got its speed from NOS (nitrous oxide), which, at the press of a button, would give their vehicles an unbelievable burst of speed.  The same is true for Midnight Club II.  Nitrous is in short supply, but when you have it in your vehicle, one tap of the R2 button will send your vehicle flying past its opponents.  During this cool sequence, the screen appears as if it's being sucked in, giving the illusion of intense, super-high speeds.  These are just words though.  This is one effect that you've got to see, especially if you like racing games, racing movies or have any interest in cars whatsoever. 

Most racing games have at least one cool car, but Midnight Club II has several.  The designs look like they were taken from the streets of LA (where real street racing occurs), or perhaps The Fast and the Furious.

Midnight Club II's graphics are at least a few steps ahead of every other PS2 racing game out there (except for Gran Turismo 3, of course).  The lighting and shadow effects are a few notches higher than Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the city designs will blow you away.  Every car, every building, every traffic light, etc., are filled with as many impressive graphic techniques as the top-tier Xbox games.  You really won't believe your eyes at first.  The computer-generated intro movie is currently and being used to promote the game on national television.  As cool as it is, the in-game graphics are more impressive; they show off the PS2's true polygon-pushing power and give owners of the system faith that its technology hasn't been maxed out yet.  Clearly it hasn't, and I only hope that more games follow in Midnight Club II's footsteps.

Midnight Club II is a must-play racer.  The first game was fun, but it feels so dated when compared with this next-generation sequel.  Yeah, they're both next-gen games, but there weren't any racing games on the market like this two and a half years ago.  Midnight Club II built on the "find and challenge a driver, win the loser's ride" gameplay style of the first game and turned it into so much more.  Don't feel left out if you don't have a PlayStation 2, because Xbox and PC versions are on the way.  However, if you do have PS2, don't let anything stop you from playing one of the season's best racers.

Gameplay: 9
Fast, intense racing is the name of this game.  Speed freaks will go nuts for Midnight Club II, as will anyone who loves cars, street racing or just enjoys playing really good games.  The improved controls, the overwhelmingly huge cities and the extreme (but not cheap) challenge make this a must-play game for everyone who has a PlayStation 2.

Graphics: 9.2 
Stunning reflections, excellent car damage and amazing real-time lighting are just three of the many graphical wonders you'll see in this game.  Keep your eyes open at all times!  Blinkers will miss out on too much.

Sound: 8
Midnight Club II's sound is a mixture of good music, good voice-overs and great sound effects.  The soundtrack is predictably filled with techno/rock tracks, but they're very enjoyable to listen to.  There are also some licensed rap songs, which seems to fit this kind of game.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Finally, a racing game that can't be beaten in a weekend!  Sure, you probably could beat it that fast, but the superb challenge will most-likely keep that from happening.  One thing is for certain: this game's computer-controlled opponents don't mess around.  They know every shortcut, they're good at evading traffic, and the cops rarely ever catch them!  They make mistakes, too, making them seem that much more realistic.

Concept: 8.8
Midnight Club II's tagline is, "The future of illegal street racing."  That might not be the most accurate tagline (after all, Midnight Club III will be here someday), but for the time being, Midnight Club II is the best game of its kind.

Multiplayer: 8.8
If you weren't considering cable or DSL before, you probably will consider it now.  Everyone can access the two-player split-screen mode, but if you have broadband Internet access, you can experience the online multiplayer mode.  Up to eight gamers can cruise Paris, Tokyo or Los Angeles together!

Overall: 9
Something doesn't make sense.  There's this great game, Midnight Club II, sitting on retail shelves right now.  But yet for some strange reason, you are still here, reading words on a computer screen that are not nearly as exciting as the game I'm talking about.  It's weird how people want great things, but fail to embrace them when they arrive, isn't it?

Translation: go buy the game already!