This marked a change from the developer of the first two games, Angel Studios, which had moved on to work on the Midnight Club series.

Here players can compete in a variety of race types and take on roles such as taxi and ambulance drivers.

Midtown Madness 3 is now playable online again on the replacement Xbox Live servers called Insignia.

As with the previous games in the series, the player drives any of several different vehicles around open world maps modeled on real-life cities.

Famous race car driver Dieter Kleinmann has arrived in Paris to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The player character's secret agency is tasked with protecting Kleinmann through unearthing potential plots surrounding him.

Three Scandinavians — Sven, Olle, and Inga, become persons of interest as they have recently arrived in Paris to see Kleinmann receive his award, and are all staying at the same hotel.

Another piece of the Scandinavians' plans is revealed when the player is informed of a fake copy of Dieter Kleinmann's lifetime achievement award being delivered to a man a few days prior, a task that the player, while working as a delivery driver, personally carried out for Sven.

The police agency receive intel on Inga's location, and the player character is tasked with immobilizing her van.

With Olle still on the loose, the police place roadblocks throughout the city, with the player character delivering officers to help reinforce several locations.

However the agency strikes a deal with five Scandinavian kidnappers to testify against Sven, Olle, and Inga in exchange for immunity.

Their testimony helps reveal Olle's whereabouts, and his plan to escape Paris with Kleinmann in the back of his van.

The player character pursues Olle, successfully immobilizes his vehicle before he leaves the city, and Kleinmann is rescued.

The Washington, D.C. plot revolves around the Tortellini brothers, Michael and Stefano, who are filming and directing a movie, The Quick and the Slippery, in the city.

The player character's role, whilst undercover as a private investigator, is to find out who the Tortellini brothers are secretly connected to by working for them in various ways, in part because a rival film producer is in town.

Whilst the player character is undercover as a police officer, the Tortellini brothers begin fighting amongst themselves.

Stefano eventually tries to crash Michael's limousine in a car chase around the city, which is thwarted by the player character.

Midtown Madness 3 was announced as being in development in April 2002 as an Xbox-exclusive title, with a tentative release date of late 2002.

[6][7][8] Some of the game's vehicles were licensed from manufacturers, including Ford Motor Company, Lotus, Audi and Hummer.

GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann called it "more accessible than its nearest competition, Midnight Club II.

Official Xbox Magazine's review stated that "we can't help but think how much better it would have been with a better choice of cities.

"[30] The reviewer from Electronic Gaming Monthly felt that the two cities were fun to explore and large in size.

[21] Shawn Sanders of GameRevolution felt that the two cities were not enough, and noted that future downloadable content may have improved things.