Tag is a race to hit another player and tag him or her before a counter runs out and removes you from play. You can choose to make it a free-for-all or a team-based competition. Capture the gold is a race to collect a sack of gold and then get it to a designated stash point before your opponents take it from you. Checkpoint is a race to the finish between you and your opponents. Cruise lets you zip around a city without time limits or damage.

You'll find cruise, checkpoint, capture the gold, tag, hunter, and stayaway modes. The game types in Midtown Madness 3 cover the territory you'd expect. The game will also let you download new content when it's available. A friends option lets you manage your friends list and view or send invitations, and a status option lets you choose to appear on- or offline.

The host option lets you set the number of players (two to eight), the invite mode (public or friends only), and the skill level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) to ensure that the optimatch search finds the right players for your game. Quickmatch and optimatch work just like they would in any other Xbox game. When you take Midtown Madness 3 online, you'll have the option to hop into quick match or optimatch games or host your own game. Midtown Madness 3 supports the standard Xbox Live features, such as voice masks and game matching, and it includes six game modes that support up to eight players.

While the build of the game we played connected to Microsoft's test server, it gave us a fair idea of what to expect from an online game. We recently had a chance to check out Midtown Madness 3's online offerings.

Midtown madness online play