Review: Colin McRae Rally 3 (XBX)
Codemasters are hitting us with the ultra unrealistic Micro Machines (how many incarnations?) and the ultra realistic Colin McRae 3 this month.
I’ve gone for the realistic option and one thing you can say about CM3 is it’s as close to risking your neck in a suped up road car as you’re going to get whilst in the comfort of your home. The vehicles are superbly detailed and despite suffering from the odd jagged line are a joy to throw around the variety of courses this racer has to offer. That said for the authentic feel I would suggest the cockpit view. This game scored instant points with me for offering this view and it almost attains the lofty heights set by Need for Speed Porsche Challenge 2000 for absorbing first person perspective. If only more racers would offer this option So strap yourself into the cockpit, turn off those pesky arrows that your not going to need and divide your attention between the road ahead and the excellent pace notes of Nicky Grist; Colin’s real life co-driver. If, that is you can keep your eyes of the luscious scenery and impressive lighting effects. Expect to smash into plenty of barriers and fly off many a hairpin bend because you’re gawping at the way the sun makes the tarmac glisten when it’s wet.
CM3 doesn’t start to really impress graphically until you get some of the more diverse weather conditions however. Sweden Super Stage plays a lovely optical illusion so good are the ice effects there; as I turned into the first bend I thought I’d made a dreadful error and gritted my teeth for a plunge to the ground far below……and then found myself to be sliding slowly around said bend staring at the reflection in the ice covered road. The Japanese stages in season one have rain beating down on your windscreen and lightning flashes that flicker and illuminate the darkened forest roads your hurtling around, add to that the steady beat of the windscreen wipers, the high pitched whine of your straining engine and the brushing of overhanging foliage against your Focus and you are totally absorbed. Yes the sound is pretty top notch too.
The real test for a rally game though is how it handles. CM3 does extremely well in that department too. The player notices a real difference in handling and must adjust driving style accordingly for each surface and weather condition from soggy gravel to snow clad tarmac. In fact I can’t think of a moment where unresponsive controls were responsible for the car not sticking to the road, which is good.
Sometimes though the player is not to blame for accidents, it doesn’t happen very often but now and again Nicky Grist is woefully late with his directions and deserves a slap. Another potential cause of non player error is the sometimes poor draw limit. When you’re going at 90mph you need to see a sharp bend in good time with or without Nicky’s help – when they pop up as if out of nowhere and you career into a rock face you wander what all the latent power of the XBOX is up to. At times not a lot it would seem. When you do end up off the track and actually in the scenery it shows itself to be a cardboard cut out 2D affair just like the occasional spectators you see dotted around (who, incidentally you cannot run over, cause to scatter or interact with in any way L). That said none of these gripes happen often enough to spoil the fun and you’ll be too wrapped up in gaining that extra second to notice most of the time.
How much speeding do you get for your ticket then? A fair amount. You will probably get 8 – 10 hours out of the three seasons as our Colin and that’s playing it on Normal difficulty level. After that you have still got Hard and Very Hard to attempt. Each stage and each championship you win will unlock a new vehicle to thrape around the stages you have unlocked or to do battle with in the multiplayer mode. You can probably add a good few hours to that time by doing the shakedown day and telemetry pre stage warm ups. Disappointingly though these proved fairly unnecessary to advancing and will probably only appeal to Rally buffs or those with a fetish for graphs and charts.
Despite having a bit of a gripe about some graphical imperfections CMR3 for the most part is a stunning looking game, the XBOX chucks the large tracks around with barely a hic up and when its this much fun to play and so immensely absorbing anything but a high score would have been unfair. Just be warned; this is not a deep game in the way that GT3 and Project Gotham are.
Rating: 9 / 10
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