Colin McRae Rally 3 PlayStation 2

Colin McRae Rally 3 Product Details

• Colin McRae Rally 3

  Colin J McRavey goes head to head with his long lost rallying cousin as he reviews Colin McRae Rally 3.

  Colin McRae Rally 3 sees the renowned driving series finally making an appearance on ‘next generation consoles’; as we called them last year. Rally Championship, WRC and many more have come and gone on PS2 and Xbox since we last hugged the curves with Colin. Can he still cut it?

  Driving games are the very devil to review. A passing member of our veritable accounts or IT department may see the same racing game played day in, day out and wonder how long it takes to say ‘you accelerate, brake, and avoid flying off the track.’ Two things spring to mind. Firstly - as you no doubt know, dear reader - every single driving game has its own foibles and differences, its own unique challenges. Secondly, if you’re comparing two rally games you probably have to play them for longer to be able to let the differences suffuse, like a mud and snow splattered tea bag.

  The first difference that hits you playing Colin McRae Rally 3 is that it’s hard. OK, so driving whizzes from Mc1 and Mc2 will feel smug at that comment, and indeed they’ll probably take to it like a duck to water, but for anyone new to the series it’s a steep learning curve. Don’t be put off if your times are constantly given in red plus marks; the time you’re competing against is the best time. So you can play for the first few attempts and think you’re constantly losing, when you’re actually coming in third or fourth – which most people can stand for a first go on a driving game.

  Especially as the way the game’s set up means you’re quite likely to dive straight into championship. Don’t. Make sure that at least for the first attempts you play the ‘Stages’ mode first; unlocking each one as you beat it. Then – once all six ‘special stages’ of a country (and its super special stage) have been thoroughly beaten – you move onto Championship mode. But don’t be afraid to exit out of the championship in-between countries to go and get a feel for the lay of the land in the next territory. Exit between races and your progress will be saved, don’t worry. Of course, some of you will be hard enough to leap straight into the championship and succeed on skill and adaptive driving talents alone – but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

  CMR3 boasts top-of-the-range-graphics (most of the time) and a hardcore racing experience. Its package, interface, design and usability all show the clean, crisp, clubbing style design that we’ve come to expect from Codemasters’ pretty Colins. However, during multiplayer the draw distance is bad – really bad. Marvel as trees suddenly appear out of nowehere just around each corner. This also happens during one of the nighttime super special stages. It’s a shame: for the majority of the time you’ll find a smooth and fantastic looking game.

  Across eight countries, each featuring six special stages and a super special stage – a circuit around which you and your nearest rival race – you’ll be racing to beat the clock. At no point do you see the other drivers, but you know whether you’re ahead or behind by a plus or minus timing at each checkpoint along the way. That’s rallying for yer, but it won’t tickle everyone’s fancy. You don’t even get to see the other driver in one-on-one multiplayer modes; you both race split screen along the same length of track simultaneously but ‘in reality’ you’re racing on different occasions. Get it? Good…

  Having said that, the desire to shave off a couple of seconds from your time isn’t a feeling that will only be engendered amongst enthusiasts of the sport. The fact that your opponents are invisible won’t be a barrier to some serious rivalry for long – though some ‘shunting off the track fun’ would have been nice.

  The game can be unforgiving if you hit objects – get ready to weep as a tiny wooden post brings your ton of speeding specced-up Ford Focus to a shuddering halt. Trick is not to hit stuff, I guess!

  During the Rally Championship mode you actually play as Colin (for the first time) so you are of course ensconsed in a souped-up Ford Focus, which gets upgraded with a season of success… You also unlock minor upgrades (such as studded tyres perfect for snow) on completing a country-segment of the championship. New cars for ‘stages’ and multiplayer modes are also unlocked this way.

  You can tweak the car during set-up points, but the game seems to automatically pick the best choices (wet tarmac tyres for rain etc.) anyway, so this seems to be a depth to the game for car enthusiasts only…

  One of the finest points in the game is the car damage. Like the Love Bug himself (God bless you, Herbie) bits of the car will come flying off. Bumpers smash, windscreens shatter – at extreme moments, tyres can even go rolling off into the distance. Although when you’re playing the championship mode you’ll be praying fervently for a smooth, split-second-shaving ride, the quality of the crashes add a hell of a lot of atmosphere to the game. So too does the mud and snow splattering courses.

  The amount of polygons used for the cars is incredible and watching them go from shiny showroom perfect to flight beaten up wrecks, all in glorious fantastic-graphics-technicolour is joyous stuff. Speaking of which, the windscreen view on a rainy day has to be seen to be believed – it’s not very practical though – we like to see where our back end is sliding. The way the rain (or snow) blatters over the screen is damn near photo realistic (not a phrase we bandy around).

  The outside world looks spanking too – the sun glints off wet tarmac, detailed houses and pylons line the track where appropriate. The crowd still looks a bit cardboard cut out, but don’t they always? The sound adds to this nicely, with exhausts crackling, tyres making that special noise that only driving on slush produces. A quality package all round (bar aforementioned occasional pop-up).

  Choice of cars (outside championship mode) is the usual rally suspects, all lovingly crafted to handle differently and just look damn spiffy – Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VII, Citroen Xsara Kit Car, Subaru Impreza WRX (445), MG ZR Rally Car, Ford Puma Rally Car, Fiat Punto Rally Car… Not to mention unlockable surprises…

  Control of the cars is floaty but realistic (well, so reckons our own Gary Foy – and he’s been on one of those rally days and everything). Accelerating all the time is a risky technique for all but the God-like and will result in more time sliding sidewards than is strictly efficient. With a bit of practise the cars can be hurled around the tracks with a satisfying amount of precision – whatever the weather. But the game never loses its ‘nearly out of control’ edge of the seat racing excitement.

  Fans of the series will be thrilled by the gameplay of Colin McRae, if not overwhelmed by the amount of modes. Newcomers may find the two modes simply don’t offer the amount of pick-up-and-play they’re looking for, but we urge you to stick with it – for there’s nothing quite like the look of joyous concentration on the face of a McRae player in full flow – and this game is sure to provide just that.
  
  + : Amazing graphics (bar a tiny bit of pop-up) - the cars are especially beautiful.
  + : Fluid rallying excitement and gameplay.
  + : Stylish, addictive - Colin fans will be thrilled.

  – : It’s a wee bit too tricky for some folk's taste
  – : Och - nae multiplayer arcade mode wi' two cars on the same track havin' a ruck? Ya sassenachs!.
  – : We dinnae ken the occasional pop-up in such a grand lookin' game

  Published: 21/03/2003

• Colin McRae Rally 3

  How can the average gamer experience rally driving? No, not by stealing a car and thrashing it about in the woods for a couple of hours, by playing Colin McRae 3 on PS2 or Xbox of course.

  How many driving games can the videogame buying public take? Each week we’re sent another variation of the wonderful pastime that is car racing. Not that we mind you understand, especially when the games have been up to the standard of the recent offerings (TOCA, Need For Speed…). It must be a problem for you though, the loyal gamer, who has to continuously decide between all these top-class games each time payday rolls around.

  Well bad news for those of you who love racing games and who have lots of bills to pay. Colin McRae 3 is round the corner and it’s looking very tasty. You’re going to have to get it, what kind of fan would you be if you didn’t? Imagine the pain.

  The latest version of the game we’ve played seems to be pretty much spot on in terms of playability and graphics. This bodes extremely well for the final version. The only thing that needs urgent attention is the difficulty of the game, with lap-time expectations being a too high at the moment. Currently you have to be some kind of racing game demon to get anywhere in the championship mode. For a few it’d be possible to win, but for your average gamer this will alienate them from the game entirely.

  We’ve been informed that the difficulty has yet to be optimised, hence why at this stage things seem a little skewed. So if it’s going to be fixed why did we mention it? Well, just to make sure they know how we feel, as it really is just too harsh as it stands.

  Graphically it’s looking superb, the cars being very polished! Puns aside, there’s loads of detail. Reflections are notably superior to those in V-Rally: these are proper reflections, actually showing the surrounding scenery. V-Rally boasted a single texture that scrolled as the car moved, to trick gamers into thinking that it was reflecting the scenery. OK, so reflections aren’t such a big issue in the grand scheme of things, but do well in highlighting the difference in quality between the two titles, a difference that extends way beyond reflections.

  The car damage is also very satisfying. It’s possible to end up with the most sorry-looking automobile ever by the end of certain races, if you just so happen to drive like a complete loon with all the talent and finesse of a monkey in a straight jacket. The car dents, bumpers become loose and eventually fall off, doors flap open… you can even lose a wheel completely. Watch in wonder at those rare moments where you seem to be racing side-by-side, nose-to-nose with your own wheel. A highly impressive crash produced by this very reviewer, caused the car to spin on its side many times, bits and pieces flying off all over the place as the tumbling continued. The resulting mess drove away with the bonnet and boot open, causing satisfying levels of hilarity, making the loss of the actual race easier to handle.

  As with previous games in the McRae series, racing is a singular, lonesome affair. This has advantages and disadvantages. In general people mostly prefer lap-based driving – the repetition in the course increases familiarity and awareness, making the drive more satisfying. In Colin McRae there’s no laps, just one long, winding stretch of road, it’s hard to become familiar and it can sometimes be quite tedious. However it’s a good way for gamers to prove their skill, considering that’s all you have when confronting new twists and turns.

  People also prefer having opponents to knock and shunt about whilst racing – it makes things more exciting to have a bit of live competition. However in Colin McRae you drive along on your own, effectively being against the times achieved by the other racers, who in the game world raced either before or after your run. It would be nice to be up against other drivers, however Colin McRae is catering for the hardcore driver, the perfectionist sort who doesn’t care to have other cars in the way, blocking the road off and thus harming race times. Nope, with no cars the variables are eliminated – it’s just you against the track.

  With impeccable and convincing handling and superb graphics and physics, we reckon this will be something special by the time it’s finished. If you’re the young reckless sort who likes to play driving games to perfection, constantly beating your lap times over and over in search of that elusive perfect run, then you may as well pre-order this now, you won’t be disappointed… for the rest of you casual drivers, start saving the pennies anyway, we can’t see this being anything but superb.

  Jay Filmer

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  Xbox Version

  The differences between the Xbox and PS2 version can be summed up quite easily – graphics. The Xbox continues its underdog pounding of the PS2 in terms of graphical quality; with chunky, shiny Ford Focus’s being rammed around the track like my childhood Herbie the Love Bug toy. Whereas the trees and leaves have that speckly, grainy PS2 look, things are smoother, nicer on Xbox. Otherwise it’s Colin-as-usual…

  Colin (Mc)Ravey

  Published: 21/03/2003

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