Along with Formula One, the FIA World Rally Championship has not aged well over the years. Sure, there are the gaggles of dedicated ninnies who hang around in damp forests waiting for a nanosecond glimpse of a flying Volkswagen, but the rest of us simply don't find it as exciting as it used to be. These days, with the emphasis on safety rather than speed, it's all become a little too restrained.
Codemasters' new Colin McRae Rally gives you the chance to redress the balance. It enables you to choose any one of eight factory-prepared rally cars - all laser modelled for the ultimate in authenticity - and wreak havoc in the grime and dust of over 50 FIA World Championship stages.
Alongside you all the way is Colin's long-suffering co-driver, Nicky Grist, who stays impossibly calm throughout his ordeal. Turn the car on its roof, drop it off a 300ft precipice and flatten a crowd of bystanders at the bottom, and Nicky will patiently deliver instructions for the bend you missed. What a nice chap.
Lets Get Going Then
Before you jump into a car and pelt off into the distance, it's a good idea to brush up your driving skills. The game includes an entire Rally School with different courses, several levels of difficulty, and a detailed commentary by the 1995 World Champion himself. Unlike the PlayStation's Gran Turismo, this educational section is unrelated to the main game and is there simply as a diversion.
Moving out and onto the track, the game is instantly impressive. landscape packed with towns, trees, woods and forests - and you can even see the odd castle, lake and derelict mansion in the distance. Not that you have much time to enjoy them; the pace is always fraught and your eyes are glued to the tortuous route of dips, bends, hairpins, banks and jumps ahead of you.
Prior to starting each stage, you can alter the set-up of your car. All the usual options are laid out for you in a single intuitive screen, including changes to the tyres, suspension, brakes and gear ratios. To be honest, sticking with and getting used to the default configuration is your best option, although the odd tweak on more challenging tracks - for example, the drifting snow of Monte Carlo or the thick mud of England - can often help shave valuable seconds off your time.
On the move, the car's handling is impeccable and very easy to settle down with. Use a couple of early stages for practice and you'll soon be completing levels in what teels like one fast, flowing movement - an infinitely more satisfying experience than two dozen laps in a straight-line racer. It all feels very genuine, too, and Cotin's involvement at the development stage no doubt had something to do with it; the only downside is that his Creal world' rally skills - left-foot braking, heel and toe, and so on - are beyond the realms of a computer game.
Colin McRae Rally 2005 is one in a series of rally games that have been sporadically released here in the States. McRae himself is out of the World Rally Championship these days, but the game offers the steady, clear and crisp voice of his former co-driver Nicky Grist to guide you through varied stages built exclusively for this experience. Visually, Colin McRae Rally 3 is a feast of cars, stages and countryside, with the Ford Focus RS World Rally Car returning as the lead car. The in-game Ford.
Non-Stop Frantic
Codemasters have recognised the inherent loneliness in rallying and, rather than disguising it with other cars a la Screamer or Sega Rally, have instead exploited it. So while you remain alone every inch of the way, the game has a simple timing system enabling you to gauge your position in relation to other drivers. Pass a checkpoint and the adrenaline pumps away as you glance at the top of the screen and see you're a couple of seconds down on the guy in front. It should be said that you rarely find yourself on a hiding to nothing and, as long as you don't make any stupid mistakes, there's always a heart-stopplngly close finish ahead of you.
As you move through each level, you can actually watch your sponsors' logos disappear beneath a thickening coat of dirt -a strangely fulfilling experience. Importantly, your progress is rewarded not only by filthybodywork but by a handsome number of bonus tracks and cars. The inimitable Lancia Delta Integrate is one such motor, replete with its distinctive boxed arches, tilted roof spoiler and Martini Racing decals.
And There's More
In the event of an accident, the individual panels of each car have been designed to crumple and fall off. White this is nothing new (TOCA shares the same software engine and thus the same ability to deform its cars), it certainly adds to the atmosphere when you watch the replay.There are, however, a couple of small niggles that present themselves. First, cars don't seem to weigh quite enough, meaning it's a little too easy to bp them over and lose bme. Second, it can be very difficult for you to regain composure of the car if you clip a bank, even at slow speed - it lurches over onto its side and, instead of being able to steer into the skid and put all four of your wheels back down on terra firma, the recurrent scene is of trees where the clouds should be and of you and Mr Grist dangling ignominiously from your seat belts.
Small niggles aside, there's little doubt that Colin McRae Rally has just become the benchmark for rally games on the PC. White it's a dedicated simulabon and not an arcade blast - which, it could be argued, will limit its appeal - an entertaining split-screen mode, network options and TV-style replays should keep every motorsport fan interested for a long Mme to come.