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GAME REVIEWED: Colin McRae Rally
RELEASED BY: Codemasters
PRICE: £44.99
REVIEWED BY: A.K.
REVIEW: -
Rally fans must have been cursing their luck in 1997 with the release of yet another F1game for F1 fans, Toca for touring car fans and Gran Turismo which satisfied a lot of gamers last year, but there was no rallying game released and rally fans would be getting bored playing V-Rally over and over, especially since it wasn't a full-on rally simulation.
Well, now things have changed with this release. Colin McRae Rally is the most realistic and best looking rally simulation available on any console. It is also a very international game. There are eight part's of the world to travel to and race around and each has its own, and for one very distinctive, atmosphere and challenge: New Zealand is the ideal place for beginners with its beautiful rolling hills and fairly easy circuit; Greece is a bit more of a challenge with nightmare goat tracks and stunningly attractive and distracting scenery; Sweden's tracks are also a tough challenge with their hateful, hideous and icy nonsense; in Monaco the tracks are also very difficult and involve driving in icy conditions on mountainous roads. The most enjoyable rally has to be in Australia with glorious sweeping gravel roads that you want to go very fast on; Corsica, with its twist eight and turn a tarmac surfaces are a test for any driver; as well as Greece, Indonesia also has distracting scenery with sandy beaches and dense, tropical jungles provide some of the most varied and exciting tracks available; and finally England, the finale is the toughest of the tracks available with a huge variety of roads surfaces and some very narrow roads.
The game engine is based around the same one that powered Toca, the handling is absolutely superb which is obviously important in simulating sport where the power slide is the favoured method of turning corners, and the handbrake turn the preferred method when you are showing off to your mates. The difference between all the different road types, from level tarmac to bumpy icy tracks is achieved amazingly realistically. The graphics are supremely convincing and realistic too. For added realism in the game, the terrain reacts brilliantly to you, the way the water sprays up around the car and the satisfyingly squelchy pools of mud that you can fly through. Also, during the course of the race the mud and gravel sticks to your car and makes it look like you been all over the place, very neat touch and very realistic.
As Gran Turismo first offered racing fans the opportunity to tune their car themselves, you can set your car up to your specifications or to suit a certain track of you are racing on, in Colin McRae you get options that can change the suspension, break bias, acceleration/max speed, the tyre type and steering sensitivity, you will probably need to adjust your driving style to get the fastest times or if you are struggling on certain terrains. To help you become a top-class rally driver, there is an ingenious Rally School for you to attend, where you get driving tips/instructions from Mr McRae himself; you will be told how to control all aspects of control and how to adapt to various driving conditions.
Colin McRae Rally is an excellent game which finally brings the same kind of realism to off-road racing that Gran Turismo achieved for the road racer. This is harder than Gran Turismo because you have to watch what coming up a head and listen to co-driver at the same time just in case there is something you will be expecting. At last rally fans have a true game to themselves although just about every racing fan will like this even though you don't go head to head like V-Rally. Still absolutely brilliant, a must buy!
SCORE:
93%
LINKS: www.codemasters.com