Colin McRae Rally 3
Leading the pack over the last four years in the rally genre is, without a doubt, Codemasters' Colin McRae Rally series. Bursting onto the English scene in 1998 (and in the US in 1999 under Sony Computer Entertainment America), the original Colin McRae Rally drew tremendous critical acclaim for its sensational realistic take on the sport, which heavily countered Sega's arcade leanings.
Now, with its first attempt on the Xbox, Colin McRae Rally 3 boasts a fleet of excellent qualities. The game's crisp, detailed graphics, nearly perfect physics and handling capabilities, and an excellent set of cars and tracks on which to race will instantly capture any rally racer's heart. But it's also surprisingly short on game modes, and the game's singular dependence on the Ford Focus in the game's Championship mode is a questionable decision. Like Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 3 A-spec, Colin McRae Rally 3 is slimmed down from its previous generation iteration. It offers less modes, cars and tracks than its predecessor, but the engine had to be built from the ground up for Xbox, PS2 and PC, and that's not an easy task. In fine-tuning the game for these new systems, adding millions more polygons for the cars and levels, and tweaking the incredibly luxurious physics system, it's clear the team had to give up something to achieve such a high standard in physics and handling.
So what's a rally fanatic to do? The simple answer is this: Go buy the game, but consider yourself warned. There are few rally games that come close to the series, and the only legitimate challenger on the Xbox is Microsoft's Rallisport Challenge (which is better in some ways, and worse in others, but I'll get into that later).
Gameplay
Please allow me to draw a silly comparison. The Colin McRae series, in its own strange way, is like Sega's Virtua Fighter series. Virtua Fighter's subtleties are usually lost on gamers who like pure offense and all action, while timing, defense and the art of learning your opponent's strategies are downplayed and forgotten. Likewise, Codemasters' rally racer is filled with subtleties that don't all appear knocking down your door at once. There is nuance and complexity to the way the cars drive, handle, feel and react. It takes more than a few rides to really comprehend the game's silky handling, and it requires more than a few hours to see just how superbly balanced and tremendously smooth these cars really drive.
It's hard to remember everything that happened in the year 2000 when Colin McRae Rally 2.0 hit PC and PlayStation, but I can honestly tell you that Colin McRae Rally 3 outdoes its predecessor in many ways. Major upgrades to this year's model are numerous and almost all of them fall into the category of physics and handling. Regardless of whether you drive the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VII, the Subaru Impreza 22B STI or the game's other 11-plus models, you'll find that each car is carefully balanced and finely tuned. What I mean by this specifically is that the weight of each car is evenly balanced; thankfully they're not as heavy as the cars in Colin McRae Rally 2.0, and they're not as light and twitchy as the cars in V-Rally 3. The even distribution of weight seems to keep drivers from over-steering and from accelerating too slowly from a standstill. And since simulation rally racing is all about the little details of the physics and handling, these subtleties make a huge difference. They're what make Colin McRae Rally 3 such a luxurious game to play. Expectedly, the cars handle differently enough from one to another. They show some great variation when on different surfaces. If you set up the car with the correct tires, it's easy to see. When your vehicle swerves off the tarmac and into the dirt, handling changes greatly. And you'll notice several kinds of dirt. Light powdery dirt, like that in Australia, heavier dirt like that in the US, and muddy nastiness like that in England. Your car reacts differently in each. Even on the same course, the surface variations drastically alter the way you drive. For example, the right set of wheels might actually be spinning slower if they're in heavy gravel, while the left two tires which are on flat dry tarmac are spinning far faster. You can feel the difference and it affects the way you drive.
Similarly, you can feel new subtleties at different speeds. When you've bitten it on the side of the road, and you're on, say, slippery grass, the wheels will spin far faster than the actual speed of the car is moving. And it's only when you finally grip those tires on the firm tarmac that you'll see the car adjust instantly. The wheels slow down for a quick second as they take grip better, and then zoom! You'll burst forward with a slingshot-like momentum onto the road.
The sense of speed is one thing, but the feeling of acceleration and power is quite another. When you upgrade the Ford Focus to the Ford Focus RS WRC 04, man you're in for a real treat. These cars don't feel like videogame vehicles any longer -- they drive like real rally cars, with all of the horsepower, torque and explosive qualities that rally cars truly are capable of. The handling is not only better than it was before, but you can actually feel the speed and torque working in these polygonal cars, and the sensation is nothing short of exhilarating.
Codemasters has delivered a solid fast framerate. The game runs at 60 FPS almost constantly, with only a few barely noticeable hitches during a few rainy spells, and even then, it's only for a quick second. Using the steady framerate to help create an excellent sense of speed, the Warwickshire, UK-based developer delivers a powerful sense of velocity from two cockpit views (one with just a hood, the other showing moving hands on a steering wheel, window frame and a hood), and a behind-the-car third-person perspective.
Just like in the upcoming Pro Race Driver, the collision system in Colin McRae Rally 3 is elaborate and sophisticated. These cars get totally beat up, and by that I mean, windows crack and blow out; engines, mufflers, shocks and wheels take damage that affects the car's performance -- and these cars flip and roll, just like in CM2. I finished a race with a car that was so badly damaged it swerved pathetically to the right and looked like a piece of scrap iron. I've finished several races lacking a hood, trunk, side panel, fenders and front and back windows -- and yes, my car looked like crap and I was embarrassed, but I finished the race and still won. (Looks don't count for everything, they say.) My only complaint about the collision modeling, is that it's not much of a leap over CM2. If you have played any Codemasters' previous racing games, you have come to expect this level of technology, and though it's still damn good, this system is not nearly as impressive as the first time I experienced it with CM2 in 2000.
Driving fans like to tinker with their cars, and Colin McRae Rally 3 does a fare job of letting would-be mechanics fiddle and experiment. Tinkering can be done with the brakes, gearbox, tires, engine, chassis, suspension, and steering. Some categories are deeper than others. Steering for instance is simple: light, medium and hard. The Tire category, however, offers various tarmac choices, three lengths of snow studs, and various other options. The Engine options offer the choice to change power balance, turbo, or launch control (an automatic speed boost at the starting gun), while the Suspension options include springs, damper and anti-roll selections. So yeah, here's a good selection of options.
A rather heady "Telemetry" option provides the opportunity to test drive a track and then use the power analyzer to help decide the best setup for that car and locale. It really works, but honestly, you probably won't need it. Deep car fanatics might disagree with me here, but if you learn to handle these cars, you're concentrating and you're in a zone, you really won't need it. I've found that the most important of all these choices is to have the most appropriate tires for the upcoming road surface. The game automatically chooses the best setup for you anyway, taking some of the wonder out of the decision process. If you get lost, the manual describes the function of each part and explains the meaning of the alterations. Overall, there are rally games out there with more setup options, but Colin McRae Rally 3 makes it easy for beginners and complex enough for experts.
After having played nearly every rally game I can think of, the physics and handling in this puppy are unsurpassed. Codemasters has achieved exactly what it wanted to, which is to nail the physics, handling and power of these cars just right. It spent an extraordinary amount of time working with Ford's mechanics and engineers to replicate the Ford Focus' abilities, and the result is truly impressive.
But that brings up several other, less positive points, which seem to be the result of just such a constrained focus on physics and handling. Colin McRae Rally 3 offers two meager gameplay modes, Championship and Stages. Championship is exactly what it sounds like, a three-year contract enabling players to drive as Colin McRae and join the Ford Rallye Sport team. During this tenure, you drive the Ford Focus RS WRC. As you progress and win in each season, you open up new cars, but ironically, you cannot drive those cars in the Championship mode. You can only drive the Ford Focus. Theoretically, driving the other cars is what Stages mode is for. This mode enables players to race through any stage that's either open from the beginning or that's been unlocked. It's essentially the same thing as Championship, but...it's not. The tension of the Championship is lacking, you can quit at any time without repercussions, and you don't accumulate points like in a real season. (You can also play multiplayer mode in Stages, by vying on a split-screen or by taking turns racing for the best time.)
The obvious lack of choices hurts this otherwise stellar game, especially when you look back on how much Colin McRae 2.0 gave. It offered Arcade and Rally modes, the first of which offered three kinds of races, Championship, Single Race and Time Trial. And Rally mode spotlighted five different gameplay modes: Championship, Single Rally, Single Stage, Time Trial, and a newer mode, Challenge, a single race against five other computer-controlled racers. Similarly, RalliSport Challenge offers four gameplay modes and four styles of rally, such as Rally Cross, Uphill Racing and Ice Racing. It also offers four-player split-screen challenges. And last but not least, Codemasters has stripped players' ability to adjust their vehicles in Stages mode. Yep. You can adjust the Ford Focus all you want in Championship, but if you want to modify your vehicles in the Stages modes, well, you're screwed.
The game offers eight countries in which to race: the UK, Sweden, Greece, USA, Australia and Finland, with Spain and Japan being the new additions. In each country, players race through six stages, plus a special head-to-head challenge in Special Stage 7. All this adds up to 56 tracks in all, less than in CM2. Every track is laid out with a special feel all its own. Japan is especially tricky with its many uphill switchbacks, while Finland and England truly test your ability to handle mixed terrain.
In my opinion, Colin McRae Rally 3 is a beautiful game. Starting with the sleek, minimalist front-end and progressing through the game, one finds that they're being treated to a functional yet stylistic design that is easy to follow and pleasing to the eye. The design is an evolution from CM2, adding in interesting stylized blueprints for the modification sections. Players are treated to dynamic fly-through scenes before each new location and several in-game cutscenes show off the crew team at work on your vehicle and crowds standing by waiting for the race, giving you a sense of the local environments.
The car models are, as expected, deep with detail. They're solidly built and extremely accurate. One can peer through the back window and into the car, seeing a healthy amount of details like the roll bar, spare tire, and the driver and navigator. You can actually see Nicky Grist, the co-pilot, holding on to the seat, swaying to and fro as Colin McRae steers, shifts and moves along with the momentum of the car. Each of the cars shows off a select set of designs, stickers and promotional stuff on its exterior, all of which become filthy after a race. Vehicles pick up dust, mud, and other debris through their races with good variation. After a race in England, your car is substantially muddy, but if you've just finished a race in Greece, the level of dirt and dust creates an entirely different layer of coloring. However, compared to several other rally racing games, the cars in Colin McRae Rally 3 remain surprisingly clean, relatively speaking. There is a general tendency for the designers to keep this game very antiseptic, even sterile to an extent, and you'll definitely notice it here.
The Xbox version is definitely better looking than the PS2 version. The textures are crisper and the lighting sharper. You can see fine particles of dirt and rock flying from your wheels in the Xbox version, and you'll instantly notice the clean, sharp reflections coming off the car from the get-go. Switching into the cockpit mode offers players the ability to see rain and snow being wiped off the windshield in realtime, while these elements accumulate just outside the wipers' reach. Switching to the third-person viewpoint, players will see a healthy level of activity in these diverse and colorful environments.
When it's raining, you can see lightning strike in the distance, and rain spraying off each individual wheel. After the rain, the soaking roads still produce splays of water when you zip across them. When it's sunny and clear, facing into the sunlight will actually blind you from seeing far ahead, just like it would in real life. There is actually less shadow work and play in the lighting department -- specifically in the forests and canopied areas. It's no big loss, but given the amount of this kind of lighting effects in other rally games, I expected more here.
The level of detail and definition is of a higher quality on Xbox, but the difference isn't revolutionary. The games don't look worlds apart. Both versions look extremely good. And of course, the cars take as much damage as you'll give them, as mentioned above, and you'll see all of that damage physically affect the car in realtime.
And is it just me, or are these replays not quite as good as I remembered them in CM2? The distant angles and empty scenes just don't deliver that same visceral thrill. Also, forgive me, but the winning circle awards -- and the showgirls on them -- are lackluster. These chicks remind me of those in the first few years of Knockout Kings. If they're going to be dressed up all slinky and sexy, then they should at least look sexy and slinky. It's of no real importance honestly, but I didn't feel terribly rewarded. As has been the tradition in all of the Colin McRae Rally games to date, the courses feature no music of any kind. Instead, they're filled with the lean, mean sounds of the engine revving, dirt flying, and your car breaking to pieces. Which is fine with me. I can do without any more techno or heavy metal, and I truly enjoy hearing the fine sounds of the engine whining. What's especially cool is that the sound effects are incredibly good. Listening to your engine in manual transmission is crucial, no to mention it sounds frickin' sweet. I love hearing the clicking, engaging sound of the turbo revving up; the noise of the wheels sliding across gravel, the sliding sound they make on ice, or the burning of rubber as they peel out on tarmac. And if you want to hear some great crash sounds, this is your game. The cracking of a window is different than the complete devastation to an entire window. The sound of your crippled left rear tire or the axel is unique, compared to getting a flat or scraping it against something hard.
The music does drum down in between races, and it's a smooth, acceptable techno sound that's neither terribly raw on the one hand nor cheesy on the other. It just is.