Colin McRae Rally 3 to feature Dolby sound

Codemasters has today announced that both the PS2 and Xbox versions of Colin McRae Rally 3 will support Dolby surround sound. The audio in the PS2 version will be in Dolby Pro Logic, while the Xbox version will support five surround speakers with Dolby Digital 5.1.

Codemasters claims that the quality of the in-game audio will be good enough that players will know if they've scraped the side of their car or hit something on the road without needing to look. According to today's press release, the effect is not dissimilar to having a speaker positioned on each of the four wheels of McRae's Ford Focus RS WRC.

"The effect is incredible and we reckon it's the best audio in any motorsport game," said Guy Wilday, producer of the Colin McRae Rally series at Codemasters. "The audio technicians have gone for perfection all the way through the development of the game's sonics--from the recording of sound effects using a rally-spec Ford Focus, through to this incredible sensation of surround sound."

Both versions of Colin McRae Rally 3 are scheduled for release in Europe on October 25. The Xbox version of the game will launch in North America later this year, but the Xbox version isn't expected until spring 2003. We have new screenshots from both versions, which you can see by clicking on the links to the right. For more information, check out our previous coverage of the game.