Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Colin McRae Rally 3

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Review:

4th December 2002:
Colin McRae Rally 3
The rally master has returned, but is his latest effort enough to fight off the competition of World Rally Championship and V-Rally 3?
Posted by Marc Hull - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

Although Colin may not be doing as well as he used to in the World Rally Championship, the games that he has graced with his official approval have seen considerable success in the past, propelling the series to the top of the genre on the original PlayStation. However, a lot has happened since the last instalment was released back in 1999, and there's now a lot of competition to contend with the series' first PlayStation 2 game. As well as going head-to-head with V-Rally 3, Colin McRae 3 will also have to fight off Sony's own World Rally Championship franchise to reclaim its rally supremacy this Christmas.

When you first boot up the game you're presented with some suitably modern menu screens, which seems to be precariously balanced between looking stylish and bland. However, leave the title screen alone for a while and you'll be presented with a quite horrible video-demo of the game in action, which although nicely cut-together and showing some of the title's finer points, is recorded in such low quality and with extreme amounts of compression that there are artefacts all over the place, and it almost looks as if the game is running at half the resolution that it actually does. This actually turns out to be quite a shame, since when you get into the game and see its realtime engine in action things look a lot, lot nicer.

Browsing the main menu reveals a measly two play modes; 'Championship', in which you progress through several rallies in different parts of the world, and 'Stages', which simply allows you to select a car and a stage (as long as you've unlocked it) and do a quick time trial. You'll soon notice that the game puts a strong emphasis on realism, with an introduction to each rally in the Championship mode, followed by a view in the pits with mechanics working on your car during the pre-race menu screens. These screens allow you to customise your car's settings for each region, and there are loads of settings to fiddle with which should please rally purists out there. Fortunately, you don't have to enter the rally to find out whether your setup is good or not, since before you start the proper stages you get to test out your car on a special 'shakedown' stage, which you can repeat as many times as you like, and this also gives you a chance to find out how the car handles on the different road surfaces.

Once you've finished tweaking your car, you can begin the actual rally. As usual, each normal stage consists of a driving from point-to-point across various different forms of terrain, while trying to beat your opponent's times. Because of this, you never see any opponent cars, so in theory the game can concentrate on rendering the terrain and your car in extra detail. However, while certain tracks in Colin McRae Rally 3 look good, there are quite a few that seem fairly bland and generic when compared to games like Sony's World Rally Championship 2 or even Atari's V-Rally 3. Admittedly, with over fifty tracks you can't expect every one to be brilliant, but quite often you'll find yourself racing through endless forests, hills and deserts with hardly any distinguishing features. Even finding spectators around the track is a rare occurrence, and when you do come across one they're often flat, unanimated 'cardboard cut-outs'.

Fortunately, the cars fair much better. There are seven initially selectable vehicles to choose from, including the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, Citroen Xsara, Subaru Impreza WRX and Colin's car of choice, the Ford Focus RS WRC 02. Each of them has been modelled in meticulous detail, with accurate reflection effects and dirt that sticks to your car's bodywork when you go for off-road trips. The game also has an impressive damage system, where entire parts of your car can fly off if you give them enough abuse. Wheels can become dislodged, windscreens can shatter and your vehicle's initially shiny bodywork will become dented and eventually tear off, revealing some fairly detailed innards. Even the driver and navigator get shaken about, as the replays show their heads bobbing around as the car hits every stone, signpost and brick wall.

However, gameplay is where it matters, and in this respect Colin McRae 3 is a mixed affair. When in a rally, it's good how the car will respond differently on the various surfaces you come across, with tarmac giving loads of traction while gravel offers you hardly any, but somehow the handling seems too affected by this, with tarmac allowing you to turn even really tight corners with ease, but if you put even one tyre onto grass or dirt the car will start to spin. The penalties for coming off the track are also quite uneven; you can fly off a cliff edge and be replaced on the track a second later, or scrape past a tree, get spun around and end up wasting five seconds turning yourself around and making your way back onto the course. Some tracks even contain small rocks just off the road that are almost invisible when driving at speed, and yet hitting them will cause your car to spin and roll like there's no tomorrow!

Rally purists will no doubt like Colin McRae's attention to detail, but those expecting more of an arcade experience may be disappointed. With only two game modes, neither of which allow you to race against other cars, makes this an entirely time-based game. Even the two-player mode, which is played simultaneously with a split-screen, doesn't allow either player to see their opponent on the track, so it's simply whoever can negotiate the course the best that wins, since you're not able to try to ram the other person off the track.

In terms of length, the game is pretty strong. Despite the low number of gameplay modes, there are absolutely loads of tracks to select from, and a good number of cars to drive in. The Championship mode is also quite tricky, so even rally connoisseurs will find it a challenge to beat, although non-experienced rally gamers may find the game too frustrating and give up before completing it. However, sound is one area where the game seems to not match up to its rivals. Although the sound effects, such as engine grunts and crunching noises for crashes, are all pretty authentic, some people may be disappointed at the lack of background music in the game. The menu screens and video sequences have a quite good musical accompaniment, but once you enter a rally the only thing coming through your TV's speakers will be the sound effects. However, this does fit in with the game's simulation status, and it means there's nothing to distract you from what the navigator's saying.

Overall, if you're looking for a rally game that you can get into quickly, and that offers more of an arcade-like experience, then this is not the title for you. However, if you want a rally simulation, and can forgive the game's weaker graphical and sound aspects, then this is well worth investing in.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Colin McRae Rally 3 may not beat its competitors at graphics or sound, but it does provide a very authentic rally simulation that rally veterans should love. However, if you're more of an arcade racer, playing this could be too much like hard work.

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