Colin McRae Rally 3

"Not as impressive as the other CMRs, but still a game to be reckoned with..."

Woo!! First review ever!! Here we go...

Colin McRae is a game that bring lots of memories back to old gamers... Oh well, maybe ''old'' isn't really the accurate word, but some of you'll know what I mean. Colin McRae really showed itself to be a very realistic, and fun, rally simulator. Its sequel, CMR 2.0 was just as neat, with enhanced graphics, and a pretty cool menu interface as well.

And here comes my review of the very last sibling of this, so far, successful game series:

::: GRAPHICS: 8.5/10
The cars are extremely well detailed, and seeing them get damaged bit by bit is most impressive. The damage model is most realistic, and it gives a nice warm cuddly feel of realism to it all...
The track graphics are nice as well, but well, there's really nothing that could be called eye candy...
The cockpit view is really nicely done though, rain falling on the car is extremely well done, as is snow, with the right light effects.

All in all, you won't get tired of them, but if you're used to PS2 graphics, don't expect to go ''wow'' each time you play.

::: SOUND: 7/10
Nothing really impressive, you got the usual rally car sounds... Grist did his work well as the virtual codriver, but well... Nothing to jump up and down about.

::: GAMEPLAY: 8/10
Now, I've never driven a rally car in my life, so I guess I'm not really able to tell whether the car handles realistically or not... But I can tell you it's close, if not better than the former two CMR games. Remember, this game is a simulation, so don't expect to be able to just race through all special stages at full throttle...
The car responds gradually well depending on whether you're driving on tarmac, mud, gravel, snow, and their wet counterparts.

The game designers have decided to add small cutscenes before and during the rally, which, at first, might put you in the mood to race. But in the long run, they just get plain annoying, and well, they take their own loading times as well... But then, this could also be the right time to cool down if that last special stage didn't go too well...

Now, a quick rant about the rallies themselves. Every single rally is pretty straightforward, with no big surprises. Well, every rally except one. The dreaded United Kingdom rally. If you ever thought driving blindfolded was hard, wait until you've tried it... It's just too bloody hard. Bad lightning, mud and trees everywhere, sharp turns... You WILL be surprised when you'll reach this from a surprisingly easy Sweden rally.

Oh well, the gameplay's all right, you drive a car through all kinds of environments, like you're supposed to do. Too bad most rallies are pretty easy once you've gotten the hang of it all...

::: GAME MODES: 4/10
Yup... Here comes one major problem with this game. Playing this game makes it feel like the Codemasters game designers felt it was useful to dumb this game down, certainly to allow any kind of player to try it out without too much of a hassle.

In the red corner... We got Championship Mode.
You'll soon notice you're only able to drive the Ford Focus in this mode. Personally, this doesn't disturb me... But well, I know there are some die-hard rally fans out there who just can't stand not being able to drive their all-time classic Impreza.
Championship mode works pretty strangely, due do this simplification I referred to further up.
First thing, manual repairs are gone. Yep. Completely gone. The game takes care of it all for you now! Lots of players will just scream at their TV set when they'll see this... I could have, if I wasn't in shock. Thus, you can't decide which parts of your car get repaired. So you'll just have to hope the right stuff gets mended...
Other than that, you don't start with all the car parts available to you, either. Nope, you'll gain one after each rally, should you win it or not.
If you DO win a rally, you'll unlock a car in Stages mode (yawn...), which I'll talk about later.
Your opponents aren't a direct threat either: if you handle the car pretty well, you'll mostly win every single rally, with a lead of up to one minute. Well... That is before you get to race in the UK, anyway.

Next up we got... The second and last game mode (yep!): Stages mode.
This is your classic time-trial and multiplayer mode. And the only mode where you can drive in anything else than the Ford Focus. You can only drive on single stages though. You can't even race entire rallies... Nope, you have to tackle each stage one by one should you want to do that... Which also means you'll be repaired after each race.
As for the two player mode, well... It's nothing real special. You can either race in Alternate or Split Screen mode. I don't think I'll have to say anything about Alternate mode...
Split Screen mode isn't too fun. Well, I play on a small TV, that might have something to do with it... I barely see a thing! You don't see your opponent either... They should've added that option, hell, must be fun to do a little Destruction Derby in the middle of a rally, don't you think?

Aaaaand that wraps it up for the game modes...

::: LIFESPAN: SHORT
You can master this game within a month... But then, I guess there's always the UK rally for you to train on... I bet mastering it takes a LOT longer.

::: OVERALL: 7/10
While not as astounding as its predecessors, CMR 3 is still a great rally game, and a must have for those who liked the previous ones. Just be warned that this game isn't anywhere near as rich as the previous ones, for some dark reasons only known by programmers at Codemasters... And is pretty easy to beat as well. But still, if you have some time between other games, it should still be fun if you're into rally games.

::: BUY OR RENT?
Let's just say that you should buy it if you got some extra money to spend... Else, just rent it, or borrow it from someone.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/04/03