Colin McRae Rally

"One of the best racing game around, if not the best. More fun than GT!"

Colin McRae is definitely one of the best racing game around. It can be more REAL than GT. Before each race, you have to choose what you want to fit into your car eg tires, suspension, gear ratio, etc. You also have to be careful when driving because accumulated damage can tremendously hinder your car performance.

Although this game comes with only 7 cars, the variety relies on the tracks. You drive on 52 unique courses in 8 different countries in different time of the day from early morning to night. The courses include surfaces like tarmac, garvel, mud, and snow.

The graphics and sound are great. I consider the graphics better than the grainy GT2. The replay is just ok. The sound effect is very real. You can hear your tires squeeze when they don't match the course surface. The engine sounds all right. You can tell when to shift gear up/down from the sound so that's enough. Hitting into obstacles will give the respective sound effect. However, I don't remember hearing any soundtrack.

Fun score is 10 out of 10 for this game considering following features:
-You rely just on your fog lamp for night stages with istance of vision about 10yards. And every stage with fog are beautiful.
-The car is realisticly built. It gets dirty when you drive on muddy surface. Spoiler and brake light can be broken. and when you turn left/right, the wheels turn accordingly.
-You can hit the tree and jump over the bushes. oh yeah.. you can definitely flip over.
-You beat the clock instead of the opponents. So you have to excel your driving skills to win the game. No more bumping into other cars.
-2 Players Ghost mode is awesome. You encourage each other to drive better and earn better time. Helping not fighting. No worry about bumping each other. The classic two players mode is still there.
-Rally School is cool and fun. You learn from the video and the real Scot-accent voice of Colin McRae!
-lots more waiting for you to discover!!

Rent it first. Try it for yourself and you'll discover that there are still much to desire from racing game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/00, Updated 03/03/00