On Your Marks (Colin McRae Rally 2005 (PS2))

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	Colin McRae Rally 2005 (PS2)
Date:	08/02/05 (917 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast and furious., Great sound, graphics and gameplay., Great fun to play. easy to master the gameplay

Disadvantages: Highly addictive!!

~ ~ The Colin McRae Rally game has been kicking around for almost as long as the great flying Scotsman himself. In fact, in its various guises and different incarnations for the PC, PS2, and X-Box the game has probably made McRae a lot more dosh in royalties than he ever earned in his actual rallying career! Colin McRae Rally (from here on CMR) started out life as a game for the old PlayStation1 and PC, and has been re-released in improved and updated versions ever since, culminating in the latest version, CMR2005 that hit the shelves in the stores in October of last year. (2004)

~ ~ I had my first introduction to CMR when I purchased CMR3 for the PS2, and I’ve been a fan and avid player of the game ever since. It was hard to imagine that developers Codemasters could ever improve on CMR3, which was by far the most realistic and authentic rally simulation or racing game I had ever played. (The only other game that comes close is the excellent World Rally Championship 4) But somehow Codemasters managed to pull it off with the vastly improved CMR4, and with this latest version, CMR2005, they have once again shown that no matter how good a game is there is always room for further improvement.

~ ~ So what have Codemasters actually done to improve CMR, and in what ways is it an improvement over older versions of the game? If you’ve played any of the previous games, then when you first turn on the PlayStation you wont be overly surprised or unfamiliar with either the layout or the gameplay. It’s not at all dissimilar to the older games, but it’s the additions and extra touches that become apparent as you progress into the game that make it so much better than its predecessors. Graphics are improved, (yet again!) there’s a slew of extra rally cars to choose from, more tracks to actually race them on, and the progression from novice driver to ultimate champion is even more complex and difficult than in the past. This all goes towards making CMR2005 a game that will give the dedicated gaming enthusiast countless hours of additional pleasure.

~ ~ For starters, don’t expect an arcade type game with CMR2005. This is an actual rally simulation game, and with its totally superb layout and graphics is probably just about as close as most people will ever get to sitting behind the wheel of a performance rally car.
As in the previous games you can opt to race a Championship season, which allows you to take on the persona of the great man himself and race a complete season of races at all the different rally venues like the UK, America, Australia, Finland, etc. Each venue has its own particular set of problems for you to overcome, and you have a large choice of cars to choose from. As in the previous games the set up of the car can be tweaked, so that you can have faster bottom end acceleration or a higher top speed, can choose how sensitive you want to make the steering, and can select the best type of tyres to use for the different conditions. This really makes a huge difference to the handling of the car, just as it would in real life. If, for example, you happen to pick a dry tarmac tyre when you are driving a rally in Finland on a loose snow surface, then your chances of keeping the car on the road or indeed even finishing the rally stage are very slim. (To say the least)

~ ~ By far the most interesting innovations in CMR5 are the vast improvements that have been made when you drive in “Career” mode. Career mode is where you start out as a novice driver with zero ratings, and have to gradually progress to a higher level by competing in a large series of different competitions and events in order to build up your individual driver rating. (Points total) As you (hopefully) manage to win different cups and trophies, you gain more points, which then unlocks various other events for you to compete in. (23 events in total) As you improve, then various other higher performance cars (30 in total) become available for you to use. You can also improve the performance of your car by passing different tests to improve your brakes, suspension, gearbox, etc. Obviously you have to persevere, as to begin with you are only given relatively slow (and crappy) cars to race. (The VW Polo!) But as you start to rack up the points, then more and more exciting cars become unlocked, and things really start to get interesting. Within a relatively short period of time you can be zipping around the joint in such beauties as the Escort Cosworth, VW Beetle Rsi, or a nippy wee MG ZR! Of course, if you’re the impatient type then you can always log onto www.codemasters.co.uk or ring a number supplied with the game to purchase the cheat codes to unlock all the vehicles and tracks in the game instantly. (Costs £2.99 Sterling)
This is a big improvement on the previous CMR games where you were restricted to racing only as Colin McRae, and to using only the Ford Focus car. Now you can race as who you wish using whatever car takes your fancy, and the endlessly different permutations means that this mode of the game provides countless hours of gaming entertainment.

~ ~ The career mode has also been changed so that you compete in different stages from various different countries during the same event. While this isn’t as authentic as racing in Championship mode, (where you have to finish all the stages in a particular country before you move onto the next) it does make the gameplay far more interesting and varied. It also means you have to pay far more attention to the set up of your car as in the past, or you can end up getting yourself into serious difficulties on the next stage. Different events mean you also often use different types of car. For instance, there’s a 2-Wheel Drive series, a 4-Wheel Drive series, and various races for single type vehicles (such as the Mark 1 Escort or VW Beetle) All this variety means that it’s very difficult to get bored with this game, and in fact there are over 300 different stages in total, which means you’ll rarely be racing on the same track twice. (Unless you want to, of course!)

~ ~ Another option is to simply choose a car and stage at random from the menu, and dip your toe into the water by racing a single stage against the clock. This is great fun as it has no impact on your career points or progress in a Championship, and allows you to practice with various different cars, and to try out new techniques which you can then apply in an actual race. I often get up to a bit of deliberate mischief in this mode, deliberately ramming my car into hard objects, walls and buildings, and driving off sheer cliff faces to see how much damage I can inflict on the vehicle before it finally decides to give up the ghost! (Heh, heh)
If you have an online adapter for your PS2 then you can also play the game online with other enthusiasts. This is a first for the CMR series, and according to all reports is an exciting addition, but I can’t really comment as I haven’t an online faciility.

~ ~ The graphics in this game have to be seen to be believed. The scenery is fantastic, and relevant to whatever country you happen to be racing in. So you have twisty, treacherous mountain passes in Greece, long, dusty desert trails in Australia, and muddy, boggy woodland and tiny country lanes in the UK. A slight problem in the previous games was a kind of “shimmering” on the screen during some stages, but this seems to have been cured in CMR2005 by slightly blurring the edges on distant objects while keeping the foreground in really sharp focus, which adds a sort of 3-D effect to the image on the screen.
The attention to detail is nothing short of astonishing. The cars themselves are completely authentic in every detail, even down to different sounding engines for different models. And the tracks come complete with every detail you could possibly imagine. Rocks, cliffs, signposts, narrow gates, farm buildings, jumps, bridges, surface water and lakes and rivers, and hairpin bends. This game has them all, and all are potentially lethal hazards in your attempts to post fast times on the various stages. Hit a fence post or a rock and you’ll know all about it as your car comes to a teeth-rattling stop, and bits fall off onto the road surface. Break your windscreen and it falls out, scattering broken glass everywhere. Puncture one of your tyres or damage your engine, suspension or gearbox and you’ll immediately see and feel the difference in your car’s performance. There’s even a small icon set into the bottom left hand corner of the screen that keeps you informed what parts of your car are incurring the most damage throughout the duration of a stage. Mind you, as in an actual rally, you do get the opportunity to repair some or all of the damage at the end of every second stage. And you can set the “damage level” to normal or heavy before you even start racing at all.

~ ~ Handling your car is simplicity itself using the PS2 controller. Handling it well enough to actually win a race or post a fastest time or new world record is another matter entirely, and takes a fair bit of practice. But the learning process is great fun! The left analogue button is used for steering (or the left and right buttons if you prefer) and the right analogue button for controlling your speed. You have a brake and a handbrake, and if you prefer a manual to an automatic gearbox then you change gears using the buttons on the right hand back of the controller. You can even change the way the controller is set up from the extensive options menu. Another option is to choose your view from the car. You can have three different views from the cockpit (looking through the windscreen) or two from behind the car itself. (I personally prefer the rear view options)

~ ~ The sound effects in CMR2005 are equally as good as the graphics, if not so obvious. Much effort has been expended by Codemasters to ensure that every car has its own individual sound, whether it’s crashing through the gearbox or into a brick wall. Then you have the voice of Colin McRae’s actual navigator, Nicky Grist, who gives you a running commentary on what hazard you can expect to come across next on every individual stage of a rally! Sometimes his guidance is so rapid fire that it’s hard to keep up, never mind actually take any heed of what he’s telling you to do! The poor guy must have felt like giving up talking for a year after he completed all the commentaries in CMR2005!
There’s no music while you are in racing mode, but for the rest of the time there’s a sort of techno mix that seems to be designed to heighten your excitement and put you in the right frame of mind for the challenges of the next race.

~ ~ So what’s my overall assessment of CMR2005?
Well, as you’ve already probably deduced I’m a BIG fan of this particular game and hope that developers Codemasters continue to release even more new and improved versions in the years to come. I’ve spent many a happy hour glued to my PS2 controller and to the on-screen action, and will no doubt continue to get much enjoyment from this game for months to come. I bought CMR2005 in the January sales from Virgin Megastores for only €29.99, which I reckon was a complete steal considering that when it was first released back in early October 2004 it was retailing at €59! It’s currently on offer at Amazon for £29.99, but as with all games (and DVD’s) it pays to shop around either on or offline to seek out the best available price.
Highly recommended by the mad cabbie.

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© KenJ February 2005.

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