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GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 10/04/2004
- Released on: 09/28/2004
- Originally published on GameSpot: Colin McRae Rally 2005 (Xbox) Review
Without the Colin McRae Rally series, rally racing would be virtually unknown in the United States. Well, technically, this extreme version of motorsport is simply ignored by the vast majority of American racing fans. Nonetheless, the Colin McRae series has managed to find a niche in the American gaming market with a consistent string of quality games that satisfy off-road racing fans and gearhead tweakers alike. Colin McRae Rally 4, released a scant seven months ago here in North America, was notable for its improved graphics, nominal online features, and, possibly best of all, budget price. Colin McRae Rally 2005 ups the ante--if only a bit--with improved online play, an interesting career mode, and the same solid driving model fans of the series have come to love.
Racing a VW Bug over a frozen-over stream in Sweden can mean only one thing: another Colin McRae game.
Before we get to the new features, let's take a look at what hasn't changed. Most importantly, the driving model that fans of the series have come to depend on is still rock-solid in CMR2005. It chooses to err on the side of driving simulation, as the series has always done, which means the game is not a simple pick-up-and-play experience for those new to the series. If it's your first time in a rally car, you might be surprised at how demanding the cars can be to drive. Expect to spend large amounts of time offtrack in muddy embankments and playing kissy-face with the numerous trees that line the courses. This is rally racing, after all, where no road surface is taboo: Smooth asphalt, muddy gravel, and even frozen ice are all fair game, sometimes all within the same race. The experienced driver knows how to tackle each surface to get the most out of his or her car.
The vehicles in CMR2005, of which there are more than 30, have a tangible sense of weight that is especially noticeable when making jumps. There are no floaty physics here, as the cars require a tremendous amount of speed to get airborne and quite literally slam to the ground when they land--the sense of suspension trauma is noticeable and thrilling, especially when using the cockpit view. Once you gain some proficiency with the cars, you'll find your fingers constantly flicking across the Xbox controller, making minor adjustments subconsciously in an effort to keep your car moving forward as quickly as possible. Car control in CMR2005 is a delicate dance between steering corrections with the left thumbstick, throttle and brake adjustments with either the two shoulder buttons or the right thumbstick (the former being preferred over the latter for optimal car control), and subtle, timely gear shifts with the X and A buttons to keep your revs as high as possible. If you don't like the default controller configuration, the game lets you customize each button on the controller.
Though the best-known rally cars are the highly tuned 4WD models--the Subaru Impreza WRX, the Lancer Evolution VIII, the Peugeot 206, and the Ford Focus, among others--CMR2005 has a great number of classic and lesser-known rally cars, including 2WD models such as the VW Polo, the Citroën Saxo, and the VW Golf GTi; classic models such as the Ford Escort Cosworth and the Toyota Celica GT-Four; and oddities such as the Mini Cooper S and even a Nissan pickup based on the model McRae himself drove in the 2004 Paris-Dakar Rally. Notably missing from the game's car list is the Toyota Corolla, a model that found a good deal of real-life rallying success in the late 1990s.
As you might expect, cars from disparate classes feel quite different from one another, as there is a great deal of performance difference between an Audi A3 and a Mini Cooper S. What's interesting in CMR2005 is the diversity in handling between cars of the same performance class. The 2WD VW Polo, for instance, seems to have slower acceleration off the line than the MG ZR, also a 2WD. Though both cars have the same horsepower, their difference in weight (the MG ZR being about 220 pounds lighter) seems to account for the difference in acceleration. However, these differences blur when driving the top-class 4WD cars, as they are practically identical in terms of horsepower, weight, and engine displacement. Most of the cars in the game can be unlocked by winning rallies in the career mode.
Diverse car selection means little without a lot of different tracks to drive all the cars on. Here CMR2005 delivers in spades, with nine rally events available: UK, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Spain, Japan, Greece, USA, and the newly introduced German course. Each event includes eight drivable courses, though certain stages must be unlocked. While the majority of the stages are the type of traditional point-to-point circuits so familiar to rally fans, certain events include a Super Special course, which is essentially a complicated enclosed course in which two rally drivers compete head-to-head for supremacy. These SS courses can play an integral role in the outcome of a rally, as they give you an opportunity to take on your closest rival "in person" in an effort to pull out a win.
A full garage full of road-ready rally cars. Which one to choose?
While the individual stages change from one version of CMR to the next, the characteristics of each rally event have remained true-to-life throughout the series. As in previous versions, the Finland rally event in CMR2005 is blindingly quick, full of harrowing hairpin turns in dense forest, full-throttle gravel straights, and some of the most dramatic jumps in the world. Greece, on the other hand, is a test of endurance both for the driver and the car. Heavy gravel, narrow roads with precipitous drop-offs, tire-eating stones half-hidden in the roadway, and absolutely atrocious road conditions, all hallmarks of the real Rally of Greece, are represented with dramatic flair in CMR2005. Rally driving in Sweden means running on combinations of mud and ice, dealing with snow embankments that can easily swallow your car (and add seconds to your time), and negotiating the slick surface of an iced-over stream, all while peering through your windshield during a driving snowstorm.
The feel of these different track surfaces and conditions is of paramount importance to the driving experience. Colin McRae Rally 2005 pulls off these tactile differences to great effect. Despite a disappointing lack of vibration support for the Xbox controller, there's enough visual feedback in the handling of the car on the track to realistically portray each surface and condition. Perhaps most notable in this regard is the bumpiness of some of the tracks, particularly those in Greece, where the number of undulations in the road is second only to the number of free-standing stones intent on ripping up your tires. Most noticeable in one of the three first-person camera perspectives, these bumps throw your car all over the course, especially at higher speeds. Those new to the series might find it difficult simply to keep the car in a relatively straight line on these types of difficult surfaces. On the other hand, even smooth asphalt or loose gravel can be intimidating in CMR2005, especially when they're found in narrow forest courses or accompanied by the seemingly ubiquitous rainstorms.
Heavy rain can wreak havoc on your car's handling.
Weather plays a role in how you attack each course. This isn't the NASCAR series, after all, and there's no running for the pit lanes the second a few raindrops hit the track. Indeed, "monster rainstorm" seems to be a constant subplot in Colin McRae's championship mode, as several stages in most rally events are beset by pouring rain. This is accurate for areas with relatively high average rainfall numbers, such as Japan or Germany, but the driving rains in the Rally of Greece seem a bit out of place, as that event has traditionally been dry. Racing only individual stages or rallies lets you choose the time of day (though there is no option to race at night, as in earlier versions of the game), as well as the weather conditions you'll face.
While based on real locales, the courses in CMR2005 seem to be designed with the idea of keeping the driver as busy as possible at all times. As such, don't expect many breaks during the three- to four-minute excursions into breakneck adventure. Some courses have relatively long straights during which you can catch a breath, but they are few and far between. When you're in the driver's seat, expect to maintain ultimate concentration for as long as possible, especially in the advanced difficulty mode, if you hope to have a chance at a podium finish.
All in all, the courses in CMR2005 are varied and exciting, employing a wide spectrum of surface types and weather effects to provide you with a huge test to your video game driving skills. Some course features, such as the snowbanks on the sides of the Swedish stages and the lip at the edges of particular Greek courses, are a bit too forgiving, allowing you to effectively "bump" off them to take tight turns without scrubbing off too much speed. There probably should be more damage done to your car when executing these types of questionable driving techniques, but for the most part, CMR2005 turns a blind eye to them, sacrificing some realism for a good deal more fun. Conversely, odd roadside obstacles such as hay bales and street signs, and even amazingly dense bushes, can bring your car to a standstill quickly (and pile on the damage in the process). While certainly not realistic from a physics standpoint, this at least teaches you to keep an eye open for roadside obstacles, and do everything you can to avoid them, no matter how innocuous they might seem. The only major complaint with the tracks is the short distance of each rally stage. As mentioned, most stages take anywhere between three and four minutes to complete, some shorter, some a bit longer. This is in stark contrast to some of the behemoth tracks real rally drivers face in competition, which generally average nine miles in length and are sometimes much longer. A few tracks of this type would be a welcome addition to the CMR series, if only because it would require that much more skill, concentration, and preparation for success.
Most races are won in the pits, so goes the old motorsports axiom. While this is not entirely true, it nonetheless applies to CMR2005. Because conditions vary so widely from event to event (and indeed, from stage to stage), correct car setups are critical to your success as a rally driver. Like previous installments in the series, CMR2005 lets you adjust a number of different aspects of your car before hitting the road, including tires (the choices of which change depending on the event), ride height, springs (suspension), antiroll bar, brake bias, steering, and gearbox. As you might expect, each adjustment you make can have a dramatic effect on how your car performs once you're on the road. As such, it's important to make the right modification for the right situation. Fail to give your gearbox a push in the top end and you'll be puttering down the straights in Sweden far too slowly. If you don't soften your suspension enough, the harsh course conditions in Greece or the US will eat your shock absorbers alive.
The stage-preview screens give you information about the upcoming courses you'll be attacking.
Here is where CMR2005 falls a bit flat, however. While the game gives you preview information on the next two upcoming stages, the information presented is fairly threadbare, consisting mainly of length, weather conditions, time of day, the types of surfaces you will encounter on the road, and a zoomable map that outlines each sector of the stages. While this seems like a lot, more information is often needed to make intelligent setup choices--specifically, more detail on the weather conditions. In many cases, heavy rain in the first stage becomes a light drizzle in the next, and with no information on either extreme, you often find yourself erring on one side or the other in terms of tire choice, when perhaps an intermediate tire (appropriate for damp conditions) would have been a better option. Similarly, elevation changes (which often call for lower gearbox settings) are not noted at all. As a driver, you are left to either memorize what the stage is like, or try to guess at the conditions based on what you know about the event locale in general.
While running the two stages (which are always run back-to-back in both championship and career mode), you can expect to see your car absorb some damage. A damage indicator, located in the lower left corner of your screen, gives you color-coded damage information for every major portion of your car. Slam into a wall with the side of your car and the indicator will blink, indicating damage to your car's bodywork and, depending on your speed, your suspension. Hit a tree head-on and you can expect to dent your hood severely and perhaps even sustain engine damage. There are two damage modes in CMR2005, normal and advanced. Normal allows you to take plenty of chances with the car and still be able to make it through a stage relatively unscathed. Advanced damage, however, is pretty unforgiving, even in light accidents. Drive too recklessly and you'll find yourself limping to the finish line. Damage to a car's axles or suspension is especially noticeable, causing your car to seriously favor one side or the other. That said, despite our best efforts, we were unable to completely kill a car once and for all, even after repeatedly slamming into trees with advanced damage turned on. Even running off a cliff, or completely flipping a car onto its roof after an ill-timed jump, results in a mere reset onto the course, with little damage to show for it. While damage can definitely affect your placement in a race, the game seems to want to always make sure that you at least make it to the checkered flag.
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