Personally we've always regarded the CMR games as having the best handling of them all, giving you a palpable sense that the car is truly reacting as realistically to the terrain as it could, yet remaining within the realms of acceptable playability - and if anything that's even more apparent now.Įvery pothole, every undulation in the track, and change of surface is truly evident. It's still a cracking way to spend more spare hours of your life than you have time to spare.Īs ever there's an assured sense that getting the feel right has been the basic goal. CMR has always been about the gameplay, the handling and the challenge, and in those areas, long-term fans have little to worry about.
The good news for those not hung up on the relative visual merits of driving games is that these initial eye candy observations are not tremendously important once you get down to playing it. They're right, of course, but that doesn't make it possible to avoid disappointment.
COLIN MCRAE RALLY 2005 NO CD PS2
Codemasters continue to believe making a PS2 version makes the best business sense.
COLIN MCRAE RALLY 2005 NO CD DRIVER
We appreciate that the game is almost certainly primarily developed for the PS2 (as has always been the case), and as such the technical level has to follow that, but yet TOCA Race Driver 2 wasn't and somewhat shows it up - and RSC 2 is out of sight from the start of the race. Simple factors, like the occasionally unflattering use of colour, doesn't always help its cause, and the fact that we know the Xbox is capable of better texturing is a minor frustration. In truth though, it's a little mean-spirited to always bang on about this side of CMR when its the gameplay that counts, but then how can you avoid it when the competition is so strong? For a start, you'll immediately welcome the addition of a bonnet cam (and about time), not to mention a few general tweaks and improvements (like the dazed blurring effect when you crash heavily), the sunlight streaming through the trees, improved dynamic lighting and the damage model is again very convincing, both in terms of the look and feel.Įven with that in mind, the overall standard is still a notch below what we've been treated to elsewhere in particular how frustrating to note that TOCA Race Driver 2's Rally sections actually look better than this? Codemasters' talk of big improvements to the scenery is certainly justifiable, but not so much that it brings it into RSC's league. It's clear that, having taken this on board, the team has worked very hard to improve things. Well actually guys, to be brutally honest, we've always thought it didn't offer enough detail or visual splendour. The press information confidently proclaims "just when you thought a McRae game couldn't offer more detail or visual splendour.". Every time we fire up a new CMR it's in the dogged belief that eventually they'll get it right - especially considering how impressive the recently released TOCA Race Driver 2 was. The most obvious thing to comment on this time around is the way it looks. On top of that (and needless to say), the one key new feature CMR 2005 definitely could not omit was online, and Codies has wisely bolted it on at last. The release of the Live-enabled RSC 2 only makes the task significantly tougher to drag version five up to the required standard.
Although CMR 04 improved massively on the disappointingly ragged-looking third version, both lagged well behind DICE's wonderful Rallisport Challenge. As benchmark setting as the wonderful PSone originals were - both in terms of visual and technical excellence - its hard to extend the same compliment to this generation's Colin McRae efforts. The other big issue for the Britsoft studio is keeping up with the Joneses. Such is the problem that Codemasters faces with one of its key brands. And not only is it tough, but it's incredibly perilous as you pile your resources into meeting a deadline, at the risk of ending up with a game so similar to the one you started out with that the fans start to lose patience.
After all, people spent 40 quid just 12 months ago - the developer has to find a way to encourage them to get their wallets out again. It must be incredibly tough to churn out a new version of a game in a year and make it sufficiently alluring.
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