Colin McRae Rally 3 - first impressions (1 Viewer)

[Iain Lambert]

I suspect WRC2 will be widescreen

Why yes it is, and my brother-in-law and I had to stop playing from the in-car view on his big TV because it was making our (frankly digruntled) spectators rather car-sick as well, particularly when one of us stuffed up a corner and bounced end-over-end down the side of a mountain, or flipped it on a ditch.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Oh and in reply to

Iain, is it true that (some of) the stages in WRC2 are really long?

I've not got that far into the game, but stages on the early difficulty levels are varying between about 3-8 minutes. I get the distinct impression that the higher difficulties have some even longer tracks in there, and certainly you race more tracks per rally. Amateur is 3 tracks, Pro is 6, Expert is 9.

 

[Jerry Gracia]

It is 16:9

There are no visual distortions on my 16:9 monitor.

 

[EdR]

BTW, I'm getting pretty good.

I officially have the 134th fastest time on Spain SS4, 2:50. I did it in the Subaru 44S, and it wasn't a mistake-free run, so i know I can do better. I don't see any other US entries in the Hall of Fame. Get busy, we gotta show them Eurpoeans we know how to drive!!

 

[Dan B]

Ed, I looked through the options & I'm a bit confused as to how the Hall of Fame listings are accessed. Can you explain it to me, I couldn't figure it out! (there are a bunch of codes...what am I supposed to do with them?) I entered the code in the "code entry" area in "secrets", but nothing happens.

 

[EdR]

Here is the Hall of Fame, you need to register with them, then you can enter codes there to compare your times with those from around the world.

It would have been nice if this could have been a Live! thing, but at least there's a way to compare times. It's also still actively updated, because when I entered my time on Saturday I was 129th...I dropped 5 places in 2 days!

If you look at the lists, it's clear than a car you unlock later in the game (or further than I'm at, at least) is the fastest car available...the Ford RS 200, it looks like it holds the top times in every stage.

 

[Dave F]

CMR3 ran in 480p (and 16:9) on my system. The graphics were on par with Rallisport. Maybe even a little bit better, but the only way that I would see a difference is from an A/B comparison. Put a day or two in between, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

-Dave

 

[Dave F]

Curiousity got the better of me so I ran out to the video store and sure enough: interlaced. Disregard my previous post.

Best lookin' 480i game I've seen... (but I still won't buy it since I can't drive the WRX in the career mode )

-Dave

 

[EdR]

Curiousity got the better of me so I ran out to the video store and sure enough: interlaced. Disregard my previous post.

Aha. OK.

I'm curious, do most HDTVs have internal de-interlacing? My projector (and all digital projectors, AFAIK) will de-interlace the input if it's not progressive. But it looks better (sharper mostly) if the source is progressive. So I'm technically playing it in progressive, it's just not as sharp as it could be.

 

[Dan B]

Thanks for the Hall of Fame link Ed, I was wondering what the hell you were talking about. (I thought it was something in the game itself)

Dave, I disagree with you about Colin 3 looking as good or better than Rallisport, but it does have nicer rain, snow, & dust effects (the multi-colored dust is awesome looking) for sure. I do agree that it's a good looking game overall but some of the backgrounds just don't measure up to Rallisport in my opinion. I hope Codemasters' Pro Race Driver on Xbox looks comparable as I plan to pick that up this month.

 

[EdR]

Rallisport is better looking, IMO. I agree with Dan, the effects in CMR3 are better, certainly the dynamic aspects of the cars are way better. But Rallisport has a good deal more environmental detail, and larger, sharper textures overall.

BTW, it's quite fun to be playing out a career in CMR3 on a console, and CMR2 on the GBA at the same time. They did an admirable job translating rally physics to the GBA.

 

[EdR]

Heh, I shaved over 3 seconds off that time, so I'm in 117th place now. I made plenty of mistakes on this run too... I really would like to get into the top 100 on that stage. Oddly enough, I'm ranked 117th on Spain SS5 as well. And 104 on SS6.

I need to unlock faster cars I think...

EDIT: Scratch the last two, I'm now 92nd on SS5 and 84th on SS6.

 

[EdR]

Instead of starting a new thread about this, I'll just bump up this old one. I sent an email to the lead developer at Evolution Studios (makers of WRC) asking about when WRC2 would be coming to North America...here's the reply:

Ed,

We hope to be releasing WRC2 in the US in about May.

Mick

Not exactly conclusive, but encouraging nonetheless.

 

[EdR]

So, flying the face of the shame of posting 3 times in a row...I'm curious how other's careers are going? DanB?

I had a hell of a time in Hard (season 2), but somehow I managed to win, by just 3 points. I botched the UK (finished 6th) and Japan (5th), but I won Spain and Sweden.

I haven't started my 3rd season yet. Very Hard seems Very Intimidating right now. Has anyone started their 3rd season?

 

[Dan B]

Ed,

I'm playing on Normal difficulty which has become too easy for me right now. I'm debating whether to start over on Hard or continue with my Normal career. I think I'm going to start over. (I'm on second season but winning every race right now...)

 

[EdR]

Well, you're definitely better than I am. I usually only eek out victories when i get them, and certainly didn't win every race. Although in my first season I cleaned up, not so in the ones after.

 

[Dan B]

I had a bit of a rally celebration last night. While watching the Turkey rally on Speed Channel, during commercial breaks I fired up CMR 3 & Rallisport Challenge. CMR 3 just nails the experience. I ran some Greece stages (since Turkey is a brand-new event & not in the game) & I tell you it was just like the real thing. Rallisport just doesn't have that "feel" like you are actually driving a car in comparison to CMR 3.

CMR 3 is definitely my new favorite rally game.

BTW, the Turkey rally was great & the whole season of the WRC this year has been pretty interesting so far. Citroen mean business & the Subaru is fast this year but they have been having terrible luck/driving/reliability so far.

 

[EdR]

I'm jealous! I don't even have cable (just don't watch enough TV to justify it), but I'm tempted to subscribe just to get some of those shows!

Ironically, I was at WRC.com last night, watching their video feeds from Turkey, and I thought exactly the same thing. I watched Burns (I think) spin out, and I was like "hey, that's exactly what's it's like in Colin McRae!".

I also have an even greater appreciation for their skills, Watching them take some of those treacherous corners, wow.

Speaking if Citroen, I sure hope this car shows up in a rally game...looks like fun!

 

[shane_watson]

Turkey= tire killer man did you see those rocks not gravel ROCKS!!

 

[Dan B]

Yeah shane, not only tire killers but suspension killers. It's amazing what those guys can fix with that ratchet strap, though. Suspension breaks, no problem...just strap it back on! It's the duct tape of rally racing.