Score: 82
Overall User Average: 8.09 / 10 (81.7%)
Gameplay User Average: 8.09 / 10
Graphics User Average: 7.64 / 10
Sound User Average: 7.91 / 10
SamSmith
Date reviewed: December 15, 2004.
Overall: it is a big leap up from the already great mcRAE rally2... graphics are nice, but dont make use of the power at hand. a good game, and must be respected for encouraging the release of some great rally game... and some not so great!
Gameplay: gameplay is unique, and is a welcome diversity to the traditional arcade style racer, everything could have been more fine-tuned and expanded upon, but none the less... this is unique and definative stuff.
Graphics: visually nice, but not much more than that... i know that it could have made much better use of the xbox's power... it looks like a ps2 game... and i dont think games that should look like that on xbox... it is not bad, it's just not good enough.
Sound: there is nothing at all bad about hoe this game sounds... however, there is nothing astounding that encourages me to give a great mark to. engines sound okay, as do the few environment sound... and prety much everything else in the game.
overall McRae rally3 is an average and sometimes even nice sounding game...
Overall: 80 %
Gameplay: 80 %
Graphics: 50 %
Sound: 60 %
trav777sk8
Date reviewed: November 10, 2003.
Overall: OVERALL THIS GAME COVERS ALL ASPECTS OF A RALLY GAME I MEEN I JUST DONT KNOW WHAT EVERYONE WAS TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY SAID THIS GAME HAD BAD GRAPHICS CAUSE THEY LOOKED ABOUT AWESOME TO ME.BUT THERE IS ONE THING THAT I HATED ABOUT THIS GAME AND THAT IS THE MULTI-PLAYER I MEEN IT WAS HORRIBLE.THIS GAME HAS LIKE THE BEST WRECKS AND MOST RELISTIC CRASHES AND BROKEN CARS EVER BUT IN MULTI-PLAYER YOU JUST RACE THE TIME YOU CANT EVEN HIT EACH OTHER SO YOU HAVE TO LIKE TAKE TURNS RACING TIME IT SUCKS BUT I COULD WIPE OUT HOURS RACING ONE PLAYER.
Gameplay: DIDNT HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO REALLY PLAY BUT FROM WHAT I SAW I THINK THAT THE GAMEPLAY WAS GREAT. THIS GAME IS ONE THAT YOU CAN REALLY GET INTO.
Graphics: GRAPHICS ARE GREAT. WRECKS ARE AWESOME. YOUR CAR REALLY GETS F-ED UP. YOU WRECK A FEW TIMES AND YOU LOOSE SOME OF YOUR GEARS AND THEN YOU AN ONLY GO SO FAST. THEN YOUR MUFFLER STARTS RADDLING AND FALLS OFF. WINDOWS BREAK AND DOORS COME OFF. CARS GET DIRTY FROM ALL THE DIRT AND IF YOU FALL INTO THE WATER YOUR CAR LOOKS CLEANER.AND THE REPLAYS ARE SHWEET TOO. ITS REALLY COOL.
Sound: WHOEVER OUT THERE SAID THAT THE SAOUND IS NOT GOOD THEN YOUR GAY AND YOU MUST BE DEAF BECAUSE THE SOUND COULD BE ONE OF THE BEST PARTS. WHEN YOU PEEL OUT OR SOMETHING IT SOUNDS SO AWESOME.
Overall: 90 %
Gameplay: 90 %
Graphics: 100 %
Sound: 100 %
turboo2u
Date reviewed: November 5, 2003.
Overall: Game seems to be defective. Goes haywire after about 90 seconds using my Mad Catz wheel. All other racings games work fine with this wheel. If anybody has this problem, please drop me an e-mail @aol.com with my screen name beforehand
Gameplay: with the 90 seconds I have to play before this game shuts down, the cars handle poorly. This game is not in the same leauge as Rallisport.
Graphics: I play all my X-box games on a 61" progressive scan Sony rear projection TV with a built in line-doubler. Again, the graphics are only average, well below Rallisport.
Sound: Does it matter when the game gives up after 90 seconds? I think the sound is the least important issue here. Again, not in the same league as Rallisport played through my 14 speaker, 1400 watt Dolby digital 6.1 channel setup.
Suggestions: If the game has problems with wheels, please fix this problem!
Overall: 20 %
Gameplay: 20 %
Graphics: 40 %
Sound: 50 %
Boomer
Date reviewed: May 10, 2003.
Overall: Great game, much better then the first two in all categories. The Championship is done very well, but something I didn't like in the first two versions and this one as-well is the menu, a little plain but the background scene is pretty cool (showing the guys work on my car) I also liked how it saved the amount of visible and non visible damage for the next race so you could race with same amount of damage, pretty realistic.
Gameplay: The game-play is excellent, The way you drift through turns with your rear wheels locked up, the jumps, and the effects your car take when you damage it, (loose wheels, broken suspension etc..) Also when you hit some hard thing, like a rock and the tire comes off and sparks fly out and every corner you have to take about 10-20 mp/h slower then normal so you don't spin out and hit a tree or something.
Graphics: The graphics are really good in this game the dust, fog, sparks, scenery, car models and even the crowd look pretty good. It's pretty cool seeing the hood, doors, trunk, glass, mirrors and tires and rim come off when you hit something, it seems pretty realistic. They did an excellent job on the visuals. Although in multiplayer on a dusty track the game lagged alot! which really takes away from the gameplay.
Sound: The sounds are really good. The sound of the fire coming out of the exhaust when you shift gears, the high pitch sounds of the engine, the sounds of the type of track your driving on gravel, dirt, mud, pavement etc... also when you fly through the water the sounds are good. and when you hit a wall and theres a loud bang or crack that usually indicates that a piece of the car is either broken or is about to fall off. The sounds in this game are one of the best I have heard in any game for a long time.
Overall: 90 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 90 %
Sound: 100 %
trancefusion_uk
Date reviewed: May 7, 2003.
Overall: Colin mcrae takes u into the season of the WRC Rallying with fun smash ups and awesome graphics and visuals! Colin mcrae gives u a wide choice of cars and enviroments in the freestyle which is fun if u dont wanna play the actual game! If u like ur rallying this is defonatly a game u should get!
Gameplay: I felt the gameplay was really good compared to other rally games on the market! The steerin wasnt to loose and the actions of the car looked impressive!
Graphics: well the visuals were the best thing about this game, the mud and damage model was mindblowin and realistic. The glare looked real and amazing espically when its reflectin off the roads and water!
but the most impressive thing about colin mcrae is when ur using the in car view and its rain. The graphics looked amazing!
The only thing it lacked was animals and spectators runnin across the track, but overall it defonatly beats the ps2 version!
Sound: The sound was decent to. the cars engine didnt sound computerey like most cars racing games! The only thing that let me down about this was not being able 2 upload my own soundtrack!
Suggestions: When the car hits big puddles it should shower the windscreen like the rain does. animals and spectators should run across the track like in the real events. And plus u should allow to upload ur own tracks.
Overall: 80 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 100 %
Sound: 70 %
Megaherz *RAGE*
Date reviewed: March 27, 2003.
Overall: Behind the wheel of the internationally famous Ford Focus RS WRC with your co-driver Nicky
Grist, be ready to set the course alight as you race to become the only one champion.
Rain, sleet, snow, mist, nothing seems to stop you even it makes all the difference to your
visibility and your car's handling, especially when every second count.
Test the limits of your ability and of your car, as you hurtle through treacherous terrain and dangerous
weather condition to shave all-important milliseconds off the clock.
Naturally, your co-driver Nicky Grist is personnally pace-noting every stage of every race
to help you in your quest of glory.
As you will begin your first season, you will start your race with a new three years contract under
your belt to, of course, win a couple races for Ford Rallye Sport through the World Championship,
which is a gruelling series of races across eight rallies offering different road condition which
include tarmac, gravel, snow, dirt and rain-soaked.
Before each rally, you will naturally begin in the service area.
Here the team's engineers perform the set-up requirements, which are adjusting the
suspension, engine, chassis of your Ford Focus and for the stage ahead.
Also, they are preparing the car to practically make it at his optimum setting for the upcoming stages.
However, as you are Colin McRae you may want to step in and make an inspection of their work or do
some manual adjustement.
When racing through Japan. Spain, Sweden, Greece and Australia, you haven't got time to admire the scenery, so
take in what you can of the road ahead before your view is obscured once again.
Are you able to experience the one hundred fifty decision a minute, and the teamwork that goes into actually
beeing Colin McRae, here the question ?
When i first bought Rallisport Challenge, my friends Jeff said, after trying it, that it wasn't near
the masterpiece of CodeMaster and possibly that the nearest sequel of Colin McRae Rally will be even better than every rally
game ever made. So i was waiting until i will have the opportunity to play it, but something goes wrong when
i finally put it in my x-box. I wasn't able to believe that such a mediocre game with a poor quality, without
beeing tedious, could even beat the king or the legend of the Microsoft X-box, Rallisport Challenge.
In conclusion, Colin McRae is not really a bad game but comparing this to Dice's master piece, it is nothing.
In fact, he didn't deserve a place beside Dice production, but it's quite a good choice to pass your time or
if i you want an advice, i could say that waiting until
pro race driver is a better idea !
Gameplay: In Colin McRae Rally 3, you must press Y to change your view, B to use your handbrake, A to accelerate
and X to brake. Naturally the left and the right trigger do the same thing as A and X, so it's up to you to choice
which one suits you the best. Also if you're taking you car with a manual transmission, you must use the black
and the white button to gear up or down.
For the positive part of the gameplay for Colin McRae Rally 3, we could mentionned the dashboard view with
the wiper who work when it's raining or snowing outside because it is absolutly a nice add and even if it is
hard to manoeuvre your car when your dash is hiding the road and a half of the screen.
Also the real time damage is amazing because when you car is too damaged, his performance are decreased
and that becomes harder to finish in first place. Sometimes you can lose your hood, your carrosery and
even your window, it get really crazy and really interresting. Naturally, you got a service area where
you can repair your car for free, but it's only on single player campaign and after three races of a rally.
What is really similar to Rallisport Challenge is probably the number of car and race you can afford to try.
Colin McRae Rally 3 offers like twenty nine cars and forty eight races, but where the ice racing, the hill climb and
the rallycross challenge ? I must say that is get pretty annoying to do classic rally every stage, so take
some of the feature that Rallisport Challenge has given to us and your game could have rise so much in
the top x-box games that you actually believe it.
Naturally there is so much more to unlock when you are playing through the season like suspension, tires and cars.
Probably that when you will first start the game, you will notice that there is just eight car to choose from and
it tooks too much time to unlock one of them, but don't desapair because there are supposed, like i said lately,
to be twenty nine at the end. In summarize, it was just a bad idea to give a bit more lasting appeal to
Colin McRae Rally 3.
Also the control system differs too much from Rallysport Challenge and it becomes harder to get in
the mood of the game for an elite rally gamer. When you now exactly at what speed and how you must turn a curve
and it was been changed
dramatically in another game, you feel like it wasn't made for you. I don't want a pale copy of Rallisport Challenge, i
just need a rally game who has a good gameplay and a handsome price.
Moreover the championship is trully too shorter, actually you can do one season and finish the game in four hours.
At least Colin McRae has captured the fuel of rally better
than is predecessor with a feeling that the rally continues and that there is no intermission between races,
what a nice job ! If, at least, the multiplayer have not ruined your work with no opponent and the obliteration
of this feature, my firends could have seen a bit of your work !
Let talk a bit about the multiplayer ! What i really like in multiplayer is that you can play on an alternate
screen or on split screen, this kind of feature is so much useful and especially in racing game.
Finally, the menu is too brief with only two option, which are championship and versus.
In conclusion, Codemaster have work to do in this part but i know they can do it, so go to work now !
Graphics: Colin Mc Rae Rally 3 offers a really good draw distance, but it is looking too much like a playstation 2 game
because there is a tree background which is an horrible way to embellish a game and there are in
two dimension ( same thing as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon ). Why does the hell the tree are hurting
so much when you hurt them ? Finally the inside view need more details to be perfect.
Sound: It's bizarre that Colin McRae Rally 3 don't have any music because when playing the voice of your co-driver or
the sound of your car can get really boring and anoying. If they could have put some wind effect or other environment
sound, the sound could have been a bit better. Naturally the real voice of Colin McRae and Nicky Grist
is trully georgous.
Suggestions: Custom soundtrack if you don't want to put some music, easier car control, better graphic,
everything in a way !
Overall: 80 %
Gameplay: 80 %
Graphics: 70 %
Sound: 50 %
lnin0
Date reviewed: March 2, 2003.
Overall: A great solo player sim that tends to misfires far more than its predecessor. Luckily the driving experience alone will keep most people happy for a month or so but after that the lack of features will add up too fast to keep this one going. As a multiplayer racer Colin is just a horrible excuse.
Gameplay: Handling in this game is very realistic and may turn some off. It is all about rally driving and nothing is comprimised in the physics department to please the casual racer.
Unfortunatly while the driving is spot on, and the damage is extensive and the stages are varied the game has many little misfires that put the brakes on it too early.
The driving experience is so immersive it feels like your in a real car, however, everything else in the game seems to be there to take you back out of the moment. The menu system is sleek and stylish but stuff you need to see (rally standings) is not an option. It has been reduced to a tote board you get to view for 2 seconds (no joke) before the start of your race. No way to pause so you can see how close your rivals are or how hard you need to push.
Colin does offer a lot of option for setup even if they are reduced to a basic hi,med,low. Usually the team has already setup the car close to perfect though so little tweaking is required unless you have your own preference for how the car should feel.
Also although you can damage your car quite extensively there is no way to view the damage other than an automatic and laborus display before the start of a stage. No way again to pause or skip ahead. Not that any of it matters because you have no voice in repairs. Your team does it automatically and you dont even see them doing the repairs other than the same old garage screen with them working you always get. No sliders going from red to green nothing. This does a great job of taking you even more out of the sim and making you not even care about damage since it is a hassle to view it during the stage and you have no say in repairs anyway. You will be asking yourself, what is the point.
So you think the point might be for cool replays? Wrong. replays are worse than CMR2. No control over camera - no FF,RW, Pause anything. And no save. Most of your crashes will be off camera as it doesn't follow the car and stays planted on an empty road as your car flys off into the woods. The replays also use too much in car and hood view which is bad because you just finished the stage in one of these views and want to see it from trackside angles.
At first I didn't mind only being able to drive the Focus in championship mode. But wait a month when you complete the game and want something new and all you have it the boring single stage mode. Another dropped ball.
There is nothing good about the multiplayer either. No contact in split screen (you dont even see the other car) and no co-op championship mode. You can't even race an entire rally vs a friend only stages.
Graphics: While Colin doesn't push the Xbox to its limits with huge textures or tons of polygons this game does fly at a fast clip (60fps). This means most minor annoyances will go unnoticed until you go head first into a pixalated bush.
The In-Car view is probably the most immersive view Ive seen in a console racer and the weather and special effects are spectacular. You really need to see them to believe. If you get the game force yourself to drive from the In-Car view as the other views cannot compare.
Cars and damage is nicely displayed, however, the lack of a quality replay system will leave you wondering what the point of the visable damage even is.
Sound: Sound is well done from the engine, the backfire, the turbo spooling up, gravel kicking up and branches thwacking off the car when you get to close to the roadside.
Music lovers need not apply because in game there is no music (excpt menus). This is a sim and instead you get the wonderfully done pace notes read to you by the real xWRC navigator Nicky Grist.
Outside ambiance is lacking as is the roar of crowds and airhorns.
Suggestions: All cars in championship. A real career mode. A real replay system. Let the player do more than just drive (ie rapair choices). LIVE! enabled. Multiplayer championship.
Overall: 70 %
Gameplay: 60 %
Graphics: 80 %
Sound: 90 %
javablaze
Date reviewed: February 23, 2003.
Overall: Overall, this is the most realistic rally simulation that I've played on any console. One player mode is incredible, while multiplayer split-screen needs improvements (cannot see other cars and draw distance is horrible). Best things about the game are the car models, car physics, and weather/terrain effects. The things that bring this game down is the multiplayer (especially 2P split - 3P split has better graphics and frame rates for some reason ??) and the horrid environmental graphics. This game is for someone that is looking to play realistic one-player rally simulation.
Gameplay: I love the car handling and dynamics. It is the most realistic next to GT3 for ps2. Drifting is easy to execute and the car moves in harmony with whatever terrain that it rides on. There are a good amount of levels, and good variety as well. Loading times are quick. Replay system is not very good (you can't control playback and camera). I love the beautiful animated menu system.
Graphics: Mixed bag here. The car models are amazing. As good as and in some cases better looking than Apex. Car parts are rendered objects that all get damaged and lost. Also, weather effects are awesome (especially rain w/ the windshield wipers). BUT, the terrain graphics are disappointing. Not much improvement over CMR 2.0, if any at all. Mountains and walls are average, but trees and pathetic flat pixels. I know graphics aren't everything, but the terrain quality is the worst of any new generation rally game I've played (V-Rally, WRC, Rally Fusion).
Sound: Sound is one of the things that sets this game apart from others in its category. Engine sound effects are realistic (turbo spool-up, misfiring system). The sounds of the different types of terrain is a nice touch as well (gravel, wood, rain, etc.). Crash sounds and tire skid noises are also on point. There is no customizable soundtrack, but I believe that was to keep the realistic nature of the game so you can hear the naviagtor.
Suggestions: Improve the environment graphics BIG TIME. Either put a full split screen multiplayer mode or don't support it at all. No half-assed stuff, please.
Overall: 80 %
Gameplay: 80 %
Graphics: 50 %
Sound: 90 %
mark1gti
Date reviewed: February 22, 2003.
Overall: I've played many rally sims and this one is truly the best. Unlike most consumers out there, I also have experience in rally racing, so I can tell fluff from the 'real thing', and this is the closest yet to the real experience. This is also the first driving sim yet in which there is a real advantage to using the 'in car' view, to say nothing of the quality of the experience as you hear the co-driver's voice giving you directions and things like realistic raindrops beading up on the windshield. The engine sounds, while not the greatest (which driving sim is?) are still immersive, especially if you've got a nice home theatre system hooked up. The car physics, as the car bounces around and such actually had me leaning a bit into corners! In short, I can't recommend this game highly enough, the only thing missing is peripherals such as a drivers seat with a woofer mounted within and a steering wheel/pedal setup.
Gameplay: I can see myself playing this one into the late hours of the night for quite some time, in fact if I were asked which X-box game I would choose above all others, I would have a hard time not choosing this one over Halo. The co-driver reading out instructions as you are racing along is really and truly helpful, so listen closely. Another area where I was impressed was the quality of the roads and scenery, which it appears they went to some trouble to make as accurate as possible, an example being the roads in Japan. Only people who had been there (I have) would know what those roads look like, and they are beautifully recreated here. If those are any example (and so far they are.) Even if you aren't racing down the road at full tilt but just simply driving around you're in for a treat. I've seen in other reviews that some have said the game has a steep learning curve, I think the best way to handle this is to just start out in the default mode (auto transmission, outside view) and just drive around until you get comfortable, then tweak with things. I found I was able to drive very quickly shortly after firing it up, such was the ease of transition into it. Hats off to Codemasters for producing yet another winner in the Colin McRae series, this is undoubtedly the best driving sim out there now in my humble opinion.
Graphics: The graphics, while really very good, are still not perfect. The colors can be a bit washed out at times, and even with a nice television (Toshiba Cinema series, 27 in. with composite video input into the X-Box) the colors are still a bit washed out and the draw distance and transition in borders from the road edges to areas off road can be a bit unclear, resulting in some unwanted off road incursions. I've found the best way around this is to just switch view from inside to outside and back again, but in retrospect I wish there was better delineation on the road edges.
Sound: Even though the sound isn't the greatest, it's still really good, especially things like the co-driver's voice (nicely balanced between engine sounds and the co-driver's voice). Do be sure to read the manual re how the co-driver reads information to you, it's necessary to get good stage times. Another high point was in stages where it's raining, you can hear the rain and the 'thump thump' from the windshield wipers going back and forth is really felt if you have good bass (real 'seat of the pants' stuff). Do play this game while sitting on the floor if you've got good bass.
Suggestions: Please work on detail on distance and also transitions from the road to non-road areas. Also, if we could get better engine sounds that would be great too. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing. Truly immersive, a guarenteed winner if you're into driving sims. Hats off to Codemasters on a well-designed and executed product.
Overall: 100 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 90 %
Sound: 90 %
xboxxer
Date reviewed: February 21, 2003.
Overall: This title was available in Europe since November 2002 and been a real fan of the genre, I was bound to buy this one. And I must say that this is a real good one. Some small problems or things that might annoy more than one (why do I have no choice over the car during a championship ?) are pulling the game down. But overall it's really great Rally game.
Gameplay: First of all this is not an easy game: if you want to drive around at very high speed, and bump around along the track 'Gotham style', stop to read here and do not buy the product: you might hate it. The others shall go on...The control are simple och very identical to everything you might known about car racing games (RSC or Project Gotham for instance). In CMR, you are playing Colin himself and try to win the championship through different Rally (different countries) divided into several events (6 tracks + speciale). You can also practice on each track (and this is the only way to test other available cars). The damage system is pretty good also and the car will react regarding to damges (I lost the back wing of my Metro GR once, and the car was almost uncontrolable at high speed)
Graphics: The cars models are really great. The best part is the real time damages: you will actually loose parts and some other parts will be hanging loose sometimes. The overall track design is sometimes a bit worse: On the one hand there are many more details than RCS, but on the other hand the finish is not always as good (for instance the trees are much nicer in RCS, but you almost can count them, in CMR you might drive around in a real forest but they do not look as good as in RCS...my opinion)
Sound: The sound are really good. Everything is there to make you feel like you were driving a rally car.
The choice of your co-driver is clear and almost always accurate (some parts could be more...)
The music itself is not something, I've relly notice, and I do not care in this case.
Suggestions: Good job overall! Maybe a bit more work on the tracks textures (especially the trees).
Overall: 100 %
Gameplay: 90 %
Graphics: 80 %
Sound: 80 %
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