The beautiful car models, well-designed tracks, and realistic physics will instantly appeal to anyone who isn't afraid to get their car a little messy.“Piloting the Nissan in the Dakar Rally was an incredible experience, and I was keen to see it have a part in Colin McRae Rally 2005,” says McRae “It’s an excellent vehicle to take out on the new game’s different road surfaces and makes for one of the most entertaining elements of my preparation for next year’s event.” If you're a rally fan, chances are good that you'll be very happy with the additions made to Colin McRae Rally 2005.
This gives an advantage to racers who are better at the game, rather than the ones who can ram the other cars out of their way. Racing online with up to 7 other people, each player races against the ghosts of his competitors. While Colin McRae Rally 2005 doesn't allow full-on head to head racing, that's not really what the sport is about. While Xbox Live was touted on the game's box, it really only allowed players to upload their best times to a ranking board. One disappointment some people had with Colin McRae Rally 4 was the lack of online play. I didn't get an exact count, but it looked like there were 7 or 8 countries available, with about 10 tracks apiece definitely enough variation to keep you busy for a while. Japan had a beautiful mountain area, and Australia offered a bumpy desert track, and Sweden hosted the obligatory snowy level.
The tracks are broken up by country, with each country full of different terrains. For the first time, players will be allowed to select the weather they'd like to race in, as well as the time of day. The track selection has also been kicked up a notch, from 54 rally stages in last year's version to an astounding 76 in Colin McRae 2005. In some of the drier tracks, dirt and dust that get kicked up while racing gradually builds up on your car. A small icon of your car is in the bottom left of the screen, and it will show you where and how severe the damage is to you car. Side swiping a rock not only leaves a dent and a gash in the side of your car, it also bends the frame, which affects the steering, which you might remember is an important part of driving. The contours on each car reflect light differently, and the developers have added much more realistic damage than the previous iterations. Codemasters has revamped the graphics engine, and the vehicles are the best example of what it can do.
Each car is customizable, but the developers seemed to want more of the emphasis to be on the actual racing, rather than what's happening under the hood. With 35 cars, up from Colin 4's 21, you can choose anything from a light, quick RWD Mitsubishi to a heavy, powerful 4x4 like the Land Rover.
Unlike some earlier arcade-style rally games, the Colin McRae series has always been an incredible realistic representation of the ins-and-outs of the sport, and Colin McRae Rally 2005 is no different.
England's Codemasters have led the charge to bring this popular sport to your home console with its Colin McRae series. Rally racing, as it's known, is known the world over as being a more unpredictable and explosive experience than its stock or Indy racing cousins. While American racing fans are preoccupied with the paint tradin' of NASCAR, our friends across the pond like their racing a little dirtier.