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Another one so quickly? Although it was never reviewed by us here at PGNx Media, the previous entry in the series, Colin McRae Rally 04, was released a mere six months ago by Codemasters. And since we never did review it, this review will be based on Colin McRae Rally 2005’s accomplishments, not on how improved it is over the previous iteration. That said, gamers will find arguably the best rally game money can buy.
Colin McRae Rally 2005 allows you to play online, or play in the game’s Championship or Career mode, or if you want some quick fun you can enter the Challenge mode, which is just a string of races (or just one, if you wish).
The game’s Championship mode is a bit more involved than the challenge mode, since you’ll not only be racing but also completing some tests along the way to make your car of choice better. Some of these tests test your ability to use the brakes properly while others test things like engine use. You’ll complete these tests and races and eventually you win the title of world championship.
The game’s career mode is a notch above the championship mode in terms of what you’ll need to do. You’ll still be racing in many events but here you’ll visit more varied countries than in championship mode. You begin the game with a few cars and will need to unlock more as you go on in career mode. That’s basically what the career mode is there for, to allow you unlock more cars.
Colin McRae Rally 2005's online mode is surprisingly solid and very ingenious. Rally racing is simply one car going out on these tracks, by themselves, trying to make the best time possible, in order to beat the time of other players. This meant that Codemasters simply couldn’t throw eight players there and have them duke it out, as it would remove the game’s authenticity. What they did was allow you to race with up to seven others, but instead of fully being there, you simply see their ghost, which can’t physically affect you and isn’t very distracting either. You can play either single-track or multi-track rallies in the online mode. The experience isn’t wholly the same as the repair aspect for multi-track rallies is gone and each car has a default setup (tires, etc) which you cannot change. Nonetheless, Codemaster’s method is certainly the most viable option to take a rally game online. The online game is smooth with very little lag in the games I played throughout the day.
Colin McRae Rally 2005’s gameplay is definitely sim-oriented and like real-life rally racing, most of the time you don’t race against other drivers but instead you go through the track on your own trying to get the best time possible. There are a few stages in which you’ll actually compete directly with another vehicle, but these are few and far in between. The cars behave realistically, and you’ll notice that their weight has an impact on how they drive. Fully customizable controls make the initially steep learning curve as easy as possible. Codemasters included a pretty good physics engine with CMR 2005. The game allows you to make many dents to your vehicle and even cause engine or suspension damage, which will certainly affect your racing ability, but it never completely destroys the car so you’ll get to the finish line, however slowly.
CMR 2005 offers a wide range of cars and tracks to choose from. There are many vehicles, over thirty actually, including popular ones like the Subaru Impreza WRX and the Lancer Evolution VIII to more offbeat choices like the Mini Cooper S. Each of the cars behave very differently, although they all have the trademark spot-on handling and realistic physics. The game allows you to change many aspects of your car (like the tires, suspension, brakes, steering, etc) in order to get the best one for the specific track you’ll be racing in next.
Much like the selection of cars, the selection of tracks is also impressive. You’ll be able to race in events around the world including the USA and Codemasters’ native UK. You’ll also visit courses in Australia, Finland, Greece, Japan, Spain and Sweden. These stages offer more than visual variety as they have different surfaces which affect your vehicle if you don’t choose the proper setup. This is further complicated by varying weather in the many stages, which add more depth to the game but sometimes force memorization to do well.
The game’s visuals are excellent like always. The many different cars are modeled meticulously and the same can be said about the environment. Every track in the game is a visual masterpiece as every object from a simple rock to the many trees is modeled with great care. The lighting and particle effects add to the already excellent visuals to create the most stunning CMR game yet.
The CMR series has always been sparse on music, and CMR 2005 is no different. You’ll hear music in the menu, but that’s it. The actual races are made up of engine sounds, some ambient sounds and the spoken notes of your co-driver..
Colin McRae Rally 2005 is a great rally title. The game’s career mode, online play, car handling and graphics combine to form an easily recommendable title.
Edited by Jose Liz -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 12, 2004
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