Colin McRae Races toward Next-Gen
The PS3 sez: "Vroom vroooooom!"
Published: May 4, 2006
Aside from perhaps the scattered few courses that have made appearances in Gran Turismo 4, most PS2 owners aren't especially up to date on rally racing games. Luckily, with new hardware around the corner, it opens up the opportunity for another injection of "medium turn right, long right, hard right" gameplay. But what of the mystical PS3 and it's next-gen visual and physics juju?
"The all-new Colin McRae Rally will be a real evolution for the series and offer a massive variety of off-road events, more than any other single-championship rally game has before," began Gavin Raeburn, executive producer at Codemasters. "It's being designed to offer a totally accessible, high-speed ride for newcomers to the series, yet hardened McRae players will be able to delve under the hood and immerse themselves in the most challenging of competitions."
Ah, very good then, Mr. Raeburn. This is good news for us Yanks, who still don't quite share the rest of Europe's love for the Colin McRae Rally series -- or at least not console players. Whereas PC gamers have had a couple years to enjoy jumps in visual quality, console gamers are at least rocking couple-year old technology. Well no longer!
The two year break that Codemasters has taken has apparently gone directly into replicating as much of the real-life sport as possible. And expanded race selection has moved beyond point-to-point races to cover Rally Cross (mmmmmm... potential car carnage...) and Hill Climb events across gravel, dirt and mud tracks based on real-world locations. Real drivers and their respective rides will both be zapped into the game so you can play as their digital doppelgangers if you don't fancy Mr. McRae.
The game won't hit the PS3 until sometime next year (Codies is only giving us a nebulous "2007" for the release date, but we can live with that). Though there is art to be had, no actual screenshots have been released yet, but as soon as we do get some hot, hot CMR action running directly from the PS3, we'll make sure to pass it along to you guys.
"The all-new Colin McRae Rally will be a real evolution for the series and offer a massive variety of off-road events, more than any other single-championship rally game has before," began Gavin Raeburn, executive producer at Codemasters. "It's being designed to offer a totally accessible, high-speed ride for newcomers to the series, yet hardened McRae players will be able to delve under the hood and immerse themselves in the most challenging of competitions."
Ah, very good then, Mr. Raeburn. This is good news for us Yanks, who still don't quite share the rest of Europe's love for the Colin McRae Rally series -- or at least not console players. Whereas PC gamers have had a couple years to enjoy jumps in visual quality, console gamers are at least rocking couple-year old technology. Well no longer!
The two year break that Codemasters has taken has apparently gone directly into replicating as much of the real-life sport as possible. And expanded race selection has moved beyond point-to-point races to cover Rally Cross (mmmmmm... potential car carnage...) and Hill Climb events across gravel, dirt and mud tracks based on real-world locations. Real drivers and their respective rides will both be zapped into the game so you can play as their digital doppelgangers if you don't fancy Mr. McRae.
The game won't hit the PS3 until sometime next year (Codies is only giving us a nebulous "2007" for the release date, but we can live with that). Though there is art to be had, no actual screenshots have been released yet, but as soon as we do get some hot, hot CMR action running directly from the PS3, we'll make sure to pass it along to you guys.
