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It's a delicate combination between accelerating and braking – too much of the former is going to drive you away in the blink of an eye while staying on the latter for too long is going to drop you like a stone in the rankings. Colin McRae Rally 2.0, from Codemasters, is a measure of radical reflexive behavior against a treacherous landscape, a terrain that passes as a road under normal circumstances. You are given a race car, a perfectly tuned, fast-paced lightweight vehicle, and then you are given the chance to travel along with dirt or mud tracks, tarmac, or snow-covered paths via timing checkpoints. The idea is to finish as soon as possible, set up split records, and pass from all four stages of one country's rally to the next rally.
It sounds simple, but there's a juxtaposition of braking and accelerating to contend with. With your navigator calling the turnouts, you've got the Peugeot 206 cranking the RPMs in the third gear, speeding down the course at 76 miles per hour before you hit the switchback. The road is dirt, and your speed is bound to be. Catapult you to the tree stand. Your foot is falling off the throttle, slaps the brake as you turn the wheel in the direction of the turn. This is the back end of the vehicle heads through a fall like the front-end wars, trying to make it happen. Switch it. Then you hit the throttle; the rear wheels catch and hit the accelerator. You're back in the corner, power has restored. The software has force feedback, which makes handling fast and simple if you have a wheel.
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There are four main ways to play: a championship, which is a timed event, where you must finish in the top six for the next rally; a single rally; a single event; a time trial; and a challenge. You launch your journey to be the best on four routes in Finland—roads made of gravel and mud. Climate may be a factor, so make sure you set up your car to withstand Mother Nature's whims. If you win in Finland, it's Greece, France, and then Sweden's snow-covered courses. If you appear to be willing to do so, you can unlock courses in Australia, Kenya, Italy, and the United Kingdom. There are courses that are locked before you show yourself to the primary set.
The tone of this program consists more of the radio talk of the navigator, the scream of the engine, the protests of the tires struggling to grab whatever surface you're working on, and the various sounds of crashes when you're not able to keep it going – the tinkling of the glass being smashed, the metal crunch being bent by immovable objects, and the constant rattling of the windshield that's got a hood. There's even the backfire of the engine as the car switches gear – common to rally fans of another rally title, Infograms Michelin Rally Masters.
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 really excels in graphics. Three-dimensional courses are a complex combination of light and environmental environments. And depending from the point of view (you can opt to drive from the near rear bumper, from the far back and up, from the front bumper, from the front windshield – which lets you see the hood of the car, and from the driver's vantage point – which lets you see 'your' hands, the steering wheel, the instruments, the front windshield, and the roll-bar system), you will also be treated for damages suffered to your hands. If you want a vision that bans it, don't panic, you can watch the metal contort and drag – create sparks, or watch the glass shatter and blow away in the replays.
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If the race starts early in the day, you'll use the headlights to illuminate the track. But as the sun slowly rises, you switch off the lights and rely on shifting daylight conditions. This part is quite well done. In reality, the title raised the bar graphically for rally sports. Using force-feedback, well-designed courses, and rich graphics, this game is a joy to watch and play. There are six vehicles to pick from, but you can set up any vehicle for the race, and then fix the vehicle between two and three points. What's going to be the tire handling, how are you going to set the steering and brakes? Change the axels, huh? How are you going to set up a suspension? Any of them influences how the car performs over the course of the race.
This is a delightful package of racing action, combined with high-end graphics and good force-feedback output. The game is for someone who likes to challenge the roads and their skills behind the wheel. And yes, this game is offering multiplayer action. Colin McRae Rally 2.0 is one of the best rally racing applications on the market. It's a blend of reflective ability and a moving intellect. Yeah, it's the whole kit, and it provides enough eye candy to keep the fans of Sim racing happy.
@kentzz001