Racing through the dirt, tarmac, snow etc. feels pretty realistic. The physics seem lean towards the simulation end of the spectrum with a few arcade-like elements thrown in here and there. For instance, colliding with trackside objects will usually allow you to bounce off and continue on your merry way, with very little penalty. However, most of the time the vehicles exhibit an accurate sense of control, pull, weight and perhaps most importantly, inertia. Power sliding through turns lends a very accurate and convincing feeling while wrestling for control of your vehicle over various terrains feels pretty realistic.
To offset these positives are a few suspect inconsistencies. At times it felt almost as if our vehicle were floating on thin air. This was especially noticeable when our vehicle was taking off from a standstill or was thrown into reverse. The car literally floats across the landscape, exhibiting no real weight or mass. It doesn’t deter the game too much but seeing it unfold is rather disconcerting.
Colin McRae 3 is one of those cases where it absolutely has to be seen to be believed. This game is gorgeous, just absolutely gorgeous. While the game is named after the driver, the vehicle, the Ford Focus, handily steals the show. This is perhaps, the most realistic vehicle to ever appear in a video game to date. This thing is just amazing, featuring a fully constructed, not to mention destructible, vehicle that just looks superb. We’re not kidding; as soon as we saw this baby our jaws hit the floor. You’ll see every single part of the vehicle when you’re racing, the brake drums, the axles, the suspension, the undercarriage, the interior and of course the exterior, all rendered with painstaking reality. It’s impossible to explain in words just how gorgeous each and every vehicle is. The bar for vehicle models in a racing title has been raised. When it comes to graphics,
McRae 3 is in at an entirely different level.
The show doesn’t end there. Each vehicle in the game is fully destructible, right down to the bare chassis. This means that all of the doors, hatches, hoods, fenders and bumpers on each vehicle can be demolished. We have never seen a game that allowed you to so thoroughly destroy the vehicles. Besides, who needs dead weight like doors, windshields and hatches to bog them down anyway?
Dammit John, this is the last time I let you borrow my car!Objects that fly off your car even exhibit an accurate sense of gravity and reality. For instance, if a tire falls off of your car on a hillside, you can expect it to roll up a bit, stop and then have its momentum pull it back down the hillside, actually gaining more speed as it progresses. Likewise, components that have been damaged, such as doors and hoods, exhibit a realistic sense of momentum as well. It’s pretty cool to see the hood fly up as you accelerate only to fall as you slow down to head into a turn.
Each track looks rather superb as well, most noticeably the latter tricks which feature some excellent weather effects. If you play the game from the cockpit view you’ll even see raindrops strike and bead on your windshield. They’ll even start to slide along your windshield as a result of your vehicle’s movement. Thankfully you’ll have a set of wipers to clear up your visibility before it becomes too congested.
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