Colin McRae Rally 2 First Impressions - ( Review, Preview, Article, Interview, Q&A )

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(c) Codemasters

Reviewer: Idol

Rally racing is my favourite gaming genre. I inserted the CD, minimum installation (6 Megabytes on your HD,..geez!...Medium installation is 410 MB already!). The game begins. welldone intro-movie, then the game menu. You can choose bunch of options, Rally, Arcade, and all the configuration stuff.

Selecting "Arcade" you choose your vehicle (not many, just 5 or 6), and then you're racing with other 5 cars in 3 tracks, making points depending on your position. If you select Rally, then you're driving alone and what matters is the lap time.

Okay, the game looks like an arcade, not much 3D, graphics is not outstanding, but playability is very good. This reveals it is a port from the consolle game in my opinion. It is not a real driving simulation, this is the game you want to play just to relax a bit...feels a bit like "sega rally", if you remember that. Just get inside the car drive it fast (you dont need to brake that much), and forget about your problems.

Graphics might have been better in my opinion, all the sceneries look pretty similar, with the trees in the background and not much 3D, but overall the feeling is good. I liked all the up&down on the track; The track in fact doesnt look "plain" like the old-generation racing games. Cars can be controlled quite well, and you can enjoy the race.

Graphics: 7/10
Playability 8/10
Overall 7/10: you really have the feeling this was ported form a console game...indeed it is!.