Game focus: Colin McRae Rally 2005.

By Rob Wilkins and Ben Cripps.

Colin McRae Rally 2005 and the new all-in-one arcade Race Pac experience made its public premier earlier this month at the Game Stars Live exhibition in London's Docklands - to say the game was popular would be merely stating the obvious. Crash.net later caught up with Richard Tysoe from Codemasters [their motorsport community manager], to grill him on their latest offering. He told us all you need to know about the game, and a lot more besides...

Don't forget its out on September 24 on PS2, Xb and PC. Order your copy now!



Q:
Richard, tell us a little bit about Colin McRae Rally 2005 and how it has been received by the 'gaming' market?
Richard Tysoe:
Its been received very well. There's always a lot of excitement about a new Colin McRae game, and with the new features incorporated into Colin McRae Rally 2005 there's a lot of anticipation, especially for the new career mode which takes you through 23 different classes of championship over 300 stages!
Q:
Does CM05 use the same graphics engine as CM04?
RT:
In parts, but it's been refined pretty much throughout. Rather like a racing car where you keep developing every little component to get a performance advantage, and end up retaining a similar overall architecture while every specific component is improved.
Q:
Does CM05 use the same game physics as CM04?
RT:
Again, it's a case of building on what's gone before to make it work faster and more realistically - most people who've played CMR2005 have commented on the car being a bit looser and more adjustable on the throttle than before.
Q:
What are the main differences between CM04 and CM05?
RT:
More interactivity with the scenery, better graphics and physics as discussed above, more cars than before, and the massive career mode.
Q:
Are there any new courses in CM05?
RT:
Yes - approximately 50 per cent of the courses are all new. This includes an all-new country, Germany. The remaining 50 per cent, while containing parts of previous tracks, all take new routes in places (going down different side-roads, for example, before joining the old course again a few kilometre's down the track).
Q:
Are there any new cars in CM05?
RT:
Loads - these can be seen in the cars section of the CMR2005 website - www.codemasters.co.uk/colinmcrae2005. In particular, we've got the Lancia Stratos, a firm fan favourite from CMR2 which is making it's debut on the new generation of consoles in a CMR game, we've got all-new cars from Ford (the Fiesta rally concept) Alfa (the 146) and Toyota (Celica GT-S and the classic ST185 GT-Four).
Q:
CM05 features online gaming - does this mean Xbox users play against PS2 and PC players and vice versa?
RT:
Sadly not - you can play against players using the same platform as you; this is a limitation of the PS2 and Xbox online services.
Q:
Are there any new control/driving features?
RT:
Colin himself suggested one - the "Hard Steer" function. In most console racing games, because the player isn't using a steering wheel, control inputs get a bit filtered in order to maintain controllability. However, this can make it hard to fling your car at a tight apex, so we've implemented a button the essentially takes this filtering off to allow the player to make much harsher steering inputs than would otherwise have been possible.
Q:
Is the game any more realistic or have you tried to enter the 'pick up and play' market more?
RT:
We've endeavoured to maintain the game as a balance between the two. Realism doesn't necessarily mean that a game has to be hard to pick up, though.
Q:
Are there any enhanced features (e.g. hit a tree and leaves fall off etc)?
RT:
Yes, that does happen. Also you can bend traffic signs, scrape the paintwork off your car and make yourself dazed with heavy collisions.
Q:
Since the series started, how many CM games been sold so far?
RT:
It's well over 7 million now - and it is played all over the world, including Japan!
Q:
How do you expect it to do against rivals such as Richard Burns Rally and RalliSport Challenge 2?
RT:
Well, we expect to do better than them - we think we've got the better game - offering a proper rally experience while retaining accessibility of a great video game.
Q:
How does CM05 differ from Richard Burns Rally and RalliSport Challenge 2?
RT:
RBR's the classic case of chasing realism at the expense of accessibility. RSC is very much an arcade game, with circuit-based tracks and cars racing against each other at the same time.
Q:
Finally are there plans now to do CM06?
RT:
Give us a break, we're only just finishing this one!