COLIN MCRAE RALLY 2004

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Codemasters

Publisher : Codemasters

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Rally / Offroad Racing

Release Date : April 2 , 2004

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon Thunderbird B-Models / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compatible Video Card with Memory 32 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Ti Series
ATI : Radeon X300 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 3 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Colin McRae Rally 04 is the fourth incarnation of the series. The game features four different car types, including four-wheel drive, two-wheel drive, Group B, and a bonus category. You will feel a pretty significant difference between the cars you play from different categories. There are a little more than 20 cars in the game, and each and every one feels different and varied enough to make it enjoyable to drive time and time again. Adding to the realism of Colin McRae 04's driving mechanics are the game's array of tracks and the subsequent variations of terrain. Colin McRae 04 features races spread throughout eight different countries, ranging from the gravelly, dust-laden tracks of Australia, to the soppy, mud-bogged tracks of the UK, to the snow-covered tracks of Sweden. As such, it's up to you before each race to determine the setup for your car so that you can best acclimate yourself to the terrain in front of you. Terrain types on a track are displayed before a race by percentages, and you can alter details like your car's tire type, ride height, spring stiffness, and brake adjustment. Each of these details is quite important to how your car performs on a given track. Gravelly tracks require specific types of tires to prevent you from sliding all over the road, and likewise, setting your springs to a softer setting will also help your traction. You actually feel a legitimate difference between how your car handles on, say, light pea gravel versus heavy pea gravel, so it's not as though these settings are merely an arbitrary option. Although in several of the game's modes, you do have the option to simply race so that you don't have to worry about any of this. The game's championship mode requires you to learn the ropes of car setups, though, so you're better off learning how to properly configure your car. The damage modeling can be adjusted between two settings, and with it set to high, the damage really takes its toll. Bumpers, doors, and hoods shear off; windows shatter; tires explode; and rolling your car...well, let's just say it looks appropriately unpleasant. Now, of course, all of this damage will have an adverse effect on your ability to drive properly. In fact, most of the game's damage isn't even immediately visible but definitely takes a notable toll on your car. For instance, destroying your engine's cooling system results in terrible engine performance and even causes it to periodically shut off midway through a race.

Speaking of the championship mode , Its Like most everything else in Colin McRae 04, Depending on which car you choose, you'll become a part of that car manufacturer's racing team, so you'll attempt to earn points for both yourself and your team as you blaze through a series of six-race, two-day rally events. As you play, you'll also take part in special one-on-one competitions against an opponent in an arena-like race, and you'll have the opportunity to earn new parts for your car by testing them yourself. Parts-testing takes place between countries, and you can earn items like upgraded brakes, snow and gravel tires, and gear boxes. Each test is like a minigame of sorts, where, for instance, when testing new brakes, you must speed through a course and stop within a specifically marked area of a track. In terms of remaining gameplay modes, the rest of Colin McRae 04 is made up of standard quick race, single course, and single rally modes. The quick race is just a random car and track that's selected for you, which gets you into a competition as expediently as possible. Single course lets you run a time trial through any of the game's available courses. As for single rally, any of the championship mode rallies are available in a single sitting here, in addition to a few customized rallies and a couple of slots for you to create your own customized rallies. Colin McRae 04 also sounds really great. Colin McRae's longtime navigator, Derek Ringer, once again makes an appearance in this year's title, and his dialogue is pretty much what you would expect. The game also features navigator dialogue in multiple other languages as well. There's very little soundtrack to speak of in Colin McRae 04, save for in the game's various menu screens, but what's there serves as decent background fodder. When in the standard camera view, everything sounds really good. Every car's engine sounds different, slide-outs and crashes are just what they should be, and the sounds of the car simply bouncing around and skidding around corners are excellent. To top it all off, when you switch to the "in the cockpit" camera view, you get a whole new take on the game's sound presentation. Everything feels much more immersive, and all the effects definitely give you much more of a feeling that you're really inside the car. Occasionally, we did note a few slightly off-sounding engine noises, as well as a few lacking background sound effects in certain spots. However, to balance out these slight issues, the game features support for Creative's EAX 4.0 advanced HD surround sound. There aren't any PC rally racing games that are better than Colin McRae Rally 04--and there aren't many better driving games of any type, for that matter.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Colin McRae Rally 2004 Trailer :-