Powerful NEON engine
I've been looking forward to this! A chance to go hands-on with the latest game in the Colin McRae franchise!
Codemaster's flagship racing title just gets better and better. They've stepped up their game and built Colin Mcrae: Dirt from the ground-up. The exceptional NEON engine helps to take the McRae experience to a whole new level, with some stunning locations, remarkable physics and an all-together bumpier and realistic rally experience.
There's an admirable attention to detail in the design of the cars, but what's more impressive is the way they react to the bumps and turns of the tricky courses. All of the vehicles offer a slightly different experience, with different strengths and weaknesses, but all have two things in common; the cars I test drove handled impeccably and all provided the exhilarating high speed ride that I've come to expect from McRae titles. I could feel every loose rock and every inch of gravel shifting under my wheels as I leapt over the table top jumps and navigated those tricky corners.
Click for larger imageThe overall visual impact of each race is extremely impressive as bonnets dent under the pressure of impact, bumpers hang on a thread or car doors fly off their hinges, spinning out onto the track behind. As I sped down the narrow roads, passing cheering crowds and watching debris fly off my car as it clipped crash barriers, I couldn't help but be overtly impressed with how polished, accurate and 'next-gen' the franchise now feels.
Click for larger imageFrom the treacherous hill climb event through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to negotiating the slippery rain-sodden tarmac on the twisting roads of Maebashi in Japan, each course is based on a real-world track from the world of rally racing. They are all meticulously detailed with rich shadow and lighting effects, trees that bend and snap if you crash into them, a real working wind system, which not only affects the way that rain falls, but sends exhaust smoke and dust billowing in the direction of the breeze, and tries to nudge and push your vehicle into submission.
