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As the 2004 World Rally Championship skids, crashes and bangs towards a conclusion, what better way to celebrate than a look at two current rally sim titles — both based on top British drivers — neither of whom are currently competing!

Colin McRae Rally 2005

Ask most people to name a famous rally driver and the vast majority these days would say Colin McRae. Colin McRae's franchise released by Codemasters has been going strong since the late 90s and has certainly netted Colin more fame and at least as much fortune as his usual day job has brought! Although the 1995 World Rally Champion was not able to get a drive for the 2004 season, Colin McRae has competed in the Paris-Dakar rally and competed at Le Mans. Colin did not disappoint in either of these, setting several fastest stage times despite an accident putting him out of contention in the Paris-Dakar and finishing third in class at Le Mans in Prodrive's gorgeous Ferrari 550 Maranello. Fortunately for us, one of these cars was included in the new version of Colin's racing sim, Colin McRae Rally 2005. Unfortunately for us it was the Nissan he completed the Paris-Dakar in!

Jumping into the game, the first thing that immediately strikes the simmer is how much better the graphics look compared to CMR4. The engine has been reworked and although this does make the game look a lot more detailed, it also gives a slightly sparkly feeling to the cars (even when dirt starts to accumulate to the bodywork!). The stages are very similar to the previous version of the game and the feeling of deja vu can seem a bit much — especially if you have just forked out £40 for the pleasure! Probably the biggest change to this release is the inclusion of the career mode. Now almost free of commercial restrictions the developers have decided to throw in what seems like hundreds of rally cars. Having won a simple Formula 2 round you are then thrown into an Escort Mk2 and told to throw it around the British lanes, experiencing the sort of excitement and seat of the pants driving that can normally only be described by the driver via a Ouija board!

The handling doesn't seem to have been changed overly — and this is a huge pity. The game verges on greatness and is certainly not the pale rehash that many people have claimed. It is a good game and, if a little more work had been done on improving the car handling and physics, then it may well have been a great one.

An in-depth review of Colin McRae Rally 2005 by Alex "Zander" Keep will be available soon.

Richard Burns Rally

By contrast to his compatriot, Richard Burns' year has been anything but energetic.

As World Rally Champion in 2001 with Subaru, Richard was within a shout of the title last year until he fainted on his way to the final round in the UK and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A budding career and a return to Subaru was put on hold as Richard has been undergoing treatment ever since and recuperating at home in Andorra. In the meantime, Warthog and SCi have been working on Richard Burns Rally. Burns has been promised a test with Subaru as soon as he is up to it and while this is a terrible setback for him, this is by no means the end of Richard Burns' career.

Jumping into the sim and the first thing that strikes you is just how no-nonsense this sim is. The entire game seems to be saying "If you want a laugh go somewhere else — we're rallying here!" Before we jump into the menu screen here is a subtle little note to games developers.... don't use console main screens on PC games without mouse support! I hate that! Left-left-left-click, right-right-up-click... we have mice — use them!

Now I have that off my chest, Richard Burns has similar features to Colin McRae on the menu — there's no career but there is a driving school to allow you to get used to the car — and boy do you need it! The handling in this sim is spot on! When the original Colin McRae came out everyone couldn't believe how accurate it was — now its handling is like Sega Rally compared to Burnsie's efforts. If there is one area Codemasters is going to have to spend a long, long time improving, it is the handling on their flagship title. The graphics are a little more shadowey and real worldy but a lot more interactive and with patches installed, there is little to tell between them in terms of quality. As you complete the rally school you see just how much of an effort Warthog has made with this title. Burns and his co-driver Robert Reid take you through each aspect of rally driving and it is a mark of the developer's confidence that they first get you to drive at road car speeds so you can compare their driving model to that of a road car (a friend of mine said he found it difficult to tell the difference when he closed his eyes between this and his own Prodrive Impreza at low speeds!). Step-up in speed and it is quickly apparent how much skill is taken to drive a rally car properly. In Colin McRae it is possible to fling cars into corners and recover with a dab of opposite lock and a stomp on the throttle. In RBR that sees you in the trees.

The Richard Burns Rally review by Jens "McGonigle" Lindblad is here.

Conclusion

So what can we say about these two sims apart from the fact that they are both named by the top 2 British rally stars and neither of them is driving this year?! Both games were initially released on PS2 and Xbox as well as PC and therefore you would expect both to be "arcadey" in nature. In truth neither could be said to be opposite-lock classics (though McRae is closer in this regard than Richard Burns). The graphics are brilliant in both but RBR tends to immerse the player in the virtual surroundings which really do create a virtual world in which you drive. CMR2005 can appear slightly amateur compared to RBR and it is this which really marks RBR out. RBR is similar to Grand Prix Legends in that does not depict what you imagine the driving to be like but it actually depicts what it is really like. Difficult? Yes! Rewarding? Absolutely! You have to work harder at RBR — but for those who care about their rallying there is no comparison between the two.

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