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Colin McRae 4: Hands On Preview
Mark Simons
13/08/2003
We take the Xbox version of Colin McRae 4 on a pre-release test drive...
We've been anxious to get our hands on 'Colin McRae 4' however we certainly didn't expect to see it this soon. As much as we enjoyed the third game in the series, extended play has made us realise the limits of the physics in the game and left wanting the next evolution of handling in racing titles.
You see all previous games in this series, and it seems a large number of driving games to date, use a central pivot that the car rotates around. Imagine a huge needle through the middle of the roof; whilst all the wheels may move independently, moving up and down and gripping differently, you can still only pivot around a central point. Whilst this has worked in the past, it does have its limits and leaves you thinking something isn't quite right, as the reaction of the car is not as you would expect in real life. For 'Colin McRae 4' this central pivot has been removed, meaning that the car movements are calculated even more realistically. This is one of the major changes to car handling that 'Gran Turismo 4' is implementing, it may not sound that exciting, but believe us it makes a major difference to the most important aspect of driving games - the handling.
The latest build is currently 80% complete and allowed us to take a few cars for a spin - Citroen Xsara, Impreza, Focus, Lancer Evo, MG Zr, Saxo, Audi Sport Quattro, Lancia Delta and the lovely MGC Sebring Special. Unfortunately the demo only contains one stage from all the different territories along with all of the American stages, however we've been able to get a pretty good idea of what the game is like, the different types of cars, road surfaces and the handling changes.
As soon as we sped away from the start of the American rally, in a clean, undamaged Citroen Xsara (the car Mr. McRae is driving this year), we could tell the handling felt different. Different how? Different harder? Different better? Different more realistic? All of the above. Our first few races were spent fishtailing around the wide bends, hitting rocks, seeing our car get smacked around and shredding a silly amount of tires as we carelessly bounced around the stages.
It's rather satisfying coaxing home a damaged, muddy car that has only one working wheel, an engine that keeps cutting out, very little glass, and a decidedly different shape from what the one it had at the beginning of the stage. It's also very satisfying to look at the damage you have caused; due to Codemaster's excellent damage system that debuted in last years outing, you truly feel that if you keep hitting them you could totally destroy the car.
After a while we realised that a cautious ride may be the best means for success; whereas most racers allow you to career around the courses with little respect for the overall damage of the car, CM4 punishes you heavily and places heavy emphasis on ensuring you don't whack the car around too much, as you'll have to complete a number of stages before given the chance to repair it again.
Now we've spent a good few hours taking various cars around the different road surfaces available, which have increased in number from 20 to 34. The new, and we have to say, improved road surfaces, coupled with the refined car physics, both contribute to making the control of this game absolutely spot on. We thought the previous game was good, but 'Colin McRae 4' just feels amazing.
With the throttle and brakes feeling beautifully responsive, in part due to the wonderful analogue Xbox shoulder buttons, you feel that you have total control over your vehicle at every point and it does exactly what you expect. It's hard to articulate quite how this works, but with the joypad in your hand, a wide-screen television turned up loud, and a couple of hours to spare you'll find yourself steadily improving your technique, utilising what you've learned over the years in all the different driving and rallying games you've played on many different formats. You will lay down your own braking points, you'll work out the angles to enter and exit corners, see if you can shave a few seconds off with a cheeky shortcut. You'll start to feel like a rally driver, pushing as hard as you can to beat the clock. We should point out that this preview is based on the Xbox version, and we like the fact that, due to the hard drive, your ghost cars are quickly and automatically saved, giving you incentive to come back and outdo yourself time and time again.
Despite this being unfinished preview code we could play this game for a long time, even without the full championship mode, all the cars, courses or mini-games, as 'Colin McRae 4' delivers wonderful gameplay. Sliding the gorgeous, in a chunky 1980's way, Audi Sport Quattro Rallye Version around some fiendishly tight Finnish corners before putting your foot, well, finger, down and feeling the car accelerate to over 100mph far too quickly down a narrow, tree filled road, with all kinds of rattling, whistling, and shaking going on, it's just, well, you know you're in the zone with this one. With trees encroaching on the road from both sides, wonderful sound effects really putting you in the driving seat, and the knowledge that one error of judgment could send your car smashing into a rather solid piece of wood, you'll find yourself somewhat on the edge of your seat as you try and keep things under control.
We can't wait to get our hands on the finished version of the game for the rest of the cars, courses and vehicle upgrades. There are some slight slowdown problems here and there, mainly in split-screen, but we're sure they will be sorted out before the games release. We have issues with a few graphical touches which haven't come along way since CM3; for instance, the grass - great, individual blades of grass, and it is used liberally, kudos to you Codemasters, but, when have you ever seen blades of grass go through a car and not be affected? Never, that's right. How hard can it be to get the environment to react to the car a bit more? Even more annoying as the tape and canvas barriers react to the cars, so why not have the grass being flattened as the cars pass over it? Or reacting in the wake as they fly past, and why can't branches snap off trees as you hit them? Why aren't there camera focusing effects in the replay? It would make things look like television very quickly, we don't know, but it would be nice for the game to have that extra little bit of shine to it.
