Colin McRae Rally 4 - racing game of the year (so far)

Zardon

Well we had a classic last year with Need For Speed underground and im happy to say that colin mcrae rally 4 is the best rally game ive played yet, and gets my vote for the racing game of the year 2004 already - this will be a hard one to top. They have done a wonderful job on the game engine after the abymsal V3 judderfest and this game runs wonderfully on a 9600 pro with high settings and a 9800 XT at 1600x1200, 2 AA (i never see the need for 4AA at 1600x1200) and 16 aniso with all settings cranked to max ingame. its so smooth you could spread it on your toast.

There are alot of ingame options to cater for everyone I think, and the game plays wonderfully, im also very impressed with the scenery in this game... you know how it is when you are racing in your rally car and the trees and bushes look like someone has stuck down some cardboard cutouts? this isnt the case with this game, everything has a great 3D feel and look to it, some awesome vegetation and in game physics. car damage is top notch and the handling appears to be very good (hard to tell on a keyboard of course )

Anyone who is in the slightest way interested in a good indepth racing game with top notch playability and with a superb in game 3d engine look no further, highly recommended.

snake

Absolutely right Zardon, playing it with my PSX pad is a pure instant of joy

Rasta Monsta

I agree with you Z about CMR04. . .the game is rock solid. However, I didi want to add that CMR03 performance shot WAY up with the patch they released, and if you still have your 03 version it is worth playing.

rasta

dorkz

bµrn us a copy! ;>

GutterPunk

Ive seen some screens it looks way good

dipstick

Great game for a GREAT price. Pick it up for only $20!!! You definitely cant go wrong with this one

Vampyromaniac

$20? nice

BWX

With all due respect.... This game is a pile of dung.

- After playing it for a while I have come to the conclusion it totally sucks. It feels worse than any of the other CMR series. It feels like it has a one axis pivot for the cars. Even looking at the replays you can tell the car looks funny because it is floating on the track pivoting from the center of the car- and that's ALL IT DOES..

Yes it looks great and runs smooth, but it doesn't matter because the control issues wreck the game. It might be OK for people under 13 years old, or for people who don't care about realism at all , but the control issues kill the game. It's a 2 out of 10 at most just because it has OK graphics- other than that it isn't worth the plastic it is printed on..

I liked the demo, but the full game is horrible- I thought they would tweak the physics, obviously I was wrong.. Another horrible racing game with nice graphics.

But hey, whatever floats your boat- I guess you get what you pay for..

Vampyromaniac

aww my bubble hath been burst

BWX

I guess I've just been searching for a great PC racing game or rally game to run on my PC and there doesn't seem to be one- anywhere.. My steering wheel has a very thick layer of dust on it- and I'm pretty annoyed w/ Codemorons for it...

Man, if they would just let you adjust the physics I could live with the menues.... I hope someone comes out with a mod- What a shame, it's such an awesome looking game too..

Zardon

Lol classic post, im keeping this for posterity

BWX

Well I have to take back 1/25 of the original post.

The problem I was having was a control issue- but it was an issue because the analog adjustment setting
wasn't being applied for some reason.. it's the setting where you adjust the limits on the on the analog
controls..

--There is an inner and an outer limit adjuster- kind of like on a remote control car controller- It's the last
setting when adjusting your controller before you go back to the main options menu.. I'm using a Logitech
wingman rumblepad w/ latest drivers and using the analog stick for steering, I take all the "slack" out of
the steering by tightening up the inner limiter in the controller options.

***What was happening was that I was setting it the way I wanted it, and then exiting out like normal.
The problem was it was going back to default upon my leaving the options menu. This made for horrible
control and made the game unplayable.. After I discovered this was happening I rebooted and the problem
was fixed.. ---they could still do allot of work on the controls, but it isn't as bad as I thought by any means....



So after racing a rally with the controls set up like I had them in the demo, it was MUCH better and more fun.
It was actually exactly like the demo which I thought was pretty OK, not great, but OK..
After racing one rally I can say the game is allot better than I thought- before (with the messed up analog stick
setting) I had to mash the analog controller 1/2 way over for the car to respond, then it would go full lock, now
it does what it should do, steer a little when I push the stick a little, and go full lock when I go all the way over..

I was pretty amazed when right after the start of the last stage on my first rally I lost my right front tire- not the
wheel, just the tire! I ran the rest of the stage throwing sparks 30 feet behind me while screeching down the
road.. The wheel lasted until the end off the stage and I won the rally.... It was on normal damage.
The handling was also realistically affected when the tire came off, which I was pretty impressed with. I'll have
to give this game another chance and try it out with my steering wheel before I damn it to race-sim-hell with the
rest of the shite coming out these days..

here's a cool screen of my car right before the finish line- It was front drive car which made it even more fun..
This screen is only a 50% quality jpeg.

Zardon

well im not going to argue car games with you man, you are into them much more than myself and certainly seem to cover all angles, I just enjoy playing this one and its exceptionally smooth and alot of fun - just my opinion !

germanjulian

Well I got the game to and played for 5 days now. I am last 2 track australia now....

A. Steering Wheel.

I use a logitech Steering Wheel with Force Feedback. **** amazing... it works perfectly and the last screen where you setup the DEAD ZONE (yes it has a name) works perfectly too. Any movement in my steering wheel gets translated into wheel movement. The FF is spot on, every stone ditch corner etc I feel. the wheel steers left right (depending) and it rumbels. People with PADS your really missing out cause all you feel is rumble not steering (like the car pushes against your steering in a corner or when a stone hits a tyre, obviously you can say how strong this is, dont want to hurt your arm do you ).

2. Car Physics: Well I really dont know how realistic the steering is cause I have Never raced a reall rally car in england or sweden or australia. The game does feel different then Grand Tourismo but I think it does a good job when it comes to the steering side of things. Doesnt feel completly right at times especially on tarmac but hell I only ever drive a BMW (my dads) and that heavy and slow(ish ). And I think the game is amazing when it comes to each counrty having a different road feel to it and when you drive on different gravel you can FEEL it when you stear! thats amazing and makes the game never borring!

3. Graphics: WOOOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOO. enough said (PS when it rains do cockpit view!! amazing)

4. Sound: comon goes the EAX4 sound really really kicks some ass!!! best ingame sound I have ever heard. I damaged my car yesterday and I could HEAR something was being dragged along on the underside of the car and I could hear a ringlying noise (must be axel?)

5. GamePlay: great tracks. you can get bonus parts by completing challenges. loads of tracks. all different!! no Repetitiveness cause every track is different and you race from 1 end to the other not in circles!! most tracks are longer then the NFSU tracks.

this game is really really good if your looking for a FUN, challening rally game.

dont know about real car physics though and I dont think 90% of you guys can even claim it doesnt feel right since you dont know.

dipstick

Hey BWX, you should get a PS2 and the GT series. I think you'll be in heaven

Rasta Monsta

I disagree with the rant about the physics. First off, I don't think the replay is a fully accurate rendition of the car's behavior while driving, but is really there more for show. You're right, it does look odd and unnatural in the replay, but I don't believe the car is actually behaving as depicted in the eye-candy replays (at least in the bumper-cam or cockpit views - I don't play the 'external' view).

Second, the "pivot point" bitch is common on message boards discussing race car physics models, but the CONCEPT IS CORRECT, as long as it is properly modelled. When a vehicle steers, a vector representing the direction of travel would rotate on a fixed point point relative to the vehicle chassis and arc of travel. It is a fixed point as long as all tires are tracking without slippage. . .if understeer or oversteer is present (or my favorite, four wheel drift) the so-called "pivot point" still exists, it just changes its relative position. The challenging part of modelling a vehicle's physics is correctly placing the relative axis upon which the vehicle is rotating.

FWIW, from someone who has done a great deal of 'non-traditional' driving, this game does a pretty damn good job of correctly modelling this effect.

rasta

p.s. I agree with the comments about "dead zone" adjustment. It MUST be done right, as the dead zone is WAY too large out of the box. Plus, for some reason it didn't save my adjustments at first, and I honestly can't say what I did to finally get it to save them, but once the adjustment 'took,' the game was completely different. I also agree that the FF in this game stands for "freakin fantastic!" The handling of the car changes with suspension damage, and so does the feel through the steering wheel! AWESOME!

BWX

Yup- I have beat them all many times- all the gold driving tests and everything.. and back then I was in DRIVING HEAVEN.. I've spent months playing all those games and they were awesome. I bought the Logitech Wheel and everything.



I actually use it on my PC and it works great too- It's a Logitech Driving Force GT w/ Pedals, A crappy wheel by some standards, but it does the job well if you tune it correctly- I think it's the same one Germanjulian is talking about.



Actually I wish the physics were a little more like GT1, GT2, GT3, Rally Trophy, Grand Pix Legends, Etc...

I just got done playing the 3rd Rally in championship mode (and be beat it- and got the upgraded brakes and dampers ) The graphics are completely amazing, I think I can say they are the best racing game graphics I've ever seen, even better than NFSu I think. They are so smooth and so realistic it's almost scary sometimes. It is a fun game, but I guess I'm just looking for a good Sim, rally trophy comes to mind, but that game was a little too hard, like harder than it had to be to control the car, but it was very responsive. CMR04 to me is like driving in molasses, to me it's just sluggish and unresponsive. I am going to try out my Logitech force feedback wheel and see what that's like- maybe it will be better..


Yeah Germanjulian, I was talking about the dead zone, that's what was messed up before and that really throws things off- try using the default setting with an analog controller- bad times, not fun.
I guess I'm just disappointed that a game that looks so incredible and sounds great isn't up to par when it comes to being a simulation, It's just more like a game.. Believe me, there will be loads of reviews from those racing Sim sites that say the same thing... I've owned about 6 automobiles and driven many many more- and have driven probably around 500,000 miles all together. And of course I have driven a few of my cars like rally cars- ripping off the mufflers, catching air, drifting in slush, snow, ice, crashing into trees (really)- I know what driving a car feels like- one of these days a racing Sim is going to come out that really captures that same exact feeling. Like better than GT2, GT3, but with graphics and damage modeling like this new game, CMR04..
I guess I would call the game an oxymoron, it does some things so amazingly well, and does other things like maybe a monkey was the head game tester? I suppose it just isn't a simulation, it's an arcade type rally game, with really amazing graphics, sound, and damage modeling.. I will still beat it though!

BWX

GT series on PS2, and many other PC racing Sims attempt to model each individual tire on the car, and then reflect the cars handling and behavior off of that- On top of that those games used individual shock/rebound dampening, spring rate, camber, caster, toe in/out, weight distribution, tire heat, ground surface friction, inertia, vehicle weight, and track banking for the physics model.. The center pivot of the car would be a product of all those variables first.

The problem with CMR04 as a SIM is that it feels like it uses the center pivot point of a car as the first variable, and then tries to make it "feel right" using the ground surface or whatever else- It is definitely an extremely simplistic physics model- I mean it can be fun, but realistic is one thing it is not. I actually think it is the same physics model as CMR2, but tweaked a little bit. Imagine if it were more complex, and more realistic, imagine how awesome the game would be then?

I'm not saying it is a pile of dung like I did when I though the deadzone was adjusted correctly but actually wasn't- because it handle's better than that- but it's not a classic Sim and never will be. Actually I think Sims are better than arcade style racers because they are at least trying to be based on fact, not what some game tester thinks is "fun", if you know what I mean.. I'll still have fun watching the scenery go buy as I try to keep the sluggish handling car on the road though.

germanjulian

lol you better start leaning C++ and start programming...... I think you can finish it in 14 years or so....

BWX

LOL- nope I'm too old. My younger bro is a programmer for a large insurance company though- he seems to like it.. I'll be happy with an A+ cert for now.

Hey I got it working better- I hooked up my wheel and pedals, but at first it was all messed up- the steering was tons better, but the gas and brake was all messed up. They worked, but when I had the gas pressed half way down the brake would still be on, but if I had the gas all the way down the brake would go off- If I let off the gas, the brake would be engaged, but only a little- I had to go to trailing view cam to look at the brakes to see exactly when they were starting to engage. After allot of trial and error with the wingman drivers, I finally figured out that in the settings in game, I had to select yes for reversing the gas and brake. It wasn't as easy as it seemed to figure out because I was trying to fix it within the wingman profiler and I had the gas and brake set to one axis- and was messing with the deadzone, sensitivity, etc..

After I got that sorted out it was allot more fun and I had 100x more control over the car. (I'm using manual shift too) Using an analog stick of a game controller for steering in this game isn't very fun and I haven't tried using digital buttons for steering. What you really need is analog gas and brake- then it turns into a whole different animal- you can actually start to use the throttle to steer the car, that's what's missing with a gamepad with an analog stick for steering and buttons for gas and brake. Most racing games (like Gran Turismo on PS2) compensate for that be gently applying the gas and brake when you hit the button for it so you can use the curve of braking or throttle power to steer the car, for some reason you can't with this game- it's all or nothing. Maybe that's a good thing though, because it forces you to use a proper steering wheel w/ pedals to have real control over the car. So anyway, after getting it all setup right, I actually think this game has more realistic handling than GT3, but only when using a wheel and pedals..

So if anyone has a wheel, definitely try it out because this game is one of those racing games that really needs one to play.. Anyone with a Logitech playstation driving force wheel made for GT3, plug it right into your PC for this game and flip the gas/brake with setting in the game.

Then go to the Wingman software- got to Options/Global device settings/ and then DE-select "report combined pedals". Then in that same window make sure "Enable centering spring force in games" is checked. Set everything else to default.. because this game definitely uses centering spring force to self correct the car when going around corners, I've even been able to start a reverse lock drift and let go of the steering wheel and the car will drift around the corner with the steering wheel still turning and tracking with the direction of the car- just like a real car that has the right amount of rake in the steering will do.. Pretty cool.

Also these settings are redundant in the control panel/ game controllers/ settings/ enable centering spring/ and then uncheck report combined pedals.. Just make sure they are set that way in both places. It makes a huge difference..