Sounds great
---------------------------
Welcome to WRC3 The Official Game of the FIA World Rally Championship, a revolution in Rally gaming. Developed by Evolution Studios, WRC3 recreates the grit and realism of rally on PlayStation 2, bringing to life the raw exhilaration of the rally experience.
Evolution Studios have broken technological boundaries with the special effects in WRC3. Shrapnel particle emitters allow for bodywork and glass to come flying off the cars and a more detailed collision and damage model further intensifies the action. Additionally, working in-car instrumentation, enhanced car handling models and a new artificial intelligence system for driving computer controlled cars adds to the authenticity of the experience.
WRC3 builds upon the expansive environments and elements of its predecessors. All race locations have been populated with buildings, signs and other architectural features such as bridges and tunnels specific to each rally. Roadsides buzz with animated crowds who will react to on-track action. True-to-life junctions have been incorporated to allow realistic crossings of roads and rivers, forcing the player to listen more closely to their co-drivers pace notes. An even wider variety of different surface types within each stage, along with improved camera flares, lens droplets and embossed tyre trails all combine to make WRC III the most immersive rally experience available.
Thus ends the press release and here starts the hard-core, hands on review. Are you tired of being told by marketing people that such and such a racing game is the ultimate? Are you tired of being bombarded by quotes from various press outlets that this particular racing game or that particular racing game pushes the envelope? Are you basically sick of the hype? Well buckle yourselves in people as this little writer delves into a no-holds barred, teflon coated, no bullshit review of what could well be a defining moment in auto-gaming history. Before I delve right into the guts of what makes this one hell of a good game, let me fill you in on the people who created it. Trust me, a couple more paragraphs and I\'ll reveal why WRC3 is a must own title.
THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE!
Evolution Studios was established in 1999 by the former directors of two of Europes principal entertainment software developers. Martin Kenwright, founder and key creative force behind Digital Image Design and Ian Hetherington, co-founder and erstwhile Managing Director of Psygnosis shared a common view of the development process and set up Evolution Studios to focus on the core values that first motivated them to bring immersive, compelling games software to the public.
Evolution Studios is an evolving, dynamic business based in the Cheshire countryside and is dedicated to setting new benchmarks for interactive entertainment and the application of cutting edge technology with every piece of software they produce.
Evolution Studios has recruited a dream team of development talent, not just from within the games industry but from a variety of technical and creative disciplines. The firms approach to development shares many similarities with the movie industry. The core development team on a project is deliberately kept small and focussed, enabling Evolution Studios to involve the very best people from the areas it needs at any time; peripheral areas like special effects or animation for example, where the best talent of the moment may lie outside the games industry. The company invests significant time into pre-production and planning of both the creative and technical aspects of its products and the team believes that the fun they have developing the products shows through in the final game. So as you can see, the folk at Evolution Studios take themselves and their games very, very seriously. Unlike those fools at Krazy Klown Studios...just joking!
SO WHAT\'S IT WHEELY LIKE?
In this humble writers opinion, the defining moment in rally games came when I first played Colin McRae rally on the original PlayStation. The sheer delight of careening your vehicle through snow, ice, mud and gravel like you were doing it in real life was indescribable. The handling of the car was unmatched in any rallying game beforehand. For the first time ever, saying that you were "living" the game was an accurate description. Those of you that are die-hard racing fans will know what I mean here. Well that\'s the feeling I got when I first took control of the Lancer EVO in WRC3. Only, the feeling was better. But let me digress a little and cast your minds back to the release of WRC2 last year. While the terrain was beautiful and the car models were incredibly detailed, the vehicles had this unfortunate trait of handling like drunk shopping trolleys. Thankfully the kind people at Evolution Studios have listened to the feeback of over a million fans and have nailed the handling of the cars in WRC3. So much so that WRC3 makes even the polished Colin McRae Rally 4 seem like a goat race in Marrakesh. You know that feeling you get in Gran Turismo 3 when you\'re racing in an endurance race and it feels like you\'re actually racing in real life? When you hurtle your car around a corner and you can FEEL the corner? Well that\'s what it feels like when you\'re fanging around the tracks in WRC3.
NOW THAT\'S A RALLY GOOD VIEW!
The tracks themselves are faithful recreations of the real tracks out of the FIA World Championship and they\'re also some of the most beautifully made racing tracks you\'re likely to find anywhere. Such detail has been put into the courses that people passing by the television while you\'re playing will often think you\'re actually watching a rally. And it\'s a hair raising ride on some of the courses, especially the European races where you\'re hooning about on icy roads that are barely the width of your vehicle and that have a sheer drop off a cliff right beside you. Crowds gathered by the road will whoop and holler when you go racing past and the game takes a delightful turn when you have to navigate your way through townships.
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!
So the big question that remains is what do you get for your dollar in WRC3? Well for starters you get all elements of the Official FIA WRC license for the 2003 season, including the teams, new versions of the cars, liveries, sponsors and drivers, countries (including the all-new Rally of Turkey) and stages. There\'s the complete cast of 21 different cars plus 48 performance variants. There\'s a swag of different game modes as well including Quick Start, Time Trial, Single Rally, Chamionship and Head to Head. Unfortunately there\'s not going to be any online component with WRC3 but hey, who needs it right? WRC3 is the most comprehensive and enjoyable rallying game that has ever graced our planet. If at this stage you still don\'t believe me then have a bo-peep at the videos below which will knock you over. All of them are pretty big in file size but well worth the wait!
http://au.playstation.com/assets/downloads/videos/wrc3_finland.movhttp://au.playstation.com/assets/downloads/videos/wrc3_france.mov
