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Rec.Autos.Simulators Archive

Colin McRae Rally

11 posts by 7 people · 10 Oct 1998 - 16 Oct 1998

Paul Jone 10 Oct 1998#426355
Wow! CMR is a truely great game. The car and track physics are superb. It's even got a Rally School to teach you how to drive rally style, handbrake and all. Wonderful. Now I just have to learn how to master it. Paul
What kind of game is this? Is there a demo to find somewhere? -- If you want to reply to me in person, please replace nospam with swipnet in my address. Best regards, Richard
I agree almost. The game is fantastic, the physics aren't GPL quality, but the gameplay is just awesome. I would rate this as the best racing game since Grand Prix came out on the Amiga and I am a big racing game fanatic.
Paul Jone 13 Oct 1998#427290
I want to take back what I said about the physics. Once you get off the track CMR's a bit ropey. You seem to be able to drive through trees, and you ought to turn over when you do some of the things you do. Still, it's a lot of fun but definitely an arcade offering, Paul > Wow! > CMR is a truely great game. The car and track physics are superb. It's > even got a Rally School to teach you how to drive rally style, handbrake > and all. Wonderful. Now I just have to learn how to master it. > Paul
News 13 Oct 1998#427291
I'm tellin ya those guys at Codemasters really have the whole package about racing down for the general public. Toca never got the praise it deserved at how great multiplayer racing was with it, by far the best much better than GPL in that term no question. And CM is just an extension of that. BH
Paul Jone 14 Oct 1998#427639
Sorry Mark, you know I don't mean to offend. I probably overstated it - after a couple of hours of intensly technical GPLing, CMR seemed too easy - I fear that Codemasters may have made the gameplay easier because they got so many people saying TOCA was too hard. I didn't find this with TOCA - it was hard from the start and got easier with practice. I like CMR very much. It's light years ahead of Screamer, RAC Rally Championship and International Rally Championship for ground physics, car dynamics, graphics, sounds, general realism and almost everything else. But I disagree that the cars handle as well as TOCA. I haven't got on to expert mode yet and I suspect that it's better in that, but I feel that in intermediate mode the cars are rather easy to get out of trouble. On the road it seems to handle pretty well (is there a rally driver out there who could tell us?) But off track, I'm not so sure. Charging along in a muddy field ought to do serious things to your grip, I ought to get stuck and have to get the car towed out, but I found that I'm able to race along pretty fast over what looks like a bog. When you catch a bank full-tilt you hear a thud but your speed is not much affected - in TOCA you just can't drive through obstacles. If you have a collision you car will react reasonably appropriately (except that it recovers after the crash - how I long for a real damage model in TOCA2). When you lose the car on the outside of a corner down an adverse camber bank (like 30 degrees) you ought to lose just a little traction - well enough to turn the car over, I would think. When you drive into a six foot bush the car shouldn't behave as if nothing has happened. When you strike a tree full on you shouldn't be able to continue in the same direction - I would have thought that the car would grind to a sickening halt pretty soon afterwards. So is expert mode better? - knowing Codemasters, yes it probably is, but I would rather start off at that level. Who's got to expert level and how did they do it and are there any short cuts? That I have to muck around to get into expert mode and get to the extra cars etc etc is what makes this short of the full ten bob note. Look, I paid my money, I want the full experience and now - I don't want to have to earn. At least with TOCA, you could ignore all this nonsense so long as you knew the JHAMMO cheat, and the road handling was actually very well modelled indeed - as you yourself have conceded, together will a whole load of top TCC drivers. I would like to see what the top rally drivers make of CMR. Maybe I'm way out here, but I have to say that the game lacks the precision handling necessary for TOCA. The graphics are great (love the way the suspension looks) and the *** experience is excellent. Paul
Paul Jone 14 Oct 1998#427640
TOCA, GPL and CMR are 3 completely different and very good products. I don't think it's possible to say one is better than another - it's like saying oranges are better than apples, but bananas are crap. I like all three and for different reasons, Paul
Neil Yeatma 14 Oct 1998#427641
> I'm tellin ya those guys at Codemasters really have the whole package about > racing down for the general public. Toca never got the praise it deserved at > how great multiplayer racing was with it, by far the best much better than > GPL in that term no question. And CM is just an extension of that. I like TOCA a whole lot...however, the net play left a lot to be desired. I tried it twice...with 2 different people, and the warping was an absolute nightmare. I have ISDN, so bandwidth wasn't an issue. Two tries was enough. GPL on the other hand, has excellent net play. I've raced with over a dozen people at a time, and it was wonderful. I saw some warping but it was minor, and I assume that modem connections were the cause of the occasional warp. -- Neil Yeatman Ajax, Ontario, CANADA
% I like TOCA a whole lot...however, the net play left a lot to be % desired. I tried it twice...with 2 different people, and the warping % was an absolute nightmare. I have ISDN, so bandwidth wasn't an issue. % Two tries was enough. % GPL on the other hand, has excellent net play. I've raced with over a % dozen people at a time, and it was wonderful. I saw some warping but % it was minor, and I assume that modem connections were the cause of % the occasional warp. I don't really think the modem connections would necessarily be the culprit. More than likely the warpers were further down the stream from the host and thus their ping (latency) rate was too high. It would look like we may need "regional" hosts to allow full fields to help cut down on warping. Even then it may not work since some people's ISP may go through a different cloud or two before they meet up with the host's. -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Paul Jone 16 Oct 1998#428147
I've raced TOCA on a direct telephone line on TOCA's own modem to modem protocol, IPX and TCP/IP. The first one was great with almost no warping (almost as good as LAN play) but with the other two the warping was nearly as bad as with internet which really surprised me. We used Windows95/98 dial-up networking to connect the two boxes with TCP/IP and IPX. I can't understand this - I can only guess that the computer-computer connections suck out a lot of the bandwidth. Paul
Quoted text (22 lines)> % I like TOCA a whole lot...however, the net play left a lot to be > % desired. I tried it twice...with 2 different people, and the warping > % was an absolute nightmare. I have ISDN, so bandwidth wasn't an issue. > % Two tries was enough. > % GPL on the other hand, has excellent net play. I've raced with over a > % dozen people at a time, and it was wonderful. I saw some warping but > % it was minor, and I assume that modem connections were the cause of > % the occasional warp. > I don't really think the modem connections would necessarily be the > culprit. More than likely the warpers were further down the stream from > the host and thus their ping (latency) rate was too high. It would > look like we may need "regional" hosts to allow full fields to help cut > down on warping. Even then it may not work since some people's ISP may > go through a different cloud or two before they meet up with the host's. > -- > **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* > Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> But then again, Mark, you are one of the top 3 TOCA racers in the world. But point > taken, I must get a better look at expert mode. Why we have to "earn" expert mode > pisses me off something rotten. I paid my money for the game - I hate that I can't snip > those poor folks who aren't linked up to the racing net, they have to pay out big > time on the 0990 number to find out the cheats. 0990 numbers are very expensive in > the UK because the callee gets a whack of money from each call. I don't begrudge > Codies earning money from their very good programs but I think this is underhand. > Paul Well, I think offering kids a phone number with charges simillar to sex lines is the worst thing, any game developer has ever done. OTOH, the stupid copy protection pisses me off even more. Can't run the "game" on my new system, getting the dialog "only with original CD". Code"master", get your act together! l8er ronny -- Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure, kiddo?" |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

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