Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: colin mcrae

Colin McRae Rally 3 vs 2.0 – Which One Is Better?

Posted on by Viljami

I played Colin McRae Rally 3 for a while. It made me think how much it reminds Colin McRae Rally 2.0. The game that I mentioned first was released for PlayStation 2 while the game that I mentioned after was released for the first PlayStation. Is it fair to make such a comparison? I think that the answer is yes. Maybe 2.0 is a better game? Would 3 be so much better just because of the more powerful hardware of PS2? You can also consider that with Colin McRae Rally 2.0 the developers had a gaming system like PS1 that they were already familiar with and could also develop a good game for. Also Colin McRae Rally 3 was released early in the considerably long life cycle of PS2.

I have to say that Colin McRae Rally 2.0 was and still is one of my favorite games that was ever developed for PS1. I think it just deserves its status as a great game. It could just be that it is also better than a game from same developers that was released on a more powerful gaming system year or two later. What makes 2.0 so great? It has everything to do with the physics modeling, the way you get to fiddle with the car settings and also the pure and satisfying game play that it has to offer.

Sure, the graphics aren’t that good. Still, I think 2.0 offers the best that PS1 can provide when it comes to the quality of the graphics. Can you honestly say that CMR 3 offers graphically everything that this more modern hardware of PS2 can offer? The answer is probably not. If we think about some PS2 games that look amazing graphically this rally game isn’t going to be mentioned.

We could solve this matter purely by looking through Metacritic and check how are the grades of both of these games. We can also check what the reviewers are writing about these two games. Critics are saying that Colin McRae Rally 3 deserves a grade of 86 while 2.0 receives a grade of 83. Also the users are saying that 3 has a score of 7.6 and 2.0 has a score of 8.6. In the comments Colin McRae Rally 3 is said to be one of the best rally games ever made for PS2. That same can also be said about Colin McRae Rally 2.0. You can say that it is the best rally game of PS1.

Is this basically just a comparison of PS1 and PS2. It looks very much like that. I think it is also a matter of how well you can utilize the hardware of the console you are actually developing the game for. Codemasters had more time with PS1 and developing CMR 2.0. They had spent less time with PS2 when CMR 3 was released.

My favorite out of these two is Colin McRae Rally 2.0. It has more settings to mess around with and the overall control of the vehicle is more comfortable. You also get to drive with several cars while with CMR 3 you only get to experience this one car. These are the most important thoughts that made my mind about this little debate.

Maybe it isn’t necessary to try to decide which one of these two is a better as a rally game? They have been created both by Codemasters. Basically they are both rally games but as games they are very different. The sum these thoughts up for me personally I have to say that I like both of these games. I just happen to like the PS1 game a whole lot more. So, my final thought of this blog post will remain to be this: “Colin McRae 2.0 seems to be a more comfortable and better as a rally game than Colin McRae 3 is”. And still…they are both very good games.

Waiting for Forza Horizon 6

Posted on by Viljami

Forza Horizon 6 will be released 19th of May this year (2026). It will be available at the launch for PC and Xbox Series S/X. There have been some very unofficial discussions about this game getting released also for other mainstream gaming consoles. This just seems to be the viewpoint today. There might be such things as exclusive releases soon as every PlayStation title seems to be getting released for PC and now also for Xbox.

So, what I have been up to lately, one might ask. Mainly I have been working and keeping myself busy in that way. There seems to be less time for video games as I get older. However I have played some games and this blog post deals with that part of my life now. I have played Crash Bandicoot 4, Doom – Dark Ages, Half-Life 2 and also more and lately Dirt 5 which seems to be a nice racing game to start to get ready for Forza Horizon 6.

Dirt 5 was originally released in 2020. It isn’t the newest game that has been developed by Codemasters but it still remains as a part of this legendary series of racing games that might even been started by Colin McRae Rally already back in the end of the 90s. There have been many great games in this series. I especially want to mention Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and Colin McRae Dirt 2. Those might be the best games out of this series.

Dirt 5 has a lot to offer. I have already spent a bit over 7 hours playing it. You get to drive with several different vehicles and there are several types of driving you will get involved in during playing. There are many camera options to choose from. You can set the camera to the surface of the road or then set it to display the whole car from the back. I chose to set the camera so that I can see the whole car I am driving. This makes it somewhat easy to play Dirt 5. You do have to control the vehicle precisely. I have played this game with a game controller. I really don’t know how a driving wheel and pedals would make the game seem to feel like.

Dirt 5 is a nice racing game in overall. It is almost unfair to make a comparison between the earlier games in this series because they are just so good as racing games. If we put it into this perspective Dirt 5 is a good game. There might have been some issues early when the game was released but I think that in 2026 this game is still a fun one to play. It has received the “metascore” of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic.

I originally picked up Dirt 5 just some weeks before the upcoming release of Forza Horizon 6. It currently has a price tag of 21 euros on the Xbox store. So, it is a cheap game that can help you to better deal with waiting for Forza Horizon 6. This time I bought a game as a digital copy. Although I decided to order Forza Horizon 6 as a physical copy. There will be a long installation process since the game takes a bit over 130 GB of space from my Xbox Series X. Do remember that there is also a PC version available.

With having already made the purchase I am waiting to get my hands on the new Forza game at next Tuesday. Today I am having a day off and I am currently enjoying it an drinking some coffee while I type this post that you are soon able to read. I really have nothing else to say right now. So, until next time my dear readers.

The Pure Joy of Rally Driving

Posted on by Viljami

We have seen many rally games that you can play on Xbox Series X. Out of three first games in this series of Dirt rally games Dirt 3 is compatible and fully playable on the latest Xbox console. It was released in 2010. So, its been a while.

I have now driven in Dirt 3 for a bit over ten hours. You can see the number of hours from this rally game’s stats that can be accessed directly through the menus of the game. As you might already know you cannot track your time that you have spent while playing an Xbox 360 game title on the Series X. Luckily we still can have stats provided by the game itself.

These aren’t my first touches to this rally game. Actually it’s quite far from it. I first got into Dirt 3 back when the only video game console that I had hooked up to my television back in the day was PlayStation 3. I was eager to play this game. I bought it as soon as it was released. I remember buying it for something like 60 euros. Games really used to cost much less in that moment.

This was also the first game that I played with a wheel and pedals. The game can also be operated with a game pad. The latest sessions I’ve had with this game I have utilized solely the controller. The difficulty level can be adjusted. You can aim for a more realistic and harder style of driving. The options are broad.

I have played Colin McRae Dirt and Colin McRae Dirt 2 also. It is a bit sad that out of these very fine rally games Dirt 3 seems to be the only one that is compatible with Xbox Series X. As I checked if this game would be available digitally from Xbox Store I found that it is not available. The only option, if you want to play it on your Series X, is to get yourself a physical copy. The game doesn’t really take so much space on your hard drive.

It is also today very easy to run also this game in an emulator. So, you don’t have to check every Xbox 360 title to see if they are actually compatible with your Xbox Series X. There is actually a list available online that presents this information. You can find it easily utilizing your favorite search engine (DuckDuckGo?).

Running Xbox 360 games on an emulator requires a heavy PC setup. I for example couldn’t get the Xenia emulator to run on my current PC. I am going to buy a new PC soon. This is because of the forced Windows update from Windows 10 to Windows 11. It can also be an option for you to install Linux. It depends very much of the software you need to run on your PC. Games, today, can be played with a Linux operating system. Even the newest ones. I actually think that most Steam games do run on Linux.

I have lots of music production software that I am not so sure if it can run on Linux. Mac really isn’t an option for me. I need a Windows 11 PC. There is some music software available for Linux and lots of this software is free or “open source”. It is just a hell of a job to set things up in Linux. I am not confident with this. A part of me would like to enjoy the freedom of Linux but something tells me that I need Windows 11. This means that I have to spend lots of money for a new computer since my current PC isn’t compatible with Windows 11.

Anyways, thank you, if you are actually reading this. I hope you enjoy this blog. Dirt 3 is one heck of a rally game. I hope you find it satisfying if you end up acquiring it in any way. You can play Dirt 3 on an emulator, like Xenia, with your own Xbox 360 console or the way I played it (on Xbox Series X).