Take a tour of the world viewed from the inside of a car travelling at high speed through countryside and roads barely trod by human foot or tyre. You must drive faster than the other guys and beat their times to win. Or at least not crash as much as they did. Get there faster and fortune and glory are yours. Get there later and, well you look a bit silly and might have to wash the mud off the car yourself. Standard Rally fare I guess, I'm not a motor fan so I don't really know, but there's something about the not-so-open road, a tank full of petrol and a strange man sitting next to you screaming directions from a map that is intriguing to say the least.

There is no time to check out the scenery. No, there are times to be beaten, and gazing out of the windows at the well rendered scenery is not going to shave seconds off the clock. Yes I know the snow looks nice, and the desert feels barren and empty yet at the same time oppressive, but there is little opportunity to gawk at the miracles of mother nature while taking a long easy right. Maybe. And please don't stop to look at the picturesque villages of Greece and Sweden, time is ticking and a lapse in concentration could see your car hurtling off the course into a tree, ditch or some poor retired person's house. A couple of tons of high performance off road vehicle do not encourage Mrs. Parsons prized petunias to grow, so kindly keep your eyes on the road and your pedal to the metal.

You think this race begins and ends with who's behind the wheel? Think again! Great care and attention must be given to the vehicle settings. Tyres, gear ratios and the like can all make or break a run through the treacherous conditions that lay ahead, and although he means well, your long suffering mechanic doesn't always give the best advice even if he does repair your car after every race without complaint. Tweaking the car's settings is an important aspect of the season and should not be taken lightly, although being as car-stupid as I am, I accepted the mechanic's advice, and while on the novice setting it made scant difference, on the harder settings much more attention will need to be paid if winning is where it's at.

Car handling is the slip-slidey norm of Rally driving. If you like that sort of thing then this has got what you want, slightly more arcade in feel the Mr. McCrae, WRC is easier just to pick up and play and have some fun, tweaking variables have a surprisingly noticeable effect on the handling too, yet can be safely ignored by the less car savvy amongst us.

Everything is here for the budding rallyist, good controls, great visuals, all the cars and courses and drivers. All officially licensed, too. It is a fun game even for people like me who have little interest in the subject matter. Sure I miss the thrill of racing against real-time opponents, but the car handling is a lot of fun and the varied surfaces of the courses makes navigating them challenging whilst still remaining fun. Not too simulation orientated it places its foot firmly in the "fun" camp and for that I am grateful. WRC 3 is a really nice game whether you are looking for a 5 minute blast through the Swiss Alps or a 3 hour burn through Tunisian Deserts.

83%

By Brad Davey

Comments

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  1. kiven Unregistered 5 years ago

    why can we play the games

  2. lunnon Unregistered 5 years ago

    what do you mean "why can we play the games" doh, because we have these things called hands and these other things called games conscles which you can play these things called games on them. Have you been living on Mars for the last 100 years?

  3. gooliwok Unregistered 5 years ago

    I reckon this game should be banned in America, because it has too many guns and photos of injuries in it. I like the main charater Jason, he is very fast, does he do martial arts? I would give this game about 7/10

    Has anyone got anymore info on this game?