GTPlanet League: Codemasters Classic Championship - Round 04

Round 4
Colin McRae Rally 04 - 2003
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Car
Citroen Xsara WRC 2003

Country
Greece

Parnassós
Perachora
Amfissa
Parnassós
Harvati
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Colin McRae Rally 04 released the year after Colin McRae Rally 3, marking the shortest gap between releases in the series to date. However, improvements were vast and the game was received very well. With a step up in visual fidelity, damage modelling and stage design. It featured 6 different championships to race through, across 4 classes including 4WD, 2WD and Group B. The same 8 countries from CMR3 returned with some new stages and Derek Ringer replaced Nicky Grist as the co-driver, as had happened in real life with McRae's move to Citroen (although Grist was still selectable should you wish).

The gameplay cycle was much the same as previous games, driving through the championships and unlocking more content such as stages and bonus cars. Though this time there was no career mode and no limitation on what car you could use, a point of contention with CMR3. It was the first time in the series that no official WRC liveries appeared, with all the liveries being either fictional such as the Xsara or taken from other championships such as the Subaru which featured the Subaru USA livery.

The Xsara was of course the cover car, in line with Colin's move to the team in 2003, although the game wasn't able to feature his official livery as the WRC license tightened up with the release of Evolution Studios new, Sony backed, officially licensed WRC series, with WRC II: Extreme releasing in between CMR 3 and 04 and WRC 3 penned for release a few months after CMR04. No new countries were added to the game, but there were a raft of new stages which saw huge improvements in stage design. UK, Greece, Australia and Spain were particular standouts. I chose Greece as it had been a mainstay in the series and featured some of the roughest stages a CMR game had seen, showcasing the new stage designs and road dynamics to the max as well as, for me, the new damage model.

 
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UKMikey
Brought the car back in mostly one piece this week. That's kind of a victory in itself...
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More than I did, for me the Xsara was resembling a bucking bronco going over the bumps and very unstable everywhere else. It chucked me off the road in the middle of stage 2 and then it spat me into the cliff wall under braking in stage 3 before I subsequently rolled into a ravine, I don't remember it being such a livewire to drive...
 
After trying here and there for about 8 months to actually be able to join the club, it finally let me in the other day. I dove straight into Greece without even a warm up and at least finished. Had a few little clumsy clips of the embankment that spun me and then was a little timid but at least made it without dying. Had never really done the new stages (I think I ran one of the shorter sections once when the DLC came out), but really enjoyed Harvati and will definitely be revisiting it.

My simracing schedule is pretty packed with organizing/hosting league races for 2 other titles, running in another league's series, organizing our league's own WRC club, and running in another club or two, so I will probably just be dropping into these blind when I can so hopefully that's not a recipe for me being too frustrated with my likely string of mistakes.

Cool idea for the theme for this championship.
 
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Absolute nightmare for me at CER, a round I should have been competitive at. The game crashed on stages 1 and 3, resulting in nominal times for both stages. I think it was due to a recalibration I'd had to do on my wheel before starting the game, and a restart seems to have resolved the issue. Obvs I then overdrove the car on the power stage and semi messed that up too.

Very frustrating, not something I've come across before and of course it would happen during a league event.
 
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SharkyOB
Absolute nightmare for me at CER, a round I should have been competitive at. The game crashed on both stages 1 and 3, resulting in nominal times for both stages. I think it was due to a recalibration I'd had to do on my wheel before starting the game, and a restart seems to have resolved the issue. Obvs I then overdrove the car on the power stage and semi messed that up too.

Very frustrating, not something I've come across before and of course it would happen during a league event.
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That's a real shame, I would have liked to have seen what the full times would have been mate.

I had a pretty uneventful rally tbh, I made a couple of errors along the way, one where I had to ride the bankside and got away with it and and one where I overcooked a right hander in the wet on stage 4 ( that's where I
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dropped a few seconds ). Otherwise I was pretty happy with my pace. Makes up for the DNF in Greece.

Here's a few shots.
 
Tool1312
Just checked the leaderboard
Damn you @Dreadmed

😂
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I've not finished yet! 😆

It's been a really weird one so far, it was handling like a dream in stage 3 but everywhere else I've struggled to keep on top of it, it's not beyond the realms I pick up a penalty on the power stage (if I remember to come back to it in time)
 
Dreadmed
I've not finished yet! 😆

It's been a really weird one so far, it was handling like a dream in stage 3 but everywhere else I've struggled to keep on top of it, it's not beyond the realms I pick up a penalty on the power stage (if I remember to come back to it in time)
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I'll not hold my breath lol
 
Round 5
Colin McRae Rally 2005 - 2004
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Car
Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Location
CER (Germany)

Příkazy
Vítová
Rusava
Osíčko
Žabárna

Colin McRae Rally 2005, despite its name, launched in 2004, to positive reception. It would turn out to be the final game to carry the Colin McRae Rally title, and delivered the most content rich experience of the series so far. 34 rally cars made the cut, with some interested models finding their way into the game, such as the Audi A3 and Golf R32 in the 4WD class, Toyota Celica GTS in 2WD, Renault Clio V6 in the Super 2WD class, MG Sebring Special and a small selection of rally raid style 4x4s including Colin's Dark Nissan Pickup. The 8 countries from CMR04 returned with a 9th being added courtesy of Germany, with 8 stages per country delivering over 70 stages in total. Some familiar and some new.

The game also introduced a brand new career mode, presented as a pyramid style progression, starting in beginner/slower cars and shorter championships and progressing up the pyramid through the faster classes, to the 4WD ultimate championship. Championship mode was also still available alongside the new career mode, becoming Colin McRae and being able to choose any of the 4WD cars to take on a 6 round championship. There were other improvements as well, with new graphics, a new damage model, new visual effects and an attractive menu system.

The location for this round was an easy choice, Germany was the marquee addition to the game, the only new location and probably the best tarmac location in the game, inspired by the military range stages from the real world rally. CER is of course the closest we can get in the current game, which in real life takes place, partly, in Germany. The car was a tougher choice, the cover car is the 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX Rally Car, which EAWRC doesn't feature, it was also the first cover car to feature that Colin McRae hadn't driven. But one of the standout cars in the game was the Escort RS Cosworth, it came up early in career mode, had multiple opportunities within career mode to be piloted and, of course, was featured in the iconic blue and yellow Michelin livery. A deviance from the cover car, but a worthwhile one.



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Round 6
Colin McRae: Dirt - 2007
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Car
Citroen C2 S1600

Location
Italy

Monte Acuto
Li Pinnenti
Bortigiadas
Bassacutena
Littichedda

Colin McRae: Dirt was the first Colin McRae title released on the then new generation of consoles, PS3 and Xbox 360, with the brand new Ego engine, it was also the first releae to use the new DiRT title having dropped 'Rally' from the name due to the expansion of dirt disciplines. The game visually striking, showing the clear jump in graphics power from the old consoles, with stunning new lighting effects, particle effects and an advanced damage system. It was also the first game in the series to truly branch out from rallying. CMR2005 hinted at extra classes with the inclusion of Colin's Dakar Nissan, but Dirt took it to the next level with full classes of rally raid (T1 and T4), hill climb (including trucks), rally cross and buggies. The rally content was still strong and saw the series debut of the Citroen C4 rally, as well as the first (and last) appearance of the 307cc WRC in the series. In total there were a staggering 46 vehicles across 13 classes and 186 unlockable liveries.

Locations were a huge upgrade too, with all new rally cross circuits, brand new stages in the carryover locations such as UK, Germany and Japan, new rallycross routes both fantasy and real, including Knockhill and Croft, and of course the fearsome Pikes Peak. Gameplay took place predominantly over a sprawling career mode, it was an evolution of CMR2005's pyramid system, with 11 tiers in total, starting with 11 events in the bottom tier and working up, covering all car classes throughout. The classic championship mode also returned allowing a traditional rally championship with the main rally car classes available.

Reception to the game was positive, the standout visuals and vast array of disciplines worked into the games favour. Die hard rally fans however were left slightly wanting with a lack of stages vs previous games and they were also very short, meaning championships were dispatched pretty quickly.

The day after the game was released on PS3, Colin McRae tragically lost his life, along with his son Johnny and 2 family friends, in a terrible helicopter accident. Codemasters withdrew a large advertising campaign for the PS3 version out of respect.
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On to the event, in the USA release, the cover car was clearly the Subaru Impreza WRX with the No Fear livery from the X-Games rally-cross event. In Europe it was less clear, the car visible was the Toyota Celica GT Pikes Peak, but the car above the camera is unknown. EAWRC has neither Toyota nor Pikes Peak, so I went with a car that we all became well acquainted to in the game as it cropped up in championship mode as the first available car, and one of the first cars in career mode, the Citroen C2 Super 1600. Location wise, Italy was an easy choice, Dirt took inspiration from Rally Sardinia for it's Italian stages,and it was the only semi-new location from previous games (CMR2 featured Italy in the form of San Remo).

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I lost a good twelve seconds on my practice run towards the end of Littichedda when I got stuck in a gutter on one of the rally's many heavily cambered sections with the chorus of this song playing in my mind.



Overall it wasn't a bad run for me. I might even be able to stay in the top ten though I'm not holding my breath.
 
Stage one didn’t go as I’d planned in my head and as a consequence I kinda lost the plot and just starting launching myself off the biggest inclines I could find..suffice to say the car didn’t take too kindly to my momentary insanity and promptly fell apart along with my stage times …it’s a dark period and never let us speak of this again..
 
Pearl Jam
Stage one didn’t go as I’d planned in my head and as a consequence I kinda lost the plot and just starting launching myself off the biggest inclines I could find..suffice to say the car didn’t take too kindly to my momentary insanity and promptly fell apart along with my stage times …it’s a dark period and never let us speak of this again..
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Thanks for keeping me in the top ten bro. (I'm going to hell for this.)
 
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Hmm, I'm a bit annoyed, I was lying in 2nd place overall after stage 4. Then halfway through stage 5 I managed to roll the car multiple times and had to drive back the road. Then I rolled it again later on. Thankfully in both incidents I landed on my wheels so could carry on. The end result was I must have lost over 20 seconds between both of them, so I could have finished in 2nd overall instead of the 4th I'm currently in.
But hey ho, it is was it is.
 
Actually when I looked at the Racenet playback of stage 5 it looks like I didn't lose as much time as I thought I did, certainly not the 20 seconds I first claimed lol.
Can't post videos on here but a few screenshots show where I went off twice.
I was lucky both times really, in the first one it was an area with no bushes or trees plus I ended up on my wheels so could drive back to track without a penalty.
The second one, I tipped over a bit but fortunately didn't go down the hill.
 
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