There are rally games and there are rally games. And then there's Colin McRae Rally 3. It's difficult to know where to start the review on the third instalment of this hugely successful franchise: the eye-wateringly sharp graphics; the intuitive gameplay; or the understated, superb commentary and sound. In the end, it's probably easier to start with "just buy it."
As you'd expect from a top rally sim, everything about the vehicles can be customised, and tinkering under the hood between stages really produces a difference. If you're a bad driver you can also see the difference, as tearing the hood, side panels, or windows out midstage reveals an astonishing level of detail within the car. Engine parts move, suspension arms judder, and Mr. McRae himself bounces around the car's cockpit in full 3-D.

With a variety of gameplay modes ranging from single races to three-season tours of duty as McRae himself, there's plenty of bang for your buck here--and believe us, by the time you've cannoned off the scenery for the umpteenth time you'll know what bangs are all about. Thankfully, code masters have resisted the temptation to fill Colin McRae Rally 3 with discordant music tracks, relegating the score to intro and menu screens and leaving the in-game sound to codriver commentary and a multitude of engine sounds--a pleasant change in an age where licensed soundtracks are king. Perhaps the strongest element of this game, though, is the gameplay. The car handling is dead on, and in wild weather (snow, rain, and fog) guiding a speeding Ford Focus around sharp bends is a real art form.

With the ability to rip through 3 of the 48 stages on offer, this single-player demo is your chance to get some dirt under your tyres ahead of the game’s full release on April 2nd.

The demo gives you a taste of the Colin McRae Rally 04’s intense single-player action, putting you behind the wheel of the Citroen Xsara and letting you bomb through the first stages of the USA, Japan and Finland in glorious 4-wheel drive.

With an updated car handling physics engine, 34 driving surfaces and 19 tyre types, every second of practice will give you an advantage in knowing how your car handles over different terrain.

The full Colin McRae Rally 04 game will offer petrol-heads more intense gear-grinding action, as the series' superb car handling combines with new championships, custom rallies, new single and multiplayer gaming modes, and unique car part testing challenges to win advanced technology for your car.

On PC, the game is enhanced with all-new online and LAN options enabling up to 8 players to compete simultaneously through Championship or Stage races in co-operative or competitive team challenges. With up to 8 of your friends in on the race, ‘Shakedown’ takes on a whole new meaning.

Get the single-player demo now and stay in the driving seat with all the latest on the game at www.codemasters.co.uk/colinmcrae04



COLIN McRAE RALLY 04 KEY POINTS

• Choose from over 20 rally cars and compete in 8 game modes including 4-wheel drive, 2-wheel drive, Group B and Expert Championships
• Online and LAN multiplayer options enabling up to 8 players to compete simultaneously through Championship or Stage races in co-operative or competitive team challenges (with other players seen as ghost cars).
• New, faster game engine for incredibly detailed terrain visuals, plus enhanced replay cameras and new in-game "bumper cam".
• 8 international rally locations (UK, Sweden, USA, Finland, Australia, Spain, Greece, Japan), 6 rally stages in each, 8 shakedown events, and 4 Superspecial stages. Includes classic tracks from Colin McRae Rally, remodelled for 04.
• Part testing challenges - earn new car technology by completing part tests between rallies.
• Create your own Custom Rally with favourites stages or themed stages.
• Full set-up and repair options and detailed pre-race stage briefings.
• New expert damage settings. Plus 'damage cam': see the impact on your car post-race.

Prepare to take the Commandos on their most deadly mission yet as you venture deeper into enemy territory in the upcoming Commandos 3: Destination Berlin.
Commandos 3 Destination Berlin is the third instalment in Pyro’s legendary tactical strategy series, which has sold more than three million copies worldwide. The game will be released on PC in October 2003.

Commandos 3 takes the stunningly detailed graphics and compelling gameplay of the series to a whole new level. The game features a new interior engine that enables you to rotate the detailed environments and zoom in and out. Prepare your Commandos as enemy bombing raids lay waste to environments, requiring you to change your tactics and approach.

The structure of the game has been completely revamped. Commandos 3: Destination Berlin features more detailed, smaller maps providing more action orientated missions that form part of an overall campaign. A strong narrative drives the story via cinematic briefing screens. The gameplay will also incorporate completely new gaming situations including ambushes, assaults, level bosses as well as classic Commandos gameplay. Commandos 3: Destination Berlin will be more accessible than previous games in the series.

Commandos 3 has three main campaigns: Stalingrad, Central Europe and Normandy. Each of the campaigns encompasses many different tactical situations and they can be played in any order. The game will feature scenarios unseen in previous Commandos games taking you to the Stalingrad battlefields of the Eastern Front, the heart of the Reich in the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin and the D-Day assault at Omaha Beach. For the first time ever in the series, there will be a deathmatch multiplayer mode for up to eight players where you can use your tactical skills to play online or across LAN.

Welcome to destination Far Cry

You are Jack Carver running your own boat charter business in beautiful Micronesia. With a past best left behind you, you'll be focusing on your present assignment: escorting an ambitious journalist named Valerie Cortez to the Island of Cabatu. It seems like a piece of cake, but you'll soon learn: paradise can be hell.

Experience a new style of FPS gameplay featuring massive outdoors environments and unprecedented long range gameplay.

Feel the Far Cry Engine
The meticulously designed next generation CryEngine pushes the threshold of action gaming with proprietary PolyBump™ mapping, advanced environments physics, destructible terrain, dynamic lighting, motion captured animation and total surround sound.

Cunning and complex A.I. Tactics
Autonomous A.I. make realistic decisions based on observations of the current state of the world. These highly-trained mercenaries are designed to utilize environmental features, attack in groups, divide & conquer, respond to player actions, and call in reinforcements from air, land or sea.

Astonishingly tension-filled non-linear experience
Unique game design encourages a combination of pure reflex shooting as well as intelligent stealth. Draw out your enemies or perform a full-on assault. It's up to you to use the vast environment to your own advantage.

Heart-Pounding atmosphere
Unique proprietary physics and lighting, adaptive audio, weather effects, and day/night cycles provide a tropical setting so real you'll never want to leave.

What you see is what you play
Thanks to the Sand box editor, you can easily create and edit your own terrain, foliage, textures, lighting effects, vehicles, missions etc… Place enemies, build maps, and construct the world in which you want to play.

In a world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, a fierce conflict is unfolding in the streets of America. Taking on the role of Christopher Stone, players evolve from an average New Yorker into a fearless patriot who recruits and leads an army of freedom fighters in the streets of New York City. Freedom Fighters combines the depth of a squad based game with the intensity of an action-packed war game that unfolds in the streets, subways, and buildings of the city.

Key Features

Character evolution that transforms the main character from an average civilian to the toughest Freedom Fighter in the world.
Fast paced squad based element that enables players to recruit and lead up to 12 Freedom Fighters into battle.
Intense, in-your-face urban guerilla warfare scenarios ranging from small sabotage missions to large battles where the player has to conquer enemy installations.
Charisma-based Recruiting System gives players points for rescuing prisoners or capturing key installations.
Variety of weapons including machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, and Molotov Cocktails.
Environments and the seasons will evolve over time. As the game progresses, the city is slowly degraded and transformed into a massive battlefield.
Enhanced rendering technology via Io Interactive's "Glacier" engine that lends to amazing 3D special effects such as real-time lighting, rain, snow, smoke and explosions.
Rich environmental audio such as shouting when in battle, barking out commands and music setting the pace and mood of the gameplay action. Music composed by Jesper Kyd and performed by the Hungarian Radio Choir.
Multiplayer support - Up to four players via split-screen mode on the console versions.
Available Fall 2003 on the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube and PC.

The Unreal Tournament 2004 official demo includes five playable game modes, and offers fans their first taste of Unreal Tournament 2004's two new game modes: the introduction of the hyper-charged Onslaught mode and the return of the fan-favorite Assault mode, which last appeared in the original Unreal Tournament. The demo also features established gametypes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Bombing Run.

-- Onslaught Mode: Onslaught is a epic-in-scope team-based challenge that pits two teams in bitter warfare across massive terrain maps in a frag-filled battle to destroy, capture and hold key power nodes. Vehicles play a major role as war-hardened flying and driving machines transport combatants to the "front" and serve as mobile platforms to launch devastating attacks on the enemy.

-- Assault Mode: In the completely redesigned Assault mode, gamers are challenged to attack or defend bases in a bigger and badder version of the Unreal Tournament classic; many Assault maps require the use of vehicles as a critical gameplay element.