Colin McRae Rally 2

The Colin McRae racing game series was hugely successful when it first launched in 1998 with Colin McRae Rally, and Colin McRae Rally 2 is the sequel to that first game that redefined an entire genre of racing games.

This demo version of the software gives the player a glimpse into the full game, and as one of the games in the long series of more than 10 games that helped shape how the series would play out, it represented a distinct shift toward realistic rally car racing games. It is hard to deny that this game was the turning point that helped bring realism to the world of such racing games.

The series is named for Colin McRae, one of the former winners of the World Rally Championship. Not only is his name on the game, but he worked closely with its creators to instill a deeper sense of realism to the game. His technical knowledge of rally car racing gave the creators an insight few other game-makers had.

As the second game in the series, Colin McRae Rally 2 was released in June of 2000, and it was a hit nearly overnight thanks to the preceding popularity of the original. Without this game, the world of rally car racing games, even for modern consoles like the Xbox One or the PS4, would be quite different. The game is almost 17 years old, and it is still played all over the world. Places like Poland, Hungary, and Greece have an exceedingly high number of players because they enjoy the small size of the game and how little system resources it requires.

One of the most annoying things about this game is that the software can only run on operating systems from Windows 95 and before. Anything newer is no longer compatible with the software for the game. It might not be worth building a new CPU just to run Windows 95, but if you happen to already have an older PC lying around, this would be a good addition to it. OS simulation is another option for advanced users who want to give it a go.

This was the first rally car racing series to build a system based entirely on realism. They were able to do so thanks to the input from Colin McRae, who's knowledge was entirely necessary for the great success of the game. The creators built in three levels of difficulty ranging from Novice to Expert, and there is an Arcade Mode for players to play either against each other or the computer generated AIs. The game's menus are more succinct and useable than in the original game, and it was such an improvement that the menu style from Colin McRae Rally 2 was used for nine years of the series.

• Arcade Gamestyle Included
• Three Difficulty Modes
• Simplified Menus
• Requires Few System Resources
• Realistic Graphics

• Demo Version
• Requires Windows 95
• Outdated Graphics