Well, now we have a copy for the PlayStation 2, and you’ll be glad to know it’s just as good, if not better, than its predecessors on the PS2. And while it’s a little quirky at times, overall it’s a great PS2 title.

To save us all a little time, I’m going to compress down the gameplay coverage a bit. If you need to hear more about it, please jump over to the Xbox review, as both games play almost exactly the same.

In Colin McRae Rally 3, you play as the world’s most successful rally driver and the game’s namesake, Colin McRae. Since the game was in development before Colin switched over to Citroën’s rally team, you’ll be racing as Colin for Ford’s rally team.

The game offers you the option of racing in the world championships or single circuits (stages mode). The championship can only be played as Colin McRae in the Ford Focus, whereas the stages allow you to choose from one of the other 11 or so available cars and pick any course to race on. Either mode is great fun and offers up a ton of challenges for the aspiring racer.

Championship mode is where this game really shines. You’ll race multiple rally events, each event made up of six stages and a special super-stage. The stages themselves are rendered perfectly, with plenty of mud, water, snow banks and bridges to deal with. There’s nothing tougher than coming out of a high-speed turn to find yourself needing to pull off a 90-degree turn to get onto a one-lane bridge! The super-stages have you racing head-to-head against another rally driver through sometimes insanely tiny tracks.

The controls for Colin McRae Rally 3 are easy to pick up, and well suited to the dual shock controller. Gas, brake and handbrake are all accessible through face buttons, with the analog stick taking on the steering duties. The only issue with the control is the fact that on gravel, the car simply slides around too much. I had a really hard time enjoying the game whenever I was racing on gravel, because it became too much of an arcade-like power-sliding experience. Once you’re on another surface, the handling becomes much more realistic; even driving on snow-covered roads is enjoyable.

On the Xbox, Colin McRae Rally 3 was nothing short of spectacular visually, and that’s pretty much the case with the PlayStation 2 version. While not nearly as graphically sharp as the Xbox version, it still leaves any competitors on the PS2 eating its dust. The car models are fantastic, and I can’t say enough about the detail of the in-car view, which makes for an amazingly realistic racing experience.

The small details are where this game really shines, especially in damage effects. Far from being generic, the damage system in Colin McRae is dynamic and realistic. Slam sideways into a tree, and that side of the car gets crunched. Fly headfirst into a steep embankment, and you’ll at least blow out the windshield and more than likely trash the front end.

The one weakness in the graphics is the environments, especially crowds and foliage, both of which look ridiculously artificial. The crowds are especially bad, being nothing more than 2-dimensional cardboard cutouts sitting on the sides of the track. It would be nice to see fans running around with excitement, but that’s not the case here. They just sit and watch. The foliage looks terrible up close, and instead of moving out of your way as you drive through it, will instead introduce you to a ton of clipping.

Vroom, vroom. Every racer needs good sound to provide a more immersive feel, yet here’s where Colin McRae slips up a bit. Most of the audio is good but somewhat generic, and the cars tend to sound like sewing machines on overdrive. Wind out an engine at too high of an RPM, and its screams of anguish will have you begging for earplugs. There are some outstanding sounds, though, including those of breaking glass, splashing through water and skidding on tarmac. These make up for the blandness of the other sounds, so it pretty much balances out.

If you were hoping that with this version of Colin McRae they would finally introduce an in-race soundtrack, sorry to let you down, but they didn’t. Once again, your race is music-free, which is really quite necessary in a rally game, since you need to hear your car and co-driver to be sure you’re staying on track and on time.

Being that this is a rally title, you can always come back in an attempt to beat your best times. Since Colin McRae Rally 3 comes with the stages mode, which lets you choose any available car and pick a race, you’ll be able to enjoy hours of gameplay outside of the championship mode. Along with the stages mode, you’ve got multiplayer mode to challenge your friends, and there are plenty of secret codes that will allow you to unlock the Super Focus and other goodies. If you like racing, especially rally, you’ll be playing this for a long time to come.

Allow me to be blunt: if you like rally, then this game should be in your PS2 library. It’s a great combination of high-quality graphics, excellent racecourses and a good variety of vehicles. It’s a ton of fun to play, and no rally fan should be without it.