Has anybody tried this PC game? I've downloaded the demo (can't find it in Canadian Retail stores yet), and it seems way more realistic & enjoyable then Collin McRae Rally (even the '05 version).
Funny how the pretty graphics make me subconciously believe the game is realistic - until the steering wheel really starts shaking in a better game...

You have to have a card that supports pixel shading (so no G4 MX's)

Thanks,
Alex

You can get them for $120-$150 or thereabouts. I have an ATI 9600 Pro, cost me $170 in May, works fine with both games (this year I decided to go "Upper Middle Class" on my components, instead of going Bleeding Edge... seems to make more sense in the long run).

I *think* 9200 series (for $99) supports shader, but it's only directX 8.1, so may not work with games few months from now.

Also, don't forget to download DirectX 9c from Microsoft:
www.microsoft.com/directx
You'll need it for at least one of those games.

I haven't noticed any difference between CMR4 and 5. After Richard Burns, both seem "floaty" - more of a hovercraft ride then a rally. I wonder if RBR is 4-point sim and CMR 1-point?

Wowzie... my Navigator & I played it for about 4 hours last night (finally got a hold of full version - takes a while to ship from Europe:)). As he said - "Who needs the actual game, the rally school is awesome enough!" :>

Nothing will ever be as realistic as the real thing of course, but some of those exercises are tough, and with a well-tuned force-feedback wheel, it's about as close as you want to get to slamming into tree at 90kph  - whopsie
We still haven't completed the final rally-school exercise (complete a stage in under 84 seconds... we can't seem to get it under 89)!

I'm stuck on the final school excercise as well.
It's nearly impossible using just a keyboard...

- hey, in the general spirit of rule-following inherent in the road-rallies, I wasn't (loudly;)) suggesting P2P/bit-torrent/kazaa/DVD-R sollutions;).

But yeah, it'll probably never appear in stores on this side of the pond... :-|

- ouchiewauva... playing this game with keyboard -- I feel for you . I just got a steering wheel few months back, and it's just superb - with a game that supports force feedback well, you can feel the amount of grip you have at any one time, and what the car is trying to do. Plus of course, the whole analog vs. digital issue - I've previously found that even playing with a joystick is better then keyboard, as you can actually dictate how much throttle/turn to apply.
I do have a friend that drives real cars digitally though - he's either turning all out, or going straight. The anti-thesis of smooth on highways  

- Ryan - decent video card can be had for fairly cheap these days. See some of the links for the ATI cards, nVidia ones should be roughly the same price for pixel-shader support.