Mac Game Review: Colin McRae Rally Mac

For Mac gamers, 4×4 Evolution, which was released in October 2000, was something new. Ever since, there have been many games that feature car racing. Colin McRae Rally Mac is one of those car race games. Colin McRae Rally Mac is published by Feral Interactive. It’s most likely the Mac adoption of Colin McRae Rally 2005, which debuted for PC on October 28, 2004.

After launching the game, you will arrive at Main Menu. There are 4 different modes: Challenges, Championship, Career and Online. (See Screenshot 01.) If you enter Challenges, you can race in a single course. I don’t really know what Championship is. According to the README file that comes with the game, it’s described as “Drive as Colin McRae in a one-off championship.” Career is the one that you really want to enter after some practice.

If you are interested in playing the multiplayer game, I can tell you that Colin McRae Rally Mac seems to support GameRanger. If you choose Online from the main menu, a web browser will automatically launch itself, and you will be directed to GameRanger’s website. Then what? Well, honestly, I don’t know. Perhaps, it’s the indication that GameRanger will soon support this game. If somebody starts a game at GameRanger room, I presume that you will arrive at Main Menu > Challenges > Multiplay. (See Screenshot 02.) How about Direct Connect? I don’t see any screen where you can enter an IP address.

All right. Let’s talk about Career. When you first start with this game and enter Career, you need to create a profile. Just enter a name (See Screenshot 05.) and choose a country (See Screenshot 06.). Then you will get to choose a car to drive. (See Screenshot 07.) You don’t have many choices because you haven’t established your racing skills yet. At first, you start with driver rating 1. So you need to earn points in each race you enter and complete the whole series.

The only series that is open to a newbie is 2WD Gold Series. (See Screenshot 08.) The number “6” in the screenshot indicates in how many courses you have to compete. So you have to race in 6 different courses in 2WD Gold Series. They are Germany, Australia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Finland. It’s a time trial. So you never see opponents. That means there is little competition.

When you enter one of the time trial, you probably want to check the conditions. (See Screenshot 10.) Surfaces are very important. If you race in Sweden, for example, the road is completely covered with snow. So you probably want to enter Service Area and change tires and adjust ride height, springs and other settings. After finishing each race, you may have probably broken some parts. And you will be given 60 minutes in total to fix whatever is broken between races. (See Screenshot 11.)

Again, you never have opponents. It’s a time trial. While racing, you will see a progress bar. There are 3 check points except the last one. When you pass the first check point, either red or green meter will appear right under the progress bar. If it’s red, that means you are behind the opponent with the best time. (See Screenshot 15.) On the other hand, if your time is better than others, you will have a green meter. (See Screenshot 25.)

Basically, there is nothing new in this car race game. You have to earn points and unlock levels. But those features are not new. One thing that makes Colin McRae Rally Mac different from other sports games is that it’s a game for loners. There is no competition unless you play online.

If you have Mac mini or MacBook with an Intel processor, you should be careful before purchase Colin McRae Rally Mac. According to Feral Interactive, this game will not run with GMA 950 graphics cards. (Shared RAM)

Publisher: Feral
Website: feralinteractive.com/game/colinmcrae
Genre: Sports
Price: US$50, 50 euros, 9,000 yen
System requirements: 1.6 GHz PowerPC/Intel, 512 MB RAM, 64 MB Video RAM
Multiplayer: GameRanger, LAN