Il portale di Racesim Central ha già pubblicato la propria recensione completa della versione per PC dell'atteso Colin McRae Rally 4: il titolo della Codemasters viene giudicato con un voto globale di 43 su 50.

All this, the culmination of the other sections of the game, leaves me with a great rating of 86%. This truly is a five-star game in my books, and other games are going to find it hard to beat. The overall supremacy of this game, make it a ‘must-have’ for any gamer, whether a sim-fanatic, or not. This game really is the pinnacle of the rallying mountain and unless someone can find a higher peak in amongst the mist, it will remain so. Codemasters have made a great job of this latest installation of the Colin McRae series. This game has re-defined the standard for rallying games on all platforms.

Tutti gli appassionati di Grand Prix Legends e della serie Nascar Racing (mod's compresi) targate Papyrus conoscono l'utility Replay Analyzer, molto più che un programma per visualizzare i vostri replay, ma una preziosa fonte di informazioni: oggi è stata rilasciata la nuova versione con numerose nuove features e bugs corretti.

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Mechanical/Damage report
We have added a "Damage Cost Summary" to the Mechanical report, summing up all damage costs based on adjustable part costs (change the costs in File->Options).

You can include the above mentioned summary in Race report as well, but the Race report will take longer to generate with this option set.
New types of mechanical problems/damages were also added to the Mechanical report. It now also report lost fifth and sixth gears (previously only 1-4 and reverse) as well as Brakline damage.

XML
===
Also added is an XML-export of many of the statistics found in our reports.
We hope this will make it easier to import these stats into other applications and databases. The XML-export is also available via commandline.

Trans Am ride height
====================
We've added a new feature to scan TransAm (PTA) replay files and fix the incorrect ride height problem. The problem before was that the player's car was drawn too low and wheels and chassis would sink down under the track. This feature improve the appearance so it is mostly correct, but it isn't 100% perfect in all circumstances. Thanks to Jan Kohl from the US Pits for the idea and help doing this!

Race report
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Made sure numbers were not written in scientific format in the Laptime Consistency Table in the Race Report.

Save replay lap
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When saving a replay lap and using a fixed temperature the temperature is now added to the default filename.

Speedtrack
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In Speedtrack drivers are now marked with the colour used to indicate that lap is faster.

Bugs fixed
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-Sometimes a fastest lap wasn't marked correctly in the Race History Graph.
-Under some circumstances when drivers entered the server but no one entered the track the Report Site Listener crashed when processing such a replay.
-Some addon tracks did not load correctly, fixed this.
-Viewing the trackmap in the graph when analyzing tracks with long
filenames no longer crashes the program.
-When exporting to telemetry text the tire temps where incorrect.
-In the Race Report "Highest Climber" table was incorrect

La Codemasters ha rilasciato la nuova versione demo multiplayer (da 160MB) di Colin McRae Rally 4, con la quale potrete gareggiare online tramite internet fino ad 8 giocatori (ma anche in single player) con una Citroen Xsara sui tracciati di Australia, Spagna e Svezia.

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Supports Internet/LAN play 2-8 Players
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2-8 player Internet/LAN modes require one of the following:
• Minimum 56kbps speed modem (512kbps recommended to host)
• TCP/IP Local Area Network
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Minimum Requirements (Single player)
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• Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
• DirectX 9b
• Pentium III or Athlon at 750MHz
• 256Mb RAM
• Supported 32Mb Graphics Card
• DirectX 9 Compatible Sound Card
• 3.0GB Hard Disk Space (2.5GB for game, 500MB after installation)
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Recommended Specification
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• Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
• DirectX 9b
• Pentium III/4 or Athlon at 1.4GHz
• 512Mb RAM
• Graphics Card: ATi Radeon 8xxx and above, nVidia GeForce3 and above
• Sound Blaster Audigy 2 series audio card
• 3.0GB Hard Disk Space (2.5GB for game, 500MB after installation)
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Supported Graphics Cards
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• ATi Radeon 8xxx, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
• nVidia nForce 1 & 2, GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4,
GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950

Il portale di GameSpy ha pubblicato una interessante preview del prossimo IndyCar Series 2005 della Codemasters, attualmente in fase di sviluppo per la console XBox:

The big draw for 2005 (or 2004... I'm so confused...) is the online mode, which brings up to 12 competitors to the track for each race. The mode wasn't enabled in our preview code, but since it's got Xbox Live architecture behind it, we're looking forward to giving online play a spin.

Il portale di Gamesradar ha pubblicato una interessantissima anteprima dedicata alla versione XBox del prossimo Richard Burns Rally della SCi, che si preannuncia un titolo molto sostanzioso sotto il profilo simulativo:

Gli sviluppatori di Warthog sembrano avere davvero le idee chiare, e stanno lavorando a una proposta senza compromessi. Uno dei punti più interessanti è il cosiddetto “Multi Body Systemâ€, ossia un’impostazione del modello fisico che prevede una ripartizione del peso dell’auto specifica per ogni ruota. In sostanza, le accelerazioni trasversali e longitudinali, unite alla conformazione del terreno, spostano i kg da uno pneumatico all’altro in maniera differente a seconda delle situazioni.