The heart of Colin McRae Rally 3 is its Championship game, where the pressure is on in rallies over eight global locations. Between the adrenaline-rushing rally driving, the game is seamlessly blended with stage start, stage checkpoint, end stage and service area sequences.

It’s these sequences at key stages through the rallies, when the Ford team attends to the Ford Focus RS WRC itself, that builds the atmosphere of actually being part of a championship rally team.

Each rally begins with the Focus in the service area where the team’s engineers perform the set-up requirements, adjusting the suspension, engine, chassis and other key parts, for the stages ahead. The engineers will prepare the car to practically optimum settings for the upcoming stages for McRae. However, should the player, as McRae, want to make an inspection of their work there’s an opportunity to check the configuration and make manual adjustments.

While Colin may check the set-up in the service areas, co-driver Nicky Grist can be spotted relaxing with a quick cup of tea!

Says Guy Wilday, Head of Studio and producer of the Colin McRae Rally series:

“We want the game to give the player a real sense of being McRae and being part of an international rally team. Colin McRae Rally 3 is more than the ‘start stage, race car, end stage’ construction of its previous incarnations. So the rally driving is mixed with these sequences to provide the flow of a rally and create the long-term tension of the almost year-long season.”

Colin McRae Rally 3 will deliver the total rally experience when it launches for PlayStation 2 and Xbox on October 11th. A PC edition will follow in 2003.