Colin McRae Rally 2005 - Xbox

The Scots. Caber tossing. Haggis. Special Brew. The list is endless. You might ask yourself why the Romans only ever built a single wall – a single wall to keep the marauding terror from going on a mud-fuelled rampage.

And from the loins of this impressive lineage springs forth the McRae family and its sons Colin and Alistair. It’s difficult not to feel sorry for Alistair. He drives a Skoda and doesn’t have a game named after hisself(!); a perfect literary link to the subject at hand, namely the former rally hero Colin and his line of really rather good games from Codemasters.

Aside from the standard polygon upping as trumpeted with every sequel these days, Colin McRae Rally 5 - sorry, Colin McRae Rally 2005 - has one key USP: a massively multiplayer section bolted on to the usual rallying and arcade options that have seen the game reach the pinnacle of its genre.

Codemasters impressively offers eight-player online support for its most recent offering, an augmentation fans of the series had been screaming for since the third game was shown at E3 2001.

And so onto the all-important racing game stats, the highlight of any press release detailing the emergence of a franchise-driven sequel. Cars – an average amount, some quite interesting. Tracks, tons and tons of them – most of which are absolutely stunning.

As is the fashion these days, Codies has a delicious roster of vintage rally cars signed up that will ignite the petrol fumes of the sport’s enthusiasts. Volkswagen Golf MK5, Toyota Celica VVTLi, Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, Alfetta GTV Turbodelta, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII, Peugeot 206, 205 T16 Evo2 all feature with today’s crop of WRC - oops, no, not WRC - other manufacturers’ current offerings.

An amazing 300 stages have also been thrown into the mix, spanning a total of 23 different rally events. Settings including an all-new Germany stage, Sweden, USA, Finland, Australia, Spain, Greece, and Japan have been treated to Codemasters’ leading track design process, arguably the series’ strongest point since it surfaced for the PlayStation all those moons ago. more