Although we heard far less pre-release hype about both Colin McRae Rally 04 and World Rally Championship 3 than last year's predecessors, both games seem to have come of age on the PlayStation 2 and offer a similar brand of rally sport after abandoning their unsuccessful experiments from last year.

Both games are based around the world rally championship, but WRC3 is the fully licensed version. While they each offer fictitous course design, WRC3 gets to put the names to each event and follows the actual locations from the championship's beginnings in Monaco to its conclusion in Wales.

Presenting the championship in broadcast format, complete with introductions to each event and historical and statistical detail on cars, teams, rallies and drivers, the mood in WRC3 is as authentic as always for the series.

WRC3 adds further authenticity with the inclusion of some real-life junctions in this year's courses. While the rest of the courses is the work of Evolution Studios' imaginations, the faithful recreation of the environments, complete with a huge draw distance and terrain as one would expect from the real thing, means WRC3 is as familiar as it is new.

Added for this year is an increase in trackside detail, though pop-up remains away from the immediate environment. Spectators lining the courses have been animated for this version, though of course the FIA still won't allow you to chase them off the road or bring harm to bystanders in the likely event of a cornering miscalculation.

The WRC pace notes have always been clear and simple, and negotiating the new courses is greatly assisted in this respect. The all-new Rally of Turkey is also incorporated for 2003, while the new team cars and liveries, complete with face-mapped models of the relevant drivers and co-drivers helps keep the game as up to date as possible. There is also a new batch of fantasy cars to unlock, from a very Nissan-looking Impreza model to more customary takes of other models.

WRC3 is not all about the championship. Additional modes include Quick Start with a random choice of course, Time Trial, Single (stage) Rally, and Head to Head for up to four players alternating turns over the chosen stage. Colin McRae suffered badly in its splitscreen mode, losing plenty of graphical detail and dropping back the frame rate to an unresponsive level. The lack of a good draw distance has been a problem with previous WRC games in this mode, and the lack of a splitscreen mode in our review copy was not missed.

The other big improvement this year is the car handling. Both WRC3 and CMR04 are clearly unrealistic, and we believe Evolution Studios' claim that they found an all but perfect model to be unplayable back before the first WRC game, but with a standard controller both games feel balanced and predictable. They also offer full analogue control with the DualShock2, be it through the control sticks or pressure sensitive D-pad and face buttons. Because it is not necessary to configure your controller for these options, it is possible to alternate should it be necessary during a race, such as for different sections or to make the handbrake or even camera angle controls more accessible.

Our favourite, in-car, view is thankfully supported by a view without the windshield - especially handy after shattering said windshield in a roll or collision - and the bumper cam also helps when the hood is no longer able to be restrained and starts flapping about. Although the in-car view in WRC3 contains no steering wheel, those using one to control the car have nothing to complain about. A big improvement in WRC3 is the sensation of speed in all views, and the only complaint is that the chase cam fails to keep behind cars during sudden changes in direction.

This effect shows off more of the detailed car models and damage effects, but it does nothing for the racing. Damage modelling has been upped for WRC3, though it doesn't quite match the almost entertaining effects CMR04 manages with dangling parts or realistic results.

The nagging issue with CMR04, even with the added responsiveness of the DualShock 2 and both games' excellent analogue functions, is a slight floating sensation which results in difficulty negotiating the tracks and a little frustration as a result. WRC3 is more predicable in this sense, and although cars feel slightly lighter, the course design makes full use of this dynamic just as CMR04 does with its own physics set.

Although WRC is a good-looking game, CMR04 looks even better, in all aspects from texture design to 3D object placement and lighting effects. Despite the addition of visual effects that WRC3 features, the basics still fall short of CMR04, and this is mostly due to the advances the latter title has made since its rough edged debut on the PS2 last year.

We would have given CMR04 a rating of four fists had it not suffered a few simple problems: substandard splitscreen mode, no ability to end a game when controlling the car with the GT Force steering wheel, and some slowdown and pop-up. WRC3 has no splitscreen mode, and although the game doesn't look as good as CMR04 and suffers pop-up and issues with streaming graphical data, there is no slowdown.