Whilst the preview code I've been playing has only really offered a glimpse of what's on offer, already CM04 seems very tame in comparison. It's kind of like the Pro Evo series – PES2 was good, but once you tried PES3 there was no turning back. In much the same way, CM04 seems to glide along in a nonchalant daze in comparison whilst CM2005 tears past in a finely tuned, completely focussed 600bhp beast! There are a few niggles nonetheless. Any heavy collisions produce this bizarre "stunned" effect with the screen momentarily blurring, no doubt an effort to reproduce the shock experienced by the driver. With the visuals being so crisp this effect does feel a little at odds with the rest of the presentation and teeters on the edge of mimicking the boost effect in Criterion's Burnout series or even, god forbid, bullet-time. There’s nothing wrong with the execution – it just feels out of place and unnecessary. Also, allocating the view change to the back button seems like a very bizarre move, rendering switching views mid race extremely tricky. Some players may also be annoyed that many of the tracks have featured in previous versions of the game, but seeing as some of the new tracks are very imaginatively designed (most notably the fantastic new German stages that take you through fields and motorway junctions) it would be a harsh criticism to level. In every other respect though, it's hard to fault the title, though maybe this is not surprising considering that it’s merely an update of an already excellent title.

With the boasting such a crisp visual experience it's also no surprise to see the lagging somewhat behind. Whilst the graphics are still sharp there is a noticeable difference when the two platforms are compared. Most obvious though is the lower resolution of the textures on Sony's machine. Whereas on the Xbox your car will scratch and get dirty is a gradual and detailed manner, at this stage in the lower detail levels on the PS2 mean that a dirty rear end can end up looking like someone has stuck a large brown or grey block onto the back of your car. Also, there's no escaping that the Duelshock 2 is nowhere near as suited to racers as the Xbox S-Pad. The analogue shoulder buttons cannot hope to recreate Microsoft's triggers, and the squeeze required to achieve maximum acceleration is just slightly too much to be comfortable.

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It's an unfortunate truth that when not dishing out praise the reviewer is forced to seek faults, but in this instance I'm finding it quite hard to do so. The main criticism could be that there isn't enough here to justify purchase over the previous version. For the this may well be the case, but for the keen console rally-er CM2005 has all the hallmarks of an essential purchase and a potential classic. Whilst it may not innovate beyond previous instalments in the series, any fan will instantly recognise and acknowledge the improvements. Recent months have bought us the highly arcadey Rallisport Challenge 2 and the ultra-realistic Richard Burns Rally. CM2005 seems to represent the perfect balance between the two. Whilst it's not on offer in this code, the mode is also looking extremely interesting. Boasting 8-player head-to-head racing, Rallisport Challenge 2 may well finally have some competition, though only time will tell if this is the case. On thing is for sure though - barring some sort of cataclysmic balls up at in the next few weeks, CM2005 is looking to be not only the best rally game on Xbox, but possibly the best rally game of all time.

By Ben Parfitt