Richard Burns Rally Is Still Unrivaled and Unforgiving Game
Richard Burns Rally is a game that, even 20 years after its release, sets the standard for rally simulations. Let's pay homage to it and see why it went down in gold in the history of the genre.
In 2004, Warthog and SCi shook up the rally game genre by releasing Richard Burns Rally. Developers with titles like Rally Championship in their portfolio not only challenged newcomers, but also experienced players familiar with the Colin McRae Rally series. Therefore, even today, twenty years after the release of the mentioned title, many believe that RBR remains not only the unmatched car rally simulator, but also one of the most challenging titles of its kind in history.
3,2,1 - start, straight, left 90, rollover
The first contact with Richard Burns Rally was the same for many players. Amateur racers often finished their first rides at the very first turn, going off the track and rolling over. Not everyone was aware that they were dealing with a full-fledged simulator designed for gameplay with a steering wheel. Even though it was possible to play efficiently on the gamepad (after a few hours of training), playing on the keyboard, which was the only "controller" for many computer gamers at that time, was a real ordeal (myself included).
The word "training" wasn't mentioned here without a reason. Richard Burns Rally required a significant amount of time to learn, comparable to the time needed to learn how to drive a real car. The situation was made simpler by the inclusion of a virtual rally school, where Richard Burns personally instructed us in the fundamentals of rally driving, introducing us to executing specific maneuvers and demonstrating various helpful techniques. Nevertheless, graduating the school didn't ensure that we would be able to engage in an equal fight with rivals (real or virtual) -- that was only guaranteed by further, hours-long skill polishing.
Not much content...
The accusation that could have been made against Richard Burns Rally was its unimpressive content. The game featured only a few cars, including the Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, Toyota Corolla, and Peugeot 206, as well as six rallies located in the United Kingdom, Japan, Finland, the United States, and France. Other players who didn't enjoy the game also criticized the quality of the graphics, which may have appeared dull and uninspiring.
...but what kind!
However , the devs' goal wasn't to create a colorful game for everyone that would compete with the then successful Colin McRae Rally series. The developers have decided to develop a simulator in the full sense of the word. To achieve this, well in advance of the premiere, they reached out to genre fans, seeking their suggestions, responding to their questions, and inviting them to participate in tests.
The Richard Burns Rally in 2004 was like a revelation for me. Because at that time, I belonged to one of the largest sim racing leagues with the most realistic simulators on the market: Grand Prix Legends and NASCAR Racing from the Papyrus studio. RBR brought the realism of the GPL to the world of rallying. Fans of virtual Formula 1 suddenly found a love for driving on gravel roads, as a sim appeared that dethroned the arcade game "Colin." Furthermore, the game was equally demanding on consoles. Richard Burns Rally provided a complete simracing experience -- an excellent, thrilling sense of speed, realistic physics, varied behavior on different surfaces, and most importantly, the painstaking process of learning to drive from the ground up to start achieving results.
Dariusz Matusiak
Although the game offered a small number of cars, the differences between them were clearly visible. The driving model considered not only the car's dimensions and weight, the type of drive, and its performance, but also several other parameters that we could adjust ourselves. When delving into "tinkering" under the hood of cars, it's worth knowing a bit about how tire pressure, the angle of the spoilers, or even the distribution of braking force would affect their handling, because otherwise, we risk damaging our four wheels.
The car could also be damaged while driving, as even a seemingly minor impact on an obstacle in Richard Burns Rally would result in some level of mechanical damage, which in turn affected the handling. As if that wasn't enough, the prevailing conditions on the route, such as humidity and air temperature, also had a huge impact on this.
As for the routes themselves, they weren't visually impressive, apart from the colorful scenery of France. However, similar to the driving model, the devs focused on realism, aiming to accurately depict the landscapes of each country. It's worth noting that the ruts were created in real time, so if we didn't start first, we had to contend with time on roads that were more or less "plowed" by other drivers.
In contrast to the visual aspect, which not everyone may have liked, there was an audio setup that included accurately reproduced sounds produced by each car as well as the pilot's voice.
About Richard Burns
Richard Burns was a rally driver, a factory driver for Peugeot, Subaru, and Mitsubishi, as well as the World Rally Champion in 2001. Unfortunately, his career ended far too quickly. In November 2003, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which led to his premature death at the age of just 34. Richard Burns died on November 25, 2005.
Richard Burns Rally - how to play today?
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Richard Burns Rally isn't available on GOG.com or Steam. However, boxed editions of this game start at around $22.
It's worth mentioning that even though running the described item on a modern computer may pose some challenges (due to the lack of compatibility with new operating systems and hardware), it's still feasible. What's more - the game "lives" not only in the memory of players, but also physically, as it has received support from modders.
Disappointed with the recently released WRC, I returned to Richard Burns Rally a few weeks ago... but found no solace there. The reason is shocking: the game has aged. It's not about the visuals (Codemasters still hasn't mastered the art of dealing with bumpy roads), but rather the conveniences that modern titles have introduced, with full control over the camera and interface being the most prominent.
However, installing the "vanilla" version was of course just the beginning. In fact, I wanted to finally test the renowned Rallysimfans - a fan project that essentially creates an entirely new game based on RBR, with support for current hardware (especially steering wheels), rich content, and even more advanced physics.
It's worth dedicating time and energy to the installation and configuration of this platform, despite the potential challenges, as the driving experience it offers is incomparable to any contemporary title of similar theme. This is a great antidote to the WRC.
I highly recommend checking out Rallysimfans to anyone who is looking for truly realistic rallies, which can also make DiRT Rally seem like child's play. It's lucky that you don't need to have your own copy of Richard Burns Rally - it's not available in digital distribution, and it could be hard to find a disc from the secondary market.
Christopher Mysiak
RetroGaming
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