First of all the positives:
The graph is huge, even if you, like me, can play only simple to medium details. (Notebook with Turion 62 X2
2x1,8Ghz, 2MB Arbeistspeicher, ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 256MB of DDR3 Ram).
The opportunity for part 2.0 to go back against other opponents is just great for the first time, even though I, as an old Colin player was skeptical. Normal Rally comes so not too short.
The control has succeeded, even if you listen to a lot of criticism in forums about it. You have to adjust but initially.
With keyboard, the game is only in relatively low resolutions playing with me 800x600). At higher resolutions, the sensitivity is much too large.
With Gamepad it's great if you change some default settings. Since I myself have long tried and searched here some explanations: the saturation should be at 100%, the play of the steering wheel (with game is meant room) maybe 2%, so the car does not steer the same in each of the smallest movement of the sticks. The most important thing is to adjust the linearity to a negative value (default is 0.2). I got it to -0.4, which scale back the sensitivity already very far. Depending on the feeling or route you can also go to -0.2. However, it may be natural that the settings of pad to pad must be different.
So much for the benefits of the game, but there are also points of criticism:
The brake is too strong, particularly on gravel it is too fast. Drifting is only possible with great difficulty. I can not say what was more realistic but: the extreme drift previous McRae parts or the lower drift characteristics. Nevertheless, driving is still challenging, especially through the potholes and sharp turns.
The second criticism is the lack of snow racing in Northern Europe.
All in all I can only recommend the game, even if the opinions of the players differ widely. 4.5 stars (unfortunately, you can only rate with Ganten stars.)