V-Rally 3 corners Xbox

With the PS2 V-Rally 3 still fresh in many gamers' minds, Infogrames plans to expand the series next April by launching an "expanded" and "improved" Xbox version. Certainly something I'm getting used to writing.

But! "V-Rally 3 on Xbox is not a lazy port of the PlayStation 2 version," says Infogrames' Larry Sparks. "The great work done on the handling and in-game special effects gives V-Rally 3 its own distinctive identity on Xbox."

As Larry says, developer Eden Studios has been busy updating the Xbox version to take a bit more advantage of the console's advanced hardware, and the changes have affected two key areas. First of all, Eden has been refining the sensitivity and responsiveness of the handling, adding to the game's accessibility whilst respecting its simulation roots, and secondly, the developer has been adding new in-game special effects to show off the GeForce3-derived graphics hardware. Other superficial changes include an updated Ford Focus and widened tracks.

And as you might expect, V-Rally 3 respects the practice of saving games to the hard disk.

In order to get us "pumped up" at the prospect of V-Rally 3's April 2003 release, Infogrames was good enough to send over a boot-load of new screenshots, demonstrating what the game looks like running on Microsoft's hardware.