Combine mud, snow, gravel, asphalt, rally cars, contracts, wild wrecks, near-realistic damage, and speed, you get V-Rally 3 developed by French game developer, EDEN Studios and published by Atari.

Rally racing is a sport that I have recently begun to appreciate. I've tried getting into NASCAR, Formula-1, Motorcross amongst the many other types of racing sports out there, but Rally racing is the equivalent of watching Ultimate Fighting Championship instead of Kickboxing. It's realistic, intense, and with every lap around the track, it's going to be slightly different than the last due to environmental changes which occur; a big plus for me. Because of this, getting my hands on V-Rally 3 was an event in itself.

V-Rally 3 draws you into the game with its charming contracts and opportunities to test drive the hottest new Rally cars. Such as the Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7, Citroen Xsara, Ford Focus, Volkswagen Polo, and more. Sign a contract with a team and study its morale, reliability, budget and history. Meet your goals, and you'll not only be famous, you'll move up in rally class.

When you think of Rally games on Xbox you think RalliSport Challenge and Colin McRae Rally 3 - then here comes V-Rally 3, a game that not many really hear about unless you're a Rally racing purist. The team at Atari has a history of putting V-Rally to the test by racing endlessly for hours upon hours. I can still remember when the Infogrames (now dba Atari) Quality Assurance team played V-Rally 2 for over 24 hours straight just to ensure that the game was as stable and bug free as possible. This assures that the gamer that spends his hard earned money, doesn't have to face any bugs. V-Rally 3 has little to no bugs what-so-ever. I did see clipping issues from time to time, but as with any racing game with many obstacles or environmental changes, you're going to run into one.

Should you wish to modify your vehicles default setup, you can customize your vehicle in a number of ways, including tire selection, tire pressure, brakes, suspension, ride height, stabilizers, gearbox ratio, differentials, brakes and more. All of which can affect your racing style and final outcome.

Although V-Rally 3 is another racing game - another Rally racing game, you'll find that this is a game that you'll enjoy from the get-go. Downsides are the lack of split-screen versus mode and the lack of vehicle selection. Fortunately, there is always V-Rally 4 to make things right. In the meantime, if you're looking for another great Rally game, get V-Rally 3. You'll be happy you did.