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The death of 39-year-old British rally star Colin McRae in a helicopter crash near his Lanarkshire home is a sad day for gamers.
Ironically, the much-awaited first Colin McRae game for PS3 - Colin McRae: Dirt (already out on 360 and PC) will be released here in just over a week. It's his sixth game.
McRae of course did not design the top-notch rally racing games that we have grown to love but he lent not just his name to the games but they were of the extraordinarily high standards McRae demanded.
These were no ordinary car burnout games but created to painstaking detail - with rally organizers ensuring the cars and the tracks were as realistic in detail as they could possibly be.
There was also a NZ connection. McRae competed in his first rally on the World Rally Championship circuit in Sweden in 1987, but scored his first win here in New Zealand in 1993. And he showed off his courage by celebrating the win doing a bungy jump down south.
His games sold more than eight million copies and there were hardly any disappointments.
The first one was unveiled in 1998 for PlayStation and PC and we took notice it had NZ as one of the locations. It also had real rally drivers.
Remember it? It had a Subaru Impreza on the cover.
On his official website Colin revealed he wasn't much of a geek and left hardcore game playing to us.
"I' m not really a fan of computers. Yes, I can play 'DIRT' on my X-Box 360 and I can just about access the internet, but as for the rest of it, much of it is a complete mystery to me.When I started out with this web-site, I thought it would be easy to update as I went along, but I quickly realised it's not as easy as others make it look. So I've called in a bit of professional help to keep things buzzing along.
"As for me, when it comes to computers and electronics, give me 300 bhp, a winding road - and no brakes, and then you've got my attention! That's easy compared to working a computer."
Let's hope this is not the end of a great franchise and his name will live on in future releases.
Check out the trailer about the new car damage physics in the game:
What's your favourite Colin McRae game?
