Benefiting from full licensing, WRC FIA World Rally Championship will feature a wide selection of real world drivers, cars and venues, allowing rally fans to relive and recreate their favourite moments. The game will be based on the 2010 season and cover three classes: Production World Rally Championship, Super 2000 World Rally Championship and Junior World Rally Championship.
In the build we played, we tested out some Ford rally cars in a variety of different tracks of varying difficulties. You can choose to race in countries like Jordan, Sweden and Germany, with each offering several different stages. Players can look forward to over seventy-eight different stages to race on. There is certainly a lot of content in place and the cars and tracks that we were given access to allowed us to get a pretty good feel of the game.
The WRC license looks to be in good hands.
Gameplay wise, WRC FIA World Rally Championship is going for the simulation experience, with great emphasis on accurate mechanics and physics. The game will certainly be a challenge for those expecting it to be a pick up and play racer, as it requires a more calculated approach and rewards players who understand rally racing well enough to grasp the systems in place. Our experience with it was quite good, and after playing much more carefully than we would for an arcade racer, we were able to enjoy a smooth race but still faced plenty of challenging turns and bends.
The nature of the locations play a major role with regards to how your vehicle will handle, as there will be over forty different surfaces to drive on. For example, the tracks in Sweden were covered entirely by snow and so it was quite slippery and we lost control of our car many times, resulting in messy crashes. Speaking of crashes, the game will feature a highly detailed damage system. The cosmetic effects look pretty cool and really reflect the damage nicely. Furthermore, the effect it has on a car’s performance is quite accurate. The HUD on the bottom of the screen shows a layout of the car and highlights the specific areas of damage. For example, when we kept ramming the left side of our car, the damage caused by it made our car steer to the left on its own.
Sweden isn't very safe for driving.
WRC FIA World Rally Championship will feature several modes of play, including a comprehensive career mode called ‘Road to the WRC’, where the main goal will be to win the championship. The game will also support online play, allowing players all over to compete for the best times. The build we played was far from finished, so the graphics weren’t exactly the strongest point but certainly a decent foundation. There’s a solid engine in place and the game runs smoothly. Once they polish it up a bit more and address/refine the pop up, texturing, draw distance and aliasing issues, the end product should look solid.
WRC FIA World Rally Championship is shaping up to be a promising rally racer. The game played quite well and had all the necessary elements of an authentic rally racing experience. As far as the graphics are concerned, there is definitely a solid engine at work and as long as they address some of the graphical hiccups we saw in the build, the end product will look good. The best part is that this game carries the official license with all the right names, venues, cars and drivers.
Loading...
