The main menu introduces you to the fairly sparse amount of race options in WRC. There is a quick play option, which is likely to be the mode that you select simply to give the game a test run. The game will automatically choose a track and car and you will be on your way in a matter of seconds. There is also a time trial mode which is fairly self explanatory and let’s you choose any track to record your best time on. Aside from this there is also a single race option, which is basically the same as the other two options except condensed into a third mode. All of these three modes play to the strengths of the PSP, and are mainly for if you’re after a quick race on the train to work or in the car for a short few minutes.
Looks good doesn't it? Too bad about how it plays
The main single player mode in the game is the championship mode, which is basically a replica of the WRC season. The first thing you do is select your difficulty (ranging from novice through to extreme) and select a team and a vehicle. After this the game basically starts and you work your way through the championship. Rather than compete just against the best times there are ghost cars on the track, which give you something to work towards; the ghost cars stand out and are very distracting at the beginning. The developers have tried to extend the lifespan a little by setting a bench mark, that is you must finish in fifth position to advance to the next stage. In terms of single player modes that is all the game features, and the other three modes (quick rally, time trial and single race) are all very disposable which only really leaves you with the championship mode, which isn’t that deep anyway.
The game does include a multiplayer option though, which is the best aspect of the game. By selecting multiplayer on the main menu you can choose to wirelessly play either a wireless time trial, turn based time trial, turn based single rally or turn based championship. The problem with this is that the only time you get to play real time against your friends is in the wireless time trial mode and even then they only appear as ghost cars. The turn based options could probably easily be done if only one of you owned a PSP. There is also no infrastructure mode which leaves the multiplayer mode feeling a little scaled down.
Handling appears to be an issue with just about every PSP racing game, and is also an issue with WRC. The cars can be controlled with either the analog nub or the directional pad, but the analog nub actually felt a lot tighter and easier to control rather than the directional pad. Should you go off the track (and this is likely to happen frequently due to the sensitive nature of the handling) you actually have to press start and select the “reset to track” option, conventionally you press select but this actually changes the song that is playing, given a choice we would have much rathered that select reset the vehicle to the track as this doesn’t stop the game.
You will be sliding a fair bit
There are barriers littered throughout the track which quite literally stop your vehicle in its tracks but unfortunately it is not easy to distinguish which barriers will completely stop your vehicle and which barriers will be easy to pass through, this can make the game very irritating as there is nothing more frustrating than driving around at breakneck speed but clip a barrier and all of a sudden your speed is stopped. We can see why the barriers are there, but not all of them need to be so punishing and unforgiving.
Traveller’s Tales have included a fairly decent visual damage system that looks great and all sorts of damage can be inflicted on the vehicles including bumper bars being damaged and cracked glass. The performance is purely cosmetic though, the speedometer displays parts of your car that can be damaged but it doesn't do anything as your car isn't affected by the damage. This means you can literally damage your car immensely without feeling the effects of it at all, which kind of defeats the purpose. At the end of a race your car may look like it is about to stop running but you'll still be flying along at 100km/h.
Graphically the game isn't very impressive; at times it is possible to see the levels loading in front of you. The most impressive part of the game is the damage system but it is fairly trivial. The tracks themselves have a fair amount of detail with a fair amount of detail in the tracks. It is really disappointing that the game has poor draw distance though, as this isn't a problem that we've encountered in any other PSP racing game.
Still looking familiar?
Whilst we were initially impressed with the sound we quickly became disappointed when we realised how minimalistic the song choice is. In total there are six songs, with the highlight being Franz Ferninand's Take Me Out. Six songs means that there is about fifteen minutes of music here, which is simply not enough and becomes extremely repetitive very fast. It also doesn't help that the co driver is sometimes late with his comments as well.
The main single player mode doesn’t last very long because the rallies are quick and there isn’t much depth to the single player mode. The multiplayer mode could have made up for this, but unfortunately it shortens the lifespan because you’re likely to play a game with a multiplayer mode that allows you to actually race against someone in real time. It would have been good to have more than one main single player mode for a bit of variety.
WRC for the PSP is a disappointing title, it feels scaled down for the PSP and only features one main single player mode, there has been no thought put into the multiplayer mode and the song selection is poor, if you simply must own a rally title then Colin McRae Rally 2005 is a better title. It's disappointing that more effort put into making this a definitive rally title, as it stands this game is just far too scaled back to be anything memorable.
Loading...
