EA SPORTS WRCÂ Preview
EA SPORTS WRC, aka World Rally Championship, is Codemasters latest foray into the dynamic and dangerous rally racing simulation. The development team gave a presentation where they made great pains to emphasize this version is the biggest, deepest, and yet, most accessible one yet.
Codemasters took to heart fan feedback for the previous iterations and what the fans want from a world rally racing sim. To that end, they made two major decisions. The first was to use the physics from the highly regarded, Dirt Rally 2.0. The second big change was to move from their proprietary ECO game engine to the Unreal Engine.
The reason for the game engine change was in response to fan requests for bigger and longer rally stages. Unreal Engine allows the team to do so along with all the visual bells and whistles it provides. With Unreal Engine, Codemasters can also create real world track with greater detail and accuracy.
In addition to responding to fan requests, Codemasters went into WRC development with several pillars in mind. The game has to be authentic, live – staying current with real world events, immersive, and official. WRC also holds all the World Rally licenses for tracks, cars, drivers, and teams.
Rally Disciplines
Taking all these development elements together is a bold and ambitious endeavor. Along with the physics from Dirt Rally 2.0, the game aims to deliver the best in class handling.
The game will offer several rally racing disciplines, Rally, Regularity (Endurance) Rally, and Builder. The Builder mode is especially deep in the game. You can build your own car in any of the three rally car classes. Further to building, you can also test drive your creation against official cars. A balance of power formula will be applied to your car to keep things competitive.
In addition to the three major disciplines, there are several other modes of play available. They include a Major Moments mode which encompasses over fifty years of racing history for you to replay and improve on. To keep things from getting stale, new moments will be added every twenty-four hours. You need not fear on missing out on any moments as they will persist.
The other usual suspects are also included: Career, Quick Play, Solo, Multiplayer, Time Trial, Championship, Clubs – with asynchronous support across timezones, Rally Schools, and Livery Editor. Options-wise there a Rally Pass, a Photomode, Surface Degradation, Driving Assists, and Accessibility Settings.
Future Plans
Whew! That’s a lot of control for the player. Codemasters also made great pains to emphasize that there will be ongoing post-launch support. The first two deliverables will be a VR mode for PC gamers in 2024. Hopefully, a similar mode will land on the PSVR 2 too. An Esports mode will also launch in 2024.
The game will contain eighteen tracks with one to be made available post-launch. 5 bonus locations will be available to those who order the season pass. Each track will have seasonal variants too.
On the official content side for cars; there will ten official WRC cars along with sixty-eight historical vehicles. There is a damage model too but don’t expect the game to destruction derby in terms of physical damage. Codemasters worked with car manufacturers to attain damage levels acceptable to all parties concerned.
The game will follow the official WRC calendar. WRC launches on current generation consoles plus PC this November 3, 2023. Rally racing fanatics have high hopes for this one and Codemasters sure seems intent on meeting those expectations.
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