Mediocre Rally Game

It is now some time ago that a thoroughbred rally game has appeared on the market. With WRC FIA World Rally Championship Black Bean and Milestone would delight the many rally fans, but what we have seen so far in the demo was not very promising. Let's take a look at the full version and see if our Rally-heart beats faster.

Thanks official license we can give with all WRC race car gas, but that's not all. In addition to the WRC, so the top-class of the rally sport, are also underpinned by further P-WRC, S-WRC and the J-WRC with Super 1600 cars at the start. Overall, the 18 cars, from small Renault Clio to the new Mitsubishi Lancer X WRC. Race we are allowed to drive in 13 different countries. Whopping 78 special stages in the snow of Sweden, the dust of Mexico or the rain of England are scheduled. The main mode or rather the career mode of the game is titled as Road to the WRC. Classic're working you here by the lower vehicle categories up to the World Rally Championship. The whole is divided into 10 stages. With victories to unlock not only new events and next level, but also earned dough invested in new vehicles and finishes. Paint or other visual modifications can not be customized as now many racing games.

In addition to the career ladder and the obligatory single player options with Cup, Single Rally, single-stage and time trial, you can you also prove in the WRC Academy. The tasks of the WRC Academy, however, are for experienced players race easy to master. Great innovations not found in WRC, but that's not that important, since it is intended to reflect the sequence of a real rally career and nothing else at a rally game. But for a racing game of the vintage 2010, the exhibition has already been been very mediocre. Comparison with the Need for Speed ​​or Dirt should not list here. The menus are heavy on text and discreetly. Animated backgrounds or similar would have presented the matter a little better. So the career mode offers solid food. In the online modes you can just like in single player never really go against human opponents, not even in split screen, you drive only against time from the other. To have at least pay some motivation in the online multiplayer mode Milestone has installed a level system that displays your experience.

Rally simulation?

The vehicle handling can be quite demanding, fast reactions and handbrake maneuvers are asked to come forward quickly and to beat the times of competition. Already at the beginning of the career you have to do well. Firstly, the car in tight corners tend naturally to understeer and therefore require a sensitive foot on the accelerator on corner exit, on the other breaks under hard braking from high speeds actions also like once the heck out. Especially the effect of the driving influences on the individual axles gets the physics engine out quite well. For a realistic simulation it is not enough, especially since it's the feeling was not implemented very well when drifting, and as is well known, a large part of the rally sport.

Technology to PS2 level

Biggest disappointment if not impudence when using such an official FIA license is the graphical implementation of the Rally spectacle. One feels in the time set back, because at the start of the race fall on a muddy textures and immediately the constant blur. But that's not all, highly visible popups let the forest appear gradually and this does not look good again. 2D trees and grasses sporadically distributed on the blurry textures and unsightly plastic streams give us the rest. Compared to Dirt2 looks like a PS2 WRC game. With the PC version you are served something better, but again can not be achieved current status. The sound, unfortunately, infected miles behind a level of Forza Motorsport 3 festival which is already more than a year old. The only thing that looks useful and seems on the level of today, the damage to the car.

Conclusion

WRC FIA World Rally Championship, it seems to have been many budget for a new graphics engine, because since the mediocre demo nothing more has improved the optics. The handling is good, but it is not enough to make this rally game to a great rally simulation. Unfortunately, the official WRC license can not detract from the veraltetet presented game. Only the career mode can motivate and apart from the bad technology fun even for a long time. While console gamers have to pay for the DLC package with the old Group B rally car around 5 euros extra, this is included in the PC version already. That's a joke, because the console games are usually more expensive anyway.