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- Electronic Arts
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- Electronic Arts
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- Electronic Arts
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- Electronic Arts
EA Sports WRC
Released On: Nov 3, 2023
80
6.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
80
86% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
14% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
80
86% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
14% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The best modern rally game to date, packed to the brim with big stages and plenty of cars. With updates like the Central European course coming later, as well as VR support down the line. If you’re a fan of rallying in general, you owe it to yourself to have this one in your library.
WRC offers exactly what I wanted from a Codemaster rally game and it doesn’t disappoint thanks to a good offering of content, engaging racing, and lots of tricky routes.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 86 User Ratings
6.5
52% Positive
45 Ratings
45 Ratings
24% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
23% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 86 User Ratings
6.5
52% Positive
45 Ratings
45 Ratings
24% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
23% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
I also play Richard Burns Rally (Hungarian Mod ;) ), BeamNG, Raceroom, ACC, AC, AMS2 (love) and nealy everthing which has a certain level of simulation depth on it.
Now i´ve tested EA´s WRC and an i must say, besides some performance issues which have been better since patch 1.5 (from 8.FEB2024) the game has tons of potential and it shows that imo.
It´s not Simcade and it´s not a hardcore sim (it can turn into it with upcoming patches or gamemodes). But the drivin is on some car/track combis the best you can find in Sim-rally. Little note: Often hardcore sim means that it has to be hard to drive while cars irl drive very good and more forgiving or in another way.
WRC hits the perfect spot nearly and onboards from rl looks very close to it. If you set the FFB right (not to strong maybe at 45-45% and then dial in your other parameters likeSuspension (140-150 and Tire Srcup 140 also around) the car speaks to you clearly imo.
Maybe codemasters need to add some extra physics overtime (maybe suspension and some tire tweaks (like ACC and AMS2 did) and that would transform that OP rally sim even more.
I find the driving very addictive and some car/stage/weather/daytime combos are the best you can get. GFX look better with every patch and are very breathtaking in some scenarios.
Wishlist:
- Little more AMS2/ACC/BeamNG physics injection ;), more slidey and suspension impact especially on tarmac
- Better Paintshop
- Better VIEW settings in cockpit like in ACC (full or more moveable position, cause some **** nead more "forward" position
- More variation to vegetation (more handcrafted trees etc.)
- Marbles flying away if you drive by near, grass bends etc.
- Fix the colour mapping in some stages and the colours, sometimes the whole screen is overshoot with white light and unnatural stuff. In some places it´s near perfection
- Some stuff guys saying on reddit (MP, minor or special things ;) )
BUT i love WRC and the patches hopefully coming in and transforming it to the GOAT , which it is for me.
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I've been playing rally games since the PS1. I also have about 5 thousand hours combined hours in Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0 and with that can say EA WRC feels like a direct upgrade from those games. We have over 68 cars including the new WRC cars and 19 locations with about 10+ stages per including longer stages finally (20+ miles). There's a ton of quality of life stuff over DR2.0 present whether custom livery maker, car builder, photomode, better career, not needing an internet connection for 90% of the game, bettter tire model (with tires that wear down) and a revamped hardcore mode that really creates a challenging experience--more so when used over the course of several stages without a service.
Only reason people hate this is because it's EA. That's the truth. They've done everything by the book to make their fans happy and people just want to cling onto the smallest issues to cry about because it's an EA game and they want it to burn. Do yourself a favor and decide for yourself. If you like rally games, this game is an easy buy. Had some hiccups at launch but runs well now. Heck, I can play this on my Steam deck with medium/high settings at 60fps. I'd say that's pretty good! ;)
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EA Sports WRC is as good as it gets behind the wheel, with Codemasters once again putting out a racer that feels incredible to play.
EA SPORTS WRC marks two significant comebacks: Codemasters returning to develop a rally-themed game and a driving model closely resembling the experience in Dirt Rally 2.0. These two factors alone make it the best rally game in recent years.
Even with a sometimes bland Career mode and the currently disappointing state of Moments, EA Sports WRC is a game every rally sim fan should play. Driving model, realism, variety — it's the pinnacle of Codemasters' experience in the genre, plus the official World Rally Championship license. Rally has finally come home.
I’m afraid it will take at least several weeks until WRC achieves a state where we can call it fully playable. But even then, will it be worth 50 bucks? If you desperately need a new rally game and don’t require a full-fledged simulator, then the answer can be positive. The game has very rich content and a captivating gameplay loop so you can expect dozens of hours of fun. If you haven’t played all the available rally games, then I suggest trying them first.
The developers for EA Sports WRC have said they are working on the issue, but after so many Unreal Engine 4 and 5 games have suffered similar issues upon release, it is harder to accept this wasn't fixed before release. It's harder still with a rally game, which demands fine control from the player but undermines itself with stutters that often result in significantly punishing outcomes. There is a lot to like about EA Sports WRC, and with a future patch it may become buttery smooth. That isn't how the game was released, though, and while a smoother version of this game would be easily recommendable, it's best to avoid EA Sports WRC in its current state.
Personally would rate it 9/10 but people are scoring 1/10 for stutters?
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Comparison to past Dirt Rally titles/Generations:
- Stages from 17 countries instead of 6, the stages have a lot more design and environmental variety that really elevates the fun factor. A vital component, the main challenge of Rally, is the roads, and EA WRC does this multiple factors better than past Dirt Rally entries. The benefit perceived here compared to the compromise in overall visuals is hands down elevates the gameplay experience, so the move to UE was well worth it.
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<< Driving physics >> similar underpinnings to DR 2.0 but with overall more grip (makes the game move a bit towards the sim-cade end of the spectrum, making it more accessible to general consumers). However I feel this is not a detriment, in fact I honestly prefer WRC's driving model over DR 2.0's, because the feel of the car is better on a wheel. Once the settings are dialed in to how I had it in DR2.0 (reduced settings besides Self-align, Suspension, Tyre Slip to 60%), you feel more in the FFB than in DR, better gravel texture, feedback through bumps/crests/dips are intuitive and as you would expect, tyre slip when understeering especially on tarmac is also great.
<< Tarmac physics >> expect much higher cornering speeds (simcade), but with much better feel of the surface which IMO makes it actually fun to drive on tarmac compared to DR2.0. You feel the car has traction and you can really lean into the turns which still require you to keep within the tyre's grip limit.
<< WRC1 car physics >> amazing, better than Generations. The way the car dives diagonally on its compliant suspension as you balance it on the brakes slowing from a straight to a curve is just like you would expect from watching WRC as the downforce does its work. Flinging the car around tight turns and exploiting gear 1/2 for 4wd oversteer works as you'd expect and is lots of fun.
<< Other cars >> expect the same quality as the WRC1 cars as expected from DR2.0, better hands down than in Generations especially the sounds. Greatly improves the career experience as the new structure leans into its pool of rally cars outside of the WRC route.
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<< Career >> actually really well designed. For the people complaining it strays too far from the main WRC events, you can just skip the invitationals/other events and choose to rest on the weeks that don't have WRC events. For everyone else, it gives you the opportunity to enter other championships using its many other car classes, and gives you a taste of special cars for free in Invitationals. It's a constant rotisserie of all types of rally cars and stages around the world. Better than DR2.0 that locks you into one car class for a whole year, let alone Generations. There is not so much micro-managing your team so you get to race more often which is good, but upgrading your engineers to reduce cost/time of repairs is always nice. Benefactor system means you can borrow huge amounts of money to take a Group B for a spin at the risk of Max's happiness meter, which is always nice.
<< Damage >> I run Hardcore damage and no Restarts, which IMO makes career so much better. I have to drive carefully and have to decide when to push. Car damage is really well balanced with the Service repair allowance so you actively weigh the risk of taking on more damage from pushing or mitigate damage. In longer services you get 30mins which is enough to repair 2 or so major components which do affect your pace. DR 2.0 I found the car barely gets damaged so services are trivial.
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<< Graphics >> I run this on a mid-spec PC (AMD 5600X and Radeon 6700XT) 1440p ultrawide, medium graphics, 70fps. I don't care that DR2.0 has better car reflections, I love driving the stages in WRC. I encounter stutters in 1/10 stages. Once Codemasters patch out these performance issues, the game's a 10.
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<< Soundtrack >> its actually good
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PC
PROS:
-The driving physics is believable (not realistic) and fun.
-The sounds are awesome.
-The car list is the best. Ever.
CONS:
-The performance is not good enough, and the input has a delay.
-The graphics are lame, to say the least, a obviuos downgrade compared to dirt 2.0, a 5 year game old.
-The stages are very repetitive, and this is so annoying. Codemasters certainly have a lot of proprietary assets to use in these stages, and you run in 4 stages of any rally, they all look the same.
CONCLUSION: A decent game that could be so much better, given the Dirt rally series history. I', inclined to trust theywill turn this mess around, and didn`t ask for a refund.
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PC
Holy gripfest. You have over 300hp rwd car whitch you can't drive with throttle.
Feels more like a 120hp car.
Very sharp driving due to tons of grip at front too.
Engine sounds disappoint, at least in car wiew.
And the co drivers... what the hell happened there? English ones are bearly understandable.
Have in car radios gone worse?
Downgrade from dirt 2.0 for sure.
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PC
Please get this game to Kylotonn to be fixed!!! Clearly geared towards a wider less skilled group of players who aren’t looking for the most realistic rallying game on the market. In short it’s a fun toy for people with short attention spans.
Cons: Car handling in a slide is not realistic and no setting will fix it, can’t stagger your tires, run two of one type and two of another, for certain events like Monte Carlo, overall event length of only 9 stages is kinda short by comparison to the 14 of the previous games event length, lacking in some of the arena and special stages that have been run over the last two years like Harju in Finland for example. The game music is pretty horrible. No test area to fine tune your car settings. No effort to make it into the top of the pack rally 1 car. Too many steps to get to run a single quick stage.
Pros: Good graphics, good sound, car builder and livery design are good, length of some of the stages is good.
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PC
Summary Design and drive your dream rally car with the debut of Builder mode. Get behind the wheel and overcome recent events alongside real-world highlights and nostalgic throwbacks in Moments mode. Codemasters’ renowned multi-surface handling model is improved for WRC. Tailor it to match your skill level and put it to the test on surface degra...
Rated E
for Everyone
Platforms:
- PlayStation 5
- Xbox Series X
- PC
Initial Release Date: Nov 3, 2023
Developer:
- Codemasters
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genres:
