It’s been a while since we’ve played a new rally racing simulator developed by Codemasters, which is surprising, given the mastery the developer has over the genre, but that wait is soon coming to an end. After a few years with Nacon and KT Racing, the WRC license is now in the hands of Codemasters and EA Sports, and its new era will be making its debut soon with EA Sports WRC. The game is making some loft promises, and from what we’ve seen of it so far, it seems to be taking solid shape- so here, in the lead-up to its launch, we’re going to talk about a few key things that you should know about EA Sports WRC.
LOCATIONS AND COURSES
EA Sports WRC will launch with quite a heathy collection of locations and stages. In total, the game will have over 200 stages at launch, spread across 17 real-world WRC locations, while an 18th location – Central Europe Rally – will be added in a free post-launch update. Interestingly enough, Codemasters and EA Sports have also confirmed that thanks to a switch to Unreal Engine, WRC will feature the longest rally courses Codemasters has ever developed, including some that will span more than 30 kilometers. In total, the game will have over 600 km of unique roads at launch, which is more than twice of what Codemasters’ last rally racer, DiRT Rally 2.0, had.
VEHICLES
At launch, EA Sports WRC will have a roster of 78 cars, which will span 60 years of rally racing history, including ten WRC, WRC 2, and Junior WRC vehicles from the 2023 season. Also included are the 2023 season’s Rally1 hybrid cars, which will feature a unique in-game system that will require players to charge up the battery by braking into corners, and deciding when to use that for speed boosts.
VEHICLE CLASSES
EA Sports WRC’s roster of cars will span a total of 18 vehicle classes. This will, of course, include three WRC cars in the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid, the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid, and the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1Hybrid. Also included are six WRC2 cars, Junior WRC’s Ford Fiesta Rally3, several World Rally cars from 1997-2011 and from 2017-21, Rally2 and Rally4 cars, F2 Kit cars, and more.
DYNAMIC HANDLING SYSTEM
Codemasters says it has also made radical improvements to DiRT Rally 2.0’s handling mechanics with EA Sports WRC’s new Dynamic Handling System, for which the developer has also incorporated plenty of feedback from professional rally drivers. Among other things, the new handling system makes improvements to things such as force feedback, tarmac handling, drivetrain inertia, aerodynamic simulations, progressive breaking, and more.
SEASONS
Another major addition that Codemasters is touting for its return to rally racing is the addition of seasons, which will see players driving through stages across Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. As you might expect, each season will bring its own unique demands and challenges, which, of course, will combine with various weather effects, based on which players will have to make considered decisions on why car and car class to pick for a particular rally.
DRIVING ASSISTS
EA Sports WRC is clearly being built on the foundations of authenticity and attention to detail, as you’d expect from a simulator, but Codemasters is also adding in plenty of driving assists to allow players to tailor the game to their own skill level. Players will be able to finetune things such as traction control, ABS, stability control, wiper, repairs, and more. Meanwhile, the game will also include an option for a more simplified pace note system that will be easier for all players to understand.
IMPROVED AUDIO
With EA Sports WRC having switched to Unreal Engine and releasing exclusively for current-gen hardware, Codemasters is touting plenty of technical improvements, some of which we’ve already mentioned. Another area that’s receiving some interesting upgrades is the game’s audio design. For instance, pace notes by co-drivers were recorded on motion rigs to simulate what their voice would sound like in an actual, fast-moving vehicle on a bumpy, winding rally road. The game also boasts on-stage performances between events, high-quality real-world recordings of rally cars, and more.
CAREER MODE
Career Mode is where a great many players will be spending the majority of time in EA Sports WRC, so what’s to be expected on this front? At the outset, players will have the option to choose whether they want to start in Junior WRC, WRC2, or WRC proper, after which you’ll create your team and its branding. Each season, your Benefactor – i.e. your primary source of funding – will set goals and objectives for you to meet, and performing well will earn you appropriate funding bonuses, allowing you to recruit a teammate and more engineers, buy more cars, and more. You will, in fact, also be able to build your own cars. Speaking of which…
BUILDER
Another one of EA Sports WRC’s headlining features is the Builder, which, as its name suggests, will let you build your own rally car from scratch. There will, of course, be several things that you’ll have to take into consideration, including cost, driving characteristics, weight distribution, the quality of components, whether or not components can be tuned, and, of course, whether or not that fits within your budget. In addition, you’ll also be able to customize your car’s appearance in a number of ways.
MOMENTS
Plenty of other modes will be available outside of Career Mode, with one in particular that fans of the sport will find interesting being Moments. As its name suggests, Moments will allow players to drive through some of the most iconic moments in WRC history and experience those real-world scenarios first-hand. Codemasters has also said it will be adding new Moments to the game post-launch. What that schedule will look like exactly is currently unclear, but according to the developer, at least initially, you can expect new Moments on a daily basis.
CLUBS
DiRT Rally 2.0’s Clubs mode will also be returning, which, in a nutshell, is an asynchronous multiplayer mode, where players take on events at their own pace and compete with each other on a Club’s leaderboard. The game will feature two official Clubs hosted by Codemasters, one each for WRC cars and historic vehicles, while both will also be regularly updated with new events. Meanwhile, players will also be able to custom make their own Clubs and tweak the rules to their liking.
ADDITIONAL MODES
Several other modes have also been confirmed for EA Sports WRC. There’s Rally School, a tutorial mode that’ll give you basic driving lessons; Championship, which will let you play through a single real-world season; Quick Play, where you’ll be able to customize a single player event to your liking and jump right in, either solo or multiplayer (with up to 31 other players); and Time Trial, which is exactly what its name suggests. Also confirmed for the game are a livery editor and a photo mode.
REGULARITY RALLIES
Another major feature in EA Sports WRC will be Regularity Rallies, which are described as an alternative rally experience that can be found across several modes in the game. In a Regularity Rally, rather than racing to set the fastest time on a stage, you will instead be required to maintain a certain average speed throughout the route, based on which you’ll be given a score. Your co-driver will also have specific, unique pace notes in Regularity Rallies.
CROSS-PLAY
There’s been widespread adoption of cross-platform multiplayer in EA Sports titles of late, and the upcoming WRC will be no different. It’s been confirmed that EA Sports WRC will feature cross-play at launch, which means PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC players will be able to play with and against each other.
PC REQUIREMENTS
For those planning on playing EA Sports WRC on a PC, what kind of a rig will you need to run the game? On minimum settings, you’ll need either a Ryzen 5 2600X or an i5 9600K, along with either a GeForce GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX Vega 56, and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either a Ryzen 7 3700X or an i5-10600K, along with either a GeForce RTX 2070 or a Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, an SSD is also recommended, and you’ll need about 95 GB of free storage space.
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