WRC Generations Review | 4.25 Right, Don't Cut!

Article Reviews (6)
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KT Racing has been working on the WRC franchise for years. However, since the impending switch of the rights to the WRC name to Electronic Arts and Codemasters is imminent, this is the last Nacon and KT Racing WRC Game. How did they do? Did they manage to create the magnum opus they wanted?

Over the next few pages, let me give you my detailed thoughts on several of the games' quirks. Let's take a deep dive into WRC Generations.

DISCLAIMER: This is the first ever WRC Game I played. So you will be getting a fresh perspective on the whole franchise.

If you wish to leave your own review for this game you can submit it here.
Next page: Controls - 4.5/5
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Latest reviews

amsterDAN
Pros: - the best stage design in any rally game ever, and it's really not even close. The number of stages is definitely one of the main selling points for this game; a truly outstanding roster of events
- surprisingly fun career mode where finances matter just enough that you actually need to pay some attention to them, without needing to micromanage everything. Very clever design for maintenance events, wherein the distance you run during a quick sprint equates to how repaired your car gets, which I thought was a great way to turn something that could have been boring into a fine excuse for even more rallying
- massively improved performance over WRC 10
- very intuitive-feeling ffb that conveys weight transfer excellently (though has other shortcomings mentioned in the cons below)
Cons: - very poor interior car sounds, almost as though there simply isn't much bass to them. Everything is very thin-sounding and not as impactful and snarling as it should be
- interior cameras are way too rigid and jerk around in a really jarring and unrealistic way at times, like if you barely touch a snowbank
- throttle bug can be a nuisance. For me, rescaling the pedals fixed it, but for others this does not appear to work
- handbrake behaves somewhat strangely and in my opinion rotates the car far harder than it should
- game refuses to launch in fullscreen for me and i have to set it to fullscreen in the options every single time i boot
- some things like piles of rocks seem to be invisible to both the ffb and the audio. There are a lot of times where I'd expect some rocks banging against the undercarriage and rattling my wheel, but get nothing at all like I was on smooth tarmac
- seat/camera positioning is as awful as it's always been in WRC games, and they continue to refuse to put the FOV on a scale any human can make sense of
This game reminds me very much of Sebastian Loeb Rally EVO, where if your equipment fell into the narrow window of compatibility you likely had a good time with the game, and if your equipment didn't it was one of the most aggravating gaming experiences you've ever had. If you liked previous WRC games, this is basically a greatest hits album celebrating the series, so don't expect anything new and revolutionary, just a big old pile of everything you've previously come to expect from these games.
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G
Pros: Could be good with VR
Cons: But it doesn't have VR
What are they thinking? And why is this (most important) subject not mentioned in the review here?! Absolutely insane.
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M
Premium
Pros: Great visuals and immersion.
WRC1 hybrid rally 1 cars, plus a great selection of cool cars…
Good feeling of speed, and feedback of the cars grip, or lack of it.
Now with telemetry out of the box, and due to this Simhub support.
Surprisingly my VRS direct force pro wheel base, heusinkveld sequential shifter and pedals, AIOlogs handbrake all worked straight off… not the norm with WRC titles!
Amazing amount of content, stages and cars…
Cheaper than the previous titles in the ‘deluxe’ form.
Cons: Some strange bugs, throttle is a little janky in some cars (early escort for example).
Stage start countdown and start is a little buggy…
I really feel for many users who have had bad issue with wheels and other peripherals… it’s a bit of a lottery to what is or isn’t supported!
Can’t seem to ever get above 59fps… doesn’t matter what settings I choose?
Loving it to be fair, yes I know it is really just a compendium of previous titles, warmed over with WRC1 cars added… but I think it’s the best rally sim out there currently.
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S
Pros: - Rally environments do look good
- Number of Rally environments is impressive
- Lets you drive through the WRC ladder WRC-3/WRC-2/WRC
- Career mode is engaging (if you're into that)
Cons: - Car sounds
- Vehicle handling not the best for 2022
- Older recycled content looks dated
I have tried previous WRC titles, but this is the first one I have really played through career mode. I've put a lot of time into DR2 (also a lot of time into RBR but not for many years). I much prefer the vehicle handling in DR2, the cars feel like the have real weight in the handling and they behave much better when light or over jumps. Car sounds in WRC Generations are also terrible when compared to most contemporary driving games, really don't know how they are so dull and lifeless.

Vehicle models are good, although some of the classics do look slightly basic for 2022. There's a huge variety of rally environments and they don't feel like recycled stages with different textures, they do all feel unique. Some of the older returning envirments do feel a little outdated, but they do add more variety over all so it's a good addition.

I have found career mode fun to go through, it's not a slog and can be tailored to how you want to play eg. rally lengths/difficulty level.

Good overall game, but not a rally leader by any means.
(All played on controller)
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Pprod
Pros: +Controller (my simucube is working right off the bat, almost...)
+All the stages from the previous WRC games
+Nice content from the previous era (206, xSara...)
+Finally they got the WCC right (somehow)
Cons: -Controller : My wheel is not recognized by the game, and make the game goes crazy and stuck to the top left, when it is.
Also Car won't move unless you apply 80% pressure in first gear...
-AI : need to dial it yourself, and still some stage are ridiclously completely off. Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, you can have a nice fight against the AI and then take them 20 sec. on the special stage.
-UI : Can't drive a single rally, nor a single stage against the AI. Also can't make your own rally/champ with all the rallies they add.
Big disappointment in the end. For a swansong from KT, that seems like a missed opportunity. They had some much to offer with everything they made so far, but still, they end with those choices.
Why no more customisations ? Let's us do our own rallies, our own champ, for F sake.
Now, the license goes to Codies/EA, and my hopes are even lower since that buyout...

The road is open for KT with V-Rally 5, now (4 was actually pretty enjoyable). I'm hoping the best for them.
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Ole Marius Myrvold
Staff
Premium
BorisK said:
I disagree. WRC 8+ is a completely different game compared to the previous ones (although I liked WRC7).
Click to expand...

You might be right. Point is. There's even less differences between the games than most other yearly releases. I think Pro Cycling Manager comes close in terms of minimal changes ;P
 
BeliacosGR
I played a lot the first 4 games so WRC 1-2-3-4 . 5 was a huge downgrade. 6 was nice and 7 was like an update from the previous. The last game that i had purchased and play was 8, which i was bored after 3 hours. Seriously the feeling was strange, the sounds for a WRC licensed game poor to be said at least and generally felt a bit off. I played 9 and 10 at a friend and felt the same. After a couple of stages i was bored! The game had got me every information that i wanted and that's it, compared to DiRT on which in the first one i have more than 1000hours and in the second one 350... I was really skeptical about purchasing WRC Generations, but after a lot of gameplay videos and reviews i have chosen to stay away. But why?
Well...
1) Sounds are awfull
2) Driving physics still feel weird
Lets see the work Codemasters and EA can do.
 
Leynad777
jonination said:
I've always known from the experience of others what I would be getting in the WRC games--if it could recognize my wheel. WRC 10 didn't support the VRS DFP and required registry editing just to get it functioning, much less satisfactory on the ffb. Had to awkwardly explain my situation to Steam just to get the refund so I'm holding out until someone with a DFP takes the chance and reports back that it's supported this time.
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I'm using my VRS DFP in WRCG without a problem yet. Also WRC10 works, but you want an XBox-Controller for the menues. Also lower your wheel-rotation to 540° or less and more tyre-load setting in the FFB-menu improves it quite well. Really enjoying the title and the graphics are much better than 3.5/5.
 
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T
Ole Marius Myrvold said:
I think WRC Generations are like WRC10, which are like WRC9, that for all intents and purposes was like WRC8, which wasn't a huge difference from WRC7 etc.

I mean, they could've spent a bit of time to at least changed up the training bits.
Also, granted, I haven't played them that much, but I seem to recall there used to be a full out "open roam" around the HQ with different kind of roads etc. That's gone?

I'll give them one thing though, after 6 games and a bit, they apparently managed to patch the scoring rules for manufacturers in WRC10... a while after release, and they have kept that patching in for this game. So for the first time in KT's WRC history, it's mostly correct who scores points for the manufacturers!
Click to expand...
WRC 8,9,10WRC Gen have NOTHING in common with WRC 7. WRC 7 was built on a completely different engine. It looked and drove completely different. Looked better in my opinion. Unrealistic Engine 4 has terrible lighting. Also it's the last WRC game featuring proper wheels and tires. From 8 and on, the wheels are just balloons KT has made up. Not even close to the real ones.
As for the similarities between 8,9,10 and Gen....well, there are similarities, but it's a bit more complicated than saying "they're pretty much the same". They're not. If you just "give them a go" they might feel the same,especially to those people who can't tell differences,but keep playing and you will notice some big differences.
For me, the best WRC game (by KT) is WRC 8. Looks OK. Sounds OK. Drives OK. Has it's issues, but certainly less ones than the titles that replaced it.
 
A
LibranRabbit said:
Couldn’t even get it to work with my peripherals , full motion sim rig, refund!
It is 2022, isn’t it?
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Yes, it is 2022, meaning there are way more different devices in the segment for a developer to worry about which means some might not work particularly well, especially more niche products like full motion rigs...
 
A
The lack of a custom season or even a custom rally against AI mode is pretty much unforgiveable as far as I am concerned and if I had realised those didn't exist before I had played the other modes for more than a couple of hours I'd be getting a Steam refund.
 
V
The core base of the game is good but it's also loaded with an absolutely insane amount of completely baffling design decisions and issues. Optimization is absolutely awful--game runs worse than DR2.0 while not looking as good. AI is extremely inconsistent. Game is way too dark unless you crank the brightness artificially up. On gravel, hards and softs wear at the exact same rate so there's no reason to pick the former. The stages are clearly nearly all copy-pasted from previous games. You're telling me Kylotonn couldn't make some more stages when there's barely anything new added to this game besides already-made stages from old games and the hybrid cars?

The stages ARE absolutely incredible, but each location is one long 14-25km stage that's split into three or two others. You end up traversing the same roads over and over in one rally, and I must admit they ARE incredible roads, but I really feel like they had the time to make some more epic stages and split them up. It's not like this game isn't basically WRC 8 with a minority of new **** in it.

When this game is working good, it's very good. I just wish it didn't have all these frustrating little issues trying to get in the way of the fun.
 
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R
hotak said:
I'm really enjoying this game, but as you said in the review, the controls assignment issues - present since WRC10 - make me need to re-assign controls each time I start the game, which is a bit frustrating.
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I returned for this issue. It is unacceptable to have to go through an entire control setup session for each gaming session.
 
Terry Rock
Do you still need to negotiate menus with a keyboard due to no mouse support?
That was one of the most infuriating things I encountered with WRC7....when I could run it.
I say that, because I can no longer run the title since upgrading from a T500RS to the current Moza R9.
It is not recognized.
 
T
Terry Rock said:
Do you still need to negotiate menus with a keyboard due to no mouse support?
That was one of the most infuriating things I encountered with WRC7....when I could run it.
I say that, because I can no longer run the title since upgrading from a T500RS to the current Moza R9.
It is not recognized.
Click to expand...
There's no reason to keep playing WRC7. WRC 8 is an overall upgrade. Not only it's the most balanced of the entire series, but there's a mod in here that allows you to pretty much customize it the way you want with minimal effort.

WRC 8 Mods

Comes with a custom installer so you can select which mods you want to use. Different Mods can be selected at any time from a desktop shortcut. :thumbsup: I have been making mods here since 2013 with over 10,000 downloads. You can safely ignore...
www.racedepartment.com www.racedepartment.com
 
LibranRabbit
AJ Clarke said:
Yes, it is 2022, meaning there are way more different devices in the segment for a developer to worry about which means some might not work particularly well, especially more niche products like full motion rigs...
Click to expand...
Sim rigs aren’t niche, there are a lot out there, you would be surprised at the numbers.
 
Terry Rock
turbo86 said:
There's no reason to keep playing WRC7. WRC 8 is an overall upgrade. Not only it's the most balanced of the entire series, but there's a mod in here that allows you to pretty much customize it the way you want with minimal effort.

WRC 8 Mods

Comes with a custom installer so you can select which mods you want to use. Different Mods can be selected at any time from a desktop shortcut. :thumbsup: I have been making mods here since 2013 with over 10,000 downloads. You can safely ignore...
www.racedepartment.com www.racedepartment.com
Click to expand...
When guys are talking about WRC10 having the same issue (controller not recognized), why would I go to WRC8?
The problem seems to be there regardless of version number.
 

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Table of contents

Overview Controls - 4.5/5 Graphics - 3.5/5 Sounds - 4/5 Options Menu - 2.5/5 Content - 4.5/5 Everything Else and Conclusion - 4.25/5 View full article

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Julian Strasser
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