WRC8 WRC 8 The Game

[Paul Jeffrey]

Kylotonn Racing Games have confirmed this September will see the release of the next officially licensed World Rally Championship video game - WRC 8.

Imaginatively titled as always, the eighth instalment to the steadily improving WRC franchise of games is set to launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC this September, and promises to be an all round improvement on previous iterations of the long running franchise.

New for WRC 8 will be a revised physics system across the many varied different racing surfaces within the game, plus the inclusion of what looks to be an already very impressive looking dynamic weather system, presumably adding a feature to allow the 100+ official WRC stages to be experienced in a variety of different weather conditions.

Of the new dynamic weather, Bigben and Kylotonn had the following to say during a brief press release to accompany the brand new announcement trailer:

"A new dynamic weather system has been developed to add random elements to the driving experience, but also to increase realism in the game. Managing the weather is a real challenge for the drivers: modified grip, car settings adjustments, tyre selection optimization, weather team relationship to ensure the best tips and information on the latest conditions. More than mere visual effects, climatic conditions become crucial, especially in the management of your career"

Of course with the title coming out toward the end of the year, the new WRC 8 release will replicate the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship season, including the latest cars and drivers from the official teams' of the category. Featuring over 50 drivers, including the returning multiple champion Sébastien Loeb in his new Hyundai, 14 different events across over 100 individual stages, WRC 8 certainly lacks nothing in terms of scale.

Most importantly of all for sim racers looking to get their rally kicks, Kylotonn have promised that "WRC 8 will go above and beyond WRC 7, especially in the steering requirements and the realistic physics of the vehicles" - one of the weaker points from previous releases.

As well as the class leading WRC cars, the new game is also set to feature a selection of vehicles from the WRC 2 and Junior WRC categories, alongside a number of historic cars. Team management is also set to play a role in the expanded career mode, with the player able to improve their car by way of upgrades and team developments, of which more details are expected to be revealed in the near future.

Exciting times for fans of sideways action.

WRC 8 releases for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam/PC September 2019.

Check out the upcoming WRC 8 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news, discussions and conversation prior to the big game reveal this September!

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[Mc Kusche]

Is there a option to add new Skins?

 

[SeveJnr]

Any solution for this as I have a CSR wheel, I also dont have any force Feedback, im on Windows 10, every other game works fine..The wheel works on all other matters it just dosnt provide any force feedback..

I switched to Windows 10 because it seemed like the right time to do it. After the switch, my force feedback worked. If you are already using Windows 10 then I can only suggest that you edit the in-game settings. Try different combinations because my old CSW v1 was made to work. Your, equally old, CSR should work too.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... WRC 8!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8
• Wreckfest

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

 

[Slapped]

This gets a nine from me.

As far as rally games go I don't honestly think any current game can be judged to be a true sim so I judge on playabllity, immersion, and tension, and I think this delivers all that in spades. Not to mention the content in this game is huge, albeit with a lot recycled from previous WRC games (but at least you don't need to pay extra for the old content).

Playing, I feel way more connected with the car in WRC8 than I do in DR2.0, and from an immersion and tension point of view I get a very good sense of how violent the sport of rally driving is, something that DR2.0 doesn't really give me.

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but IMO it is the best rally game out of the current modern crop.

But if you we're to ask me which game I feel has the most natural off road feeling, then unfortunately I'll have to keep quiet as we haven't discussed that one yet

 

[Cheesenium]

Tempted to buy the game but good feedback is harder to find since it’s on EGS.

Is it really better than DR2?

 

[Slapped]

Tempted to buy the game but good feedback is harder to find since it’s on EGS.

Is it really better than DR2?

I find it so, but there'll also be a whole bunch of people who will disagree with me.

Oh, and my impressions are based on the PS4 version.

 

[Ami_M3]

I find it so, but there'll also be a whole bunch of people who will disagree with me.

Oh, and my impressions are based on the PS4 version.

Is there even PC version available?

 

[Ami_M3]

Is there even PC version available?

NVM, it is available, just not on Steam yet

 

[BorisK]

I want to say a little about something else. It is possible that the game is good, at least not worse than DR2.0. And better than the previous parts of course. But...
But there is no support for the game. It seems that the developers and publishers made it to "f*ck off." DR2, rF2, GRID 2019 (!), even FM7 / FH4 are constantly updated, errors are fixed, new content appears - paid, free - it doesn’t matter. Here - the game is out - "that's it, we're working on the next one". So it was with WRC5-7, VR4, and especially offensive to the FIA ETRC. Sadly.

 

[Mandoliino]

I gave Dirt Rally 2.0 an eight, and can't give this any less because I'm starting to like this even more. So 8/10. This game has its flaws (like horrible Finnish stages), but overall I didn't expect it to be this good.

 

[Terje Helle]

No VR support, so a potential winner, looses for me.

 

[Rally_1337]

An 8 from me. The only subpar quality of the sound and FFB are the primary reasons for not giving 10.

 

[MoodyB]

Tempted to buy the game but good feedback is harder to find since it’s on EGS.

Is it really better than DR2?

As a single player game, it's better.

If you want to do mostly online events / competitions then probably DR2. I haven't paid to much attention to what online content WRC8 has though, so hopefully someone else can chip in with more info on that.

Just remember that with DR2 you'll need the super-duper deluxe edition, or whatever it's called, for all the additional tracks & cars required to enter most of the events.

Gfx-wise, overall WRC8 isn't quite as nice looking as DR2.
FFB isn't quite as good either, but it's 'good enough' on a T300 at least.
The stages in WRC8 though are much better & more immersive than DR2.
Cars feel better on tarmac when compared to DR2.

Probably the biggest downside in WRC8 is the cockpit camera options, or lack of them.

Check the various videos on Youtube from Gamer Muscle, Jimmy Broadbent, Billy Strange, etc... to make sure you're happy with what you see from the cockpit / dash / bonnet view as you can't really tweak it too much.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Almost 2020, no VR, useless to me, obviously not for me. They don’t care for the VR driver out there, voted accordingly.

 

[Case_]

7. It's OK, and can be fun in short bursts, but despite it being the best title of the WRC series so far (ever since KT took over, at least), it just still has too many shortcomings for me, like that nonsensical FOV adjustment, the still very mediocre FFB (especially compared to the excellent one of DR2) or the lack of real stages (though those included are sometimes really great for fictional ones).

Oh, and I also absolutely despise the stupid "micromanage your team" stuff. Not only is it done really badly IMO, but I'm not playing a rally game to do tax returns for mechanics and send them to vacation every couple of events.

 

[RaceNut]

I have not tried WRC8 and can not judge it beyond it's lack of proper PC hardware support. I score it accordingly until the developers make more effort to provide basic HID-device and telemetry support for non-mainstream wheels / devices, tactile and motion hardware, etc.

 

[Jonathan Young]

My opinion is not massively relevant because I'm not really into rally games. But I think I could be if one came out that had good enough FFB that made me feel genuinely connect to the car and therefore immersed me in the world, just like racing sims like ACC or R3E do. I tried DR2 and hated the FFB, even after the patch. I tried WRC8 and slightly preferred it so I bought it (it's on the Epic store btw). It's fairly fun, I play it very occasionally but it's not really good enough IMHO.

 

[Ole Andreasen]

I´m split here.. I would like to offer the game a solid 9, for the game part, but as Martin Fiala said, the team management is SO rubbish and tiresome. I came there to drive rally... It´s not a roleplaying game, or should not be, in my opinion...

 

[Slapped]

I´m split here.. I would like to offer the game a solid 9, for the game part, but as Martin Fiala said, the team management is SO rubbish and tiresome. I came there to drive rally... It´s not a roleplaying game, or should not be, in my opinion...

Yeah, the team management thing. I think it was a well intentioned attempt to bring more involvement to the player. Unfortunately it wasn't really well thought through, and some of the additional tasks/challenges it presents are so removed from reality that it's laughable - like not using a particular tyre despite the conditions totally requiring it. And as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

That said you can go straight for the championships which gets rid of the micro management, but still there's an issue there - it's a grind to get to the real WRC stuff, and you can find yourself left in WRC2 purgatory if you don't make progress as the game expects you to.

 

[cangrejin]

my vision of perfect rally sim (medium SIM) would be, the physics of dirt rally 2.0, + official wrc 8 cars, + all wrc old cars (similar to PC2) + only Your Stage 7.0 (the improvement of the improvement. real sensation from "first time", nothing is ever repeated). offline championship equal to F1 2019
... and potato friendly pc.