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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[toweleeie]

ye mate, its really really good, cant believe they had this in them after what came before, but im well impressed. im hard in on the career...... worth every penny

 

[KittX]

The difference in level design is so drastic, between stages that were carried over from previous title, and new stages. Turkey, for example, so beautiful and well-made.
I've had very limited experience with it so far, but liking the carreer mode. I just wish the driving was more natural and enjoyable.

This is so mystery to me... Over the last decades we've had a bunch of really long-lasting and evolving racing sims, and very few throwaway circuit racing games, but when it comes to rally, I've lost count of how many throwaway rally games were produced. And it actually takes more effort and man-hours to produce content for them. Yeah, maybe you don't need to laserscan and match the refs that much, but still.
And with all the respect to CM, and no matter how good the Dirt Rally titles have been, and same for WRC8 now, I still don't feel like it's a product that will stick around, and not get abandoned and replaced by the likes of it.

Why we still don't have a good baseline sim with limited content but all the core features nailed, and then the team would just produce DLCs for them for few bucks, like SCS Software successfully do; organize championships etc... It's still a mystery to me. Even if it's a niche product, the market is ready, and waiting to throw money at it.

 

[Ruy Horta]

The EGS is no worse than any other digital store.
Sure I like the convenience of Steam, but there are also other stores I use for either their exclusives or simply because I don’t like stacking DRMs - for example Uplay on top of Steam, just to name one.

Not discussing if it a smart move - for that you need to be privy to the details. Steam takes a big cut, EGS takes a smaller cut. Kylotonn games have not been big sellers on Steam, getting mediocre reviews at best. The move to EGS probably made sense for them.

Been playing some WRC7 to get into it, I’ll probably order WRC8 based on the positive feedback.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Epic store safety and privacy is ****, so I won't buy anything from them. Also refunds might not work even if you have completed the requirements, launcher goes through all of you're files apparently, no offline gaming, slow and clunky launcher and many more problems

The whole privacy thing iirc is based on the fact that EPG initially did not require E-mail verification when creating a new account. I know because when I originally registered on EGS my E-mail address was already taken! Someone was using these E-mail addresses for some reason or another, probably having to do with Fortnite.

Very simple fix though.
It was my Email address, which was otherwise not compromised, so I just requested a new password.
After that I changed all details to fit my own and there is no way it can be accessed by that third party.

In the year that followed nothing suspicious has happened with that account.

 

[Case_]

The difference in level design is so drastic, between stages that were carried over from previous title, and new stages. Turkey, for example, so beautiful and well-made.

Funnily enough, I was thinking the same thing, except for the last..well, word, basically. Because from what I've seen so far, the new stages seem to have passed the point where there were fake, but felt real, which applied to most in WRC7, and now they're starting to feel artificial again. As much as it can be fun to just throw the car around, Turkey in particular once again has the feel like the stage has just been thrown together to be asi challenging as possible. This was a big problem with the Milestone WRC games, where for example hairpins often felt like they were just put into the stage for the sake of there being a quota of hairpins.

But I'll admit I'm not really familiar with Turkey as a rally and have to do some research about it to be able to judge this more objectively.

Why we still don't have a good baseline sim with limited content but all the core features nailed, and then the team would just produce DLCs for them for few bucks, like SCS Software successfully do; organize championships etc... It's still a mystery to me.

I would hazard a guess it's because what you suggest cannot sustain high enough profits for long. SCS is in quite a special position where they've managed to capture an incredible amount of people over the years, and can maintain profitability with the business model you suggest. Also, bear in mind SCS only really blew up after some 15 years of existence and releasing literally dozens of only slightly different games.

Also, it is often underestimated how big of a role pure luck plays in someone's success when it might in fact be the most important factor in it. Big successful companies and famous businessmen will generally tell you how they worked hard to be where they are now, and will give you plenty of advice on how to achieve the same, but while that might very well be the case, the reality of the thing is, the vast majority of them would still not be able to replicate their success again, because luck played a big part in it - meeting the right person at the right time, introducing some random product the market happened to be extremely ready for at that moment and so on.

 

[M D Gourley]

This looks great having watched a few You Tube videos, so there's nothing like a bit of healthy competition to up the game functionality...namely DR2 getting VR and WRC8 has not at the moment.

 

[KittX]

Funnily enough, I was thinking the same thing, except for the last..well, word, basically. Because from what I've seen so far, the new stages seem to have passed the point where there were fake, but felt real, which applied to most in WRC7, and now they're starting to feel artificial again. As much as it can be fun to just throw the car around, Turkey in particular once again has the feel like the stage has just been thrown together to be asi challenging as possible. This was a big problem with the Milestone WRC games, where for example hairpins often felt like they were just put into the stage for the sake of there being a quota of hairpins.

I have pretty similar thoughts regarding Corsica, and at least Turkey has its logic, there are mountains; the majority of Corsica roads are very flat and have no undulations. Why are they that windy, narrow and sudden, has no logic to me. the complete lack of any feel to the tarmac just adds up to it. Other things that strike are weird cambers of the roads on the peaks of sudden crests and undulations, or off-camber roads while the terrain around it is clearly cambered and looks like it's quickly matched the road edge positions; or sudden changes in angle of road inclination, like it was completely flat, and the next poly is 35 degrees inclined, and there's no smoothing at all. Especially on the tarmac roads of Spain it looks and feels super weird.
Going back to turkey, well it looks the most refined and polished, and while it has sort of bizarre random illogical curves with stones and ditches off line, at least the way it flows and the terrain grip matches the game physics quite well. You don't always understeer into things like at Corsica or Monte Carlo.
Also the Chile stages match the good parts of game physics a lot, you can really enjoy stretching the car and flicking it back and forth and into the corners.
Mexico is kinda random as well, but i love those parts where the road goes on the top of the mountain and there's huge cliff both sides of the road, and great views around. Kinda shows how CM's stages are still on the very conservative side of level design.

 

[kevin ohara]

I can't connect to the WRC 8 Online Servers. Anyone having same problem? On PC via Epic and I have disabled my Windows firewall yet still no connection. WRC Status page says online servers are lived but I can't seem to connect. Every other software fine via my internet connection just WRC got the problem.

 

[Case_]

Kinda shows how CM's stages are still on the very conservative side of level design.

Might be because they're real roads, not "level design"

 

[anton_Chez]

Are the stages from WRC 7 (not only the locations) carries over to 8 as well? I have both but I've not bothered looking.

 

[Case_]

@anton_Chez I'm not sure if all of them, but a few I've tried I definitely recognized. In fact I've got a comparison of one of the stages recorded.

 

[KittX]

Might be because they're real roads, not "level design"

poland and australia too? they seem bit artificial

 

[Case_]

poland and australia too? they seem bit artificial

Generally, yes. Though it's possible Australia includes some parts that have been altered, but they're still plausible - it's hard to confirm.
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/dirt-rally-2-stages-in-real-life.167966/

(And yes, I need to update it with the old Dirt Rally stages that have since been released, including Greece just yesterday. But we already know those are real.)

 

[Case_]

Worth the money,45euro is 5beers in the bar.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

For those of you wondering what's new, what's old, and what the raw numbers are on stage km, I did the math a month ago. It's all in this post:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...se-september-2019.385246/page-8#post-12833643

 

[saschalolXD]

hello mate, iv just had a similar issue, go into logitech profiler and make sure the wheel is highlighted from the bottom right, for some reason mine was showing the keyboard which stopped WRC8 from seeing the wheel.... mad, but worked for me

the game is seeing my wheel... and its also highlighted in the bottom right in the profiler...

 

[evo1982]

Hi, my fanatec shifter works perfectly in manual mode using the h pattern, but when I switch it to sequential, it doesn't work (buttons mapped correctly).
it works in sequential when I change the game setting to semi auto, but the game also changes gear for me.

anyone know what im doing wrong ?, seems to me there should be 3 options in the menu, manual, semi auto & sequential

thanks

John

 

[andycolh]

It's the game. Should be 3options

 

[evo1982]

thanks, thought so

 

[andycolh]

I live in Norway