WRC9 WRC 9 The Game

[Paul Jeffrey]

WRC 9 is just around the corner, and one of the new locations set to make an appearance in the game is the New Zealand Rally - with some first preview imagery from the states now out in the public domain.

Set to release on console and PC in September this year, with next gen console release slated for a little while afterwards, the ninth instalment of the WRC game series (can you believe we are on number 9 already?!?) looks to be shaping up rather nicely over at KT Racing - so much so that the studio have decided to release some preview footage from an early build version of the title - and already it looks fantastic.

As per usual, the upcoming game enjoys the official licence of the FIA World Rally Championship, this time taking the opportunity to recreate the 2020 season that is currently on hold, and as such returning favourites such as the Safari Rally in Kenya, Rally Japan and the featured Rally New Zealand.

“Roads in New-Zealand are amongst the most beautiful and the most appreciated in the Championship’s history.” tells Benoît Gomes, Lead Level Designer at KT Racing.​

“Famous for its fast chains of turns and a sustained pace rhythm, along with breath-taking landscapes, Rally New-Zealand truly offers a particular experience. A long preparation work allowed us to replicate, as closely as possible, the luxuriant vegetation, the light and unique ocean views, as well as the road’s topography and surfaces, mainly composed of gravel. We’re convinced that players will enjoy taking up this challenge as much as we did in WRC 9.” concludes Benoît Gomes.​

WRC 9 Key Features:

• 3 new rallies: Japan, New Zealand, Kenya
• Over 50 official teams and their livery from the WRC, WRC 2, WRC 3 and Junior WRC
• Over 15 bonus cars that have left their mark on the history of the WRC
• Exclusive new game modes soon to be discovered

WRC 9 will release on Xbox One, PS4, PC this September 3rd.

Want to know more about this new game? No worries, keep an eye out for the upcoming WRC 9 sub forum here at RaceDepartment to engage with your fellow sim racing fans.

 

[Kenny Paton]

The only thing I complain about in this game is that you cant map the navigation and menu items to my Fanatec steering wheel !

Worked fine in WRC 8 though !

I can only use keyboard and mouse as well.

 

[LFLots]

Loving the physics and graphics of WRC9 so far. Although it is just slighly superior to WRC8, this is the best handling Rally game at the moment, so if you are a Rally fan, you can't pass this.

 

[Cooknn]

Whenever I finish a stage it says it’s saving ghost/replay data. Where do I find my replays?

[EDIT] Using the preset for the Thrustmaster TS-PC buttons/paddles get me around pretty well. I can do everything except <ESC>

 

[Rally_1337]

Whenever I finish a stage it says it’s saving ghost/replay data. Where do I find my replays?

On the leaderboard. But I think replays/ghosts are only stores for the top 20 of a stage.

 

[iltavilli]

Just bought it and it sure is an improvement from WRC 8. Physics, force feedback, sounds and codriver are better and new stages are nice. I’m sure future mods improve things even further, like they did with WRC 8. All that said, this could have been a cheap DLC with new cars and stages and free physics, ff and audio update.

Anyway, still considering a refund. Game crashes instantly when choosing Simucube 2 profile and trying to map pedals. Mapping everything to keyboard profile works, until you try using handbrake or sequental. It seems Heusinkveld’s handbrake and sequental have some issues with the game. You can map them fine, but when you try to use them, pedals are not responding, until you release and press gas pedal again or use paddles to change gear. Developers have no excuse for this, they were even provided Simucube 2. Other people have same issues at Simucube forum

WRC 8 had similar problems, but it didn’t crash and handbrake works, sequential does not. Why this kind of basic functionality is so hard for Kylotonn to implement? There are also many other bugs, menus are not working properly, can’t even scroll to the last Finland stage, for example. You have to select it blindly. Seat position settins are quite limited also, but at least there a separate settings for every car.

I try to buy and support every rally title, but it’s getting hard with Kylotonn. I have no faith, it the light of the previous releases, that they ever fix these issues. They just move on.

 

[Zolazem]

Just bought it and it sure is an improvement from WRC 8. Physics, force feedback, sounds and codriver are better and new stages are nice. I’m sure future mods improve things even further, like they did with WRC 8. All that said, this could have been a cheap DLC with new cars and stages and free physics, ff and audio update.

Anyway, still considering a refund. Game crashes instantly when choosing Simucube 2 profile and trying to map pedals. Mapping everything to keyboard profile works, until you try using handbrake or sequental. It seems Heusinkveld’s handbrake and sequental have some issues with the game. You can map them fine, but when you try to use them, pedals are not responding, until you release and press gas pedal again or use paddles to change gear. Developers have no excuse for this, they were even provided Simucube 2. Other people have same issues at Simucube forum

WRC 8 had similar problems, but it didn’t crash and handbrake works, sequential does not. Why this kind of basic functionality is so hard for Kylotonn to implement? There are also many other bugs, menus are not working properly, can’t even scroll to the last Finland stage, for example. You have to select it blindly. Seat position settins are quite limited also, but at least there a separate settings for every car.

I try to buy and support every rally title, but it’s getting hard with Kylotonn. I have no faith, it the light of the previous releases, that they ever fix these issues. They just move on.

My Heusinveld SQ works perfectly fine. The only problem is that I have to remap it when I restart the game.

 

[Kenny Paton]

My Heusinveld SQ works perfectly fine. The only problem is that I have to remap it when I restart the game.

I don't know about your equipment but I found that deleting the other inputs and unplugging then replugging in game seemed to make mine work.

 

[Cooknn]

My buddy has a meager budget and wants to get back into sim racing. I think the Xbox Series X would be a good choice for him. Can I compete with him head to head in WRC 9 if I’m on PC and he’s on Xbox Series X?

 

[Rally_1337]

My buddy has a meager budget and wants to get back into sim racing. I think the Xbox Series X would be a good choice for him. Can I compete with him head to head in WRC 9 if I’m on PC and he’s on Xbox Series X?

No, WRC 9 doesn't support cross-play. You need to own the game on the same platform.

 

[iltavilli]

Gave WRC 9 an another chance before getting refund, but there were just more problems. Right arrow key was somehow unmapped and I wasn’t able to map it again, so couldn’t even select all stages. Gas and brakepedal mappings were also missing, only clutch was still mapped. Framerates are really bad with RTX 2060 Super. Zero updates to game and developer is not even communicating. Just got the refund, really disappointed with the customer support and communication.

 

[Rally_1337]

A good cure for FPS problems is to enforce Vsync in the graphic card driver, set the display mode to "Fullscreen" in the game, enable here Vsync, too and select the refresh rate fitting your monitor (the game offers also values too high and too low).

 

[Sébastien Degraeve]

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I wonder if this update fixes the inaccuracy in scoring.
They've combined WRC2 and WRC3 in to one championship in the game, but the WRC2 cars do one more event.
Then in WRC every single car of every manufacturer scores points in the manufacturer championship. Adding another Hyundai to this means that Hyundai can have 6 cars scoring points in each rally.

I mean for a generic rallygame this would've been weird but OK. For an official game it's just a major lack of attention to detail. Ugh.

 

[Sébastien Degraeve]

 

[Sébastien Degraeve]

 

[Sébastien Degraeve]

The update is available on PC (1.83 GB).

 

[thosj]

I really hate to come on forums and ask, but I'm stuck and can't find any "official" place to ask. I have mostly new Fanatec stuff, CSW 2.5, V3 pedals, v1.5 shifter, Thrustmaster TSS handbrake. I CANNOT get force feedback in WRC 9. I've spent 3 days uninstalling and reinstalling both the game and Fanatec drivers. Everything works in the game, but ZERO force feedback.

I've searched and searched, I've done all button mapping, FFB settings, wheel settings, unplugging and replugging, in game and outside the game. The game runs fine, graphics setup seemingly OK, drives OK, but not much fun with zero FFB. I've reinstalled the game after uninstalling and deleting the config file in .....Documents/MyGames/WRC9, basically starting over.

One time, three days ago, I had FFB for two stages, then it went away and all the uninstalling/reinstalling, reading, watching, tweaking won't get it back now!!!

All my stuff works in Dirt Rally 2.0, AMS2, Raceroom, ACC, but NOT in WRC 9.

Can someone point me to where to look to fix this?

Or point me to how to submit a support ticket someplace........or something??

Thanks
Tom

 

[DRDNA333]

well that 1.83GB update also introduced voice chat for PC multiplayer lobbies with no way to assign push to talk or even to be able to mute chat! Now imagine trying to hear your codriver in a race with all the voice transmissions going on! Are these developers even thinking before they release an update? I say NO THEY ARE NOT! I have a few other choice words for them but will try and remain calm.

 

[Quinnyton]

Looking for advice... got WRC 9 on Series X. I have a Thrustmaster TMX. The game is simply not registering it at all. Works fine on other games. Anything I can do to fix this?

 

[Sébastien Degraeve]

Looking for advice... got WRC 9 on Series X. I have a Thrustmaster TMX. The game is simply not registering it at all. Works fine on other games. Anything I can do to fix this?

Apparently several Xbox Series X players have come forward via social networks to report compatibility issues with their wheels (Fanatec CS 2.5, Logitech G290, Thrustmaster TX / TMX).
The developers are trying to find a solution .....