WRC 8

« WRC 8 is a rally racing fan’s dream. »

« A combination of a laudable driving experience and exquisitely modelled official rally environments across 14 countries means WRC 8 delivers the goods and deserves your attention. »

« Making small improvements over previous games not only adds up to WRC 8 being the best in the series, it’s also one of the best rally games around. »

« WRC 8 is surprisingly accessible to rally newcomers, but after explaining how everything works, the game delights in throwing buckets of cold water in the player’s face. This is a tough game, but a fair one, and fans of rally racers and other “difficult” genres will likely equally enjoy skidding through WRC 8’s wicked twists and turns. A variety of modes flesh the experience out, but prepare to feast on the Career Mode, which is comprehensive and comprehendible. Recommended. »

« WRC 8 is a rock-solid rally racer that’s now looming very large in the rearview mirror of current off-road kingpin Dirt Rally 2.0. It’s still not quite as beautiful or broad as the latter but the additions made on top of WRC 7 – particularly the dynamic weather and the vastly improved career mode – are real gamechangers. »

« WRC 8 is without a doubt the best game in the world championship rally in years. Thanks to a huge load of content and cool features this game is awesome, but it is a bit rough around the edges. »

« WRC 8 is the best game yet in the series and has a major edge on its chief competitor due to its far more accessible racing. »

« Kylotonn tooks its time to cook its WRC 8, and it’s all for the best. Deeper and prettier than any of its predecessors, WRC 8 as a great career mode and looks good. It also plays better, with sharper driving. »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »

« The Game is very good with content that I would expect from a racing game and has an good career,too. The only bad thing about it is the fact that the collision physics inches Game ****. »

« It's a good try and I see some improvements but still Dirt Rally 2 is better sounding, better looking game with better physics, although WRC8 has more content to offer without paying extra. Also 30 fps on PS4 and stuttering on PC isn't helping. I cross my fingers for the next version of that game. »

« I appreciate the number of locations and the attempt to add some mechanical/management depth to the career mode. Unlike Dirt 4's staff/facilities system which only served to gate progress with extra steps, WRC8's actually feels like you're making meaningful choices and allocating limited time/research. The random nature of some aspects causes no end of frustration from time to time, however. For instance, an objective may expect you not to use hard tyres in a rally with endurance stages of over 20 kilometers each (about 12 miles for the imperialists) or demand you keep your car's condition above a certain threshold while making you take part in four three-day rallies before giving you a maintenance event among the in-between weeks. For reference, the car's condition gauge gets depleted within 2-3 rallies at most. There was also one stage in Italy where timing for easy difficulty (yes, I'm a casual scrub) is way more demanding than for basically all the rest of the game. In this stage (named Lerno, if memory serves) I tend to be several seconds behind even after a few tries, while outside of it I quite easily end up two full minutes ahead of second place in any rally (for reference, in this game a rally is three days, two stages each day). I don't have such problems with the reverse version of this stage or the endurance stage including most or all of that problematic stage. I also hated the cockpit camera, it felt borderline unplayable, forcing me to choose between chase cams and bonnet/hood cam. The view through the windshield is way too bright and the hand/steering animations are stiff and limited in the possible angle of rotation. Hand movement and steering wheel animation is something Codemasters tend to nail in their games, making WRC8 look hopelessly inferior in comparison. »

« Coming from Dirt Rally 2.0: i'm liking this game very much. The stages are so cool and well done. Graphics overall are good. I thought 30 fps are gonna be bad, but it's ok. It;'s not a real distraction. Handling with a controller needs a bit of tweaking. Overall for me : 9/10. Playing on PS4 PRo. »

« If this game had the graphics & car list of Dirt Rally 2.0, this (WRC 8) would probably be the best rally game ever made. I love the real world courses & amount of content, love the deep campaign mode, the handling & physics, UI, dynamic weather etc. But having put many hours into both games & no matter how much i enjoy this game (it's still a very good game & worth getting), i miss the beautiful graphics & wide range of cars that you get to experience in Dirt Rally 2.0. (Edited this review after going back to Dirt Rally 2.0 & better comparing the two games) »

« Ever since Kylotonn took of the WRC series with WRC 5, I have watched them improve drastically throughout the years. If I were to show a before and after video of each game that Kylotonn has developed in the series with their latest entry it would be a night and day difference. The racing mechanics have improved, along with more improved and realistic handling of your car. Along with the graphics and mechanics the game has improved in content as well. With the addition of a set of classic rally cars to race in historic rallies, and cars from Jr. WRC, WRC 2, and the official WRC cars. Each course has been updated greatly with new graphics and physics, making your runs through the stages a whole lot more fun and challenging. A cool new addition to the game that adds a new challenge are the puddle effects, when you race through a puddle it can slow one side of the car down and if you are not in control when this happens you can also spin out pretty badly too which can lead to some bad wrecks. Two new stages have been added that were not in the WRC 7 season, and 1 stage has been removed from the WRC 8 season. The two new stage locations are Chile and Turkey, both of these new locations add some new grounds to cover and is a good refresh from some of the repeating events in the past. The location that has been removed is Poland, due to it not being included the WRC 2019 season. The biggest feature that I love about this game is the new dynamic weather system and the brutally epic storms you can rally through where it is barely visible. You can start the stage with no rain and then in the middle of the stage it could just downpour and make you change the way that you are handling and controlling your car to best suit the needs of the new current situation you find yourself in. These storms are a blast to race through, and add a more challenging and realistic effect to game to help improve the series even further. If you love Rally games are a really good solid racing games, then I highly recommend that you do not overlook this game and give it a try. I believe this is the WRC game that will really pull players into the series more than it has in the past, this is a great representation of the WRC! »

« Is this time we will have a champion who doesn't have Sébastian as his first name? With 4 events at the end, some say yes. The Toyota driver Ott Tänak has been a big surprise, for now ahead of drivers like Thierry Neuville and Sébastian Ogier. And is this how Kylotonn Racing can surprise and fight mano-a-mano with the Codemasters game? I would say yes. This is the eighth edition of the WRC, since Evolution studios dropped the same in 2005, and is the 4th WRC game to be developed by the French Kylotonn. Being an official WRC game, categories like Junior WRC, WRC 2 and WRC are unsurprisingly included here. Linking to the 2019 calendar of the competition, we have two more races compared to the WRC 7: the Chile rally and the Turkey rally. Skoda Fabia R5, Volkswagen Polo R5, Citroën C3 WRC, Ford Fiesta WRC, Hyundai i20 WRC and Toyota Yaris are just a few cars that are present in the WRC 8, not to mention the various teams available. But we also have bonus cars like the Lancia Fulvia HF, Lancia Stratos, Volkswagen Polo R WRC and the Proton Iriz R5 in the base version. On the downside, I think there should be more bonus cars (even with DLCs) like the Citroën Xsara Kit Car or the Opel Manta. Now let's go to the most important parts that Kylotonn has improved and added, one of which is vehicle physics. We have to be careful with snow (when we are not using snow tires) or with water puddles that unexpectedly slightly change the direction of the car, as well as be careful with “landings” after a big jump. I admit I've been enjoying and having fun with this WRC 8's most simulated gameplay, as well as being smooth and responsive to commands. Of course it's complicated at first, but over time, we've gained pace. Now we have a very good thing in the form of dynamic weather conditions. By this I mean that at the beginning of the rallies may be a sky with few clouds, but later during the stage it may rain. As such, we have at our disposal the option of Free Roam or training in a closed circuit to train and improve our skills. Career mode has expanded over WRC 7. We always start at Junior WRC where we choose a team and we will have to hire collaborators like engineers, agents, chief financial officers, meteorologists and physiotherapists. All this to help us to reach the victory. We also have to be mindful of the season's goals and short-term goals because they give experience and money. We can always organize events from rest, extreme conditions (driving a badly damaged car with unfriendly weather), manufacturer rehearsal, manufacturer challenge, training, historic racing and maintenance. And speaking of manufacturer testing and manufacturer challenges, it is these challenges that allow us to move up to the category. For that to happen, you have to succeed in these challenges, but be aware that this sacrifices a little of loyalty to the current brand we are in. Leveling up on the experience we gain experience points that can be used in the R&D tree which is divided into 4 branches: Team, Crew, Reliability and Performance to unlock skills. For example, we can acquire a skill in which tires are more resistant to the holes. Over time, we will be able to get perks that will also help us during or outside rally events. Of course, in the pits, before or after two rallies, we can choose the type of tires we think are best suited for a given terrain, as well as having to repair our car if necessary. For the sincerity... I liked the Career mode of this WRC 8. About online modes, I must say I expected more. And no, it has nothing to do with connectivity, because this aspect is even satisfactory. I mention the lack of content, which makes me go back to Career mode. There are no championships, leagues or clubs in online mode. We also have the challenges of eSports, which is just the same. Out of online modes, we have two-player split-screen. The WRC 8 graphics are good and an example of this, the Fafe rally is spectacular, whether day or night with sun or rain. The same goes for the streets of Corsica. But I have to touch a usual wound on Kylotonn. There is only one thing that WRC 8 loses immensely to DiRT Rally 2.0, which is its fluidity. PC players will haven't reason to complain, but console players will have to settle with the 30 FPS. The vehicle sounds are good and represent a step forward compared to WRC 7. Listening to the engine noise of WRC cars in this WRC 8 is music to my ears. The copilot is just decent. It's consistent, but it lacks emotion. In short, though is not perfect, WRC 8 is good and promises to be a good foundation for Kylotonn's upcoming WRC games. »