WRC 2010 - My Review - Dazraz's Blog

Dazraz's Blog

WRC 2010 - My Review

Posted on October 8, 2010 at 04:24 PM.

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It seems almost unbelievable that Black Beans WRC 2010 is the first officially licensed rallying game to grace the current generation of consoles. A franchise that was an almost yearly release on the PS2.

Race fans should be quite thankful for Black Bean. At a time when developers seem only interested in the big name licenses with a large target audience Black Bean seem content to keep the racing sim market alive with a healthy dose of variety. WRC 2010 adds to their other 2 racing games, SBK X & Superstar V8 Racing.

Now first & foremost, as with any of Black Beans racers you can forget super stunning visuals or groundbreaking innovations. What you will get is a solid representation of the licensed sport. in WRC 10 you have all 13 rallies. This alone seperates it from any other current gen rallying games as here you have all the variety of surfaces on the WRC calender including the snow of Sweden. Not only is the WRC fully represented but also it's 3 supporting series, S-WRC, P-WRC & J-WRC. When playing the career mode your job will be to work yourself up through the junior series right up to the WRC.

There are plenty of modes on offer including a multiplayer offline championship mode for up to 4 players. Bear in mind, being faithful to the sport, racing is done on a turn taking basis & not as a simultaneous race. Championships can be modified from a 4 race affair to a full 13 race calender. Each race can be modified in turn from a 2 stage rally to a 6 stage rally. The simple task of being able to create your own championship season may not seem that big a deal but it's something often overlooked by developers.

On the track WRC 2010 is a solid racer. The different race surfaces are well represented & each requires you to modify your driving style accordingly. There is a car set up mode where a number of tuning options are available & repairs need to be made between stages.

Difficulty levels can be varied by switching on/off assists & adjusting the ability of the AI drivers. With all assists off driving successfully will be a challenge even for the more accomplished racers out there.

As I mentioned visuals are adequate but not stunning. Sound quality is the same. The aesthetics of this game won't cause your jaw to drop but that said you won't be horrified either. The game is certainly a better looking package than Black Beans other 2 racing games.

As for Online play I cannot comment. Dut to the location of my console (in my basement) my online connectivity is not that reliable & therefore it would not be fair to judge this aspect of the game.

My overall opinion is, if you are a fan of the sport this is a must buy. I know GT5 carries the WRC license but that game will only offer a very small segment of the series. This is the whole WRC package. Even if you're not a big rallying fan, in which I would group myself, this game is still worth a look.

In comparison to the Dirt series I prefer WRC 2010. Graphically it's weaker but it is a much better rally simulation. Especially when compared to the arcadey Dirt 2.