11-01-2023, 12:02 PM
|
#4
|
All Star
OVR: 20
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Near Syracuse, N.Y.
|
Re: EA Sports WRC Trial Available Today For EA Play Subscribers
Couldn't resist buying EA WRC in advance for early access. It was only $44.99 with the EA Play discount, and early impressions say this is the Steal of the Year for racing games, even at its full price of $49.99.
Don't be mistaken by the low price -- this is not a budget title. Not at all.
I think this game best represents what we hoped the fusion of EA and Codemasters could be. It features the great gameplay of DIRT Rally 2.0 with the polish and bells and whistles of an EA game.
The driving model is a bit more permissive than DIRT Rally 2.0 without being basic like the incredibly overrated Milestone WRC games. There is no "center spike turning axis" model for steering here, thank God. The Milestone games' physics still have a slight edge on asphalt even though Codemasters has improved its sealed-surface driving model, but EA's game curb-stomps all the Milestone games on loose surfaces.
It's easy from the menus that EA has made this game more accessible than Codemasters. There are three levels of assists, which are all customizable. But I STRONGLY recommend anyone with any rally game experience to immediately turn off all assists. Even the lowest levels of traction control and ABS make the handling feel weird and unrealistic. Rally cars lock their brakes, and they're supposed to dance around without traction control, with changes to the differential settings and suspension helping handling.
WRC feels like a slightly easier DIRT Rally 2.0 with all assists off, and that's a good thing. AI also is adjustable with a slider, with 50 as the default. I'm kicking everyone's arse at 50, so I need to play with that slider to find a setting that is competitive and makes me work hard and drive cleanly to win stages.
Another tweak I suggest is to turn off voice in the menus. Every time you move your cursor over one of the many game mode options in the main menu, you hear the admittedly lovely WRC presenter Molly Pettit say the name of that mode. Her English accent is sexy, but it gets annoying as f*ck after about the seventh time.
There's an impressive amount of cars unlocked in the base game. Current Group Rally1 cars, drivers and teams, current WRC Junior and WRC 2 cars drivers and teams. Super 1600s, Group B, Group A, 1990s and 2000s WRC cars and more. Every WRC rally from last season I believe is in the game. Robust offerings.
__________________
Xbox Live: pk4425
|
|
|