In short
The third incarnation of the officially licensed rally titles by Milestone is a great improvement on its predecessors, but still a bit of an oddball in the physics department. I cannot say that I did not enjoy it, and if you are into proper rallying as a sport then this it, but the physics could still be improved if Milestone want to sell the series as a thoroughbred sim.
Developer: Milestone
Publisher: Black Bean
Distributor: Apex Interactive
For fans of: Real rallying, WRC
Reviewed on: Playstation 3
Also available on: Xbox 360, PC
If we had to give it a numerical score: 7.5/10
Gameplay and Features
WRC 3 offers you the official rally experience in the form of the official WRC calendar. You can also customise the year’s races as you want – mix up the calendar, pick only your favourites, choose to only partake in certain stages or tackle the calendar in full. The WRC Championship offers the official driver s, the official teams and official rallies. Since this is the officially licensed game, I would have thought the developer would have milked the licenses for all they’re worth. You do get all the “officialness” of the WRC, but that’s it – you rally through the stages, repair your car in between the stages and go through the calendar – but that’s it. No delving too deep into the teams or anything that goes on behind the scenes. It’s all very straight forward here and the reason for this is because it doesn’t seem like this is the focus of the game.
The primary focus of the game is a career mode where you start from the bottom and work your way up, unlocking everything and anything on your way. This would have been fine, if it was all more “WRC like”. But it is not – I started off with a bog standard looking Citroen C2 (or I could choose a Fiesta) and had to apply some boring looking decals on a boring looking car. As you win, you can buy better performance parts and decals. This mode might eventually lead to the WRC as we know it and the cars as we know them, but to be honest, I was not bothered to go through the long process of finding out. I love WRC, but I love the Red Bull, BP or Total sponsored cars – I like the flashy official stuff. So naturally I skipped right to the authentic WRC experience, and unfortunately for me, this was the less fleshed out of the modes.
The other major gripe I have with the game is that if you are a proper petrol-head, or should I say engineer, then you can set-up every last bit of customisable parts that go into a racing car – the suspension, the gear ratios etc. etc. This is usually the case with a proper simulator racing game, but the problem here is that it does not feel like a proper simulator. It wasn’t blow your hair back easy driving physics either for me, which usually tells me I am playing an arcade racer. No, WRC 3 requires a lot of effort to come to grips with the physics, and I am usually up for it when it comes to sims. But for hours on end I just couldn’t get to grips with the handling. A usual tell-tale sign for me between arcade racers and sims is that with arcades I prefer racing in the view outside the car while with sims I prefer the more realistic in-car view. My first few hours with WRC 3 has me switching view from over the bonnet, to inside, to outside – for hours I couldn’t get comfortable.
So its sounds like I hated it? Not quite. The thing with the physics is that it’s neither arcade nor a thoroughbred sim. So like the DiRT series then? Not quite. It is more sim that arcade making it very challenging, but the problem I found is that the handling was a bit “fiddly” or light, and I could quite feel the wheels digging in for traction. For a few hours I was wrestling with the physics, rather than the mission that rallying is on its own. I did eventually come to grips with the handling physics and then I did enjoy myself. It’s proper rallying, and while I do enjoy the DiRT serious, I really enjoy it actually, I love all things official when it comes to sport and so I love the proper rallying. Racing against the clock through the stages, racing across varying conditions and surfaces – I love the WRC and this offers the proper rally experience. The blasting down twisty paths, the sliding, breaking, steering and counter-steering. It a mad, demanding sport and WRC 3 delivers on this front. The thing is that it reminds me of simulator racing games of old, where you need to learn the game’s version of simulator, rather than feeling like something you do every day.
WRC 3 does offer a good amount of content, and I know if I wasn’t all about the full “relish,” and could deal with generic looking cars and decals, I would’ve enjoyed the career mode more. The thing is I don’t want a WRC game to look like the unofficial version of the sport. There’s offline and online modes making WRC 3 more than a one trick pony. I even love the fact that being a rally title, I could compete against players around the world without sharing the track, and therefore connection. Being a firm anti-Telkom man, not willing to take out a second bond to get a decent line-speed at home, I usually struggle with online racers and the connection. So I love that I could choose to upload my better times and attack other player’s times around the world – its online racing, without the draw-backs. WRC 3 will even give you the best possible chance at scraping the seconds off your time as Milestone have perfected the obligatory rewind feature. You get a certain amount of necessary rewinds depending on the difficulty you choose. The rewind feature is absolutely seamless, so you can pick up the racing at the exact point you choose. There’s none of the flashing nonsense that Codemasters use when reloading the action, which usually ends-up dropping you back into the action at the wrong point. You have total control and can re-enter at the exact point you want.
Sound and Visuals
The visuals have been greatly improved, but still look a little outdated. Unlike the previous games from Milestone, this one does look like someone actually put in the effort to make it look good. The environments look a little grainy and not very life-like, but much better than with the previous titles – some environments were even quite pretty. The cars looks great at first glance, but on closer inspection, well, let’s just say nobody will mistake it for real-life action. The damage-model is pretty extensive, meaning you really take a lot of damage, and visibly so, but sometime a little randomly. I noticed this mostly with the windscreen as I eventually used the in-car view. The windscreen always cracked in the same spot, and with random bumps. I mean it would crack as if it was made of crystal at times and then the biggest thumps would do nothing. The bonnet also looked pretty strange when it was creased up from front end smashes, but this is me being pedantic now. At least the damage-model is extensive.
The sound production is dramatically better than the visuals, and an absolute authentic delight. You can hear that proper rally cars were recorded and you get a very realistic rendering in the sound department. There’s that constant hum that rally cars, or highly modified car have, the gear changes are wonderfully clunking sounding. There that frequent backfiring of the exhausts which is music to any true petrol-head’s ears. Rally fans will want to crank this one up and enjoy the best part about WRC 3.
Closing comments
WRC 3 is a little rough around the edges and a little difficult to love straight off the line. However, it is proper rallying, and while it falls short of being a thoroughbred sim, it does offer the challenge of rallying. Most importantly, WRC 3 sells exactly what makes the sport so appealing – undiluted, on-the-edge off-road racing that is nothing short of pure madness.
Zombiegamer rating:
Read about our ratings here.
