WRC4 WRC 4 The Game

[Bram Hengeveld]

On the iOpener website there is a very interesting article about an upcoming World Rally Championship simulator:

World Rally Championship's next game: Racing live against rally heroes

The next generation WRC computer game will allow players to 'compete' in live rallies", states ISC chairman Neil Duncanson in the April version of SportBusiness International magazine. ISC, the global promoter of the World Rally Championship (WRC), mentions WRC's ultimate goal as building up an online gaming world championship alongside the real thing.
ISC and the computer gaming industry believe the next step in gaming is this 'live' competition between gamers and real drivers, made possible through iOpener's patented technology.
ISC CEO Simon Long says: "Now we are a global promoter, we want this to be multi-platform, multi-publisher, multi-territory."
For Long and Duncanson the new game is part of WRC's broader efforts to appeal new fans beyond the hardcore enthusiastics. FIA's chairman Max Mosley has said the virtual champion will be honoured at the WRC's annual end-of-season awards ceremony in Monaco.

Source: iOpener Media

Last April we already brought you the first news about iOpener Media's beta testers recruitment for their Real Time Racing project.

The news about this technology where virtual racers can compete against the real drivers on the track in real time is now spreading amoung the simracing communities.

iOpener is still looking for the worlds best simracers to join their beta test program that's about to start soon. If you are interested in joining then you can sign up on the RTR website

 

[Péter Bártfai]

For the PC and PS3 players it'll probably stand a chance against Forza 4

I agree Forza 4 can be one of my most played games, if I actually manage to get it before a new console and Forza 5 comes out lol.

BTW this WRC game looks good imo, not that I had any problem with the looks of the first one, there was only one problem with the graphics, the resolution, as it didn't allow 1280*1024, and that it had no wheel support. At least the demo. But I'm not buying any game that has a demo that's not working. I prefer games with a working demo.

 

[Chris Bell]

bought the first one, it didnt grip me like i thougnt it would, still love the old WRC games from PS2 where if you came off you did it in a big way rolling down the side of a mountain etc!!

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Let's hope they start with the very basics of driving games\sims, split axis pedals and a manual gearbox

 

[Senad Subasic]

Same developers? Lost interest already.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

it looks terrible, there is even missing suspension in one shot, lol... the handling looks weird.. I dont know, WRC 2010 was piece of useless stuff, this doesnt look to be better atm

 

[Appie Kuipers]

Let's hope they start with the very basics of driving games\sims, split axis pedals and a manual gearbox

WRC did have that, thanks to modders.

 

[Doohie]

I like those parts from the Interview:

'...WRC 2 gameplay has been totally revamped to allow hardcore simulation players to enjoy a real driving experience...'

'... Each car sounds (engine, turbo, transmission) have been recorded from the associated auto model
in order to give the player the feeling of being driving the real car he is actually playing...'

'...Even if gaming with a pad provides a balanced and smooth gameplay suitable for both newbies and pros,
driving with a wheel takes everything to an upper level. Indeed, only the steering wheel lets the player feel in his hand
all the physics force that are applied to the whole chassis, suspensions and steer...'

Full interview

 

[Harry Platt]

Hands on preview from gamespot

While the Dirt series has done great things for the rally racing genre of late, developer MileStone believes there's room for another game in the market; one that prides itself on accurate simulation. That game is WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship, which is aiming to be the most realistic rally sim around, while being accessible to newcomers.
Our hands-on took place on a gravel track, surround by pine trees, lakes, and snowy mountain tops. Our car was a Mini Cooper, which is one of a range of officially licensed FIA cars that are featured in the game. We immediately noticed substantial improvements in the visuals over the last game, which Milestone told us was something specifically requested by fans. The Mini looked more detailed, with lighting effects re-creating reflections of the road surface and surrounding environment. Motion blur had been employed to make powersliding round corners feel faster, for example.
Thankfully, the improvements aren't all about the visuals, and a number of additions have been made to driver aids to help you around the track. There's a rewind button, letting you attempt botched corners again, as well as a respawn button that resets your car onto the track if you have a particularly nasty crash. The rewind button is limited to three uses per stage, so you can't spam it to get the best times. Respawn isn't limited, but your car starts from a standstill when you reset, losing you valuable seconds.
Your car also takes damage when you come off the track, with a graphic on the bottom right of the screen letting you know which parts of the car have been damaged. The more damage you take, the worse your car handles. In one particularly bad race, we could feel our car suffering from poor braking and beginning to veer off to the right. Aside from rewind and respawn, other driving aids, such as ABS, braking assistance, and a camera that looks around the apex of corners as you go round them, aim to help you stay on the track and prevent damage.
With the aids off, we found it tricky to stay on the track but not impossibly so. After a few hairy corners, we managed to pull off some impressive-looking drifts by gently tapping at the accelerator and steering, which caused a spray of gravel to fly across the bottom of the screen. Though we were only able to try out quick-race mode, the final game will feature six-stage championships, special timed challenge stages, and 16-player online modes. There will also be a revamped Career mode, which encourages more team management and will have new recruitment features.
WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship is due for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this October. Look out more coverage on GameSpot soon.

I'm still not expecting the best rally game in the world... There is no way it can be better than RBR

 

[Rupe Wilson]

RBR is so good i dont playit, its to hard at times, if it was the only rally game out there you would put in the time.
What WRC2011 does is let you get in a rally car and drive down the track and makes you think you can drive, it should put a smile on your face as you power slide round the corner. And for that it is great. I dont think id want it to be a full on sim, i dont have the time, RBR has about 10 years of modders magic and it shows, WRC2011 could never give you the depth that RBR has to offer in such a short time..But already i like it better than Dirt3...

 

[Primoz Makselj]

 

[Appie Kuipers]

Nogrip wrc2 forum, some guy's allready have it, how's that possible??

 

[Travis]

Simple, it's already available on certain illegal websites and I'd imagine he/she grabbed it from there.

Edit: Just read the NoGrip forums and I was correct :frown:

 

[RawrRawr]

Don't even bother with this game, I tried it. It's bad.

 

[jumpboy8]

Don't even bother with this game, I tried it. It's bad.

I personally don't think it is that bad. It's no DiRT for sure, but it's a great improvement from WRC 2010: the graphics are now acceptable as the lighting effects have improved a lot and there are a lot more objects on screen. Some bad textures are still there, but I think it looks fine overall. The handling is also improved, with no more "pivot effect" and there's more stuff to do in career mode. On the other hand, sound looks like it hasn't changed at all and some tracks are the same they were in 2010 (but I have to say they look better now).

I haven't tried many stages yet so I cannot tell you whether the stages are made up of different parts of the same rally like it was in 2010, but overall I can say I liked what I've seen so far. I wasn't expecting a major improvement over the first installment and I think they did a good job with this little changes.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

Simple, it's already available on certain illegal websites and I'd imagine he/she grabbed it from there.

Edit: Just read the NoGrip forums and I was correct :frown:

Thats pretty sad...

 

[Travis]

Skimming a few WRC 2 links reveals Milestone/Blackbean didn't add any copy protection to the DVD. They do the right thing by consumers by avoiding draconian DRM measures and the game is pirated a week BEFORE its official release.

Very sad indeed, given the PC game is about 25 Euros new.

As for those stating WRC 2 is not Dirt, all I can say is thank God

 

[jumpboy8]

As for those stating WRC 2 is not Dirt, all I can say is thank God

I didn't mean it that way, I just wanted to say that it doesn't look as good as the DiRT series but fortunately this is a real RALLY game.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

First videos are up throughout the youtube

 

[Scott Webber]

WRC 1 wasn't bad but needed improvements for sure, i might buy this and give it a ago if it has a big improvement.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

I agree with you, the first WRC was well balanced, but, sadly, I must say not for PC users. I trust that consolers had to be satisfied, I can imagine playing that game on gamepad. I am curious if the same feeling will come with this second volume. What I can't understand is the price, for PC it is around 25€, for Xbox/PS3 it is around 54€. Isn't it overshot?