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

 

[Senad Subasic]

Watched the Finland stages. Doesn't really look like Finland to me, more like gravel Germany . Plus, it doesn't feel like Finland too. The stage is 3 lanes wide practically, and is very flat; no jumps, or crests even.

The guy at the wheel is worse than me

 

[Damien Jones]

Well, it certainly looks shiny! Nice visuals (though somewhat over-exaggerated) but I'd have to agree with Senad; those massively wide and smooth tracks are oh so CMR Dirt. Doesn't look like a contender for RBR's crown at all!
And yeah, that driver is rubbish.

 

[Willie Watt]

Have you seen this video? I was a disappointed the way the car reacts base on the steering wheel. Not sure though if the player is using a joystick, keyboard or wheel. Dang! will still buy it though.

My guess is it's a keyboard.

Just noticed one thing I loved about RBR, and is missing here. Television style replays. When you're watching RBR replays, it's like you're watching a rally on TV.

At 1:08 on this video, look in the top right corner, it says "Replay TV camera"

 

[Senad Subasic]

At 1:08 on this video, look in the top right corner, it says "Replay TV camera"

Okay, but does it look like a TV camera to you? It moves with the car.

Watch any Richard Burns Rally video on youtube, and you'll see what I mean. Like real cameramen shooting with real cameras. Stationary, zooming in, panning, helicopter cameras...

 

[Willie Watt]

Have you seen this video? I was a disappointed the way the car reacts base on the steering wheel. Not sure though if the player is using a joystick, keyboard or wheel. Dang! will still buy it though.

My guess is it's a keyboard.

Just noticed one thing I loved about RBR, and is missing here. Television style replays. When you're watching RBR replays, it's like you're watching a rally on TV.

Okay, but does it look like a TV camera to you? It moves with the car.

Watch any Richard Burns Rally video on youtube, and you'll see what I mean. Like real cameramen shooting with real cameras. Stationary, zooming in, panning, helicopter cameras...

It looked like they switched away from that for the edit. i.e take the initial part of the edit from the replay to see the car moving from the start gate. tThen switch to the incar view etc for the res. I'd be very surprised given that the stadard official TV coverage of the WRC includes all of the elements that you've noted above, that there will not be the same coverage in the replays in WRC-the game.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

A demo is coming out next week according to virtualr! The Xbox demo is already released.

 

[Kevin Watts]

WRC 2010 demo available on the marketplace

With all the attention on Halo: Reach and Playstation Move this demo slipped out relatively unnoticed. Its a 571mb download and from what I've seen so far it seems quite good though I've just completed a quick two stages. Graphically not as good as DIRT but then it doesn't have all the teenage testosterone neon in your face graphics and surfer d00d dialogue which is a bonus if you're not 15 years old I'll have to set my wheel and pedals up and see what its like on that control method.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Time to give that game a decent test then Thanks Peter

 

[Daniel Higgins]

Yea thanks, downloading now

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

please share your feelings with us PC users!

 

[SumpPlug]

It's no Richard Burns Rally, but then I knew that before preordering.

Graphics are more than adequate. Replays look good. Crashing causes your co-driver to cry out in anguish .

From looking at the options their will be four different car classes to rally in.

Only peeve is their is little/no feed back into the controller. Hopefully this is just an option I missed or a limitation of the demo.

Either way looking forward to its release.

 

[Daniel Higgins]

Just tried 1 stage to mess about on, handling seems ok but doesnt seem to drift/skid like on TV but again ive only played 1 stage and most of that I was smashing the car up + I played Dirt1/2 a lot so maybe too used to that type of handling.

Damage is great, you can damage;

• Wheels
• Brakes
• Suspension on each wheel
• Radiator
• Engine
• General Bodywork dents etc
• Electronics (gear indicator, rev counter and speedo go all broken up)
• Windows (windscreen is really annoying if you crack it as you cant see a thing)
• Navigator screams out like SumpPlug said general 'ow' and 'watch it' with the occasional 'cant you go any faster' and 'well that was rubbish' <-- or maybe thats just me lol

You can also damage the track/objects aswell for example I hit a fence lightly and half the plank snapped off and the other half swung down like it would in real life with the nail as a pivot point. Concrete blocks can be moved a little bit by ramming into them but not much.

Graphics are pretty good, I didnt think outstanding but I was only on for 10mins.

As SumpPlug said 4 car classes (WRC, JWRC, S2000 class with fiesta etc, production rally class with Evo's etc).

Full setup options even in Demo.

Good enough brief review?

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

and what about lenght of the stages?

 

[CAR]

The Xbox demo is already released.

To Gold subscribers (luckily I had a trial code left over). As for the game it looks like crap, sounds like crap, drives like crap so therefore is? In saying that it isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but from video previews my expectations were woefully low, and they were only slightly exceeded.

 

[Daniel Higgins]

there the full stages, ever stage from every round in real life.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Crap compared to what?

 

[CAR]

Crap compared to what?

Not a very high benchmark, the old Colin McRae games (as they were the last Rally games I enjoyed)

 

[GAIAjohan]

No. They haven't done that. Stages are about 4 minutes long each.. They said they would recreate each stage, but eventually they didn't...

 

[SidewaysSteve]

I've been playing the demo quite a bit actually. I rather enjoy it. Yes it has nothing on RBR but if I want a game like RBR then I play RBR lol.
I think the graphics are good. (Which shouldn't decide a game anyway) Gameplay is all that matters to me. On the hardest settings it still gives a decent challenge So I know I will be buying it. It's not as annoying as Dirt 2, Which is a plus.

 

[Warren Dawes]

No. They haven't done that. Stages are about 4 minutes long each.. They said they would recreate each stage, but eventually they didn't...

What a shame, this was the one feature of this game I was really hoping for. Have they officially confirmed that they abandoned that idea, or is that just part of the demo limitation?