EA Sports WRC Is the Best Game I've Played in a Long Time (Preview)

Then, I discovered Need for Speed: Porsche, which felt like the most fantastic thing in the world. But I have had little experience playing rally games. I tried Richard Burns Rally around 2004 and one of the Collin McRae titles, but neither left a strong impression. They felt too difficult, especially without a steering wheel and pedals. Several years passed before I discovered TOCA Race Driver 3, another title developed by Codemasters.

This is rally

Over the past few years, I have mainly been addicted to circuit racing, but the virtual experience has been dull lately. Still, as soon as I learned I would get to see a preview of the new EA Sports WRC, I was more than excited. This is the first Codemasters rally game to have an official WRC license since Collin McRae Rally 3 (2003).

I was speaking to one of my close friends, who owns a modified BMW E30 and is also a big rally fan, and he was extremely excited about the new WRC game. Earlier this year, I discovered how cool it is to slide around in Gran Turismo 7 using a Group B Audi Quattro. So, I told myself that WRC would be even more intense than that!

I already had tremendous respect for rally drivers, and it's always fascinating to see them going all-out through tight forest stages with jumps and rocks and all that. I went out for my first stage, and that feeling was immediately amplified as I was slow to avoid crashing. I opted to begin Career Mode with AI difficulty set at 20%, and by the end of the first stage, I realized I was faster after all.

I was eager to jump behind the wheel of a Group B car, and I love driving in the snow. Naturally, I chose the Audi Quattro and Sweden for my new adventure. The whole thing was like skipping straight to the Boss Level, and I realized how insane this would be without any driver aids. A lot of feedback is coming in through the steering wheel, which is excellent. With the correct set of skills, you can slide the car through almost every corner while most of the time flooring the throttle.

I'm going on an adventure

After incurring several penalties and crashing several times, I realized I would need more time to get used to the game before revisiting the experience. Still, I didn't feel like returning to Junior WRC, so I switched to a gravel stage in Finland. For the sake of diversity and sound, I picked the Lancia Delta S4. I recommend getting used to sliding around on gravel first, especially in a powerful car, if you're not used to driving like this. EA Sports WRC reminded me of a time when video games had unique soundtracks: I'm still listening to some of them today.

It's not just a generic collection of songs; you can pause the game and handle some chores around the house with the soundtrack blasting through the speakers. The driving experience is so good that you can only care less about benefactors and engineers. Well, at least up to a certain point, when you realize you can't fix your damaged car because you didn't bring one of the latter along for the race. The selection of vehicles in the game is excellent: 18 classes and 78 cars! If there's anything to complain about, Codemasters hasn't included the Mazda RX-7 in Group B; some future DLC may fix that.

I'm being picky here, as there are plenty of machines to keep you entertained for days in a row. I even gave the old Lancia Fulvia a shot and realized that using the handbrake button on the steering is less than ideal when dealing with hairpins. But you can make your life much easier by spending an extra $70 for that equipment. If I'm to complain any further, I found another annoying issue. My laptop screen is too small to allow me to drive using the first-person camera, but that's beside the point.

Several hours into the game, I started feeling like a rally god despite not even coming close to that level of driving. So, I thought I should try driving an RWD Group B car; I can handle that! The Lancia 037 Evo 2 proved me wrong, and I suffered terminal damage within the first stage of the Acropole Rally. The whole virtual world looks very impressive, even if you're forced to use lower graphic settings.

Five, four, three, two, one, go!

It can be pretty difficult to comprehend the scale of the upcoming EA Sports WRC game, but here are some more numbers to put things into perspective: there are 17 locations, with over 200 stages, that add up to more than 372 miles (600 km) of snow, asphalt, and gravel for you to drive on. I know this may not be the correct title, but I hope Codemasters will consider adding the old, gravel-covered Pikes Peak layout to the game so I can attack it in either Group B cars.

I wanted to check out some of the other locations in the game, so I switched to Japan. The stages I experienced had me thinking about Initial D right away, and I didn't expect I'd like driving Rovanpera's Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID car on asphalt so much. Corner after corner, using left foot braking and playing around with the throttle, you'll also need to be 100% focused and put in a lot of work with the steering wheel to make it out in one piece. The whole experience is intense, and totaling your car only takes a minor error.

Still, you can't help but notice how unique the top-level WRC cars are in terms of grip, braking, and acceleration. I fiddle around with the rhythm my co-driver delivers the pace notes so I can keep up with him, but you will need to be 100% focused throughout each stage if you want to come out on top. Driving on wet gravel might be the most challenging part of the game, at least for me. Doing it at night is even worse. And that's particularly true after I switched off all driver aids. As I did that, I saw that "We die like real men" meme flashing through my mind.

But that's one of the significant benefits of playing from the comfort of your home: there's no way you can get injured. After several quick challenges, I decided to go back to the calendar. And for my next event, I had to buy a Peugeot 205 GTI. I didn't think this would be exciting after all the AWD beasts before it, but I was wrong. I was stunned to see that my engine was overheating at one point, and I guess it could have led to a severe problem if I didn't have the "Major Crash" button set to "OFF."

When in doubt, flat out

The funny part about this challenge is that I was driving with missing body parts and a door, as I couldn't repair them before starting the stage. I was so caught up with racing that I almost wholly disregarded some parts of the game such as the Builder. That's right, you can build your rally car from scratch. I opted for a front-engine, AWD setup, and despite not making the nicest-looking car out there, it was still pretty fast with a turbocharged 1.6-liter unit under the hood.

Watching the replay after finishing a race feels as exciting as seeing the race on TV, and you can even play around with the photo mode if you want to share your adventures online. But before I wrap this up, I'd like to talk about the Regularity races. I've always had mixed feelings about these and somehow didn't realize how complicated things can get when you're signed up for one. Keeping an average speed of 41 mph (67 kph) with all the ups and downs, hard rights, and lefts was challenging.

It's a different challenge, and it's good that your co-driver constantly lets you know whether you should slow down or pick up the pace. Doing a regularity rally can be an excellent way to unwind after a few fast stages, but at the end of the day, I'd still rather go flat out than focus on maintaining the same speed throughout the course.

Colin McRae's "When in doubt, flat out" saved me from several major crashes in EA Sports WRC. I need to play more of this game as soon as it comes out in less than a month from now. It will be available starting November 3 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. I'll report back with my review of the title as I become even more familiar with it.