WRC 10 – Steam Next Fest Demo Preview

During all this week you have available the demo that we have tested in Steam Next Fest. Free through this link.

We can already announce that the official game of the world rally championship will have a new edition, and that’s already a few, the tenth to be precise. They began in 2002 with an exclusive PS2 title from the hand of Evolution Studios, passing from 2010 to 2014 at the hands of the English Milestone and falling to the French Kylotonn in 2015. Developer whose days are numbered in this franchise since a few months ago it was announced the purchase of the rights of WRC by Codemasters.

We would like to thank the guys from Nacon for letting us attend the video conference presentation and subsequent beta for the media, and in this way to test first hand what they have prepared for us in this WRC10.

We might think that in this type of franchised games that are renewed every year the only thing we could expect again are the renovations in terms of cars and drivers of the different official teams, but both this year and especially last year were not exactly normal years. The calendar of the World Rally Championship underwent several modifications due to the restrictions due to the pandemic and some of the rallies were suspended, but the work by the developers was already done. However, for this 2021 season the number of qualifying events for the world championship has increased to 12. This has meant an extra workload because although the Estonian rally was held in 2020 it did not arrive in time to be launched in WRC9, so we are in luck because together with Estonia rescued from last year’s edition, we have to add Spain, which will be 100% asphalt, Belgium and Croatia. The latter two have been created completely from scratch.

As for the cars that we can find in WRC10 we will have all the categories that make up the WRC starting from the Junior, through WRC3 and WRC2, to finish in the powerful all-wheel drive WRC. Between them all add up to 50 cars if we take into account the different driver lineups.

This edition of the official World Rally Championship game is not just another edition. But on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the World Rally Championship, WRC10 wants to pay tribute to the history of the rallies significantly increasing its historical content.

And is that we can participate in a new game mode in which WRC10 wanted to recreate historical moments in the world of rallies. As challenges we will have to complete up to 20 different challenges taking part in rallies and cars such as the San Remo Rally at the controls of an Audi Quatro or the Acropolis of Greece with the legendary Toyota Corolla of Carlos Sainz and is that in this WRC10 have been taken into account the drivers and paints that carried the cars in that year. In addition, the historical mode will not only refer to the rallies and cars but also receive special treatment spectators because in those past times security measures were not as strict as today and the public could be located in the same ditches of the curves. In total we will have 22 cars and 11 historic rallies.

We leave now what will bring us back this edition of the game and we comment on what sensations we have transmitted this beta. Comment that we had available only one stage of the rallies of Croatia, Estonia and Spain. In normal and reverse direction at least. Three rallies with very different characteristics between them. Croatia runs on fast roads with wide curves dotted with crossroads and hairpins; Estonia meanwhile is disputed in high-speed dirt sections with blind curves on ridges and gradients; Spain on the other hand has narrow, winding and terribly technical asphalt sections.

Little is the content to which we had access, as I said, but enough to squeeze the new features in terms of handling and behavior of cars. And is that the developers tell us that they have made improvements in the technical section of the cars such as suspension, aerodynamics, engine ECU, chassis and differential. While it is not a real revolution and is still far from titles like Richard Burns Rally or Sebastian Loeb Rally Evo that have been on the market for years, it is true that the handling and surface changes feel very good in this WRC10. Especially in asphalt changes, going from asphalt in good condition of a main road to a broken asphalt, with potholes and gravel on the shoulders of a secondary road as we have been able to test in the Croatian sections.

Or in the sections of the Rallie de España in which we went from a mountain road in perfect condition to a tertiary road between stone walls and the mountain itself in which the car barely fits wide and on a highly rough and worn concrete surface.

Another very different thing is the handling and behavior of the car on dirt; and is that this surface unravels much more complicated than driving on asphalt. The inertias of the car are more pronounced, the changes of direction become heavier and we will have to anticipate more in advance to the series of curves ahead of us. In the Estonian sections, full of jumps and changes of gradient, everything becomes much more sensitive and we will have to handle the steering with more tact trying to anticipate the changes of direction and letting the car slide as necessary to increase the passage through the curve.

Positive surprise also if we talk about the Force Feedback; we have tested with Simucube 2 Sport a Direct Drive type base that delights the most demanding drivers. Yes, we know that not everyone can opt for this type of steering wheel, but we are left not with what the steering wheel is able to transmit but how the game interprets the surface changes, the different grips, how the tires slide, the inertias of the chassis and the work of the suspensions. We must say that if they are not at the height of the best rally simulators mentioned above if you notice a clear evolution from the first titles of the saga returning to the style of driving increasingly demanding without becoming a challenge and it must be borne in mind that this WRC10 is focused on a wide range of users and not just rally enthusiasts.

Anyway we have to put a but to the physics, driving on wet surfaces has left much to be desired in this preview and even knowing that cars can mount specific wet tires and that the current WRC with which we have been able to test go on rails, we have barely noticed a change in driving.

A very important aspect to take into account and little cared for in the WRC saga is the co-driver. We have tested the Spanish version and although the information it gives and quantity is more than correct, we noticed that there are certain aspects that should be improved. For example, the indication for a short curve is for example: “left three short” and for a curve in which we can take advantage of the inside shoulder would be: “left three cut”. Both terms are too similar and offer totally different information that could lead to confusion and could have been easily solved by replacing the “cut” by “inside” without resorting to the mythical “ras” or “tin” used by Carlos Sainz or Dani Sordo and that if you are not a fan of the rally world you would not know how to identify.

In the same way, emphasis must be placed on the intonation of the notes, since the co-drivers “sing” the notes, not just read them. In WRC10, as in previous editions, we find a very monotonous tone, occasionally punctuated by a change of volume when we approach a hard braking or a jump zone. In these cases the changes of intonation and vehemence with which the co-driver warns us of the dangers should be more accentuated and it has nothing to do with approaching a closed hairpin after a succession of slow curves that after a straight of 200m in sixth gear.

The multiplayer mode is once again present in this edition. We will have On-Line Lobby, daily and weekly challenges, a cooperative Co-Driver mode in which we can use our own notes and of course a section of “special events” focused on e-sports in addition to the Split Screen mode in which we can share screen with another player locally from the same device.

WRC10 is scheduled to be released in the first week of September for PS4/PS5, XBOX One/XBOX Series X, PC and later for Nintendo Switch.

We have nothing left to do but wait until its release to confirm the good feelings that this WRC10 has given us and to try all its game modes, cars and rallies.