With a bit of shrewd advertising, it seems Sony managed to rekindle gamers' interests in the rally genre with their 2001 release of World Rally Championship (WRC), to the kind of levels not seen since the original Colin McRae Rally caused such a storm back in 1998.
I was intrigued as to ... Read review
Watching the intro toWorld Rally Championshipleaves you in no doubt that this is a quality ... more
title--and you won't be disappointed when you arrive at the business end of the game, either. All the courses are modelled extremely well, giving a real feel for...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Utilising their exclusive licence to the FIA World Rally Championship, and making big ... more
improvements to the game too, Sony have thrown a sizeable gauntlet down to their rivals withWorld Rally Championship II Extreme. From the off, it's clear much work ha...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Utilising their exclusive licence to the FIA World Rally Championship, and making big ... more
improvements to the game too, Sony have thrown a sizeable gauntlet down to their rivals withWorld Rally Championship II Extreme. From the off, it's clear much work ha...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Watching the intro toWorld Rally Championshipleaves you in no doubt that this is a quality ... more
title--and you won't be disappointed when you arrive at the business end of the game, either. All the courses are modelled extremely well, giving a real feel for...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It will come as little surprise to hear that authenticity is the forte ofWRC 3: The ... more
Official Game of the FIA World Rally Championship. Sony's rally-driving simulation pulls out all the stops and easily lives up to its name. Right off the starting line,...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Official comprehensive and action-packed review of the entire 2008 World Rally ... more
championship season. Featuring the best footage plenty of in-car camerawork interviews special features and more to bring viewers the full story of an incredible year. A chance to relive Sebastien Loeb's journey to a record-breaking fifth World Championship in a row and his high-speed battle with the likes of Mikko Hirvonen Jari-Matti Latvala and many more of rallying's biggest names.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
Advantages: High-quality visuals, good presentation, fun and undemanding, licenses Disadvantages: Championship is ridiculously easy, slow compared to other racers, uninspiring design
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Released back in 2001, WRC is one of the PS2's elder statesmen - indeed, it was perhaps the first major rally game to appear on the format. The emphasis is very much on arcade accessibility; you'll not need to spend time fiddling with car settings or even worry about excess handling characteristics such as oversteer - just follow the co-drivers instructions and avoid crashing!
As well as the usual Single Race and Time Trial modes ... ...Makinen to an elusive fifth WRC title if you choose; pilot the Ford Focus of 'El Matador' himself Carlos Sainz, or continue the legacy of recently-deceased Richard Burns, back in better times before his illness. The only major driver seemingly missing-in-action is a certain Mr McRae, who had of course already sold his soul to Codemasters.
Anyway, what's it like to play? Well, initially it's a bit bizarre. Playing with the analogue ... more
With a bit of shrewd advertising, it seems Sony managed to rekindle gamers' interests in the rally genre with their 2001 release of World Rally Championship (WRC), to the kind of levels not seen since the original Colin McRae Rally caused such a storm back in 1998.
I was intrigued as to why this was, and encouraged by the high scores the press were lavishing upon WRC. After the wonderful-but-short V-Rally 3 had perked my enthusiasm for the rally racers once more, I decided to take a look under the bonnet of Sony's own dirt devil, which promised to be just as good and last a fair bit longer to boot.
Released back in 2001, WRC is one of the PS2's elder statesmen - indeed, it was perhaps the first major rally game to appear on the format. The emphasis is very much on arcade accessibility; you'll not need to spend time fiddling with car settings or even worry about excess handling characteristics such as oversteer - just follow the co-drivers instructions and avoid crashing!
As well as the usual Single Race and Time Trial modes that you'll feel obliged to ignore, there's a Championship that acts as the games main hub, featuring a full compliment of 14 events. Each of these is in turn made up of 5 stages, making for a far less-brief set-up than V-Rally 3's silly 6-rally season, though similarly you'll find that despite WRC's arcade leanings, there are no on-track opponents to battle against in the game - you've just got to focus on topping the time lists. Being an officially licensed game, it contains the real teams and drivers from the 2001 campaign; so you can drive Tommi Makinen to an elusive fifth WRC title if you choose; pilot the Ford Focus of 'El Matador' himself Carlos Sainz, or continue the legacy of recently-deceased Richard Burns, back in better times before his illness. The only major driver seemingly missing-in-action is a certain Mr McRae, who had of course already sold his soul to Codemasters.
Anyway, what's it like to play? Well, initially it's a bit bizarre. Playing with the analogue sticks (as was preferable with V-Rally 3) gives the strange sensation of the car rotating on the track but having little actual purchase. Fortunately, a quick switch to the D-Pad rescues the day as a more pointed, direct cornering method seems the order of the day here - it's simultaneously quite realistic and also reassuringly forgiving, which will please many who are accustomed to holding their breath when taking corners in rallying titles. What WRC provides that many of its rivals have failed to is an access point straight into the action, where for once even rallying novices can get to grips with things in no time. There's no doubt that the vast majority of players will find some enjoyment in the opening few minutes.
However, there is a downside to this too. To play, World Rally Championship is fun, but ultimately far too lightweight for its own good. There's none of the thrill or danger that comes with Colin McRae Rally's narrow country lanes or V-Rally's demanding physics and blind-corners, as you rarely feel tested here - the roads are always comfortably wide, the crash physics are generally quite forgiving (even at high speed) and even at maximum velocity, it can feel slightly pedestrian. The handling becomes so easy to grasp and the road surfaces offer up so few surprises or variety, that you'll be winning stages and rallies at your first attempt. In fact, even the unlockable 'Professional' difficulty (upon which I was pinning my hopes) proved to be embarrassingly easy - I managed to win 13 of the 14 rallies on this setting first time through, and even piloting the 'inferior' cars doesn't present you with much of a challenge. The learning curve lasts for all of ten minutes as you discover that, beyond memorising the course layouts for slightly better efficiency, you'll be as good as you are going to get after just a few stages - this is fairly remarkable and not something I recall happening previously in gaming. The Championship itself is well-presented and structured, but without so much as a hint of competition, you participation will be simply for a bit of fun and gaining the unlockable bonuses.
And now to the lunacy that is the Challenge mode - surely if the PS2 had a 'Bad Planning' award it would have to go to Sony for this turkey. Having taken (and passed) a simple 4-stage test, you are awarded with a simple code and told to input it on the wrc.com website (yes, your guess is good as mine). Only now it seems the website has changed, and there is seemingly nowhere to type said code and gain the access code for the Challenge itself. Of course, you can always locate the required codes from tip books or walkthroughs, but it all seems an unnecessary fad to be honest.
Let's focus on the good stuff again for a time though. Visually, WRC is really quite excellent - not just in-game but as an overall package. It's streaming of footage and information on the menu-screens would make ITV proud, showing-off with its dark blue colour scheme and slick, modern typeface. The in-game engine is just as good thanks to some marvellously-rendered cars (complete with animated driver and co-driver) and some truly impressive draw-distances, allowing the player to view great expanses with no slow-down or glitching in the backgrounds. The cockpit view is magnificent also, as you'll see realistic activity from both driver and co-driver (changing gears, movement of the wheel, heads bobbing) and the view out is also realistically cramped too. To top it all off, environment effects are first-class with some really nice fog and rain effects carried off with the minimum of fuss.
Sadly the sound lets the side down a bit - there's nothing wrong with the engine notes of the cars, though the humdrum co-driver is uninspired and the music that plays on the menu screens is horrifically repetitive and frankly murderous on the ears. Mute!
WRC has a grand total of 81 circuits, which on the surface may sound impressive, but that total soon seems far less when you consider there isn't a mode of notable substance within the game. I bemoaned V-Rally 3's lack of courses, but what it did provide was at least brilliant to drive on, diverse and challenging - WRC's are almost all samey and bland in terms of design, with precious little to remember them by individually, and only the Rally of Great Britain right at the very end of the season offering up anything like a challenge to the player. Considering the scenery rarely contains anything especially eye-catching, the loading times are also rather shocking. One thing's for sure, you'll be staring at a black screen for long periods of time, and in this high-tech age, a minute of waiting around for 2-3 minutes of driving isn't great.
Nevertheless, as it doesn't carry any age restrictions, it's rather a good choice for racing beginners out there. Obviously, if you've played and mastered Gran Turismo, then this isn't likely to hold a great deal of a challenge to be honest, though there's certainly some fun to be had even if it is a rather leisurely experience.
Overall, World Rally Championship is an average example of its genre. It looks fine, it's well-presented and has all the licenses that rally fans could wish for, though its simple handling and complete lack of A.I. opposition leaves few mysteries to unearth in terms of the gameplay, and racing game veterans will find little to sharpen their skills on here. Most of what it does, it does well, though its all been done better elsewhere. One to buy if you're an easily-pleased rally-buff (it is at least cheap nowadays), or a cautious rental if you're anyone else.
Advantages: Excellent graphics, very realistic Disadvantages: Not many, poor two-player game
WRC is, by far, the best rally game ever produced on any platform. Everyone used to say you couldn’t get better than Colin McRae Rally 2, well now you can, if you happen to own a PS2. Released last November, it is a first for the producers Evolution Studios, who were previously known as Digital Imagination Design, producers of flight simulators. Not only is it their first racing game, its their first console game as well, and when you see the game, ... ...a major plus point for WRC as well. Scrape against some rocks and the side of your car looks worse for ware, Fall of a cliff and although you won’t be out of the race, you’re car won’t like it one bit. The damage models are great, and look superb. Plus, damage does affect the way the car drives. Ram your wheels into rocks and your car will pull to one side. OK, now here is where you need to place a bucket under your chin. The graphics. Well, everyone ...
aljones 05.02.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of WRC World Rally Championship (PS2)
...the rest of the world. WRC 2 Extreme is due out soon, so some slip and sliding on all of these is required to decide the 'essential' purchase. The shambles that is the rally mode in Gran Turismo 3 does NOT count.
Taking into account the age of this game, and a limited memory of playing it when it first came out, I was in two frames of mind, with constant cheek sucking. This is an early release, so it can't be judged by today's standards. But a quick ... ...first synonym with 'rally', yet WRC successfully turns this on its head. Using CM2 as a basis, as it's a good benchmark, there's an alternative universe happening between these two and these games are worlds apart.
Before getting hold of the driving, CM2 offered some detailed set up options and a smart model of the car showing where all these parts went, such as power ratio, brake strength, gear ratio, suspension stiffness, and a decent tyre choice. ...
paulgusta 18.11.2002 (19.11.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of WRC World Rally Championship (PS2)
Advantages: Great Game, Realistic Disadvantages: Quite Difficult to Get to Grips with
WRC is a car rallying game made by evolution studios for the Sony Playstation 2. The game is endorsed and officially licensed by rally teams from across the world. It features all the cars, tracks, drivers and co-drivers from the 2001 season.
CONTROLS
Direction buttons/Left Analog Stick – steer
Cross button – accelerate
Square button – brake
Square pressed and held – reverse
Circle button – handbrake
Triangle button – change view
L1 button ... ...setting you have to win WRC in the normal level.
The novice level enables you to restart a stage (if it’s going particularly wrong) but this feature is disabled in the normal and professional modes.
Car Setup
This allows you to change your cars setup according to the way you like to drive and the weather conditions. The default selections are shown in dark grey. You can change:
Gear ratio – Long for driving on tarmac, Medium for gravel and Short ...
KerriLou 27.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of WRC World Rally Championship (PS2)
...for a mysterious option called WRC Challenge, which we'll cover later. You can select from Championship, Single Rally or Time Trial for single player use, or the 2-player option for you and a friend. There are three difficulty levels, aimed at the novice, the casual gamer, and the hardcore racer. The differences between the difficulties are reserved to the times you need to beat only, although novice allows you to also restart a stage if you're having ... ...won the WRC in normal mode. There are seven cars to choose from, and everyone's favorite is present whether it be the Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer, or Ford Focus. Each car has two teams and the developers have been careful to match current drivers and teams up. Colin McRae is listed as Ford Driver, but Nicky Grist is still there as his navigator. At the start of each country's rally, another beautiful FMV with backing music and excellent commentating ...
freakykid247 22.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of WRC World Rally Championship (PS2)
Advantages: Officially licensed, realistic experience Disadvantages: Huge loading times
...Octavia and Subaru Impreza. And WRC for the PS2 is the official game of the motorsport. With it's official licence, this game has all of the real drivers, co-drivers & constructors from the 2001 season (other than Colin McRae), which is always a good thing and it is always one of the first things you notice in a game. Developers Evolution Studios have made great use of this licence to create an overall well-rounded rally game that can compete with ... ...begin you first race, the thing that strikes you the most is the game's superb graphics and realism. The cars are modelled brilliantly, as are the courses, and the car responds to different types of surface realistically. For example, the car will speed along the flat, tarmac stages easily, but when you reach one of the bumpy, gravel stages it is a whole different story, which requires a more technical approach to win the race. The cars even take ...
boxcarracer15 06.11.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of WRC World Rally Championship (PS2)
![WRC - World Rally Championship 2006 [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78177316.jpg "WRC - World Rally Championship 2006 [DVD]")
