WRC 3 Review

Title: World Rally Championship 3
Developer: Evolution Studios
Licenses: Official Game of the World Rally Championship.
Platform(s): PS2
Release Date: November 2003
Price: £39.99 (TBC)

I am writing this review from the perspective of a die-hard rally fan who is a nut when it comes to realism. My views for the ‘general’ gamer are included at the head of the conclusion. I can also not comment on the concept cars and unlockable features. Neither can I comment on any of the difficult levels above ‘Professional.’

FIRST IMPRESSIONS (8 out of 10)
Upon loading the game, the first thing that hit me was the wonderful menu system. Not only did it look good, it was also easy to use, with loads of added features such as a 3D car viewer to help you select your favourite painted tin can.

So I found my way into the action with relative ease and was notably impressed by the mechanic animations in the service park. After choosing my setup for the coming stages, they whirred into action in a frenzy of spanners and monkey wrenches.

After leaving my mechanics back at the service park, I appeared at the line, where a smiley little marshal gave me the thumbs up as the lights came on. 3… 2… 1… Go… and the dull co-driver bursts into action. OK, so maybe ‘bursts’ was the wrong word. After only a few corners I could tell there was something wrong with the co-driver and, more importantly, the handling.

Upon completing the stage, I wasn’t exactly crying out for more, and was tempted to go and play something else – but in the interests of this review, I kept going and you’ll be glad I did…

GRAPHICS (9 out of 10)“Wow,” just about sums up the graphics. Textures are nigh-on perfect and the 3D modelling annihilates anything on the PS2 to date. We’re talking über-realistic here. Every last spec of dust seems to have been beautifully textured with loving care and attention. The visual affects are just wonderful. Watching the crowd turn away as you shower them with all manner of gravel, snow, mud and grit is just great – no cardboard cutouts here.

In terms of design, the stages themselves are pretty good in the realism department, but certain areas could use some work. From the snow of the Monte to the mud of the Wales Rally GB – everything is extremely well made.

By far the best thought out part of the game seems to be the Test Track. It is ideal for testing out all aspects of your car on different surfaces and through different types of corner. The track contains a straight ‘yump run,’ a series of tight chicanes, a selection of different corners, a high-speed tarmac oval, a ‘stage’ of hairpin turns and a service park. All of which are very well done, as is everything else in this department.

On top of all this, some small details make it even better. Details like being able to run down fences – although the spectators are protected by the ‘chevron tape of doom,’ which acts like a brick wall when you inadvertently cut a corner you weren’t supposed to.

But overall, as I said earlier, this department is the best in the game, and other rally simulations – on whatever platform – will find it very hard to better.

PHYSICS (5 out of 10)
Lets start with the good points. The handbrake is good – very realistic; it actually brings the back of the car around like it should. The front end of the car also understeers like a 4WD should and is encouraging you to bury it into the tree that is waiting patiently at the exit of the bend.

The first problem with this area is that you have to hack away at the wheel and pull with all your might on the handbrake to generate a realistic amount of slide in your car, even on slippy surfaces like gravel or snow.

With the physics being of the utmost importance to rallying nuts, you would have thought it would turn out better. The whole thing has a very ‘arcade’ feel and seems to be aimed at the person who just wants something to do on a Friday night after work – rather than at the realism fanatic.

Another thing of note, the reset ‘feature.’ This resets you whenever you stray off the road after three seconds. So even if you miss a junction, you don’t have time to realise it before you are reset. This is annoying for the rallying nut, as a slide into a ditch could – in real life – cost you minutes, or even force you to retire; but in this game, you can lose about a maximum of 5 seconds.

Moving onto damage now… Picture this – you’re driving at 170mph and you smack head on into a tree. You’d expect a crumpled piece of painted tin-foil right? Well don’t expect any of that in WRC3. You’ll end up missing a bonnet and a few dents and scratches and you’ll hear you co-driver ‘cheerily’ say “Are you alright?” in his monotone voice and you’ll continue with only a small loss in speed.

Secondly, you can’t actually even retire without choosing to. In the above incident, I would have expected to at least have been forced to retire, if not, at least ended up dead.

And one final note, that could also be – like the damage – included in the graphics section. There is no real sensation of speed in the game – everything is desperately slow.

SOUND (4 out of 10)
Bogey area. Lets start with our ever-present friend, the co-driver…

He has about as much life as a block of wood and is very repetitive, very repetitive. To the average ‘Friday-night’ gamer, this isn’t going to make much difference, but to the dedicated sim-racer, it is going to present a problem. Personally, I hang on every word the co-driver says to obtain a fast time through the stage and when there is little or no life to the co-driver, it gets very difficult to set a fast stage time on any level other than Novice.

One more thing on the co-driver, he isn’t very descriptive at all. You’ll receive calls like ‘chicane’ with no indication of whether it’s a left or a right hand bend first – and also with no indication of the distance between the two ‘parts’ of the chicane. Another thing on distance, there are no distance calls for most of the corners (there are a few on some stages though), therefore, you can be half a mile down a straight and have ’90 left’ called, and you may turn at the junction 100 metres down the road. To the other extreme, and you may be down the wrong road already.

Car sounds, next big problem. Lets jump straight in. Backfire – sounds like something out of Star Wars. Ion Cannon anyone? Turbo sound isn’t very convincing either. The launch control at the start line also doesn’t impress. The engine sound is better, but still not good. This has got to be one of the weakest areas of the game; you at least expect to have something that sounds just like a WRC car. But as I said previously, this isn’t going to bother a Friday-night gamer.

The rest of the sounds (out-board, etc.) pretty much follow suit.

CONCLUSION
From a Friday-night player’s point of view, this game is perfect. It has everything you would require and more. It’s not hard to drive, and it isn’t a problem that the pace notes aren’t detailed and that the car doesn’t slide properly. Going back through what I’ve seen from this game, and summing it up quickly from this point of view, would give me something along the lines of 35 out of 40 which is a great score of 88%.

From a sim-racer’s point of view, the game is a slight disappointment – failing to provide in some of the most important areas. The graphics, however, are extremely well done and could just about convince me to invest in the game. The rating from this camp is 26 out of 40 (65%)

Let me sum this up for you then. If you’re a sim-racing nut like me, this probably isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but it is a definite improvement over the previous two in the series. You should make an effort to find £40 down the back of the sofa and buy it. If you’re a Friday-night gamer, who enjoys a bit of rallying, you should take a trip down to your local computer shop and get it ASAP – take out a loan if needs be. The variety of things to do, ranging from a full WRC attempt to slogging it around the test track make for hours and hours of play-time without having to repeat anything make this a worthwhile investment.

Good Points Bad Points
Animations (like mechanics, etc.) Lack of ‘slide’
Test track Co-Driver
Shakedown ability Sounds in general
The graphics Weak DualShock (mostly)
Stage Realism Limited setup options
Excellent 3D Modelling Lack of sense of speed
The Menus
Some small details
Lots of stuff to do.