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 enjoy WRC2 still, should I bother with this one?

As someone who has always enjoyed the WRC series, we thought it might be good to give a further opinion from someone who has enjoyed this rally game series previously.

It’s fair to say that WRC3 has progressed further down it’s established roots. The scenery still has a huge draw distance and the look of it is quite unique compared to the CMR series. So what did I make of number 3?

Critical changes
My first concern was to ensure Sony had remedied the two big problems from the second instalment, which it has done. No longer does the analogue steering input generate a digital response (creating a better sim) and more importantly the collision with barriers or scenery does not immediately spin the car around (meaning the game flows much better).

Phew, glad they did that. Rodderick Kennedy from Evolutions Studios actually submitted a very intense guide to ‘contact physics’ earlier this year at www.gamasutra.com which shows they know what they’re talking about and it’s good to see it implemented so well.

What else will I immediately notice?
The first thing you’ll feel is that the handling is ‘same old’ which for me is a good thing. It still feels grippy and intense. The cars feel as though they have the correct weight/gravity going on. As James points out they do feel like powerful 4WD cars but contrast to James, I found it quite easy to induce a sideways slide myself. Perhaps we have different driving styles! As a rally sim, it’s second to none. The physics in place are great, easily as realistic as say CMR games or Rally Trophy, probably more so owing to the more detailed surfaces you drive over. It’s a very intense experience…for me, trying to keep a faultless run over 10Km stretches over the dynamic surfaces makes this game a winner.

(as an aside, I’m perplexed by James and some other reviews calling the handling arcade-like. Have they spent enough time on it? Is this reverse psychology? Tell Evo’s it’s arcade like and hope they’ll make it even more sim-like? Or maybe it’s confusing sim handling with a sim game? The game is not a sim…there’s nothing really in the way of car setup options and you don’t control the team or finances etc…but the in-game car-handling physics is the best seen so far for rolling, crashing, whatever you like to name – oops, that’s a long ‘aside’, so let’s keep going…)

Next you’ll notice the in-car camera is pulled forward, so only the bottom of the dash is seen and a much bigger field of view is available…much better than previously.

Finally, there’s a massive change to the background scenery and course design. Apart from the procedurally generated backgrounds, you now have a huge (I mean huge) amount of additional buildings and foliage. These are not perhaps as good looking as the CMR game, but you can’t have everything. This change is mostly seen in the little villages you pass through in almost all stages…with lots of square turns and pavement to throw you off guard it makes for a much more enjoyable experience. It’s still a huge contrast to the CMR series which has beautifully designed stages but CMR misses on the huge vistas and feeling of depth shown in WRC. So graphically I say don’t compare…they’re both good for different reasons.

It doesn’t end there..…the game loads very fast, it runs in wide screen, has this years Impreza/Fabia/Focus (amongst others), still has the great car models you’re used to, camera angles on the replays are improved, the frame rate is absolutely rock solid and smooth like Gran Turismo.

Over a 1000Km of track to race on – How to choose?
Personally I always find this game handles beautifully and feels just right on smooth or slightly rough tarmac. For me then, the tarmac special stages, ALL of Germany and the shorter tracks at Italy and Spain all look and play superbly. I see longevity in this game coming from time attack on these (or your own favourite)tracks.

Quick Stat’s run-down
Oh hang on, we don’t have any stats for you. But you can be assured there’s all the present rally cars available in their 2003 liveries. There’s each of the 2003 (14) locations each with at least eight tracks…plenty then.

Criticisms
Sure, as James points out, the driver calls are a bit suspect and the audio is disappointing. I think driver calls in a game like this are hard to do perfectly though….each corner has a huge amount of definition to it. This means there’s no generic croners, each corner camber, length, depth etc are all quite unique (which is why square corners are sometimes a welcome relief – apart from pavement height, they’re predictable!)

The one thing that has never been right on this series (for me) is the use of manual gears. I’d like to see a game again that penalises the player for using an auto-box or rewards the manual player as they used to do in the good old 8 bit days (sigh!). Here the difficulty/times remain static but there’s no way on earth you can change gears as quick as the auto-box, meaning if you have any hope of getting through the pro level (nevermind extreme/concept) then you really must use the auto-box. For me this hampers the feeling of immersion a little.

The weather is far less convincing than in CMR and whilst there is a huge amount of trees around, the textures are very poor. The two player is split screen, but you’re playing as each others ghost…so to play with friends means time-trailing, but that’s usually preferable anyway in a rally game. Oh and apart from unlockables, there’s two difficulty settings. Novice has fewer tracks, allows restarts and is too easy…then on Pro level without restarts and with much harsher damage to your car, the opponents seem a huge step up in their ability and it’s very very hard indeed. That said, I look forward to completing it and unlocking the other and hopefully even faster cars.

To be fair these criticisms do not ruin the game and are just minor gripes in desperate search for perfection.

Conclusion
You really want me to compare to CMR4 and it would be outrageous for me not to, so I put my cards on our virtual table. Like McRae’s latest game, WRC has only made a handful of improvements since it’s last outing…but it has corrected the irritations seen in the previous game which is commendable.

WRC3 is the best rally game on any format so far – with one caveat. This is providing you prefer a more simulation bent game and really enjoy time trialling. So for RSC members I commend it. If you have WRC2 already and enjoyed it but for it’s faults…don’t hesitate in trading up to this version. If you didn’t like WRC2, you aren’t going to like this one either.

Finally, let me add that the WRC series has continued down the right road and I am sure this game will spin in my machine periodically for the next 12 months, until the next in the series is due.