Games
Is the latest WRC game one of the best rally games ever?
The 2016 WRC season got underway in January, but WRC 6 – this year's official game – has only just been released. It features 52 official squads and cars from the 2016 championship, as well as all 14 stops on this year’s calendar (including the cancelled China round), but is it one of the best rally games of all time?
Well, it has some competition. After all, Dirt Rally set the standard for rally games on PS4 and Xbox One, so WRC needed to improve to keep up. Let's see if it can make it into our top seven...
Richard Burns Rally
Named after another great British rally champion, Richard Burns Rally isn't as well known as its McRae counterpart – but it should be. Released in 2004 on the PS2, Xbox and PC, it combined achingly pretty graphics with some of the most realistic handling and physics models ever seen in a rally game. Despite being released over a decade ago, Richard Burns Rally is still being played, and has been updated and modified every year by a dedicated online community. Originally designed to be an offline only game, modders even gave Richard Burns Rally a fully featured online mode, years after release.
Rally Cross
Still one of the best rallying games ever made, Rally Cross hit the original PlayStation in 1997, and impressed gamers with its revolutionary – for the time – visuals and great gameplay. Unlike the pristine stylings of Sega Rally, Rally Cross perfectly represented the rough and ready side of rallying, and forced racers to navigate through sand, mud and water as well as a range of challenging topography. Big bumps would see your car’s suspension struggle, and finishing first required expert navigation though some seriously demanding terrain. Throw in an exciting Season mode, head-to-head mode and some great looking cars, and Rally Cross has to go down as one of the best.
Sega Rally Championship
A must have fixture in every arcade, Sega Rally Championship brought rallying to the masses. Designed to set itself apart from conventional titles like Ridge Racer, Sega Rally took to the dirt to try something different – and the rest is history. Released in 1995, Sega Rally Championship was groundbreaking: For the first time ever, it used different surfaces such as gravel, dirt and tarmac, all with their own unique handling characteristics.
Sega Rally Championship has an impressive garage too: players were able to drive legendary cars like the iconic Toyota Celica GT Four, as well as the cult Lancia Delta HF Integrale and Lancia Stratos HF. Although released on the Sega Saturn and later the Game Boy Advance and Playstation 2, the arcade version of Sega Rally Championship represents the most pure, engaging form of the game.
Colin McRae Rally
Launched in 1998 on the Playstation and PC, Colin McRae Rally is still rightly regarded as one of the best rally games of all time. Produced with technical insight from the late British rallying legend, it couldn't quite nail the visuals, but it did capture the endurance and hectic nature of the sport.
Putting you behind the wheel of McRae’s championship winning Impreza and many other classics, the game barked instructions from your co-driver and forced gamers to navigate through tricky terrain as fast as possible. Throw in the need to make repairs between stages, and Colin McRae rally is still one of the most complete, rewarding rallying games you’ll ever play.
V Rally 3
Before V-Rally 3 Infogrames had already created one of the best rallying series to be released on consoles, but V-Rally 3 solidified that reputation.
The first V-rallying outing on the PlayStation 2, V-Rally 3 picked up the pace, featuring 80 drivers, including six real ones, and a huge selection of cars to choose from. There were six locations on offer, with four stages each, meaning V-Rally 3 packed in 24 stages all together. From the fast flowing jumps of Finland to the quick Asphalt of Germany, each one was rendered in exquisite detail, helping to create the most gripping, authentic game of the V-Rally series.
Dirt Rally
The clue is in the name – this is a proper rally sim for driving enthusiasts. Dirt 2 – as good as it was – signalled a change of direction for the Colin McRae rallying series, introducing fictional stages and desert buggies. Following that, we had Dirt 3, which featured a party mode that had you spreading a zombie infection, and then there was the arcade spin-off Dirt Showdown. Don’t get us wrong, Dirt 2 and Dirt 3 are great racing games, but what if you want to know what it feels like to drive a rally car along icy roads in Sweden or speed through the gravel in Finland? Dirt Rally is the game for you.
Yes, it can be unforgiving, and unless you’re good at racing simulations, the learning curve is steep, but when you learn to be brave and take the corners aggressively, you’ll forget the early frustrations as you get to grips with one of the finest racing games ever. The Xbox One and PS4 versions are coming on 5 April, so if you can’t play it on PC, make sure you don’t miss it later in the year.
WRC 6
Prior to the release of WRC 6, WRC 3 was probably the best official world rally championship game. It has taken a long time to better that experience, but the latest game in the series has done it. OK, you won’t be driving any super-powered versions of rally cars as in WRC 3, but this is all about realism.
Not only does it feature all this year’s rally cars, but it also boasts 11 of the WRC’s Super Special Stages which are held in city streets or stadiums. What’s more, as these are shorter stages, developer Kylotonn has been able to reproduce them more accurately. The realism has been pushed in the longer stages, too, with narrower, bumpier roads to negotiate.
Throw in improved visuals and handling and you’ve got a great rally experience for fans who want to drive as their heroes.
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