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WRC 4 Review

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Post  CalculatdRisque Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:29 pm

WRC 4 Review 1175
Publisher: Bigben Interactive
Developer: Milestone S.r.l
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, PC
Released: 25.10.2013

WRC 4 is, as you can imagine, the fourth retail iteration of the WRC franchise. The publisher may have changed hands, but the same developer remains behind the wheel for this one. So does Milestone S.r.l. win the race and the plaudits, or does its clutch control leave it careering off road for an almighty crash?

WRC 4 Review WRC4_hero

The main difference from WRC 3 is that the Dirt-esque challenges have gone. Whether that is from fan feedback or another reason entirely, I am very happy with the decision to get back to pure rallying. If you liked the career in WRC 3 then i'm afraid you will have to look elsewhere for that arcade-y fix.

Career is not as long as previous WRC games; if you have your wits about you it can be completed in about 100 races. Just a simple 'story' of making your way from a Junior WRC racer to be crowned WRC champion, very simply told through newspaper articles, and odd comments on the loading screens. If you are after an in-depth story you will be disappointed. But who plays racers for a story right? It's all about the tracks, cars, and handling.

For me the tracks are very well constructed. There is a variety of 13 official locations. Each country has different terrain, from the snow-covered tarmac in the mountains of Monte Carlo, to the mud farm-tracks of Wales, the fast paced woods of Finland, to the twisty gravel of Argentina. There is an absolute distinct feel to each environment, and a different way your car responds to each terrain. Not only that but visually each location is represented appropriately as well. After 4 goes at making the game the developer should be getting these details right, and they succeed here.

WRC 4 Review 2013-10-26-003623
Each country has 6 rallies which vary in length, from 1.30 mins to nearly 7 mins in length. On average, each track is 4-5 mins long though, with each rally of 6 stages taking about half an hour including loading times, (which are admittedly poor). There is a nice blend of twisty, hairpin based rallies, and fast, free-flowing rallies, and even individual stages combine the turns really well to keep you on your toes. The pace notes were, I found, called a bit too late for me, but there is an option to change them so you can get your directions earlier, which is an option i've never seen before in a rally game, although admittedly I haven't been looking.

There is some repetition of parts of tracks, using part of a track for another rally, doing the rally in reverse etc. which is nothing new, and in fact the developers do re-use the best bits of tracks mainly. There are numerous parts of tracks which stick out, like the concrete blocks in Italy and the town in Mexico, which reminds me a lot of Colin Mcrae 2.0 on the Playstation, which has long since been the pinnacle of any rally game. What WRC 4 doesn't have in common with the aforementioned title is difficulty. I'd say I am average-above average at rally games but even with the difficulty on Medium I was winning easily. This for me has long since been a problem with the WRC games and I wish they would make career harder as you progressed. Yes it makes the achievements easy but I do like to be tested from time to time. It was great on the old Colin Mcrae games when you won a difficult stage, and had to practice to win. There aren't any super-special stages where you race versus your rival in this game either which is slightly disappointing.

WRC 4 Review Wrc-3-pc-1350657572-044
The handling of the cars is very responsive, and if i'm not mistaken they have improved the handbrake turn somewhat. On previous titles it felt very heavy, but this seems to have been ironed out, so that you play as the game is intended to be played. Each car has slightly different handling but it only takes 1-2 stages to get used to new cars. The cars are nicely done, not Forza standards, but sufficient for this game. The damage and mud on the cars is appropriate. You can tune the cars if you want. I didn't bother, but if you want to then the option is there. It is a bit annoying after 2 stages that you have to manually go into the repair section rather than be taken there, and a few times I accidentally moved on to the next stages with a broken car without fixing it but I am being picky here. There are only 16 cars in total, so not a great deal of choice.

The lighting in the game has been improved, and there are now races at dawn, and dusk. What hasn't been improved however, is the weather. Even on the snow or rain tracks there is hardly ever any snow or rain coming down, and it is minimal at best. Maybe they decided the weather effects weren't great so left them out, but after 4 iterations, really there should be stages when it is bucketing it down.

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The other game modes are the same from previous releases, along with career you can choose championship, single rally, single stage, or hot seat which is a couch turn-based mode.

The online is very good as usual. I have always enjoyed the online aspect of the WRC games, there is always a smattering of people playing, usually beasts who beat you by a lot, but the community is very welcoming and friendly. You do get 40 seconds to finish after someone reaches the end of the stage, so there is plenty of time for average players to get to the end and avoid the dreaded DNF screen. You can turn off damage, vote or choose random tracks, and load your tuned settings if you wish. Achievement wise you have to race for 3 hours total in actual races, (not lobbies), so you can expect to spend around 5 hrs online including loading screens. If you have a friend you can idle on one stage for 3 hrs and finish it for the achievements but where is the fun in that? I managed one win against the top players, with a handful of podiums, but got quite a few wins when the top players weren't about.

As for the other achievements they are all straightforward, mainly career-oriented where you have to win rallies, (very easy). There are a handful of achievements tied to winning certain rallies with certain drivers that you have to do out of career, and that is about it. One tip is that you can skip the entire WRC2 season and just do an offline WRC2 championship for that particular achievement, thus saving you about 36 stages. Career takes about 10hrs, 5 hrs online and <5 hrs for the miscellaneous achievements, so about 20hrs total for the completion.

WRC 4 Review WRC4%202013-11-03%2022-14-57-43

All told, for me this is the best rally game on the 360 and the best since the heady days of Colin Mcrae on the PS1/PS2. Improvements have been made, and the decision to forget the challenges which they put in WRC3 is very welcome. The tracks are what make the game exceptional, from the actual stage design to the environment. Sure it isn't the best game graphically going into the next generation but Milestone can be happy that they have done their best with the WRC license and the few people who like rally games will be happy. I for one am looking forward to a release on the Xbox One to see what they can do with the new technology.

86/100 for rally fans, but that score comes down if you don't like rallying. An improvement in every way over WRC 3. Not massively, but enough to warrant a rental at least.

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Post  dazzamann Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:45 pm

Nice review mate
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Post  KENT HAMMER Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:53 pm

Good work mate, like your writing style and detailed achievement info is always welcomed  Very Happy 
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Post  Guest Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:38 pm

Thanks for the review

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