First Look – FIA World Rally Championship – WRC 3
The responsibility of building the new future for official FIA WRC games was handed over to Milestone starting the year 2010. They did an excellent job with WRC 2 that released in 2011. With the new WRC 3, Milestone is bringing in a host of new features that sound exciting.
Since the game is officially licensed, Milestone has added all the official contents from the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship including all the main teams, cars, locations. They’ve also added other exclusive content like Rallye Monte-Carlo and Volkswagen Polo R WRC test car.
The team at Milestone spent 2 years in making the new Spike Engine that features enhanced graphics allowing the developer to work with all new lighting effects, shadows and particle effects with enhanced realism. Milestone has also worked on the locale, surface and weather conditions offering a much needed realistic feeling to this franchise.
There are 13 environments that players can play in which include Holland, Wales, Greece and many more. Each of these locations have spectacular and diverse weather effects. There is however, no night racing in the game.
The core idea of WRC has always been to deliver a point to point, technical racing experience which the older Codemasters’ Colin McRae series used to offer. The new DiRT series, Forza and other racing games are different. They are great competitors but it is very different compared to what WRC 3 has to offer. It’s not arcady racing, it’s not a pure technical simulation – It’s just a near arcade, near technical rally experience for people who want to see what it is like to race in one of those cool rally cars.
Having said that, Milestone has incorporated new elements to the already huge single player Career Mode. The new career mode is going to add a brand new Challenge System in which racers will have to finish objectives similar to those in DiRT 2 or 3 – Hitting specified targets or performing special moves. Although, DiRT has already done this before, it’ll be interesting to experience the same on WRC.
One of the other features in the WRC 3 is the rewind system allowing racers to go back in time if they roll over or crash something. Hopefully, you wouldn’t have to rewind as much. WRC 3 prides on it’s accuracy when it comes to in-game physics. According to the developer, this new accuracy with a revamped physics model allows racers to experience the same type of handling as the actual racer in a rally car.
Although DiRT, Forza, Gran Turismo feature spectacular handling, WRC 3 is bringing in almost realistic handling which varies with each of the available 37 cars ranging from the 1960s to the all new 2012 models. If you are new to rally racing, Auto-Brake, Auto-Transmission, Braking Assistance, Stability Help and Physical damage level are driving helps that are available in the game.
With 83 different stages, 5 super special stages, 54 official teams, 13 locations and 37 cars, WRC 3 is probably the most comprehensive WRC experience yet. Although the new challenge games in the career mode might not really appeal to the more rally-serious audience, it is still a welcome addition to those who like some arcady fun in between serious rally racing. All of this can be enhanced with future DLCs which could feature new locations, cars or game modes.
