EA Sports WRC Combines Codemasters Pedigree with Authentic Rally Racing | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

Codemasters knows rally. It's been making rally racing games since 1998, with the original Colin McRae Rally on PS1 being a hugely formative title for the studio. The series evolved into the DiRT games, which itself branched into two — numbered sequels with a more arcade-like nature, and DiRT Rally, a more serious, simulation take on the motorsport. With 12 games in the bag, its next attempt, EA Sports WRC, is the first to bear the official licence.

Everything seems to be in place, then, for this game to be something pretty special. Codies has about 25 years of experience making rally titles, and it'll combine that know-how with all the real-world cars, drivers, and courses from the 2023 World Rally Championship. It's this combo that has us excited; we already know the studio can craft hair-raising and deeply satisfying rally driving, and now the new game will have all the hallmarks of an official product.

As mentioned, EA Sports WRC will feature all 10 cars from the current season across all classes, all 13 locations from the official calendar, plus five more for good measure. The only small print here is the Central Europe rally will be arriving later as a free post-launch update.

Under the bonnet, the upcoming rally game is building upon the much loved DiRT Rally 2.0. In a move from Codemasters' proprietary EGO game engine to Unreal, the fantastic handling model has been brought over wholesale. Moreover, it's been enhanced and refined further, with senior creative director Ross Gowing emphasising improvements to tarmac handling in particular. The team says Unreal has also allowed them to build much larger environments and much longer tracks, resulting in more than 600km of off-roading goodness.

So, with all the