Review: how does WRC five stack up against the best rally games?

Mike Channell plays Finnish rally ace in fresh title for console and PC

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We’re no professional psychologists, but clearly something in your brain has to have gone a bit skew-whiff for you to want to be a rally ace.

Something somewhere in the few cubic centimetres of squishy, spongy grey stuff that would otherwise be politely nagging you not to dance a tonne of metal and carbon fibre across liberate gravel, mere inches away from a sheer precipice. It’s amazing that this finish absence of a sense of self preservation wasn’t run into some sort of evolutionary dead end back when early humans very first embarked flinging themselves at woolly mammoths.

What rally movie games like WRC five suggest is a taste of the blissful, zen-like levels of concentration and reactive car control that the pros love, without the accompanying risk of being returned home in two separate, identically sized lumps.

Unlike the latest, hugely awesome Filth Rally, WRC five is absolutely not an aerospace-grade simulator. Instead it blends an authentic recreation of the official championship’s teams and locations with gently widened roads and a forgiving, chuckable treating model. Not only will you be driving Sebastien Ogier’s two thousand fifteen VW Polo R WRC, you’ll be pulling precision glides and deft Scandi flicks like him too.

Just because it’s effortless to pick up doesn’t mean you won’t be challenged, tho’. The surface switches not just stage-by-stage but corner-by-corner, and it’s effortless to drop a wheel on some ice or raw mud and end up slithering embarrassingly into the banking.

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There are also some frighteningly quick stages in there, particularly on Rally Poland. It’s no wonder Robert Kubica regularly forgets that he has a middle pedal at his disposition.

There’s no escaping that the overall budget for this game would most likely fit cosily within the coffee and doughnut budget of something like Forza Motorsport 6, but WRC five opens up its more modest resources well. Every stop on the calendar is represented, with five stages each, and there are both night stages and an entire British summer’s worth of different weather conditions to adapt to.

It’s going to be a very long time before you’ve memorised every single corner, which is the key to rally game longevity.

And that’s WRC five in a nutshell. It’s never going to frighten the big boys of the genre, but if you’re at all interested in the sport, or just fancy experiencing the weird, tunnel-vision concentrate of threading inbetween Finnish pine trees at 150mph that’s unique to rallyism, then this plucky underdog is punching well above its weight.

WRC 5’s available on PC today, with the console release following on sixteen October. Buying it is statistically unlikely to result in you ending up upside down and on fire at the very base of a Monte Carlo mountain. What more recommendation do you need?

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Review: how does WRC five stack up against the best rally games, Top Gear

Review: how does WRC five stack up against the best rally games?

Mike Channell plays Finnish rally ace in fresh title for console and PC

Read more on:

We’re no professional psychologists, but clearly something in your brain has to have gone a bit skew-whiff for you to want to be a rally ace.

Something somewhere in the few cubic centimetres of squishy, spongy grey stuff that would otherwise be politely nagging you not to dance a tonne of metal and carbon fibre across liberate gravel, mere inches away from a sheer precipice. It’s amazing that this accomplish absence of a sense of self preservation wasn’t run into some sort of evolutionary dead end back when early humans very first began flinging themselves at woolly mammoths.

What rally movie games like WRC five suggest is a taste of the blissful, zen-like levels of concentration and reactive car control that the pros love, without the accompanying risk of being returned home in two separate, identically sized chunks.

Unlike the latest, hugely incredible Mess Rally, WRC five is absolutely not an aerospace-grade simulator. Instead it blends an authentic recreation of the official championship’s teams and locations with gently widened roads and a forgiving, chuckable treating model. Not only will you be driving Sebastien Ogier’s two thousand fifteen VW Polo R WRC, you’ll be pulling precision slips and deft Scandi flicks like him too.

Just because it’s effortless to pick up doesn’t mean you won’t be challenged, however. The surface switches not just stage-by-stage but corner-by-corner, and it’s effortless to drop a wheel on some ice or raw mud and end up slithering embarrassingly into the banking.

Related content

Forza Motorsport 6: Apex makes its PC debut

Gaming: is Mess Rally the most xxx sim ever?

Photo of the day: Polo R WRC leaps through the air

Gaming: is Mess four the last rally game you ever need?

There are also some frighteningly swift stages in there, particularly on Rally Poland. It’s no wonder Robert Kubica regularly forgets that he has a middle pedal at his disposition.

There’s no escaping that the overall budget for this game would most likely fit cozily within the coffee and doughnut budget of something like Forza Motorsport 6, but WRC five opens up its more modest resources well. Every stop on the calendar is represented, with five stages each, and there are both night stages and an entire British summer’s worth of different weather conditions to adapt to.

It’s going to be a very long time before you’ve memorised every single corner, which is the key to rally game longevity.

And that’s WRC five in a nutshell. It’s never going to frighten the big boys of the genre, but if you’re at all interested in the sport, or just fancy experiencing the weird, tunnel-vision concentrate of threading inbetween Finnish pine trees at 150mph that’s unique to rallyism, then this plucky underdog is punching well above its weight.

WRC 5’s available on PC today, with the console release following on sixteen October. Buying it is statistically unlikely to result in you ending up upside down and on fire at the very base of a Monte Carlo mountain. What more recommendation do you need?

Share this page:

What do you think?

This service is provided by Disqus and is subject to their privacy policy and terms of use. Please read Top Gear’s code of conduct (link below) before posting.

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