EA Sports WRC Review (SpaceCouncil)
In the off chance you're unaware of what has happened, WRC, previously published by Nacon (Big Ben Interactive re-brand) and developed by KT Racing and Srl Milestone lost the WRC license to Codemasters, whom does the DiRT/DiRT Rally games. Codemasters was purchased by EA for a cool $1.2 billion.
They are not connected in any other way. So, in effect, this is DiRT Rally 3, but officially licensed.
That said, there isn't a ton to say regarding the game as a whole. It has a decent career mode with crew management and benefactor appeasement which will affect your available budget both positively and negatively. The physics are drastically improved, wholesale. The older WRC titles felt floaty, and as though your tires were covered in soap. DiRT Rally 2 had a number of issues where a lot of the surfaces didn't actually feel much different, that isn't the case here.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3090942057
The one issue I have with this game is that EA decided to not include Dailies, Weeklies or Monthlies. Arguably one of the most popular features in DiRT Rally 2. Instead featuring “Moments” — either based on real historical rally races, inspired by, or literal historic races. Some of these moments will have secondary an tertiary objectives to fulfill. And these will run for about 6 weeks (at least at the time of writing this) with a leaderboard. Some are locked behind an EA Play subscription.
I found that the Quick Generate Championship option under quickplay to be a decent supplement for my desire for new dailies/weeklies. It will randomly select a location, stages, a class of car and this is, in effect, can satisfy your desire to simply “jump in”.
There will be 'seasons' of content planned, I used to be very against this sort of thing. But it's just a reality of, not only the game industry, but where we are as an entertainment medium. Games cost a lot of money to develop and it seems like people just have less time — in general. The only way companies can keep costs relatively low and approachable for the average consumer is to elongate the “window” where people are playing — which is subsequently why we see the rise of Free to Play models. Very few people would be willing to pay $100 or $120 for a new game. But $60 and then $30 in 2 months for a big expansion, and another $30 for a some random cosmetics a few months after that, that's seems to be fine for the average person. And that's been the paradigm shift.
The Gist
This package feels a bit bare bones right now, but it'll get more added to it over time. I know many don't like EA. However, there are numerous companies that do much worse than them and it really feels like it's just popular to to hate on EA without any real reason.
The tracks are great, the physics are great. If you feel apprehensive or don't trust EA, just wait.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071916474
If you've found this review helpful, consider following my curation — Station Argus
WRC9 review here.
DiRT Rally 2 review here.
I did play WRC10, but it was the Switch version.