WRC "evolved" - oh dear.

[MichaelH]

In case you haven't noticed, Evolution Studios latest WRC game is on the shelves for PS2 now. Having owned all the previous versions I didn't need to think twice, it looks nice on the back of the box and there's this new gimmick *cough* I mean feature where you have to contend with the unpredictable (falling stuff, animals/spectators on the road, etc), so that might be good.

Get it home, and sure enought it's quite good. Looks decent, the handling's solid enough, the stages look more accurate than last year and there's loads to unlock. So I do the S1600 series, win it easily, spend my reward points on unlocking the 'privateer' class (one of the reasons I was looking forward to this game), and set about getting to know the WRC cars, thinking 'wouldn't it be good if I could compete in a full WRC season in a privateer car and see how close I could get to the works machines'.

Except, of course, you can't. In fact although there's all manner of weird and wonderful stuff to unlock, it looks like you can't actually use anything but the proper WRC machines in the single rally/championship modes, AGAIN. Which is a pain, but almost forgivable if the game itself's the accurate, satisfying WRC sim I've been waiting for after after years of 'nearly but not quite' efforts.

But.....it isn't. On WRC expert level, it's satisfyingly challenging, but there are THREE stages per event. Three. In WRC2 there were 8, then down to six, now down to three. a WRC rally on the hardest level should be a marathon, but every year they seem to water it down a bit more to the point where, in 2005, this "evolution" is hardly more than an average arcade racer.

Also, the gimmick of dealing with the unexpected is garbage. You're charging through a stage when your co-driver will suddenly say "watch out for the roadworks!" What? Roadworks on the running of a proper FIA sactioned World Championship round? And sure enough, there they are, posing no problem at all, you drive past a taped off section with a token yellow JCB and that's it.

I remember when WRC first broke cover in 2000-ish in EDGE, it looked fantastic. There was so much potential for Evolution Studios to come up with something superb but it never quite happened and finally, probably for the last time on PS2, we're left with this sorry effort. As a WRC fan I'm really frustrated about that.

RANT OVER.

Anyone else bought/played this? please tell me it's not as shallow as it seems to be.....

[ASCII Man]

I only have the original WRC, was quite amazed by the great graphics so much that I could just gasp and watch the replays over and over again, then I rented the subsequent editions but never thought it worth my money to purchase them...

It's nothing special these days.

[Spudgun]

I have the original and really thought it was great. I think it's still the best one. A friend of mine had WRC2 and I had a go, but they'd changed the handling and it really annoyed me with really stupid oversteer.

I had a go on 4 and thought it was an improvement on handling, but nothing special otherwise.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what appears on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I don't know if I'll get either since my PC satisfies all my sim racing needs at the moment.

[nickyf1]

this game is just a small game before 5 comes out like that wrc arcade game on the ps1.

[Knowlesy]

I hated WRC 1, the handling was all wrong. It felt like the car was turning on a pivot, and when you switched to an external viewpoint it was!

Horribly dissapointing!

I recently got WRC4 and I think that's the best of the bunch, I heard the new one was crap so avoided it. Glad I did now......shame, it has classic cars on for the first time as well.

[BertMk2]

Like Knowlesy I bought WRC 1 and hated it, since then I've kept clear of the series and stuck with the Colin McRae titles - they haven't always had the best graphics and don't have the licenced cars but they're still good fun.

[Nintendo]

The only problem with wrc (the game) is that cmr rally always seemed to be better, but i preferred the wrc games. They need privateer teams as an option

[nickyf1]

does wrc 4/evolved still include the test track?

[enemy-ace]

Hasn't anybody played Richard Burns Rally? It's a terrific Rally Sim! I play it on a PC but I am pretty sure it's available for a console as well.

[nickyf1]

got it on demo, still havent got to grips with the handling.

[nickyf1]

wrc's crashes are complete nonsense! I was on a corsica stage and i was pushing hard and hit a rock face, i rolled and then i suddenly stopped rolling, in real life or cmr or rbr you would keep on rolling but here nooooooooo.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

this game is just a small game before 5 comes out like that wrc arcade game on the ps1.

I don't think so, i think WRC 'Evolved' is the 5th version of the WRC series (or if they continued the number order would have been WRC5), not a stopgap.

[nickyf1]

is it one car at a time on the stage?

[chunder]

Having played all the rally titles on PS2 and Xbox I have to say evolved is the worst one and I traded it toda after trying very ard to get on with it.
I mean three stages per event! How ca you recover from a flat or summat in two stages even if you werent 30 (yes i mean 30) seconds faster on most stages to make up for it!
Why cant you compete in the championship in an Independants car, might make it more challenging
And to pay 30 quid for a game using basically exactly the same stages near enough and cars is a joke, talk about exploitation!
For me WRC3 is the Daddy, good graphics, superb rally sim engine and tough 10k plus stages that wear you out! Plus it keeps you interested and unless you have played it to death the stages are not a sure thing.
RBR is a tougher challenge on the driver but there is not enough depth to it, only a few countries to race in and one tarmac rally is naff, but the engine is probably the best of the lot, very hard to master and utterly frustrating with a joy pad!!

[429CJ]

Only rally game I'm still playing is Ralli Sport Challenge 2, the feeling of speed and the car handling is best I've ever played.

[shambles]

I have this game, and I do like it. I play it quite a bit, but yeah - you guys are right, I want to race the Independant cars. I also want longer rallies.

And to answer someone's question, yeah the test track is still there. Having never played any previous rally games, I thought Evolved is quite good - but obviously it needs improvements. I hate the way they've watered it down, i'll see what the next one is like.

PAUL

[Shoey]

The original WRC was the best in the series for my money. I remember getting excited each time another one in the series was being released and then being let down each time with shonky handling and such. Yeah knowlesy it did kinda look like the car was piviting didn't it! I always used the bumber view which I found much easier and also go rid of the pivot feeling anyway so I didn't find it an issue.

[safc_fan89]

I only have WRC4, and I wasn't impressed by it so I sold it. The Colin McRae rally games I have been on were much more fun. I got bored very quickly on WRC4.