WRC 10

Review

As many people know by now, I am a fan of motorsports, especially of open wheels racing. Nonetheless, I am always tuned in and excited to see any type of motor racing, either two or four wheels. Let's face it, the people who steer these pieces of machinery around tracks or parkours are just so skilful; they have a profound knowledge of mechanics and staggering reflexes. So, when I had the opportunity to try WRC 10, I jumped on it with both hands on the wheel!

WRC10 is a rally racing simulation developed by KT Racing and published by Nacon on the 2^nd of September 2021 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.   

Before I start, I must tell you that I always try to play a game for a minimum of 10 hours before I review it. Of course, sometimes it is not possible as the game can be completed well before that time. But in racing simulation games, I try to play each game with two different control devices - a gamepad (Microsoft) and a wheel setup (Logitech G920) - which will influence my end score.

WRC 10 is based on the 2021 World Rally Championship season, which includes 12 events. Unfortunately, the Japanese Rally as been cancelled due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. Thankfully, we gamers can still enjoy the thrill of driving through the Japanese Rally.

So, you can play in a single player or multiplayer, and craft your skill in the development mode. You can launch a career, season, or play your favourite stages of any rallies on the 2021 WRC events in the single player or solo mode. In the multiplayer mode, you can create your own club or join a club, play online against other players (which I have not done), play as a co-driver (which I have not done either) or play with a friend on the same screen. The skill mode has challenges which you will unlock by gaining points from completing other challenges.

Personally, I love jumping in the career mode straight of the bat; I just want to see what the game has to offer in terms of the driver's perspective and what happens from the team headquarters.

So, in the HQ, you have several tabs: the calendar, R&D, mails, objectives, start events, and a few others. Your main point of call is the calendar, on which can choose what to do in the weeks leading up to a rally event. Interestingly, sometimes you have a gap of 4 to 6 weeks where nothing happens. The calendar has 4 weeks per month, and for each eligible week, you will have from 1 to 3 choices at a time, including: training (where you can improve your skills), resting, anniversary race, manufacturer try out (where you have to reach a minimum number of kilometres before the time runs out), training crews, extreme conditions (where you have to finish a specific sector before the time runs out with a heavily damaged car), and participate in the next rally. If you successfully complete the extreme condition and try out, you'll receive experience points. You'll also receive experience points when you finish a rally. These points will be converted into skill points which you can use to upgrade your R&D. 

The gameplay is pretty good, I must say, and you have 6 different views. Personally, I really like the dashboard for the simple reason that it feels much more realistic. You see at the last moment when the path gets tighter, and when you drive at night you really need to listen to your co-driver for directions even if you have the arrows showing you where to go at the top of the screen. Also, I like the sounds of the engine and the transmission, as well as the gravel and heavy rain hitting your car; it's very immersive. I have no idea if the stages are well represented on each rally available on WRC 10 for the simple reason that I personally don't know them. However, I like the feel of the stages with beautiful graphics all around.

I must acknowledge that my first season with the Ford fiesta felt quite slow in terms of the speed immersion but when I signed up with Citroen, it was totally a different feel, which I really liked.

As I mentioned above, I like to play these racing games with at least two devices. I had a ball using my Microsoft gamepad. WRC10 recognised this device straight away, and I had a lot of fun with it.  Ultimately, however, you want to play these games with a wheel setup. And here lies my biggest problem with this game; it doesn’t recognise my G920 Logitech, even running the latest firmware, checking my windows setup and changing the properties on Steam. I can't believe that a game of this prestige doesn’t have a controller pre-set for the top wheels manufacturers. Thrustmasters players had issues, Logitech players have problems (I am one of them). In the end, I thought it was an issue with my setup. Thankfully, my wheel worked perfectly with the F1 2019, F1 2020 and F1 2021. I can understand and welcome the sponsorship of Fanatec in this game. But I can't understand why they don't have a generic setup for the other wheel manufacturers. On a good note, my Microsoft gamepad worked perfectly.

The other issue I experienced with this game was flickering. It was not constant, but it wasn't very pleasant when it happened.   

Great graphics, and I like the soundtrack. Good career mode, but I really didn't feel that I experienced the game fully as my wheel setup didn't work at all, so therefore, the end score is affected accordingly.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com