Electronic Arts has finally revealed EA SPORTS WRC, the new officially licensed video game of the FIA World Rally Championship, accompanying the announcement with a trailer that confirms the release date of November 3, 2023. Nothing old-gen, though. The game will only be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. As announced for years, there has been a change of colors. Kylotonn, the French software house under the wing of Nacon and author of the excellent past WRCs, will no longer be in charge of it. but of Codemasters, a software house with an unparalleled rallying background, from Colin McRae to Dirt, moving on to the more simulative Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0. And this is precisely where Codemasters seems to have started. This game looks like a licensed Dirt Rally, and that’s what fans have been asking for.
EA SPORTS WRC will run on Unreal Engine and will use the same physics engine as Dirt Rally, but appropriately enhanced and refined. It is unclear whether the weaknesses of Dirt Rally 2.0, which grip on asphalt and suspension performancehave been fixed and we will only be able to find out this at launch. In any case, the game was supervised by Jon Armstrong, Game Designer of the game and winner of the European Rally Championship 3.
Like Dirt Rally, EA SPORTS WRC will also be a game very focused on simulation, and in addition to physics, it also involves audio. Each car will have its own sound, assures the British team, building on its results with the Dirt series on this aspect, and there will be a new road book. There will be some help for beginners, so as to gently welcome them into a sport, that of Rally, which can be damn brutal even in virtual reality.
Instead they will be present 17 different locations taken from the official championship, with over 200 stages for a total of 600km of routes of various kinds, from asphalt to dirt road, passing through snow. The car fleet will be significantly stocked for being a licensed game. In addition to the 10 cars from the official classes: WRC, WRC2 and Junior WRC, we will find another 68 of the most iconic cars of the last 60 years, even anticipating the birth of the WRC itself. Any names? Ford Escort MK2, Alpine Renault A110, Lancia Stratos, Subaru Impreza 22b and Lancia Delta HF Integrale. They will then be added to these three unique cars, i.e. original cars from Codemasterseach for each category, where the players they will be able to combine elements such as chassis, mechanics and custom interiors. There will be a livery editor.
There will be a multiplayer component. EA SPORTS WRC will offer 32-player multiplatform multiplayer where you can challenge each other or create clubs. These will do from the hub and will allow players to create tournaments at any time of the year. There will then be personalized events, called Momentswhich will be updated daily and will offer players the opportunity to relive key moments of the current season and the history of Rallying.
Source: Codemasters
