EA Sports WRC: General Discussion

[Pearl Jam]

I’ll be honest, I really enjoy this title but I can’t justify firing it up when I have AC Rally now, night and day difference

 

[m355y]

Yes and no. AC Rally has the potential to be incredible, but it's got so little content right now that it's just the potential for brilliance vs a fully fleshed out game. I've got massive hopes for the full release of AC Rally mind.

 

[tbtstt]

Yes and no. AC Rally has the potential to be incredible, but it's got so little content right now that it's just the potential for brilliance vs a fully fleshed out game. I've got massive hopes for the full release of AC Rally mind.

Same from me; I have read a few comments that it is unplayable on controller at the moment and, like you say, it has limited content right now.

That said, ACC is one of my absolute favourite racing games and I think AC Rally has the potential to be as good. I am keeping a very close eye on the development of it (and hoping for a console release!).

 

[doblocruiser]

I heard that ac rally was close to a full release in 2026? Is that true or simply a load of bollocks? Would love to have it on my PS5. AC rally reminds me a lot of slr evo 🤔

 

[Monkey Man]

I am keeping a very close eye on the development of it (and hoping for a console release!).

Pretty sure they said when it first "appeared" that console releases were planned.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Pretty sure they said when it first "appeared" that console releases were planned.

Which for Kunos usually means, some time maybe a year after release and 6 months behind on updates and content.

 

[UKMikey]

I hope it's still economically viable for Kunos to develop AC Rally for Xbox and that if they do, it looks and plays well.

 

[Strittan]

Yes and no. AC Rally has the potential to be incredible, but it's got so little content right now that it's just the potential for brilliance vs a fully fleshed out game. I've got massive hopes for the full release of AC Rally mind.

The content in AC Rally, no matter how lacking it may be, is so much more enjoyable though.

 

[Pearl Jam]

Yes and no. AC Rally has the potential to be incredible, but it's got so little content right now that it's just the potential for brilliance vs a fully fleshed out game. I've got massive hopes for the full release of AC Rally mind.

Quality over quantity every time for me, I realise with me having a full sim rig I understand it will sway my view from those using controllers , and I really hope they can get it nailed for you guys because everyone needs to play this title, it’s absolutely incredible and this is coming from someone who really really enjoyed EA WRC👍🏼

 

[doblocruiser]

After I enjoyed my run in WRC , I decided to download WRC Generations. All honestly that game drives so much better than EA game. It's really night and day. Car move much more natural and the stage design is phénoménal. I realise how good Kylotonn is at this. Cars handly lovely and the handbrake and ffb are very much to my liking. EA has better sounds but that might be it.

 

[m355y]

Generations is really strong, no doubt. Stage design is great and the environments are brought to life much better than EA. But it doesn’t offer the rallying sandbox experience EA does, there are very few customisation options in terms of setting up rallies and it’s essentially ‘just’ a simulation of that year’s WRC. I really hope when they go back to it that KT realise that’s not the only thing people want and offer more possibilities to expand what you can do with the game.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Generations is good, spent a lot of time on it, decent stage design and a mostly fun career mode. But the driving has always been very awkward, virtually broken throttle, overzealous suspension and all the classic cars feel terrible.

Tried to go back to it a few times because the online leagues are fun but just cannot go back to that handling after WRC.

 

[doblocruiser]

Generations is good, spent a lot of time on it, decent stage design and a mostly fun career mode. But the driving has always been very awkward, virtually broken throttle, overzealous suspension and all the classic cars feel terrible.

Tried to go back to it a few times because the online leagues are fun but just cannot go back to that handling after WRC.

I've driven the Stratos, 037 , 131 and I personally prefer their handling over EA WRC. I find the flow and response of the cars much more natural 🤷

 

[tbtstt]

Generations is good, spent a lot of time on it, decent stage design and a mostly fun career mode. But the driving has always been very awkward, virtually broken throttle, overzealous suspension and all the classic cars feel terrible.

Fair play to anyone who enjoys Generations and has put time into it, but I personally thought the handling was lacking and I couldn't get into it at all.

 

[Dreadmed]

Generations is good, spent a lot of time on it, decent stage design and a mostly fun career mode. But the driving has always been very awkward, virtually broken throttle, overzealous suspension and all the classic cars feel terrible.

Tried to go back to it a few times because the online leagues are fun but just cannot go back to that handling after WRC.

I went back to Generations for a month or two at the end of the summer after finally putting down EA WRC, the main thing I noticed was that the default setups were far too soft... it made the modern machinery feel unnecessarily boaty even without taking into account the on-off sense of weightlessness compared to EA WRC (I couldn't make it through Finland intact on Generations for the life of me!).

 

[m355y]

Yeah the handling does improve a lot if you stiffen things up - the classic cars still feel rubbish though and you can't do anything with them except time trials against online leaderboards that are usually down.

 

[appu]

Once again I have to say that this game and the whole Codemasters series are just incredible!

I first tried rally when I had DiRT2. I loved the fun interactive menu, like this:

While playing DiRT2, it was clear that I enjoyed rallying more than rallycross. Then we had the incredible game, DiRT Rally. The fun menu was sadly gone but it worked nicely to put emphasis on the serious sim nature of DiRT Rally. Pikes Peak was an icing on the cake.

Then came DiRT Rally 2.0. It lost Pikes Peak which was a bummer but otherwise it improved on DiRT Rally on pretty much everything.

Now we have EA Sports WRC. While Codemasters' rally journey is effectively dead, meaning no more improvements and bugfixes for this game to make it objectively better than DiRT Rally 2.0, there is a single factor which makes it a clear cut above DiRT Rally 2.0 for me -> the Dualsense haptics and adaptive triggers. This is so well implemented that it puts Gran Turismo 7 to shame. I can precisely brake that I lock up only front inside tire. I know how much throttle to apply. I know which wheels are close to losing traction. This has improved my rallying skills exponentially over DiRT Rally 2.0's basic dualshock haptics. And for this reason alone, I can't go back to DiRT Rally 2.0 anymore.

Here's hoping that rallying on consoles not only stays alive but matches or even beats Codemasters' masterpieces. I was never quite able to enjoy Kylotonn's WRC games but now they are the only ones left after Codemasters' departure. I don't have any faith in Assetto Corsa Rally properly porting to consoles (I am looking at you Assetto Corsa Competizione).

Lastly I wanted to say that I had stopped playing EA Sports WRC last year because I had been playing career and I was fed up of countless repetitions. Eventually a bug killed my career (finishing an event would not progress forward anymore) (this is why a single auto-save is dumb). So it had killed my interest in this game. But after news of Codemasters' departure, I rushed to repurchase the game so that I could have all the DLCs. That is where I discovered "moments" and it instantly brought back my interest in this game. Now I am back to playing this game regularly. I am enjoying all the events except the ones which involve RWD.

 

[m355y]

Happiness for me was realising how well the two of them coexist on my HDD. For two games that clearly share a lot of DNA I think they’re actually quite a different vibe from each other. EA WRC feels quite modern and the environments feel expansive, the car physics/damage models are quite advanced and the long stages are a real challenge. DiRT Rally 2 the stages feel slightly more closed in, the roads maybe a little bit narrower, the physics a bit different. I feel like DR2.0 encourages you to take things quite carefully and look after the car, EA encourages you to push hard and raises the stakes a bit. They just feel…..different, for me. They bring out different (lack of) skills in me as a gamer. Visually, the types of rallies they include, the whole look/feel/presentation just give different vibes. For me although EA feels much bigger and more expansive, there’s something about DiRT Rally 2.0 that just evokes the golden era of 1990s rallying like nothing else before or since. I still adore it.

Playing AC Rally (albeit very briefly - I don’t own a PC) it feels I think more like EA than DR2.0 and that’s the thing, nothing quite scratches the itch DR2.0 does even though in so many ways EA surpasses it. They have different events - Australia, Germany, Wales, Scotland, Argentina, USA, etc etc not in EA, surprisingly few shared events - they’re different enough to compliment each other really well I think.

 

[tbtstt]

I don't have any faith in Assetto Corsa Rally properly porting to consoles (I am looking at you Assetto Corsa Competizione).

Once I got the controller working properly, Assetto Corsa Competizione became one my favourite console racers. Shame the support has been slower on console though.

Happiness for me was realising how well the two of them coexist on my HDD. For two games that clearly share a lot of DNA I think they’re actually quite a different vibe from each other.

Yeah, DR2.0 is the only PS4 game I have installed on my PS5; I still love the rallycross in DR2.0 and EA WRC is my go to for rally.

 

[appu]

Is this a screenshot from a Silent Hill game?

This event was quite an experience. Started with dry asphalt.

Went through icy roads, uphill and downhill! No foggiest idea what was coming up ahead and my life was in the co-driver's hands.

I finished after only 1 reversing and only two 2 spins. I don't have a front bumper but I finished first nonetheless in this "moments" event.

 

[appu]

I am at 113 hours now at this game. It feels like I put in a lot more hours than 113, probably because every event is intense. I am very happy to report that I am now used to driving RWD, all way from H1 to Group B. The key tip about RWDs is correct- be patient and don't mash throttle. I still do get the RWD snap sometimes whenever I am not careful with my throttle, especially around a hairpin.

Rally1 hybrids were also interesting to drive. And they were an important stepping stone to RWD by teaching me patience. I would keep a lookout for the green color in my peripheral vision to check if the boost was available and if needed, either cancel it by dabbing brakes or be really patient with throttle so that I could benefit from boost without understeering into a tree or spinning out.

Lastly, I am immensely enjoying long stages, even if it is at the Mediterranean asphalt in F2 kit car where hitting a single stone that is on the road edge (as opposed to outside the road) almost always means terminal damage. Dualsense haptics and long stages have become two reasons this game has replaced DiRT Rally 2.0 as my favorite rally game.

The more I have played this game, the more I am also appreciating the sceneries. They are diverse and beautiful.

 

[m355y]

I feel like there's an absolutely epic game here but it annoys me so much it makes my head hurt. I've never known a game like it. Load it up, and start driving. Horrible frame rate, green patches all over the road, artefacts hanging in mid air, freezes on the menu screens, yikes. Reset console and load it back up, buttery smooth and rather lovely.

It does this on both XSX and PS5 so I know it's not a hardware issue, I just don't understand it. How can the experience of a gane be so inconsistent? Literally never know what mood the game is going to be in when I load it up.

And yet when it's good.....it's given me so many amazing experiences. It's prompted me to learn about WRC history, the 70s, 80s, Group B, I've spent hours on the livery editor perfecting all kinda of replica liveries, and if I do say so myself some of them are brilliant, I'm really proud of them. It's given me every type of rally experience, it's sometimes thrilling fighting the AI, it's such a diverse experience, such a great sandbox 'toy' for recreating pretty much everything in WRC history. So I think it's a net positive for me.

 

[MrCrynox]

I've been playing again recently, picking back up on Moments which is where I have spent most of my time. I'm almost at the end of Season 3 so have many more to go. The more I play it the more I enjoy it, and the more depressed I get about what happened to this amazing team. I have got ACR and although it's certainly brilliant, I don't feel fully in control with a controller, I'm always driving at 8/10s and battling with it. I don't know if this is the same for wheel users.

 

[appu]

I'm almost at the end of Season 3 so have many more to go.

Awesome! I have been doing the same. I first went through the DLCs and now I am at start of season 3. I have a question about season 2's "Hard Charging" event where you drive a Fabia RS Rally2 on 30.9km of Greece across 3 stages. How do you even start the third stage without immediately getting "secondary objective failed"? No matter how carefully I drive and how raised the car is, some part's damage immediately crosses 25% threshold as soon as it is green lights in the third stage.

 

[tbtstt]

Awesome! I have been doing the same. I first went through the DLCs and now I am at start of season 3. I have a question about season 2's "Hard Charging" event where you drive a Fabia RS Rally2 on 30.9km of Greece across 3 stages. How do you even start the third stage without immediately getting "secondary objective failed"? No matter how carefully I drive and how raised the car is, some part's damage immediately crosses 25% threshold as soon as it is green lights in the third stage.

I have played all the seasons through and got gold on the vast majority, but there are a couple I really struggle with for this very reason. No matter how carefully I seemed to tiptoe through the stages, I got secondary objective failures before the end.

One thing that helped me is, if you are using manual gears, switch to auto. Automatic is much kinder on the gearbox (or at least it is the way I drive! ).

 

[MrCrynox]

Awesome! I have been doing the same. I first went through the DLCs and now I am at start of season 3. I have a question about season 2's "Hard Charging" event where you drive a Fabia RS Rally2 on 30.9km of Greece across 3 stages. How do you even start the third stage without immediately getting "secondary objective failed"? No matter how carefully I drive and how raised the car is, some part's damage immediately crosses 25% threshold as soon as it is green lights in the third stage.

I will have a check when I get home to see how I fared. I will report back.

 

[MrCrynox]

I will have a check when I get home to see how I fared. I will report back.

Ah well... Funnily enough despite thinking I'd completed S2 I hadn't, this challenge had got the better of me 😔 I tried it again, I hit nothing but still failed the damage target.

 

[UKMikey]

I'm sure I managed to do that one. It was something to do with ride height and driving slower I think.

Just have to be very light footed, raise the ride height and soften the suspension was suggested to me as well. Don’t go flat out, the AI isn’t at a quick enough setting in moments to necessitate pushing.

 

[Abyss1]

I feel like there's an absolutely epic game here but it annoys me so much it makes my head hurt. I've never known a game like it. Load it up, and start driving. Horrible frame rate, green patches all over the road, artefacts hanging in mid air, freezes on the menu screens, yikes. Reset console and load it back up, buttery smooth and rather lovely.

It does this on both XSX and PS5 so I know it's not a hardware issue, I just don't understand it. How can the experience of a gane be so inconsistent? Literally never know what mood the game is going to be in when I load it up.

And yet when it's good.....it's given me so many amazing experiences. It's prompted me to learn about WRC history, the 70s, 80s, Group B, I've spent hours on the livery editor perfecting all kinda of replica liveries, and if I do say so myself some of them are brilliant, I'm really proud of them. It's given me every type of rally experience, it's sometimes thrilling fighting the AI, it's such a diverse experience, such a great sandbox 'toy' for recreating pretty much everything in WRC history. So I think it's a net positive for me.

I have yet to have had a single session in my PS5 were I don't experience tearing. I tried multiple times but each time kept getting distracted...I downloaded it onto my PC but still lack the GPU capacity so there is still some hope for this game once I upgrade my GPU and get into the VR aspect of this game