As the FIA World Rally Championship prepares to celebrate its 50th season in 2022, NACON and development studio KT Racing are unveiling WRC 10, the latest instalment of the official video game of the championship.

Building on the success of WRC 9, in which over 200,000 special stages are played every day, the French studio and publisher are adding a range of improvements and new features for this anniversary edition.

With WRC 10 you will relive the most intense moments of the Championship, from 1973 to the present day! NACON who has become a key player in racing games publishing over the last few years will make additional surprises and announcements in the upcoming days.

To celebrate 50 years of the competition, WRC 10 offers a unique anniversary edition, bursting with new features and driving thrills.

A retrospective mode offers players the chance to relive 19 events that have shaped the history of the Championship. These challenging special stages put drivers’ skills to the test by imposing conditions specific to each era. Drive six historic rallies, including the legendary Acropolis Rally (Greece) and Rallye Sanremo (Italy), with over 20 of the WRC’s most iconic cars: Alpine, Audi, Lancia, Subaru, Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota.

With more content than ever, fans will love WRC 10 and its homage to 50 years of rallying.

The physics, which have already been praised by critics and drivers in WRC 9, have been further improved to offer players an even more realistic experience. Control of aerodynamic forces, the turbo and braking have received particular attention on all surfaces, so that WRC 10 recreates ever more accurate and intense driving sensations. Immersion has also been increased with a completely reworked audio design for this new edition. Experience rallying as if you are there.

The hugely popular Career mode has also been improved with a new livery editor and the chance to create your own team. You can now apply your own colours to championship cars to complement the 52 official teams of the 2021 season. Take up the challenge with your own custom team.

With WRC 10, the leading off-road racing simulator is reinventing itself once more. Finish the 2021 season atop the podium and relive the most intense moments at the wheel of iconic cars to celebrate 50 years of the competition with 6 historic rallies, including Acropolis, San Remo, Germany, Argentina.

Included are over 20 legendary cars, including Alpine, Audi, Lancia, Subaru, Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota, 4 brand-new rallies; Estonia, Croatia, Belgium and Spain with 52 official teams of the 2021 season (WRC, WRC2, WRC3, Junior WRC).

WRC 10 will be available on September 2nd, 2021 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and on Nintendo Switch  at a later date.

The post Relive 50 Years of WRC w. WRC 10 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The year was 2001 – a year that for racing and rally video games, the bar was raised forever.

The first licensed WRC title released with real drivers, real cars, real tracks and totally realistic and unforgiving vehicle physics.

Fast forward to 2019 and the series just keeps getting better.

The annual release of WRC on to consoles and PC has seen the games liveries and gameplay expand even more.

Kylotonn and Big Ben Interactive offer up more than 50 real world WRC drivers for you to select in your racing career and challenges including the current trio vying for the Champs; Sébastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak.

You can partake in any of the four vehicle manufacturer circles; Citroën Total, Hyundai Motorsport, M-Sport Ford and Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Once you’ve selected your driver, team and vehicle from the massive number on offer, you’re ready to rev that engine.

Veterans and fans of the WRC series of games will rejoice with the inclusion of the legendary Ford Escort RS1800 and the Lancia 037… and a couple of other surprises.

WRC has been synonymous with adding real world physics to its gameplay.

Your car will crumple, wear down and reflect any number of usual stresses that would be encountered in a real situation.

WRC 8 is unforgiving in this sense and so are the real world tracks. across 14 different countries.

While navigating any of the reworked 100+ tracks, it’s most definitely not okay to put your foot to the floor and hoof it. Driving in WRC 8 takes strategy, knowing the track, knowing your vehicle and maintaining wits about you for every hairpin turn, dip and raise in the gravel, dirt and tarseal.

The dynamic weather system has been rejuvenated and acts as yet another environmental hazard. In a single race it can go from overcast to rain in a split second. Hail, snow, storms or blinding sunlight all add an additional environmental challenge that you need to be on guard for at all times.

Myself, who has been an avid player of all past WRC titles found WRC 8 extremely challenging.

Career mode, which has received an overhaul, now sees you as both the driver and Manager.

Adding much more depth to play than ever before you not only take on races across varying Seasons aiming for the top spots, you also need to plan and mange calendars, the rest of the crew including new recruits and develop strategies that keep you and your team at the forefront.

WRC 8 also boasts a swathe of online weekly challenges and eSports races – making this the most enduring, full circle WRC game ever released.

A full recommend to fans of the franchise – and for newcomers, well you’re starting with the best edition in the series.

The post WRC 8 (Xbox One) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

After a two-year absence, the legendary WRC game is back. Bigben and Kylotonn are pleased to announce that WRC 8, FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) 2019 official video game, will be available in September for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Thanks to the community’s feedback and the pointers from the eSports WRC Championship, Kylotonn has taken advantage of this period to improve all aspects of the game: better graphics, more technical routes, smoother pace notes and a more comprehensive career mode. WRC 8 will go above and beyond WRC 7, especially in the steering requirements and the realistic physics of the vehicles.

While the WRC enjoyed an epic season in 2018, with the destiny of the drivers’ title only being decided on the final morning of the season in Australia, 2019 is already shaping up as another fascinating year. In WRC 8, players will be able to choose their driver from the official teams of the 2019 season marked by the return of Sébastien Ogier (6 times World Champion) from Citroën Racing, accompanied by Esapekka Lappi, while Toyota will try to defend its 2018 manufacturers’ title with Jari-Matti Latvala, Kris Meeke and Ott Tänak.

2019 is also marked by the return of the nine-time World Champion and WRC legend, Sébastien Loeb, driving this year for Hyundai Motorsport in support of Thierry Neuville, Andreas Mikkelsen andDani Sordo. M-Sport Ford, will rely on Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninento draw attention again.

WRC 8 will also offers a selection of WRC 2 and Junior WRC drivers as well as a few historic models to be revealed very shortly. Talent and concentration will be needed to overcome more than 100 special stages taking place in 14 countries. Upgrade your car to unprecedented new levels of detail and develop your team in an in-depth and intense career mode.

A new dynamic weather system has been developed to add random elements to the driving experience, but also to increase realism in the game. Managing the weather is a real challenge for the drivers: modified grip, car settings adjustments, tire selection optimization, weather team relationship to ensure the best tips and information on the latest conditions. More than mere visual effects, climatic conditions become crucial, especially in the management of your career.

Play as the best drivers in the Championship and experience the competition as if you were there. WRC 8 will be available in September 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The post THE OFFICIAL WRC GAME IS BACK! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Big Ben and Kylotonn’s World Rally Championship games have big shoes to fill.

Shoes so big, courtesy of Codemasters and their Dirt games, that I tend to feel a bit sorry of them.

For the past few years I’ve been hoping and praying that their WRC games can stand up to the Codies latest. Up till now, I’ve been disappointed. With WRC 7, it seems that things are looking up.

Rally driving is hard. It’s hard in real life. So, for game to properly recreate the motorsport, it stands to reason that the game should be equally demanding. Well, yes and no.

Building upon the successes of last year’s game, Kylotonn have refined their game making it accessible to newcomers as well as a serious challenge for veterans.

There are those players that are going to obsessively learn the perfect braking points and the amount of traction needed to best approach each dusty bend. The rest of us, just want to have a good time.

And this is where WRC 7 excels. You don’t need real-world rally skills or even an expensive racing wheel to be able to get the best out of the game.

Whilst you can select your driving style, difficulty, and the level of co-driver instruction, you can also take a car out for a spin in the driving test and have the game calibrate the setting based on your performance.

The result is a game that handles as you’d expect. The lower, more arcade settings allow you to drift around bends with satisfying precision and minimal effort, whilst the higher setting demand the perfect combination of braking and throttle to keep the car on the road.

The car handling and physics feel right. Any mistakes were my own doing and not as a result of fighting the controls. And that’s worth pointing out. WRC 7, unlike a lot of motorsport games, works very well with a controller. Apart from providing a more authentic driving experience, there’s no need to invest in an expensive racing wheel.

Set over thirteen rally locations form the World Rally Championship, the events feature a diverse set of environments, weather and time of day. From muddy forest tracks of Wales to the dusty red roads of Australia each rally is difference. The cars handle radically different across snow, ice and in the rain. Tackling a stage in the fog or at night is a total different experience than driving on a clear day. With each stage being around 7km, you get a pretty intense rally experience no matter what the conditions.

The visuals, whilst not crisp, have a certain grittiness to them that suits the game. They are probably like that more out of the need to maintain the high frame rate essential in racing games offer an aesthetic decision. But, still, I like the game’s look.

The audio provides your cars with a nice bit of grunt. I particularly liked hearing the squealing sound of brake shoes rubbing against the discs as I slammed on the anchors.

There’s plenty of game modes to suit all tastes. For solo players you can pick a quick game and test you metal on any one of the stages in event conditions of your choice. You can also set up a custom championship of your favourite rallies and stages, and, as previously mentioned, you can benchmark your skills in the driving test. The career mode allows solo players to plot their own journey from Junior WRC to the World Rally Championship.

WRC 7 accommodates social multiplayer gaming really well. Being proper rally stages, the events are undertaken on car at a time, this means you don’t really get the same level of interaction with opponent as you do in a normal racing game like Forza or Gran Turismo. Even the Dirt games now have rallycross for competitive multiplayer races. I’ve not got a problem with WRC 7 sticking to its licenced championship, but it does make for a dull online competition.

Thankfully the game has local two player split-screen, something that we see less and less of these days. Even better, WRC 7 can accommodate up to eight players for an old-school hot seat couch championship. Perfect for a few like-minded mates and some beers.

Rounding the game off, the developers regularly throw time-limit challenges at player allow you to compete, globally, with other players for the best time.

WRC 7 sees the series coming into its own. Having steadily built upon their last few releases, Kylotonn have found their feet, offering us a great rally game.

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The post WRC 5 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Bigben Interactive, video game publisher and distributor, and Kylotonn Games, French racing game developer, are proud to unveil a new gameplay trailer of WRC 5 – the official 2015 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) game.

The title is scheduled for release in Spring 2015 in Australia and New Zealand on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Playstation 3, PlayStation Vita and PC.This brand new trailer (above) features the Citroën DS 3 WRC, driven in 2015 by British driver Kris Meeke , Norwegian driver Mads Ostberg and Khalid Al Qassimi from the UAE, from the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. After nine events in 2015, Mads Ostberg is currently in fourth place of the World Rally Championship.

Citroen’s first part of the season was marked by an amazing Xion Rally Argentina with the Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg  taking their places on the podium in first and second places respectively.

In the video, rally fans will have a good overview of different stages from WRC 5 under various conditions: night stages in Sweden, stormy conditions in Wales and Germany, scorching end of the day temperatures in Sardinia, Portugal and Spain, and also crazy jumps from Finland. Made from gameplay footage only, it also gives a true idea of the impressive work done by Kylotonn Games to recreate the different rallies from atmospheres and environments as well as realistic car physics.

The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) pits drivers and production-based cars against some of the toughest and most varied conditions on the planet. In 2015, the roads on this epic motorsport adventure are spread across 14 countries, with 13 rallies on everything from snow packed forest tracks to rock-strewn mountain passes.

WRC 5 is scheduled for Spring 2015 in Australia and New Zealand and will be available for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Playstation 3, PlayStation Vita and PC.

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