WRC3 (Milestone) review

[charlesr]

Grabbed the demo of this on Xbox Live. I wasn't going to bother after the disappointment of the last two, but glad I did.

In my mind, they've nailed this. It took them 3 goes to get there, but the handling seems lots of fun and quite raw, with the handbrake being relevant and flicks really helping.

Additionally the menu structure is fast and restarting the stage after finishing takes 6 seconds without any fancy stuff being hammered at you. A stark constrast to the excellent Dirt3 which spent far too much time faffing about in between the great racing.

Anyone else tried it?

[charlesr]

Milestone's Game Director Sébastien Pellicano said, "We've streamlined every aspect of the game to give new players an instant gameplay satisfaction". Nice.

[englishbob]

I did, I liked it. Although I won't buy it at full price (just missing that certain lack of polish) the demo single track event is BETTER than any track available on Dirt 3. And that stage is just one of a possible 78! (13 locations of 6 tracks a piece).

For that alone it should be commended

[Wools]

I played the demo of this last week and was impressed but thought something was lacking.

It looks very nice and the car detail level approaches Polyphony & Turn 10 standards but the main draw of the game for me is Milestone’s insistence of getting back to what rally is all about, long stages through lots of different terrain with daunting turns. In this area Milestone have excelled with huge stages and if you take a look a VVV on You Tube, some of the stages are almost real life length. This beats Codemasters recent efforts and makes the stages in Dirt 3 look puny by comparison.

However, I did find that that there was little of the draw of other Racing games and it all lacked atmosphere. Say what you like about Dirt 3, but the polish of the whole package was immense and although I could only drive through a small section of Finland, it felt like I was there whilst I was hurtling through the trees. Everything in WRC 3 looks antiseptic by comparison and the demo did lack drama whilst I was drifting around the stage.

Still, this is miles better than their previous WRC games so I’ll pick this up later down the line, unless reviews are awful.

[davek22]

Pre ordered this for Vita. Colin McCrae 05 was one of my fav PSP games so I cant wait for some handheld rallying. Hope its a full blown conversion of the PS3 version

[MisterBubbles]

the demo single track event is BETTER than any track available on Dirt 3.

I guess you didnt try the Monte Carlo rally DLC,cause thats rocks, i just put on dirt3 tonight and for anybody who might forget too id say go put it on again and you'll see a vast difference. Its a good demo from a small dev team, but i dont think its anyway near Codies stuff.

[englishbob]

I guess you didnt try the Monte Carlo rally DLC

Your right, as much as I wanted it, trying wasn't an option and it is still DLC to me. I thought Codies could **** off after such a small amount of tracks for the proper game, shelling out another £7 was not on my radar.

Milestone still own on the track front. But Dirt is the better engine.

[charlesr]

Visually DiRT3 is miles ahead. Handling wise they are so different its almost pointless comparing them. DiRT3 has a much slower "scrabbling for grip" style with a drift model that takes ages to master and never felt like you could maintain the drift the entire way through hairpins.

WRC3 demo seemed almost breakneck speed in comparison, with drifts that could be initiated swiftly and controlled all the way around hairpins.

I really enjoyed DiRT3 for 15 hours or so, but after that it started to seem like a bit of chore, especially with those 2 idiots constantly wittering on about how great I was doing and my fans and yootoob. I hoping WRC3 will be much more immediate and stripped back. However, I doubt I'm going to be able to play it unless a borrow a UK xbox I've asked pqube to check the region-lock status.

[MisterBubbles]

If only Codies could get the WRC licence ,then strip it back and make it like Colin McRae, of dare i say it, i know your thinking it Charles, please make a new RS, Dice.

[charlesr]

I'd pay full price for an HD update
If the xbox was still supported on xbox live, I'd still be playing RC2 every weekend.