Weather can be manually selected or randomized, and IвЂ™m not sure thereвЂ™s another racing title currently available that looks as good at night. What you do get, however, are 13 iconic WRC destinations and each one looks the part in beautiful detail. When it comes to racing, the visuals are crisp but still not as sharp as you get in DiRT. Different cars have different handling characteristics, so either choose one car and master it, or be prepared to spend an obscene amount of time in the practice courses tinkering with mechanical settings. Tuners have a plethora of settings to play with in advanced mode, and you wonвЂ™t want a one-size-fits-all tune. These quick-load, quick-access courses are a godsend for dialing in your wheel settings and experimenting with different car setups. Speaking of which, WRC 9 gives players an exquisite microcosm of test stages. You can also run individual rally stages or tinker with your car on one of many practice courses. Or, if that stuff doesnвЂ™t interest you, simply jump into a season championship and enjoy all the same racing success without the corporate red tape. The career mode is incredibly in-depth with everything from team building and management to marketing, skills development, and of course, sponsorships. Being an official WRC title, itвЂ™s the digital bible for those who live and breathe the modern-day championship and those teams are faithfully represented. ThereвЂ™s so much more to WRC 9 than just the driving though.

At the same time, it has enough mojo to keep the interest of more experienced simmers. WRC 9вЂ™s learning curve could be a perfect compromise between hardcore sim and weaksauce arcade, offering a challenging experience for armchair racers that stops just short of frustrating. Hardcore sim racers yearn for knife-edge physics that demand considerable practice to master, but that might be too much for many gamers, especially in the rally genre where very precise control means the difference between a podium finish and an event-ending crash. ThereвЂ™s a slight arcade sensation at work here, but itвЂ™s only slight and in this context, I think it's actually a good thing. However, the physics aren't as sharp or precise as compared to DiRT. Feedback through the wheel is good, and the game offers prolific wheel settings to dial in the preferred amount of force in various situations. I sampled WRC 9 through a Logitech G920 sim setup on an Xbox One X, and right off the bat I can say the physics are impressive. But is it a legitimate competitor to the current gold standard of sim rally racing, DiRT Rally 2.0? The answer to that question is complicated, but the fact that itвЂ™s in the ballpark is a very good thing for rally gamers.

This is easily the best WRC-branded game of them all, combining good fun with challenging action, a realistic WRC environment, and it looks great. Things have improved in recent years, and that is readily apparent in WRC 9.

Wrc 9 driving tips