VVV visit Milestone and roadtest WRC
2010 has been a big year for motorsport and that's reflected by the level of interest generated by the gaming industry, there is now more variety within the racing genre than ever before and all competing for your hard earned cash. Indeed WRC has seen some big names sign up for the 2010 season, including Ken Block of ESPN sports fame and Kimi Raikkonen who exited F1 for a sabbatical 2009, joining the WRC for an undetermined amount of time. With drivers of this caliber and fame opting for a slot, the status of the sport couldn't be higher. That status also reflects on the pressure for Milestone to do a good job, the world is watching and the size of the development team or restricted budgets is no excuse, this game needs to perform.
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Work behind the development has been considerable, focusing on the track, artists and photographers have been visiting each location and building up a considerable base of information in constructing all 13 rallies, 78 special stages, 40 different surfaces and more than 500km of gameplay. While 'The road to the WRC': Career Mode is made up with 55 events and cups. Start from the beginning with a slower car and work your way up over several seasons improving your skills to take on better opposition..
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Following the brief presentation is was time for our first hands-on, walking into a room with 8 demo pods covering XB360, PS3 and PC. It was instantly apparent the game visually had moved on leaps and bounds since it's E3 debut just a few short weeks ago. First sitting down to play the XB version using a Fanatec 911 wheel and Playseat, selecting Ken Block on the Finland stage the game felt ok but still very early, a dreadful run my dashboard wasn't working, Fabio reassuring this was a small issue of many to be fixed in the QA testing.
Moving to the PC with G27, ah this is more like it, working properly and it instantly feels fantastic, the traction effortlessly conveyed, still a bumpy run the wheel makes for an exceptionally physical experience. Progressive acceleration worked well while more aggressive use of the power makes for a far greater level of risk. As ever rally is always balancing on that knife edge and WRC is no exception, I'm looking to find more speed, cut a corner, use the positive camber, making the best of it. Alas again I push too hard, clipping a barrier (which is damaged in the incident) and damaging my car, this having a profound effect on the handling and effectively ruining my stage time. But it's great to feel a game that's so intuitive at this stage, every mistake is my fault, visually matching the effects of gradients exactly.