LifeisXbox’s WRC 10 review | I started reviewing Kylotonn’s WRC games in 2015, six years later the franchise went from mediocre to fantastic. It is impressive to see how many improvements and content were added in each new release. With WRC 10 they finally perfected it, a fine example that a yearly release CAN be done right. For your info, this will be one of the last official WRC games from French developer Kylotonn, as Codemasters (EA) secured the FIA World Rally Championship license from 2023 through to 2027. I’m very curious to see what will be next for the Frenchies, hopefully, they can continue with V-Rally or a new rally IP.
Let me back up my statement of a yearly release done well. WRC 10 has four new rallies (even Belgium in an upcoming free update!), new challenges, a completely new sound recording, a livery editor (finally!), a club system and so much more. With all due respect for EA but this ain’t a Fifa game with limited new tweaks. That’s all added with an already existing meaty game with content!
WRC 10 is a game you’ll be playing throughout the year, with daily and weekly challenges against the world that are perfect for e-sports players. This game is like a burger with extra bacon, to exaggerate it completely they add even more bacon with upcoming free post-launch content that includes rallies in Belgium and Greece, new livery options, and modes.
ℹ️ | We played WRC 10 for 6 hours on Xbox Series X
What we liked!
- 50th Anniversary Mode | This mode made for the 50th anniversary is one hell of a nostalgic reason to purchase WRC 10! For WRC fans this is a throwback in history with 15 missions (more coming later). Driving legendary cars in known stages might not be that much different for regular racers but for those who have been following the FIA World Rally Championship, it is special. Bit weird that Colin McRae is absent though… it is likely a license issue? The Anniversary mode stages work a little different too, here you must beat a target time, you don’t know the target time either and they are challenging to beat! (there’s no difficulty selection) Important to know, this doesn’t replace the fleshed-out campaign mode, that’s still present too with improvements and even more content than last year. This means you have over 50 hours of racing content!
- Livery editor | A blank car and having the freedom to create whatever you want? A wonderful new feature, LifeisXbox has many liveries in Forza and I can’t wait to see what our community makes here! It is a HUGE shame that you can’t share designs online, would have made sense to have this option. You can add colors, shapes, and car logos so the outcomes can be very different between players.
- More gameplay-focus on tires | There is a large focus on tires now and selecting the wrong type can be disastrous for keeping your car on the road. For each location event, you need to select 20 tires, that seems like a lot but trust me it isn’t. Between events, it is important to manually change your tires depending on the roads and weather. If you select asphalt tires on ice roads.. well hopefully you’ll survive your crash. I’m glad they added this strategic element, when you are near the end of a long event of 10 stages you need to spare your tires by driving a bit more carefully and slower. Finding the balance between pushing your car to the limit and being careful brings a completely new dimension to this rally racing experience.
- Extremely smooth on Series X | In all performance modes the game keeps a very tight performance without any frame dips. This major change in performance compared to last year’s WRC is very noticeable. Even with the fastest Subaru, in the densest forest locations in Portugal, the game continues to run very smoothly. That for me is one of the most important things in a racer, even more so with a rally game.
- Move over Dirt Rally, WRC has the best car handling | WRC 09’s main focus was giving players more realistic handling with the cars. They managed to improve an already great racing feeling by adding more aerodynamics and brake-systems. It is unfair to compare as Dirt Rally 2 is almost three years old but WRC 10 is vastly superior with controlling the powerful rally cars. Intuitive, I have no other word for it. It just feels right and it feels fantastic when you smoothly manage to hairpin a turn.
- 30 FPS, 60 FPS and 120 FPS visual modes | WRC 10 has three performance modes on Xbox Series X, my most frequently used was the 60FPS (balanced) mode. There are some huge differences between them, especially with the 120FPS mode turning the game into something quite ugly. All bells and rings are turned on with the best visual mode but I’m pretty used to the smooth racing with 60 frames so I just went with somewhere in between. While racing with 30 frames it doesn’t rival Forza Horizon 5 awe but the visuals are very impressive with extremely detailed textures and a huge draw distance. That’s my one and only complaint with the balanced mode, there’s significant pop-up something that’s completely absent in the 30 frames mode.
- I’m telling you, rally is THE BEST racing experience | Fast, the unpredictable and constant danger of losing your focus. One small mistake can ruin your entire championship. All of that without a rewind function. I simply adore this kind of hardcore racing experience, even on the lowest difficulty setting you’ll still be on the edge of your seat listening to your co-driver and almost magically drive your car around edges and small bridges, giving it your all.
Somewhere between
- Sound | Sound design is entirely new and to be honest, I don’t hear an improvement, everything sounds flat and volume is all over the place. Engine sounds miss punch and normally you would expect to hear grip sounds from tires but that’s mostly absent. This is still a work-in-progress, bit of a disappointment as WRC 9 has superior sound. You would expect it differently with a brand-new sound engine.
What we disliked
- Nothing worth mentioning | There isn’t a single thing that I disliked about WRC 10.
How long to beat the story | 50 hours (WRC junirn to WRC 4 campaign and 50th-Anniversary)
How long to achieve 1000G | Around the same time as above.
Similar with | Dirt Rally or V-Rally
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