EA Sports WRC Preview: Dirt Rally 3.0 by Another Name

Rally simulators are the white whale of sim racing. Very few developers have nailed them, plenty have come close, and practically all of the old franchises have died off. Fans of sim racing have no doubt noticed that the Dirt series seemed to sputter to an unceremonious end after developer Codemasters was acquired by Electronic Arts (EA). After a couple years of silence, now we can see what the former Dirt team was working on: EA Sports WRC. And I got to sample a preview build ahead of its launch.

This is a clean-sheet reboot for the WRC franchise. It has nothing in relation with the milquetoast simcade WRC titles of the last decade, and comes with a new EA Sports prefix to its name. It’s still the official WRC game, now developed by a true triple-A developer with decades of rally sim experience. It might be called WRC now, but it’s even better than that: This is the rebirth, continuation, and expansion of the beloved Dirt Rally.

Finally Shaping Up

Let’s be real for a second here: The WRC franchise has never been a true destination for sim racers or even dedicated arcade folks. There were always other options, most notably the Dirt Rally series of games, that provided a more authentic and realistic rallying experience. It has been an annual sports-type release for some time, but it never quite caught on like F1. (In fairness, few motorsports have.) Thus, the acquisition of Codemasters in 2021 was a perfect excuse to revitalize the series.

EA is very open about the fact that Codemasters used Dirt Rally 2.0 as its basis for EA Sports WRC. It’s arguably the game’s greatest asset. The new entry uses a slightly modified physics and handling model from Dirt Rally 2.0, but switches from Codemasters’ Ego graphics engine to Unreal Engine. The Ego engine was used in the original Colin McRae: Dirt all the way up to F1 23, but had draw distance and map size limitations that weren’t compatible with the grand ambitions of WRC.

Now, maps are double the size compared to Dirt Rally 2.0. There are several stages over 18 miles in length, which compare favorably to stage lengths in the actual WRC, and they're built to be as accurate as possible to the real thing. In total, over 200 stages in 17 locations across the globe are plenty to work with, and you can play the full real-life WRC season in-game. There's also a new Regularity Rally game mode that judges driving by average speed instead of fastest stage times.

It being the WRC flag carrier also means it has to feature the real Rally1 cars. For 2023, that’s just three: The Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, Hyundai i20 N Rally1, and Ford Puma Rally1. There’s also a huge selection of 70 other cars in 18 different classes. That includes Rally2, Junior WRC, a huge selection of historic WRC cars from the ‘90s up to 2017, vintage rally cars, Group N cars, and a full selection of Group B cars. You can also build your own car from a set of predetermined parts, though that's largely an optional career side quest.

This Tastes… Familiar

Immediately, there’s something deeply familiar about EA Sports WRC’s gameplay. Yeah, there’s a snazzy new menu system, as well as a few new bells and whistles I’ll explain in a moment, but the core of any good sim is how it drives. Sampling a few different cars in Time Trial mode helped me get a feel for the game in my home sim rig. For the curious, it’s a Fanatec CSW V2.5-based system. But the short story is this: You can almost call this Dirt Rally 3.0. 

It has that familiar Codemasters sense of weightlessness, where cars can change direction instantly, but it also has an edge that Dirt Rally 2.0 didn’t have. Spinning out is a distinct possibility on dirt and snow; there’s a razor’s edge between a slide and losing it all. It’s car-to-car on how edgy the physics can be; Rally1 cars want to be driven firmly in the pocket with minimal sliding, Group B legends will tolerate more aggression but still demand respect, while the rookie WRC machinery is friendly and save-able.

Codemasters has also apparently taken some lessons from the F1 franchise to improve its force feedback. Much more information comes through the wheel, while slip and surface effects are well-calibrated out of the box. Some cars in the preview build handled less convincingly than others. The Group B Porsche 911 SC RS felt unfinished with artificial centering spring and no tire feel, whereas the Rally2 cars wriggled and danced in the wheel.

Cars don’t quite carry their momentum in direction changes, something that became more evident as I swapped back and forth from other simulators. It’s trademark Codemasters, and it’s on purpose. I said earlier that rally games are a white whale, and it’s because simulating gravel, snow, and tarmac on the same set of physics is like asking someone to solve a math prompt with philosophy. It doesn’t work that way.

The Unreal Engine graphics look nice enough, but at this stage pre-release, performance is lacking. On my fairly powerful PC (RTX 3080 GPU, Ryzen 7 CPU) the game struggled for frame rate and stuttered often on recommended settings. News Editor Adam Ismail (who also got to sample the game) tells me it's down to a shader compilation issue unique to Unreal titles on PC. It’s the greatest weakness of the game in the state I played it in, and it was a fairly consistent struggle throughout. Fortunately, it shouldn't pose an issue for console performance, and it's fixable. Hopefully the final product will run a little more smoothly by the time it releases on November 3.

What the almost-finished product of EA Sports WRC is, is all of the exhilaration, danger, and quick-thinking you need to run a rally stage. The maps are narrow and treacherous, pace notes come fast and thick, and the sensation of speed is like no other racing sim. It’s another step in the right direction for rally faithfuls, and not at all a simcade spinoff. This game takes skill, quick thinking, and instinct more than practice and patience. That, my friends, is unique in the sim space.

Rallying Is Back

Sim racing is hotter than ever. But everything is becoming an esports title, where head-to-head competition on a race track is the objective. Even though simulators are better than ever, there has almost never been less variety in the space.

There’s a lot to like in WRC: Huge track and car selections, immersive gameplay, and good physics. Nearly all of it is treated with care and respect, and it feels complete even in pre-release. This was clearly a passion project that Codemasters took on with both hands, acknowledging its duty as the last player standing in the rally genre.

Rally fans have reason to be confident it’s worthy of the mantle. EA Sports WRC releases across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC (via Steam, the Epic Games Store and EA App) on November 3 for the surprisingly low price of $49.99, and you can look forward to our full review in the coming weeks.

Want to talk sim nerd stuff? Hit my line at chris.rosales@thedrive.com