WRC 2

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I came at WRC 2 from totally the wrong starting place, that is straight off the back of Forza 4. The comparisons were always going to be invidious and, I have to be honest, I found it tough going at first. BUT I’ve managed to set aside my Forza perspective and was able to look at WRC 2 with the attention it deserved. Hmmm.

OK, let’s start with the bad things. I didn’t like the environment when not racing. The colour palette of white, green and black isn’t appealing to me and the vast areas of blank white backgrounds – sometimes the whole screen barring a ‘loading’ or ‘saving’ icon – was stark and frankly less than inviting.

Next, the general feel of the user interface was just clunky and a little old fashioned. I remember when, instead of an hour-glass, I first saw the please-wait-while-we-do-stuff symbol being replaced by a spinning tyre, it was a LONG time ago and I think we’ve moved on from that really. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was consistency but there’s also another, different ‘loading’ icon which appears every now and again and it feels like they just forgot about that one.

The introductory chapters of career mode take you through the UI step by step as you learn about hiring and firing staff, doing research into enhancements for your cars, negotiating deals with sponsors and buying designs, paint colours (yes, I know…) and new cars too. This is all okay if a little contrived and I could have done with a few less levels in the menu structures but after a while you get used to that side of things.

The final whinge I’m going to have about the UI is about pressing buttons. This might seem like a minor thing but on a regular basis I’ll press X to select the day for the event I’m going to race in and, although there’s a little noise to show the system knows I’ve pressed the button, the game itself just ignores me and the most irritating thing is the unnecessary ‘continue’ button press after a new race is loaded. It’s simple enough isn’t it? I press a button to go racing, you load the race and things get started, why do you have to wait there looking stupid for me to press a button – the ONLY choice here – in order to continue down the decision path I’ve chosen? Unnecessary, annoying and frustrating.

BUT! And this is a big but, the game itself once you’re in the car is actually really fun. You start, as always, in the lower classes and move through the ranks based on the time you spend and how good you are. Eventually your reputation and respect earn you the attention of WRC teams and you get to sign up and race with the big boys. The usual fair for this type of game but I had such fun doing it!

The graphics are not photo realistic but I didn’t care once I was in the car, the controls were responsive, the feedback was good through my Logitech Force GT, there weren’t any “WTF!” moments other than of my own making and it was just plain old fun! I bought a copy of Sega Rally for the Xbox 360 a while ago with my head full of fond memories of hours spent in arcades and was disappointed in the result. WRC 2 is, for me, the successor to the Sega Rally of those past days. It doesn’t have the sim-accuracy of DiRT 3, it certainly doesn’t have the beauty of Forza 4 but what it does have is playability which is something we shouldn’t forget about!

You get a good mix of events too. I particularly like the head-2-head short course races which usually take place in an arena or car-park somewhere and demand pin-point accuracy in your driving, but the long sweeping trails, the tight turns of Argentina and Portugal, the forests of Germany all are fun and challenging and if you mess up, you can always press the magic go-back-in-time button and adjust your line a little. I started playing WRC 2 with the intention to not use that feature, I work on the principal that if you screw up, you live with the results. But it’s the nature of WRC 2 and its fun side which made me think that, actually realism isn’t important here… enjoyment is.

So I crank through the turns, listening intently to my co-driver, trying to keep the car shiny and wrenching the wheel backwards and forwards with vim and alacrity. Sometimes it’s just about enjoying the moment and letting all of the incidentals drift away… that button thing IS annoying though!