This might sound like nitpicking, but the UI couldnвЂ™t be further from the fast and furious racing experience if it tried it actively robs you of your time. After youвЂ™ve finished your rally, you inexplicably pay your team through the emails screen. On the mid-rally repairs screen, the вЂњconfirm repairsвЂќ button is anonymous enough to make you back out of it, even though it cancels your work. KylotonnДЄs for racing, the cursor highlights вЂњstart raceвЂќ but doesnвЂ™t let you select it unless you move off and back onto it. While a great inclusion, the R&D section is one of many areas that suffers from a poor UI. It feels as official as the WRC title suggests youвЂ™re part and parcel of the global rally experience. YouвЂ™ll see camera drones following you around the course, while vivid sunsets often distract you from the road. The graphics arenвЂ™t world-beating, yet the attention to detail is stunning. The tarmac races are sublime, while the gravel and snow courses are challenging, drift-filled affairs. Combined with the incredible use of dynamic weather, you canвЂ™t guarantee whatвЂ™s coming, but you can respond to it with intelligence. As you descend a wintry mountain, the snow gradually disappears and conditions improve. ThereвЂ™s nothing ugly about WRC 8, though it still isnвЂ™t quite on par with DiRT RallyвЂ™s superb graphics. Once IвЂ™d set my level, in conjunction with the custom settings, I could enjoy the game at my own pace, switching up the difficulty as and when needed to experience the game how it was meant to be played. I set up an easy, medium and hard account in each of them easy is often too easy, but the arcade-like feel of the racing is much more approachable and fun, more like DiRT 4 than DiRT Rally. WRC 8вЂ™s career mode provides you with three slots. It changed the way I played entirely, and it was all the better for it. I accepted defeat and, four hours into career, I started again on easy. On medium, WRC 8вЂ™s AI is fiercely competitive. KylotonnД®ven then, I felt out of my depth. There are countless opportunities to tweak your car and controls - and you're going to need to. I adjusted steering, braking, acceleration, my co-driverвЂ™s direction timings and driving views for two hours, alongside the obligatory pre-race garage edits. I donвЂ™t think IвЂ™ve ever changed my settings on a racing game as much as I have on WRC 8. Even with re-runs, youвЂ™ll find yourself pinging off your surroundings more than you do in YokuвЂ™s Island Express. The car can lock up way too easily the deadzone is way out the steering sensitivity feels off. Playing it on standard settings, youвЂ™ll likely find little joy in your first few races, using your allotted restarts after binning your car into a pole or bystander.

If youвЂ™ve only got a controller, youвЂ™ll need to start tinkering from the ground up, across the board. Out of the box and with standard settings, WRC 8 is a twitchy, unforgiving mess reminiscent of Project CarsвЂ™ console outing: a game thatвЂ™s designed for a steering wheel peripheral. ItвЂ™s after the following first rally that youвЂ™ll likely realize it is. 'Extreme Conditions' mode is as unforgiving as it sounds.

Wrc 8 vs wrc 7