WRC: FIA World Rally Championship 4

WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship is Milestone's fourth crack at the official rally license, and it covers the complete 2013 season in more detail than most fans will expect from an annualised title. You get all four competitive tiers - the main WRC class, WRC2, WRC3, and Junior WRC making its debut here - across 65 licensed cars and 78 stage configurations spread across 13 countries. That breadth is genuinely impressive, and it is the game's strongest selling point. Rally Finland feels different from the gravel runs through Wales, and the stages themselves were reworked from the previous entry to feel narrower and more hostile - which is either thrilling or infuriating depending on your patience for constant fourth-gear hairpins. The career mode is the main draw. You start at the bottom of the Junior WRC ladder and work upward, picking up team contracts, reading manager emails, and tweaking suspension and diff settings in the Service Park between stage groups. Each rally weekend runs six stages, with a return to the service park after every two to repair damage, which adds a small but satisfying layer of risk management - push too hard on stage two and you might be nursing a lopsided car for stage three. The progression pace is better than earlier WRC games; Milestone shortened the early-class seasons so you are not grinding eighteen identical Junior WRC events before things get interesting. The difficulty slider runs from one to ten, and at the top end the AI times demand near-perfect runs, so there is a real ceiling for players who want one. Hardware context matters a lot here. Wheel support got a meaningful upgrade, with full 900-degree rotation and H-pattern shifter compatibility. If you own a force-feedback wheel and pedal set, this is where WRC 4 starts punching closer to its weight - the handling rewards precise inputs in a way that a gamepad only hints at. Gamepad play is workable and the optional driving assists (braking assist, stability control and so on) make entry-level sessions reasonable, but do not expect the tactile reward that a wheel rig delivers. For the four-drunk-friends crowd: multiplayer is limited to a hot-seat time-attack format offline, so split-screen party night is off the table. Online supports up to 16 players running the same stage simultaneously as ghost cars, which is functional but not exactly a social spectacle. The honest downsides are real. Visually it was unremarkable even at launch - environments are flat, spectator models are rough, and the co-driver audio is the same monotonous pace-note delivery the series had been shipping for years. Weather conditions (rain, snow, dawn, dusk) are present, but the handling difference between surfaces does not change dramatically enough to make them feel like genuine variables. Framerate stability on PC could also be inconsistent. Critics at launch landed in the "solid but unspectacular" zone, and Steam users broadly agree - the game sits at a mostly positive rating built on honest appreciation from rally fans rather than enthusiasm from a wider audience. If you are shopping for a party racer or a cinematic off-road experience, look elsewhere. If you want to spend an honest Saturday afternoon learning the pace notes for Rally Argentina in a properly licensed WRC car, this scratches that itch at a low entry cost.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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