One year after the release of the official video game of the World Rally Championship, EA Sports WRC (which you can find on Amazon at a bargain price) is enriched with a new expansion dedicated to the 2024 season.
This highly anticipated addition offers players an even more immersive experience, with new stages, cars, liveries and much more. Starting from last October 8, in fact, owners of the game have been able to start enjoying a series of new features that include updates inspired by the 2024 WRC season.
Ma what exactly does this expansion include and what surprises does it hold?
New locations: Poland and Latvia
One of the main new features of the 2024 expansion is the introduction of two new rallies: the one set in Poland and the one set in Latvia.
Both iconic events on the 2024 WRC calendar, these two locations enrich the event park with high-speed dirt roadseach with unique characteristics that influence the approach to driving in a peculiar way.
The Polish Rally (originally established in 1921), in fact, is known for its challenging tracks, full of tight curves and surface variations.
Jon Armstrong, historic driver and game designer for EA Sports WRC, worked hard together with the development team to correctly restore the variety in the types of roads present in Poland, where bumps and crests they make the paths very bumpyas well as forests and riverbanks offer incredible variety to the tracks, as well as raising the level of challenge.
It is a rally that tests the player’s skill, requiring constant attention to surface changesas sections on asphalt and dirt alternate. The ability to adapt quickly becomes crucial to maintaining a good pace and achieving a competitive time in the stages.
The Latvia Rally (also known as Tet Rally Latvia 2024)on the other hand, is characterized by fast and smoother dirt roads, with fewer bumps than Poland. This is a faster competition, with roads winding through lakes and chicanes helping to reduce the average speed.
Despite its speed, Rally Latvia delivers fun and technically challenging stages where you are constantly asked to find the courage to maintain speed and achieve the best time possible.
While the Latvia Rally represents an absolute novelty for Codemasters rally games, the Polish stages had already appeared in the famous Dirt Rally 2.0. Obviously, compared to the previous title, all the stages of the Polish Rally have been rebuilt from scratch, offering a completely new experience even to those who have been playing Codemasters titles for a long time. An example among all Świętajno, a must of the Poland Rallywhich presents itself as one of the most fun stages of this expansion.
The Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 arrives
The 2024 expansion is not limited to new locations: the players’ garage is also enriched with the introduction of five new cars.
However, only one is truly new: the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, in its guise introduced in early 2024. The Yaris Rally2’s three-cylinder engine offers a one-of-a-kind driving experience.
The GR Yaris, in fact, it has torque that comes in differently to other WRC2 carsrequiring the use of higher gears to make the most of its potential. Furthermore, the Rally2 is very agile thanks to its short wheelbase, which makes it perfect for tackling technical and narrow stages.
In addition to the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2the expansion also introduces the Ford Fiesta Rally3 Evo (an updated version of the car exclusively used in the Junior WRC) and 2024 versions of the Toyota GR Yaris, Hyundai i20 N and Ford Puma Rally1.
These cars they are not simply cosmetic updatesbut they also include visual and mechanical changes that differentiate them quite a bit from previous versions.
Net of the obvious aesthetic differences, all faithfully reproduced as regards the interiors and exteriors of the cars, the driving models have been revisited to offer a different feel than the 2023 versions.
The technical side has also been improved
The 2024 season expansion also introduces notable ones updates in the audio and graphics sector of the game. first of all, the community’s requests were listened to, rerecording from scratch, or simply rebalancing, the sounds of the Ford Puma and Toyota and Hyundai cars.
Compared to the version tested last year (here you can find our review) it only takes a moment to notice how much the mix of the sound sector has been improved and how now everything is even more homogeneous and realistic.
The game’s interface has also been “revamped”, improving some graphic aspects and offering a user experience cleaner and tidier. finally, changes have been made to the lighting system, to make it more realistic, and less heavy on the less performing configurations, in practically every old and new track.
Career updates
One of the most gameplay-relevant updates concerns the career and championship mode scoring system. The new system, introduced in the 2024 WRC season, was also implemented in the game. Now players will have to balance their driving strategy to accumulate points in the different stages of the rally.
In the game, just like in reality, the points will be distributed in two phases: the first, which covers Friday and Saturday, and the second, called Super Sundaywhich awards bonus points for final performance. This introduces a new dynamic, forcing players to think tactically and balance aggression and caution in each stage.
Finally, in addition to the 2024 season expansion, they have already been announced two additional DLC packs: The Maestros and Hard Chargers. The first will be available during the winter and will have a French theme, introducing the famous stage Briançonnet of the Monte Carlo Rally and the famous stage Fafe del Rally del Portogallo.
The second, however, is scheduled for spring and will include the stages of Umeå e Umeå Sprint from Rally Sweden and the stage Rarely from the Acropolis Rally in Greece.
In short, this new iteration of the WRC by EA Sports is convincing more and moreresulting in a perfect formula for a sport like Rally. After so many years spent between ups and downs, it’s nice to see that the WRC finally has a title capable of fully capturing its essence.
Source: www.tomshw.it
