WRC 2 Mini Review

Well, StAnZo\'s managed to get hold of it today (tuesday) and iv\'e been playing it for the last few hours.
i\'ll start off by saying that the handling has improvved a great deal from the demo on the OPSM2 demo dvd,
the steering speed has been turned down so no more oversteering, also the car acts far better than the demo.
The cockpit cam has been greatly improved aswell, the camera has been raised up slightly and been replaced slightly
forward, simlar to that of WRC1 but you can see more \'imcar\' than WRC1. the replays are a thing of beauty,
the cars act like WRC\'s, i know, iv\'e been to a few WRC stages in the UK and as a lot of people here know, i\'m a big fan
This game has come on leaps and bounds since the Demo, handling is superior, the car no longer glides across the
floor at the begining of the stage and it makes for a far better physics engine throughout as the old sliding
phenomenon whilst still and driving has been eliminated. the cars have really good \'turning circles\' and act more realistic
than any other rally game available for home console.
The super special stages are also very enjoyable. i havn\'t yet played the game in proper WRC mode as i am having
a whale of a time just time attacking. give this a look people, it\'s quite simply the best WRC game available.

More impressions as soon as i get a chance... i\'ll keep you posted..

Oh, BTW.. some stages i have ran, were over 9 minutes long.. you just dont understand, i thought i was ready for them,
but i wasn\'t.. it\'s very hard to keep up your concentration for 9+ minutes. but loving it all the same :0)

Good to hear, maybe I\'ll be buying another rally game this Gen. after all. Although I\'ll wait a little more to see what you think of it with more play

How are the graphics in comparison to CM3? Also, how are the different weather effects?

Thanks..

Im getting this for sure now!

[GmanJoe]

Great! So...when is the US release?

Racer, The Graphics are very simlar to WRC1 but there are more trees and birds that fly out of them as you blast past.
the draw distance has been improved slightly, and there\'s water spray on the cameras in wet conditions.
i quite like the effect of water splashing on the replay cam as you fire through the water splashes, its quite cool.
Overall it looks more dense than WRC1 and the cars look fantastic, especially in the replays,
Racer, you wouldnt believe how realistic they look whilst bouncing over the bumps in Cyprus, absolutly spot on.
This is where you can tell the new physics engine must be close to that of real life, the cars just bounce and bite
too realisticly. The issue of weight on the cars has been addressed and they again feel spot on.
jumping over crests feels proper. and the sound of the cars is the best yet, far surpassing WRC1 in terms of crowd horns, car samples and even the water splashes sound cool.
The cars are a lot more \'beefy\' sounding esp the Focus, Citroen and the Hyundai.
oh, and expect load times of around 5-7 seconds for each stage, regardless of stage length.

Well, you can probably tell, i love it to bits.. i\'ll be blasting through the WRC mode later on today, i\'ll have the house
to myself so it\'s gonna be put through the sound system and i\'m gonna get absorbed.


as far as a US release, i\'m not sure.. you\'ld have to check out a few websites for that info. or goto http://www.wrc.com
and head to the forums.. there you\'ll find a guy called loopyelf, he worked on WRC2 so he may be able to give you
some info that you need.

http://www.wrc2extreme.com/

See you in the forests...

Cheers StAnZo!

Looking forward to Friday even more now. Got a day off work so the PS2 will be red hot!

[Kurt Angle]

Good to see a decent rally game for once! This certainly is work a look now.

If u are talking about the UK OPSM2 demo the handling and the behaviour of the car felt like a 1g weighted remote control toy car to me.

@Unicron.. yep, i agree.. it\'s been fixed :0)

Hows the speed of the cars? Can you play the same track at different times of day or with different weather?

Are the super special stages real courses?

Originally posted by ##RaCeR##
Hows the speed of the cars? Can you play the same track at different times of day or with different weather?

Are the super special stages real courses?

the cars seem a little bit faster than WRC1, you cant change the times of the stages or weather in time attack,
i\'m not sure if you can do it with some of the codes that will become available throughout the game.

i\'m not a 100% sure on the super specials, they are really good, but how accurate is anyones guess.

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Iv\'e played it a bit more today and i stand on my previous posts.. it\'s pure fun. far more enjoyable than CMR3

the only negative thing i can say towards WRC2 is that some of the corner calls are late.. you really have to
keep an eye on the road and abide by the calls..

hmmmm, kopking starts to take a intrest in this game again, so how much realler is the steering, it was way to arcadey, slippy on the 1st one and the demo for me

The handling has drastically changed. expect lots of realistic powerslides, hairpins and chicane cornering.
it has evolved a great deal since both WRC1 and the WRC2 demo. i noticed the improvement by the second corner.
if you look at either WRC1 or the WRC2 demo, the cars would slide on the start line whilst sitting still.. also if you
stopped halfway in the stage and put your brakes on, the car would gradually slide, it was totally wrong.
They have now eliminated that problem, it used to cause bad slides, poor turning circle and piss poor handling.
now it seems that they are calculating each wheel independantly on the floor. the change is quite staggering.