EA Sports WRC Preview: Dirt Rally 3.0 by Another Name

Rally simulators are the white whale of sim racing. Very few developers have nailed them, plenty have come close, and practically all of the old franchises have died off. Fans of sim racing have no doubt noticed that the Dirt series seemed to sputter to an unceremonious end after developer Codemasters was acquired by Electronic Arts (EA). After a couple years of silence, now we can see what the former Dirt team was working on: EA Sports WRC. And I got to sample a preview build ahead of its launch.

This is a clean-sheet reboot for the WRC franchise. It has nothing in relation with the milquetoast simcade WRC titles of the last decade, and comes with a new EA Sports prefix to its name. It’s still the official WRC game, now developed by a true triple-A developer with decades of rally sim experience. It might be called WRC now, but it’s even better than that: This is the rebirth, continuation, and expansion of the beloved Dirt Rally.

Finally Shaping Up

Let’s be real for a second here: The WRC franchise has never been a true destination for sim racers or even dedicated arcade folks. There were always other options, most notably the Dirt Rally series of games, that provided a more authentic and realistic rallying experience. It has been an annual sports-type release for some time, but it never quite caught on like F1. (In fairness, few motorsports have.) Thus, the acquisition of Codemasters in 2021 was a perfect excuse to revitalize the series.

EA is very open about the fact that Codemasters used Dirt Rally 2.0 as its basis for EA Sports WRC. It’s arguably the game’s greatest asset. The new entry uses a slightly modified physics and handling model from Dirt Rally 2.0, but switches from Codemasters’ Ego graphics engine to Unreal Engine. The Ego engine was used in the original Colin McRae: Dirt all the way up to F1 23, but had draw distance and map size limitations that weren’t compatible with the grand ambitions of WRC.

Now, maps are double the size compared to Dirt Rally 2.0. There are several stages over 18 miles in length, which compare favorably to stage lengths in the actual WRC, and they're built to be as accurate as possible to the real thing. In total, over 200 stages in 17 locations across the globe are plenty to work with, and you can play the full real-life WRC season in-game. There's also a new Regularity Rally game mode that judges driving by average speed instead of fastest stage times.

It being the WRC flag carrier also means it has to feature the real Rally1 cars. For 2023, that’s just three: The Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, Hyundai i20 N Rally1, and Ford Puma Rally1. There’s also a huge selection of 70 other cars in 18 different classes. That includes Rally2, Junior WRC, a huge selection of historic WRC cars from the ‘90s up to 2017, vintage rally cars, Group N cars, and a full selection of Group B cars. You can also build your own car from a set of predetermined parts, though that's largely an optional career side quest.