How I finally got the hang of one of my favourite PS2 games after 21 years – Reader’s Feature

A reader explains how he’s finally got to grips with WRC: Rally Evolved after more than two decades, and why he still plays it today.

WRC: Rally Evolved, released back in 2005, was the last officially licensed World Rally Championship game made by Evolution Studios. Afterwards the same development house went on to create the MotorStorm series.

Select the Drive option, after the game’s Kasabian-backed intro sequence, and you’re faced with a number of choices. Quick Race randomly puts you in a different car and rally stage each time you select it. Championship provides the main meat of the game. Single Stage and Single Rally are just what they say they are. Rally Cross is more like a conventional racer, with other competing cars onscreen at the same time. Historic Challenge gives you the chance to unlock some classic rally cars (such as the Audi Quattro) via a set of strict time trials. The Test Track option is fairly self-explanatory.

Championships in WRC: Rally Evolved come in four different categories. Super 1600 is a beginner’s class with smaller, less powerful cars and it’s a great place for new players to start. WRC novice, WRC professional, and WRC expert offer the full championship experience of 16 rallies, each of which comprise of three stages. You can attempt these rallies in order of choice or you can follow the real-life World Rally Championship calendar.

We’re racing around the world here, dealing with all manner of weather conditions and unexpected incidents. When I say we, I mean you and your co-driver. Besides the nicely rendered tracks and cars, that talkative bloke in your passenger seat is an intrinsic element of this game. In the past, the off-road jargon that comes out of the co-driver’s mouth has mostly flown straight over my head. I’ve fixated more on his relentless put downs:

‘Well, what happened there?’

‘Not good. You’ve still got a lot to learn pal.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘Average stage, average performance.’

These pithy summaries sting especially after I think that I’ve driven a good stage. But in actual fact, chipping away at my self-esteem isn’t the co-driver’s only function. That nonsensical gibberish he comes out with, for instance ‘6 right’, does actually mean something.

The number before the direction indicates the severity of the approaching turn. The higher the number, the faster you can take the upcoming turn. These pace notes are replicated at the top of the game screen via a page from a virtual notepad.

Mr Co-Driver also forewarns you about corkscrew turns, jumps, hairpins bends, excessive ground water, stray animals, and other car threatening hazards (storm felled trees are best avoided) so he’s good for a lot of things other than putting you down.

I love the grounded, slightly weighty feel of the cars in WRC: Rally Evolved. The weather effects are also nicely realised. You’ll race through fog, rain and thunderstorms. Of the rallies themselves, Greece is probably my favourite at the moment. The country’s terrain is beautifully depicted at dusk during the rally’s third stage. Japan is cool too. You get to drive over a dam and along a lively sea front.

Experience any water in this game and droplets splash onto the screen. I wasn’t impressed by Sweden. Too much snow. Difficult rally. Hard to see the road. Wales too. Far too muddy. Often I could hardly make out where I was meant to be going because the track and landscape blended into one wide brown quagmire. And I expected more sheep. Australia was interesting in that it was very orange and I believe that I drove through a bush fire.

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This game is as difficult and as technical as you want it to be. If you are a diehard motorsport fan and an expert video game driver you can turn off or decrease the game’s driving aids, with steering assist, traction control, and braking assist. I left all of the CPU help fully activated and I still found even the WRC Novice Championship a challenge.

You can tinker with your car too, if you’re a real petrolhead. Gear ratios, springs, dampers, ride height, brake bias, torque bias, front roll bars, rear roll bars, tyres, differential map (whatever that is), it’s all adjustable. I deviated from the recommended setup once and changed my tyres (from hard gravel to hard asphalt) and my chunky rally modified Ford Fiesta suddenly drove like a tank on an ice rink.

Authentic atmosphere plays a big part in this game. Intermittently, fans cluster at the edges of your route, honking their horns and getting in the way. You are forewarned about them on one of the game’s loading screens: ‘Be careful around the crowds. Run into them and you’ll be penalised’.

I am sure that modern rally titles look amazing compared to this old PlayStation 2 classic. However, the slightly dated graphics of WRC: Rally Evolved are of next to no importance to me. The game’s physics work so well.

It’s ultra satisfying to blast around the game’s many international tracks, dodging random rock falls and splashing through massive puddles. Also, I’ve become more resilient to the co-driver’s putdowns. The guy doesn’t hurt my feelings like he used to. Although it’s not through want of trying.

‘I thought you were supposed to be good?’

Oddly, when the guy’s being nice is when I usually crash.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

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