We talk to Codemasters about EA Sports WRC

204 stages spanning 18 rallies in 18 different countries, 82 cars, a game mode where we will get to design our own rally car and the career mode that Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0 always lacked. This bodes well for the November release of Codemasters' first officially licenced rally title and we here at Gamereactor visited the WRC forests with Creative Director Ross Gowing and Game Designer (and pro rally driver) John Armstrong to find out more about EA Sports WRC.

Gamereactor: We heard about Dirt Rally 3.0 and the shift from the single game engine Ego to Unreal Engine long before we got word that you grabbed the official WRC licence and changed the name, internally. Is this basically Dirt Rally 3.0 with licensed cars and rallies?

Jon Armstrong (Game Designer): I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this really but yes, it's the game that started out as Dirt Rally 3.0 but then switched tracks, if you will. We worked on it for a while before we decided to change the game engine and it's obviously been an arduous and challenging but also rewarding process.

Why did you decide to switch from your own game engine to Unreal Engine?

Armstrong: It's mostly about the limitations of our own technology which has become a little bit old as opposed to the possibilities of the Unreal Engine which has allowed us to do more things, better things and especially over longer distances. The length of the routes was one of the main aspects that we wanted to improve and change from the previous game and Epic's game engine has allowed us to do that.

Unreal 4 Engine or Unreal Engine 5?

Ross Gowing (Creative Director): We're working on the last version of Unreal Engine 4 today and I can tell you that if we had tried to make this game in our old Ego Engine, it would never have been finished this autumn. Not even close. The possibilities and the editor that Unreal offers have given us completely different opportunities to speed up and streamline our work and Epic has been brilliant at helping us with certain details and features to make it easier. When we were working with the Ego Engine, our programmers had to spend weeks and sometimes months rewriting parts of the technology to suit our design team's wishes, so this has not been required today and the pace of work has thus been faster.

How long is the longest stage in EA Sports WRC?

Armstrong: I probably can't say exactly how long it is in kilometres, but I know we have a section that takes about 20 minutes to complete. It's more than twice as long as the longest stage in Dirt Rally 2.0.

Tell us more about the tracks in the game?

Gowing: We have 18 rallies in 18 different countries in the game and a total of 204 stages with a significant portion of them being longer than the stages in Dirt Rally 2.0. This means that we offer 65 miles of unique roads in this game while Dirt Rally 2.0 contained 19 miles. The stages are all based on real rally roads that we captured via images, film footage and aerial photography and drone videos but the roads are not entirely the roads that are run within the 2023 WRC season because they are so changeable.

Will some of the stages from Dirt Rally 2.0 be included in EA Sports WRC?

Gowing: No, nothing. All 204 routes through all 18 countries are completely new.

In addition to the 13 official rallies/countries from this year's WRC calendar, the game includes five extra rallies that are not named like the countries they take place in, why is that?

Gowing: We built most of these rallies before we got the WRC licence and at the time this project was still Dirt Rally 3.0 and then when we bought the licence and realised that we wouldn't be able to use these extra countries unless we renamed them, the choice for us was simple. Everything in this world is based on licences and when these rallies are not included in this year's WRC calendar, we have to negotiate and buy the rights to use the names, which we simply skipped and chose names like "Mediterranean" or Pacific".

Our readers want to know if there will be VR support at launch?

Gowing: No, there won't be but we are planning to roll out VR support at a later date so it will come.

Will there be true triple-screen support, with three separate images rendered individually and allowing for tripartite FOV and line-up between screens in a larger rig?

Gowing: It will be possible to run with three screens, of course, just like in Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0, but it's a wide Ultra Wide image across all three screens rather than what you're referring to.

One of the most criticised parts of Dirt Rally 2.0 is the driving experience on asphalt. Has it been reworked for this game?

Gowing: Absolutely, that was one of the first things we reworked after listening to player feedback from Dirt Rally 2.0. The tarmac physics in EA Sports WRC are much tighter and you as a driver have a lot more mechanical downforce in your car, which means it's glued to the tarmac.

Another aspect is Force feedback, from what I have tested of EA sports WRC it also feels tighter with a more lively, detailed core. How do you see it?

Armstrong: Our new force feedback is, as you say, much better in our opinion and it's easier than ever to feel where you move the car's centre of gravity and which tyre(s) have the most grip on the ground. Being able to move our entire physics engine from Dirt Rally 2.0 into Unreal Engine and then continue to tweak and improve it has been fantastic. The team has done a brilliant job of creating more realism and the force feedback clearly includes more detail that makes it easier to control the car.

EA Sports WRC perhaps even felt a bit more challenging than Dirt Rally 2.0, am I right or wrong about this?

Gowing: It's hard for me to say, but what I do know is that we haven't tried to compromise on realism but, with John's help in particular, have tried to get as close to the real feeling of a real rally car as possible without scaring away the casual player. We have added a number of handy aids for those who do not want simulated car behaviour but perhaps want to play with a handheld controller and enjoy a less uncompromising game without compromising on realism, as I said.

In the Rally Build game mode, what will we be able to build and choose in our car construction?

Gowing: Chassis layout, mechanical parts in the chassis, brakes, dampers, body, external styling, interior and paint. You will be able to jump out on a track directly from the editor to test drive your creation.

You are not releasing EA Sports WRC for the old consoles, which we think is absolutely right. Tell us a bit about how you think there?

Gowing: It's very simple, we don't want to compromise on our graphic quality and therefore only target PC and "current gen".

The game costs £44.99 when it is released despite the fact that, according to you, it houses more than three times as much content as Dirt Rally 2.0, while other EA titles such as FC 24 or NHL 24 cost almost twice as much at release. How does this happen?

Gowing: EA has been absolutely fantastic to work with and we made it clear quite early on that we wanted to use this first WRC game as a gateway to the series, which we are doing in part with the low price. We also hope that new players will invest in EA Sports WRC for the simple reason that it's the most full-featured rally game we've ever made.

The notes that Phil Mills wrote and used in Dirt Rally 2.0 are pretty badly off especially in New Zealand and Scotland, how have you worked to improve the pace note reading for this game?

Armstrong: Phil is a fantastic co-driver and has had an incredible career in the WRC but as you say, there were too many errors and outright mistakes in the notes in Dirt Rally 2.0 which I hope we haven't done now for EA Sports WRC. I have spent months writing the notes myself and it is Jonathan Jackson who read my notes. If you choose a female co-driver it is Kirstie Riddick who reads them out.

EA Sports WRC will be released for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 3, 2023.