Very interested but what's the handling like?

[Holding These Alligators Down]

Is it a sim like Dirt Rally or more arcadey like the regular Dirt games?

[BordBrain™]

Like with the other titles, that depends on what settings you play on.

I would up front say that after playing using "hardcore" or "realistic" settings with both Dirt Rally and WRC 7, it seems a bit more aligned with Dirt Rally than regular Dirt, but I still think Dirt Rally has the better "sim" experience.

Dirt Rally 2.0 hands down has the most realistic experience out of all titles, but WRC 7 is comparable if different to Dirt Rally 1.0 in both realism and how it feels using hardcore settings imo.

When specifically comparing to Dirt Rally 1.0,

• They both feel arcadey at times, but also manage to feel "real enough" for 90% of the game.
  
• WRC 7 oddly requires you to turn in earlier on tarmac, something that took me a while to get used to.
  
• Driving lines also feel much more important in WRC 7:
  To explain, taking a corner wide usually means you exit wide or even off track, compared to Dirt Rally 1.0 where you just let off the accelerator or brake and you can make the turn still a fair amount of the time.
  
• The most surprising difference is actually the tracks themselves, WRC 7 have bumps and bits and jumps that can throw you off course or jostle your car around, which can cause you to lose traction and control over how the car handles. Cut a corner at your own risk regardless of the pacenotes.
  
• somewhat anecdotal but I have still yet to actually pull off a decent hairpin turn in WRC 7, there is a layer of depth that I'm still learning when it comes to slower corners while keeping momentum.

Hope this helps a little.



A few other things I've noticed when comparing the two games, unrelated to handling:
WRC 7 definitely requires you to have a much more intricate throttle control, there are a fair amount of times that going "flat out" will spin your wheels and lose you grip even in lower horsepower FWD vehicles.
I find that Dirt Rally 1 for the most part only cares about your throttle control in RWD vehicles and even then it feels much less important than what I've felt in WRC 7.

I loathe the pacenotes in WRC 7 at times-
If you pick "detailed pacenotes" they will call EVERY junction regardless if it's functionally just a square right or a straight.
It can really clutter up your comms when some tracks have the co-driver repeating the word junction every two seconds. Dirt Rally 1 will say "square right" but WRC7 says "junction square right" because the road is technically a T junction.
To be fair, not every time and only on a few tracks. Most tracks are fine and don't do this.

Another problem is that there are a a few tracks with very deceptive corners and even sometimes completely unblocked and unmarked roads that go the wrong way, but the co-driver never once has called a "caution deceptive".
On one hand, driving off track will reset your car with 0 penalty to time or career, on the other hand, I think it's incredibly dumb to be able to place first after flying off the track twice.

[BluesyMoo]

Is it just me or ABS is always on in WRC7? I can't seem to lock the front to the point where all steering is lost. I believe ABS is currently not allowed in WRC.

[BordBrain™]

Try raising your brake pressure in car config and see if that causes lockup, I've mostly been playing using default car configs and mainly use handbrake.
There is definitely a point to be made that there are a very limited amount of toggle options for individual "assists".

Another thing I swear is that it really feels like there's no engine braking in WRC7.