In some feat of preposterous litigious contractual obligation with Epic, WRC10 has shown up on Steam before WRC9. So at the time of writing this, this game has already been superseded. But let's take a closer look anyways because I come to this series — largely — for the career mode.

Career mode is by far the most interesting aspect of WRC. You'll do manufacturer/sponsor tryouts, hire and manage crew fatigue/morale by performing well and adding rest days into the calendar. Perform training, earn money to pay for repairs in-between events. You actually perform this by responding to an email after the event is over. You're able to hire PR agents so that better potential crew members start applying as you gain reputation. Other features beyond the obvious mechanics like engineers to improve repairs allow you to hire meteorologists for a more accurate forecast to help decide what type of tires you should use for an upcoming set of events.

You'll have access to R+D to improve durability, crew malleability and decrease tire wear. More XP can be earned through training events. You can also partake in historical races as well as modern.

Juxtaposed to the career mode in DiRT Rally 2, they're nearly incomparable. WRC9 offers a much more robust career.

I would not compare this series with the main DiRT series as that series always kind of was, but is most assuredly now, as far away from sim racing as you can get without adding rockets. So, I see the WRC series mainly competing for the attention of those playing still DiRT Rally 1 or 2 or even Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo — which was made by Milstone Srl, who has not been the developer of any WRC game since WRC4. But KT Racing has done relatively fine thus far.

To use my arbitrary arcade/sim 4 slot scale — if 1 is Ridge Racer, 2 is the main DiRT Series, Forza Horizon/Project Gotham Racing and a 4 is BeamNG/Assetto Corsa. WRC9 is a 2.5 — right off-center. This is due to the physics being hit and miss in practice yet the intention of being realistic keeps it from being too arcade-y.

In career mode, you'll have access to increased grip and reliability on certain types of surfaces should you spec into that direction with R+D. Which seems a bit at odds with what the game is trying to be, as outside of career mode those features are effectively absent. However, I can't be certain there isn't some trickery — in that, there is lowered durability and grip, among other things, in the start of the career but the aim is to then raise them back to normal through R+D.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607490351

The surfaces all feel quite different in WRC. Whereas DiRT Rally they all feel vaguely the same — there's really no discernible difference in the way gravel and snow feel in DiRT Rally for example. In WRC, the differences are much more apparent. That said, if your tires stay on the ground, the physics feel pretty good. But it's unlikely you'll have all four on the ground at all times. Having what would be a relatively minor scrape can turn into a giant disaster as your car becomes a toy and bobbles around until the tires come back to Earth.

To reiterate and be more concise, if not reductive, I feel comfortable in saying the overall physics feel “pretty good".

I'm typically not a person that cares a great deal about visuals, but when the purpose of the game is to be realistic in the first place, it feels appropriate to comment on. I don't think this game looks that impressive, but I don't think it looks bad by any stretch. This whole series seems to use some odd rendering technique that makes everything seem hollow — even at the highest settings. I'm not sure how else to really explain it as I don't know the particular way it's being rendered but everything always seems like it's paper-thin. Were I to venture a guess, it may be an extension of the way the cars feel like they don't weigh very much but also drag themselves across the entire track on a menial turn — and when conflated with the way trees sort of pop-in as you drive, some sort of LoD load-in presumably, (I use an m.2 NVME SSD) the visual component and car movement add up to a very surreal feeling world. And I don't think that's intentional.

However, visually speaking, I think the game stands out in its weather, terrain and water effects. Especially in the extreme conditions events where thunderstorms and wind are knocking you around and moving the shrubbery about. One of the more interesting aspects of WRC is that the weather can change dynamically throughout a race.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607490334

WRC has a much, much better track selection than DiRT Rally.

There are daily and weekly challenges, but they pale in comparison to DiRT Rally, that's where DiRT Rally really shines. Online modes for WRC include drive clubs and e-sport events. There are also challenges outside the career and dailies that reward points that unlock more challenges.

There are six VOs for the co-driver. There is also a colorblind mode.

The damage modeling is decent, mechanically affecting the car — difficulty options available.

Codemasters has acquired the WRC license exclusively going forward (at the time of writing) — who have themselves been acquired by EA. They've obtained the rights during the years 2023-2027. I do not know how this will affect the WRC series from Nacon. As in, I don't know if will there a be a WRC 11 or 12 or if these older games will be removed from the store entirely. — Source[drivetribe.com]

As an isolated product, it's quite enjoyable and offers a lot of content. However in context of the entire WRC series — absolutely nothing stands out about it. It's more of the same from WRC8. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But it's very difficult to suggest this one over any other one, I would wait for a sale on any of them.

All said, if you're like me and enjoy rally sims as a sort of 'go-to' for in-between other games, the dailies, weeklies and monthlies that DiRT Rally offer might be more up your alley. Because the ones here are not terribly compelling.

If you've read this far, consider following my curation — Station Argus

My WRC8 review here.

In some feat of preposterous litigious contractual obligation with Epic, WRC10 has shown up on Steam before WRC9. So at the time of writing this, this game has already been superseded. But let's take a closer look anyways because I come to this series — largely — for the career mode. [h3]Career[/h3] Career mode is by far the most interesting aspect of WRC. You'll do manufacturer/sponsor tryouts, hire and manage crew fatigue/morale by performing well and adding rest days into the calendar. Perform training, earn money to pay for repairs in-between events. You actually perform this by responding to an email after the event is over. You're able to hire PR agents so that better potential crew members start applying as you gain reputation. Other features beyond the obvious mechanics like engineers to improve repairs allow you to hire meteorologists for a more accurate forecast to help decide what type of tires you should use for an upcoming set of events. You'll have access to R+D to improve durability, crew malleability and decrease tire wear. More XP can be earned through training events. You can also partake in historical races as well as modern. Juxtaposed to the career mode in DiRT Rally 2, they're nearly incomparable. WRC9 offers a much more robust career. [h3]Physics[/h3] I would not compare this series with the main DiRT series as that series always kind of was, but is most assuredly now, as far away from sim racing as you can get without adding rockets. So, I see the WRC series mainly competing for the attention of those playing still DiRT Rally 1 or 2 or even Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo — which was made by Milstone Srl, who has not been the developer of any WRC game since WRC4. But KT Racing has done relatively fine thus far. To use my [u]arbitrary [b]arcade/sim[/b] 4 slot scale[/u] — if 1 is Ridge Racer, 2 is the main DiRT Series, Forza Horizon/Project Gotham Racing and a 4 is BeamNG/Assetto Corsa. WRC9 is a 2.5 — right off-center. This is due to the physics being hit and miss in practice yet the intention of being realistic keeps it from being too arcade-y. In career mode, you'll have access to increased grip and reliability on certain types of surfaces should you spec into that direction with R+D. Which seems a bit at odds with what the game is trying to be, as outside of career mode those features are effectively absent. However, I can't be certain there isn't some trickery — in that, there is lowered durability and grip, among other things, in the start of the career but the aim is to then raise them back to normal through R+D. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607490351 The surfaces all feel quite different in WRC. Whereas DiRT Rally they all feel vaguely the same — there's really no discernible difference in the way gravel and snow feel in DiRT Rally for example. In WRC, the differences are much more apparent. That said, if your tires stay on the ground, the physics feel pretty good. But it's unlikely you'll have all four on the ground at all times. Having what would be a relatively minor scrape can turn into a giant disaster as your car becomes a toy and bobbles around until the tires come back to Earth. To reiterate and be more concise, if not reductive, [u]I feel comfortable in saying the overall physics feel [i]“pretty good"[/i].[/u] [h3]Visuals[/h3] I'm typically not a person that cares a great deal about visuals, but when the purpose of the game is to be realistic in the first place, it feels appropriate to comment on. I don't think this game looks that impressive, but [u]I don't think it looks bad by any stretch.[/u] This whole series seems to use some odd rendering technique that makes everything seem hollow — even at the highest settings. I'm not sure how else to really explain it as I don't know the particular way it's being rendered but everything always seems like it's paper-thin. Were I to venture a guess, it may be an extension of the way the cars feel like they don't weigh very much but also drag themselves across the entire track on a menial turn — and when conflated with the way trees sort of [i]pop-in[/i] as you drive, some sort of LoD load-in presumably, (I use an m.2 NVME SSD) the visual component and car movement add up to a very surreal feeling world. And I don't think that's intentional. However, visually speaking, I think the game stands out in its weather, terrain and water effects. Especially in the extreme conditions events where thunderstorms and wind are knocking you around and moving the shrubbery about. One of the more interesting aspects of WRC is that the weather can change dynamically throughout a race. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607490334 [h3]Misc[/h3] WRC has a much, much better track selection than DiRT Rally. There are daily and weekly challenges, but they pale in comparison to DiRT Rally, that's where DiRT Rally really shines. Online modes for WRC include drive clubs and e-sport events. There are also challenges outside the career and dailies that reward points that unlock more challenges. There are six VOs for the co-driver. There is also a colorblind mode. The damage modeling is decent, mechanically affecting the car — difficulty options available. [h3]WRC license[/h3] Codemasters has acquired the WRC license exclusively going forward (at the time of writing) — who have themselves been acquired by EA. They've obtained the rights during the years 2023-2027. I do not know how this will affect the WRC series from Nacon. As in, I don't know if will there a be a WRC 11 or 12 or if these older games will be removed from the store entirely. — [url=https://drivetribe.com/p/dirt-rally-studio-codemasters-acquires-C0Az_WHRTEyKf6cIqy1Mpg?iid=XTrE9zOcTfuOq7xKMsIPJw]Source[/url] [h3]The Gist:[/h3] As an isolated product, it's quite enjoyable and offers a lot of content. However in context of the entire WRC series — absolutely nothing stands out about it. It's more of the same from WRC8. And there's nothing [i]inherently[/i] wrong with that. But it's very difficult to suggest this one over any other one, I would wait for a sale on any of them. All said, if you're like me and enjoy rally sims as a sort of 'go-to' for in-between other games, the dailies, weeklies and monthlies that DiRT Rally offer might be more up your alley. Because the ones here are not terribly compelling. [quote]If you've read this far, consider following my curation — [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28295405/]Station Argus[/url][/quote] My WRC8 review [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/SpaceCouncil/recommended/1004750]here.[/url]