With only one day until EA Sports WRC enters early access, the countdown to Codemasters' first official WRC game is nearly over.
With Codemasters and EA taking over the license, EA Sports WRC is set to begin an exciting new era of rally games from the developer of the acclaimed DiRT Rally series. Get your pace notes ready, because EA Sports WRC is just around the corner.
EA Sports WRC out now
The countdown is over: EA Sports WRC is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S! This is a current-gen-only game, so it won’t be available on PS4 or Xbox One.
Unfortunately, that means players who haven’t upgraded to current-gen consoles will miss out, but it also means EA Sports WRC won’t be held back by old hardware, allowing Codemasters to push the graphics, sound, and physics further.
EA Sports WRC review
Find out if it's the game rally fans have been waiting for in our full EA Sports WRC review.
Gameplay
EA Sports WRC has been shown off in several deep dives and an extended gameplay video. Our best look at EA Sports WRC takes you on a white-knuckle ride through the Estonia, Sweden, and Japan rallies, showcasing different times of day, weather conditions, and seasons.
Car list
EA Sports WRC features 78 cars across 18 classes covering the entire history of the sport. These range from monstrously powerful Group B machines to Colin McRae’s championship-winning 1995 Subaru Impreza and modern Rally1 hybrids competing in the 2023 championship.
Best of all, every car will be available at launch with no DLC required. EA Sports WRC also won't have any paid microtransactions or XP boosters. You can view the full car list here.
Stages
As for the routes, you’ll be taking over 600km of unique roads across asphalt, gravel and snow in more than 200 stages.
At launch, EA Sports WRC will boast 17 locations including 13 official WRC calendar events and four fictional locations, with Rally Central Europe joining the location lineup in a free post-lauch update.
Switching to Unreal Engine has enabled Codemasters to craft significantly longer and more detailed stages than those in DiRT Rally 2.0.
You can view the full stage list here.
Career mode
Much like F1 23’s popular My Team mode, EA Sports WRC’s career mode sees you create and manage a team. You’ll hire crew, manage budgets, and complete objectives with the aim of winning the World Rally Championship.
Unlike past WRC games, you can skip the entry-level Junior WRC or WRC2 levels and start in the top WRC Rally1 class.
In a first for WRC games, EA Sports WRC lets you build your own rally car, from choosing the engine layout to installing components and customising the interior. Career modes in recent WRC titles have felt stale, but the car builder is set to revolutionise the rally series.
Preview
We've been hands-on with EA Sports WRC ahead of release. While it drives like a dream, we have a few reservations about the car builder. Find out more in our EA Sports WRC hands-on preview.
EA Sports WRC interview
We sat down with senior creative director Ross Gowing to find out how EA Sports WRC is reinventing the rally game. You can read our full interview here.
Craig Breen tribute
Codemasters confirmed to RacingGames that EA Sports WRC will pay tribute to Hyundai WRC driver Craig Breen, who was tragically killed in a crash during a test session for the 2023 Croatia Rally .
"In our Moments mode, we’re also including some moments dedicated to him; some of the fantastic things he achieved in his career,” Gowing told us. “We've also done a slight edit of a special video WRC released at the time and put it in the game. We want to honour him – he was such a character within the sport. By working with everyone we’ve arrived at that being the most appropriate and sensitive way to honour him in the game."
Review
We’ll be putting EA Sports WRC through its paces as soon as we get our hands on it. You can look forward to our EA Sports WRC review around the release day on 3 November.
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