EA Sports WRC recently added beta support for PC VR, but how is this rally racer faring? Read on for our full impressions.
While Codemasters continues to release annual Formula 1 games and off-road racers, we haven't seen the studio tackle a VR rally game since 2019. DiRT Rally 2.0. It is in fact a spiritual successor using the official FIA World Rally Championship license, with more than 200 rally stages in 18 locations, around 80 real cars and customizable vehicles. Following its flatscreen launch in November, Season 4 recently introduced support for PC VR.
Like it F1 23 And GRID legendsevery race is playable in your VR headset with a 360° view from the driver's seat. Everything else uses 2D menus and puts you in a theater mode. Only gamepads and steering wheel accessories are supported, and during this hands-on I frequently switched between my Thrustmaster T248 steering wheel and an official Xbox gamepad.
As someone more accustomed to track racing than off-road tracks, the EA Sports WRC's steering was smoother than I initially expected. Navigating the car's handling is a fun challenge, and the 'Rally School' tutorials gave me a useful insight into the mechanics. Assists such as easier AI difficulty settings provide welcome help for beginners, and after finding a comfortable balance, driving through these environments felt good. This is helped by the wide variety of circuits and a strong car selection.
EA Sports WRC has no shortage of content either. The pleasantly comprehensive 'Career' mode lets you choose between Junior WRC, WRC 2 or the main WRC division, measuring success against performance targets set by your benefactor, such as reaching a specific position in the drivers championship. 'Championship' offers a good alternative that is pure rally racing, while 'Moments' puts a fun twist on daily challenges by basing events in real WRC history.
There's a lot to like about EA Sports WRC that makes me wish for better PC VR functionality. VR support is currently in beta, and I first tested it a few weeks ago with a Ryzen 7 2700X and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070. I quickly noticed a nauseating screen shake even at low performance settings. I have since upgraded to a new PC with an RTX 4070 Ti Super and Intel i9-12900 processor and while the shaking is no longer present, other issues remain.
The most glaring problem is that when I load a career event or championship race, my headset screen often goes black, but the game continues to run on my PC. This problem only goes away when you quit the game, and it has happened at least seven times. That severely limits what I can currently play, although I had better luck with the tutorials, individual races against AI opponents, and online multiplayer. I mostly lingered Quest 3 and Virtual Desktop, although a Quest 2 had similar problems.
It's a shame because EA Sports WRC feels great in VR when it works. Codemasters has even added quite a range of VR-specific comfort settings, such as adjusting the HUD, vignettes specifically for crashing, height settings for the main camera, and more. However, that doesn't mean much if you can't reliably play the main gameplay modes in PC VR. I just hope VR support improves upon full release.
After our hands-on, EA Sports offered us the chance to speak with Creative Director, Matthew Battison. In an email-based Q&A, Battison said VR support was always planned, despite its arrival after launch.
“We wanted to focus on the game itself first, so we decided to start full VR production after release. This gave us time to develop, refine and test the VR experience and launch it as beta within the first term. part of the WRC season so that our players could help shape it.”
Codemasters formerly declared that it's calling this a beta because it's a new project for the team, and notes that VR support for DiRT Rally 2.0 used external partners, while EA Sports WRC is an internal effort. Battison explained that this internal approach allowed them to ensure they had full control over the final project, creating “a more cohesive and immersive experience.”
Battison asks what challenges the introduction of VR support will bring, stating that the main issues are related to hardware and technical aspects. Codemasters have tried to overcome this by adding customizable comfort settings such as a fixed horizon and a crash vignette.
“We know our players have a wide variety of hardware setups and VR headsets, so it was critical to ensure our VR support was accessible to everyone. But we wanted to do more than just make it accessible. We wanted it to be immersive and fun for our players. This meant finding the right balance between creating an immersive experience without causing discomfort.”
As for other platforms, Codemasters previously confirmed that EA Sports WRC will remain exclusive to PC VR, so I wondered why the studio wasn't considering this PSVR2 support. Battison declined to comment.
As for next steps, Codemasters is currently analyzing player feedback to develop a roadmap. Battison calls this “instrumental” in shaping EA Sports WRC's VR support in the future. As a result, the VR beta currently has no end date.
EA Sports WRC is available now SteamFRIin addition to a flatscreen version on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.