Here we have the sequel to WRC: World Rally Championship... and the difference between the 1st and this newest installment is insane!
The developers Milestone have decided in there wisdom to concentrate on a story/plot style racer, with hiring and firing numerous mechanics, PR staff, Team Leaders, selecting different sponsors to gain more Rep and an R&D department for researching new upgrades which has no bearing on the WRC driving experience as in the real WRC the FIA have set rules and regulations on parts and running equipment!
Now.. you may have noticed i said the difference's between the 1st and this one is insane? Yes, due to the fact that they've ditched the whole driving physics and actual gameplay for bloody story!! I am a HUGE rally fan and so far Dirt 3 has been the most enjoyable on the xbox 360. The FIA licence was wasted here!
Quick run down....


Sound: Oh dear!! Imagine if you will a chainsaw and someone rustling a packet of crisps down your mic... thats ALL the engine sounds you get! Even my cat left the room when i stopped accelerating and the crisps sound kicked in, oh and the menu music you'd hear in an elevator if anyones stayed at the Hilton Hotel.. no in game music at all luckily as it would probably be something like country and western or classical!!!

Difficulty: Ive had it on Idiot settings for most and obviously its a walk in the park BUT i will say this... WRC 2 does have one of the biggest customizable option settings ive seen! You can use sliders to decide how much (if any) the cpu will help out on everything from braking to turning or just switch it off, so i cant really rate the difficulty as its each to there own on there preferred driving style. The less aids you have on, the harder it will become. Novices to Rally games will be fine on standard settings.

Achievements: There are 50 achievements in total, 15 achieves in the main game mode "The Road to the WRC" which most if not all will be achieveable with minimal effort, just playing that mode through. 9 achievements require "Single player" mode and again, using the achievement description should be easily obtainable as it describes what you need to do for the said achieve, 9 achieves are solely attainable in Online play, ie... Rank up to level 50, win 10 special stages etc, and the rest are objective based done in any game mode... Roll your car once, Hit a cactus, perform a 35 meter drift.. you get the idea. All of which shouldnt pose much of a problem but im thinking the online stuff will require some good friends!



Summary of WRC 2: Graphically similar if not identical to the original and gameplay wise it feels sluggish in turning and not very responsive, there is plenty to do on here if you have the patience, as mentioned The Road to WRC mode along with Rally School and Hot Seat which is upto 4 players on 1 machine taking turns to beat each other and there's 4 online modes to play. I personally found this game very boring to play as sometimes it feels like your turning the map and not the car and there seems to be a massive lack of speed although the speedo claims im doing 100+mph it just doesnt feel like it. Dirt 3 has set the bench mark for recent rally games to follow and this falls far from it. Rally games have come on leaps and bounds since the age of Colin McRae Rally and even the 1st WRC game, Most if not all have been significantly enhansed either via there graphics engine, gameplay, sound or all of the mentioned. WRC 2 doesnt stack up unfortunatly as there's little to no upgrade from the original.

Id rate this 5/10 and thats mainly due to the achieves not being that hard to get. After 1000'ing this you will NOT want to play it again.