New WRC game gets the thumbs up from its stars!

The forthcoming new videogame of the FIA World Rally Championship has been given a unanimous thumbs up from a selection of its featured drivers.

The game, the first to be officially endorsed by the WRC for five years, is the only one to feature the cars and drivers from the current WRC season and from all support classes: P-WRC, S-WRC and J-WRC. It goes on sale on 8th October in versions for PlayStation3, Xbox360 and PC.

Last week, defending P-WRC champion Armindo Araujo jumped at the chance for a pre-release test, along with his championship rival, ex NASCAR driver Michael Jourdain, S-WRC front-runner Patrik Sandell and J-WRC stars Kevin Abbring and Thierry Neuville.

Araujo said: “It’s a very nice game. The cars and stages are very realistic and it is a pleasure to have a game with my Mitsubishi in it and my sponsors. It’s a very nice feeling.”

After a rough start at the console, Jourdain was able to vouch for the game’s realism. “The first time I tried the game my Mitsubishi finished in the same condition it did on Rally Mexico in real life – I totally destroyed it,” he said. “The game’s really good though, my car looks great, I feel very proud to be included in it.”

Videogame fanatic Kevin Abbring was also impressed. “I didn’t expect that it would be so good. When I have time, I play games like this in my free time and a rally game has never been as good as this one. All the different options are great – I like that you can change the brake balance for example and then you feel that exact change in the game.”

Sandell, winner of the S-WRC class in Germany said: “It’s a very good game. It looks good and it’s also great promotionally for drivers like me who are not in the WRC but hope to get there. It looks very real – now I know what I’ll spend my time doing between rallies!”

Also tested last week was technology developed by real-time video gaming specialists, iOpener which will eventually allow gamers to compete against the actual performance of drivers on the stages.

At a test in Germany the cars of Hans Weijs Jr, Kevin Abbring, Patrik Flodin and Michal Kosciuszko were fitted with iOpener’s data capture boxes, to gather information which will be fed later into a videogame environment.

Abbring said: “This new technology is very exciting – it promotes the WRC while also giving people the chance to connect with the sport live and enjoy the action. It’s as if they are participating themselves – this is great! I cannot wait for the next step!”

Source: milestone.it