WRC Generations Offers A New Racing Challenge With Hybrid Cars

Kylotonn’s upcoming rally sim WRC Generations has a surprising addition to the franchise that literally changes everything in the way the game plays. Namely, hybrid cars.

The World Rally Championship video game license was originally owned by no less than Sony, who had five games produced between 2001 and 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Since then, different developers and publishers acquired the license to keep the franchise going, and making it multiplatform in the process. Today the license lies in the hands of developer Kylotonn and is being published by Nacon, This is the seventh game to release for this current generation of consoles, but will be the first game in franchise to not be numbered.

While WRC Generations will still have the requisite GroupRally1 and GroupRally2 certified cars that appear in the racing championships in real life, as well as some legendary cars, new to the series will be hybrid cars. Already confirmed to be appearing are the Ford Puma Rally1, Hyundai i20 N Rally1 and Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.

So what’s the big deal? Well, aside from good PR, having these new hybrid cars in the game will actually change the way WRC is played, in the same way that they change the way the real life WRC races play out in real life.

At the start of the race, the hybrid cars get a power boost at the starting line. Throughout the duration of the race, you have to judiciously brake to manage that power and get through to the finish line, but there’s more to it than that. At different points of specific race tracks, they have placed pre-set electric power maps, and driving over these maps gives you additional power to keep on racing. Utilizing these maps to recharge will require you to slow down, cutting precious seconds away from lap times.

Does that sound a bit like playing some good old fashioned F-Zero or WipeOut? But WRC Generations is still a racing sim, and these mechanics are intended to replicate the experience of driving these hybrid rally-racing-certified cars in real life.

To further augment that simulated experience, there will be an on-screen battery indicator so you have a visual indicator of your current power level.

We ranked WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship as # 11 in our 14 Best Xbox Series X|S Open World Racing Games and # 14 in our 18 Best PS5 Off-Road Racing Video Games You Have To Play. While never at the top of the sim racing games mountain, Kylotonn have made a popular series that has kept the WRC franchise enduring until this current gaming generation. With WRC Generations , they may be setting a precedent that other racing games will be compelled to follow their lead on.

WRC Generations will be released on October 10, 2022, for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Source: TheGamer