Visual Feedback: What can be learned from WRC:G
Background: I’ve never played any of the Kiloton WRC games in the past, originally came from DR 2.0 which I loved. Was excited about WRC 23, but was let down due to many visual glitches and underwhelming graphics. Recently I decided to install WRC:G just to see how it compares. Here are my findings:
VISUAL
Graphics wise overall, the visual impression is so much better in WRC:G vs. EAWRC23.
Color grade in Generations looks fine, EAWRC colors are bizarrely bad - everything looks super dull and has an ugly yellow/green tint. This is kind of fixable with ReShade, but you should have to do that.
Distant lighting is stable and consistent in Generations vs. EA has a weird draw distance for lighting and it’s super immersion breaking.
Foliage pop-in is horrible in EA, WRCG doesn’t seem to have this issue. Again, huge immersion breaker.
in EA, ground cover all sways in the same weird pattern that gives the impression it’s under water. Ground cover looks a lot better and more varied in WRCG
On the flip side, trees don’t appear to sway in the wind during weather in EA, while they do convincingly in WRCG
ROAD TEXTURES: This might be one the biggest issues in EAWRC. They look SO much better in Generations. More varied, crisper, just more convincing. EAWRC are usually just a grey or beige mass.
Overall stage detail: Stages feel ALIVE in Generations, so many varied plants and terrain details. Structures POP and look beautiful (buildings, water towers, cranes). Comparing EAWRC, it’s not like it doesn’t have all these things, but they’re just so lackluster and kind of just disappear into the background. When I do notice structures in EAWRC it’s usually because they look super janky and stick out like a sore thumb (ahem, Japan)
WATER:
We all know by now that water splash and windshield rain FX in EAWRC is a joke. Looks so much nicer in Generations. This should be an easy fix, just need shaders to be high res.
Falling rain FX is also a joke in EA, there’s no physics to it. And please get rid of that godawful warping/liquefy effect from the screen in rain conditions, it’s not fooling anyone.
Now, the biggest issue I think is the combination of water and road surface. In rainy/wet conditions in EAWRC, road surface doesn’t have ANY STANDING WATER / puddles. This results is wet roads looking completely unconvincing, like they’re made of some weird bumpy plastic. Incidentally, DR 2.0 had this effect DOWN PAT - wet road surfaces looked SO GOOD. Now, I barely ever wanna play wet conditions in EA WRC because it just looks so ugly. PLEASE Codies for the love of all that is good, give this some love.
BIG one for team EA though: Car models/textures. I have to admit, car models look amazing in EA WRC. Everything from model detail, to textures, to paint effects (metallic blue Subies look gorgeous), to suspension physics. Interiors also look best in EAWRC. Props here.
UI:
I’ll keep it short, the menu UX in Generations is just better:
I don’t have to reselect everything from scratch when doing a new TT, it preselects the car and stage I previously used.
TT allows me to actually set time of day and weather (puh-lease can we have this in EA?)
I can set position and FOV for dashcam (so important from us plebs without triples)
GAMEPLAY It didn’t take long for me to realize why WRC:G wasn’t going to be an option despite looking really nice. The car handling and FFB on a wheel (in my case, CSL DD) is a joke. I couldn’t feel what the car was doing at all, feedback went from almost nothing at all to barely being able to turn the wheel, no predictability, floaty, just.so.bad.
When i fired EAWRC back up to compare it was like night and day. This game FEELS SO AMAZING - you literally feel the road and car underneath you. It’s so engaging and immersive. I almost forgot about how bad the graphics are. Almost.
So here we are. I’m heartbroken. There’s no ideal option. WRC:G looks really nice, I’d happily take that game’s visual package. But at the end of the day, this is about DRIVING right? So I’m of course going to choose EA WRC any day of the week - I just have to accept the fact that it looks like butt.
Ultimately here’s the takeaway: Codies/EA, if you’re reading this, you have the foundation for an amazing rally game. You’ve nailed it where it really counts. Please just invest more time in rehauling visuals. I know this will take a lot of work so I’m not expecting this to be resolved in a patch. But I have to hope that for WRC24, or whatever the next big milestone is that you’ll take these things into account. The driving experience you’ve already built is so worth it.
