WRC 5, the official game of the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship, is now on sale. WRC 5 allows players to drive 65 different special stages, five each from all 13 rounds of motorsport’s toughest championship for production-based cars.
They include classics such as El Condor from Rally Argentina, Ouninpohja from Neste Oil Rally Finland and Hafren from Wales Rally GB, with more than 350km of stages available on which to compete.
Gamers can select from 20 World Rally Car drivers, including star names such as world champion Sébastien Ogier*, Kris Meeke, Thierry Neuville, Elfyn Evans and Robert Kubica.
Volkswagen Motorsport, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, Hyundai Motorsport and M-Sport World Rally Team are all represented with their World Rally Cars displayed in 2015 liveries.
There are also 21 WRC 2 drivers available to choose from, including championship frontrunners Nasser Al-Attiyah and Esapekka Lappi, and 10 from the FIA Junior WRC, headed by newly-crowned champion Quentin Gilbert*.
Players can select from seven primary game modes including:
· Rally school - learn the basics of competitive driving;
· Career – climb the sport’s ladder from Junior WRC to the headline World Rally Car category
· Quick stage – choose a car, stage, weather and time of day and floor the accelerator!
Features allow gamers to set-up major components such as suspension, brakes and ride height, and experience the heartache of nursing their car to the end of a stage with mechanical problems or damage after crashing off the road.
WRC 5 will be the first video game to feature its own global eSports championship, allowing players to compete in multi-player tournaments simultaneously with every round of the 2016 WRC season.
The eSports WRC Championship will begin at January’s opening round of the year, Rallye Monte-Carlo, and more details will be announced soon.
WRC 5 hits the shelves in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Benelux countries today (9 October), with worldwide availability elsewhere on 16 October.
WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla believes it will prove a big hit with the sport’s fans.
“It’s an all-action game which takes in classic rallies and legendary special stages on all types of surface – the same features which attracted drivers such as Sébastien Ogier to WRC,” he said.
“Our strategy for WRC is to make it available to fans whenever, wherever and however they want. WRC 5 is another example of this, and one which will take a further step forward next year with the excitement and drama of the eSports WRC Championship,” he added.
WRC 5 is the first rally game to land on new-generation consoles and is available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PC.
It is published by Bigben Interactive and developed by French company Kylotonn Games, with technical advice from 2013 FIA WRC 3 champion Sébastien Chardonnet.
* Subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA.
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