WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship

this only works if you have a sister

step 1. buy this game
step 2. play this game on loud speakers
step 3. irritate your sister
step 4. get grounded

definitely worth it

Big thanks to KT Racing for controller support and especially the ability to play with a split screen. I bought it mainly for this feature. Thanks for adding it!

After playing both WRC10 & WRC8 here are the main differences.
1. BIG plus for WRC8. All advanced vehicle setups have a proper explanation as to what they do. This is missing from WRC10 and was a major oversite. So many posts, internet sites etc players want to know. There was even a petition sent to the Dev and Publisher requesting this. They couldn't be bothered.

2. WRC8 is easier than WRC10. They both have sim "feeling," but WRC10 seems more difficult and more realistic. However, this is my subjective opinion.

3. The graphics are only marginally better in WRC10.

The layout of career mode, and others hasn't changed. Not a bad thing, except the advanced tuning is differerent in WRC10, and it takes trial and error on test tracks just to figure out which each setting does. They are simply presented as a whole lot of numbers in WRC10. I find this really odd. Is it by design? Or is it just lazyness that this wasn't added. Should have been there at the beginning.

4. Which is the better game? I have to go with WRC10. Except missing info (above) it's more polished. Feels like a really decent "sim." Looks somewhat better with no glitches, and has a lot more content. It's the complete package.

Finally, WRC8 is an older game and far fewer people still play it. It has a few sound glitches and overall just feels a bit dated. Not surprising considering it is an older game:

We have WRC9 WRC10 WRC Generations, and the latest EA WRC Sports, with a large expansion added (paid usually unless a sale) released in 2024.
The latest game, EA WRC Sports plus its substantial expansion were developed for the first time by Codemasters. The same devs as made the excellent Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.

There isn't much reason to buy WRC8 in 2025 mainly because there are Four newer, and overall better games.

Sadly, WRC development has stopped according to EA, so the latest game, developed by Codemasters, released in 2023 with big, "hard chargers pack DLC added in 2024 is the last one, ever! It has a lot of content though.

So that's a sum up of my opinion. Others will differ.

BTW I played around 900 hours of Dirt Rally 2, a huge game, and several hundred of it's original sim Rally game, Simply callerd Dirt Rally. Still a great game, the only reason not to get it would be the huge amount of content in the 2019 Dirt Rally 2.

running on a steam deck and its fun. setting on med and plays great. if you have a deck and want a great racing game get this. other newer wrc games dont work as of right now so this order title is the way to go. on sale
??? get it!!! full price? ehh wait a week lol

Haven't played a racing game in years, but this one seemed fun, they have around four new entries in the series but the gameplay is so addictive (when you get the hang of it) that i'm not getting any of the new ones until i go through at least a few careers and more. Just had to drop this review because for the price it's just absolutely bang for the buck.
Mind you this game is hard, you really have to get the hang of it before it it feels like the car is flying trough the stages, so if you're looking for a game where you just press the gas, this is not it, this feels more like a devil may cry equivalent of car games instead of a bland regular slasher. I had fun with need for speed games and midnight club and also have a lot of fun driving in GTA 4 & 5, but this is something else. You'll restart countless courses just to shave one extra second off your time, and restart many more as you get to know each stage and learn how to keep the car on track. The point is not just how fast you can go, but how to drive in a smooth way and always keep the car going while preparing for the very next stretch with the visual and audio info from the co-pilot.
Pros:
Gameplay. This game feels just great (only played on controller), just addictive.
Graphics are very enjoyable specially on higher settings, both cars and stages are fun to look at, and can run on older computers too, i think.
Career is fun, it's cool to tackle challenges strategically as you get better to get better crew and head on to harder courses.
Cons:
Not that many cars. I used to play games like midnight club and need for speed, so i miss customizing my car to look ridiculous, or at least get more cars to play as. Just a nitpick i guess, the point is really to get to know a car and feel of the track and get great times in a realistic setting.
Sound- i feel the sounds of the car could be a bit better or at least more varied but the co pilot sounds good and the sound of the car on gravel and braking and sound affects give you a good feeling while racing, just the acceleration sounds i find sort of meh.
Info- Not really a con, just a side note, as i don't care much for cars i don't understand what some tuning does. They explain in general, and you have to trial and error to get your own tuning right anyway, and you can get a lot of tips online, but as someone who appreciates engineering one cool thing for more car games to have would be some sort of technical diagrams and explanations of how car parts work and what they look like so you get a better understanding of what i'm tuning and how it might affect the handling. i feel that would be a great addition to this and other car games.
Difficulty may be a con for some. This game takes it's time to learn and has a very particular way of handling, so you're really playing by the rules of this game. also you're always racing against the clock. it may be a lonesome experience but you need to be so sharp controlling the car it's good you don't have to mind other obstacles on the track.
They say this game is more of a simulator than arcade, maybe a good way to put in in terms of general game genres, but i feel this is the true arcade experience: an absolute grip on your attention and skill.
Not really knowing the newer gen of graphics or physics for racing game and being the only rally game i played, i give this a 8/10 for the whole game itself, but a 10 for the gameplay, for the most fun i've had in a racing game. 10/10 investment for 2-3 bucks it goes on sale. VRRRRUUUM

This game can be pretty difficult if you want to climb the leaderboards, but personally, I find it pretty realistic. It’s my only wrc game but even 5+ years after its release I’m not disappointed. It really got that console game feeling from the menus, as if it wasn’t optimised for pc, but that isn’t a problem. I thinks it’s a good choice for action rich racing.

The AI has improved over the previous WRC titles. I have no longer found tracks where AI (Hard difficulty) is impossible fast or dead slow. Seems they have finally nailed the AI balancing.

Car Handling: Finally bumps matter on the road, so when you hit a bump at a wrong angle you can end in the shadow realm and if you hit it correct way you can take insane amount of speed into a corner and survive.

Overall Def recommended (Tho MP is dead unless you have a friend to play with and Servers are offline)
But for Singleplayer experience its well worth