Waiting for WRC 23? Get Your Sim Rally Fix Here

Richard burns rally is still good today.jpg
In a recent video by our friends at Overtake, Emily Jones took a look at Richard Burns Rally, comparing it to the more modern rally simulators. With rally fans waiting on WRC 23, which is your best bet for sim rallying?

Image Credit: Warthog Games

In a recent video posted to the Overtake.GG YouTube channel, popular simracing content creator, Emily Jones took a look at Richard Burns Rally. This near-20-year-old rallying simulator is still going strong thanks to a dedicated fan base and a modding community that has transformed the game.


Whilst this older game, especially in its Rally Sim Fans iteration is popular, it certainly has competition from more recent simulators. WRC Generations released in 2022 and Dirt Rally 2.0 was made in 2019 by the same team that is developing the next official WRC title. But how do these three genre-topping titles compare? Well, Emree has everything you need to know.

The ultimate rally game​

In her video, Emily compares the three top dogs in rally simracing by breaking them down into certain categories. From driving physics to content as well as the games' realism and multiplayer game play and even ease to setup, she details the pros and cons of each.

Whilst each game has its own take on physics with some being more forgiving than others on different surfaces, it's when it comes to content that they truly differentiate. WRC Generations is the latest official WRC game and, as a result, features many real-world stages which is great for immersion. Dirt Rally 2.0 however breaks away when it comes to its list of vintage cars. When it comes to RBR though, its content quality doesn't quite match its rivals. That being said, it offers a bit of everything, from modern monsters to old-school brutes.

WRC Generations banner.jpg


As for the online rally experience, it seems Emily prefers RBR, a game from back when online racing was almost unheard of. Rally Sim Fans does a great job at allowing players to race each other thanks to great functionality such as the legs. In longer rallies like SRM, drivers are forced to take things slow as a bump with the trees could result in having to skip an entire leg of a rally. This ties in perfectly with the game's ruthless damage model.

It's this challenging damage model that makes fans turn towards the more recent games which are certainly more forgiving when it comes to accidents. Ultimately, simracing is all about fun. And until the next WRC game releases, rally fans have a plethora of great titles to enjoy. Whether you race on RBR, WRC or Dirt all comes down to personal preference.

Which rally game do you play the most?
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Angus Martin
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

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AndyC709292
Carapau345 said:
Oh... I actually returned Seb Loeb Rally because I was unable to map my Fanatec wheel and pedals. Be careful with that one if you are on Fanatec gear...
Click to expand...

Likewise. Gutted I was as I had it on PS4, and loved it. Moved to PC & Fanatec and it was toast.

I even bought a drivehub (Makes your Fanatec gear PS4 compatible, if it isn't), and whilst that worked on most games I still had no joy on Seb Loeb.

So, Fanatec + Seb Loeb... not so much, but you'll have my eternal gratitude to anyone who does know how to get it working!
 
Richard Wilks
Spinelli said:
They're all fun and all have their positives and negatives with regards to physics. None of them, as is the case with almost all sims - rally and non-rally a like - are too convincing/natural with regards to oversteer behaviour.
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I am sure no sim or game ever will be able to fulfill your legendary high expectations :)
 
P
Dirt Rally 2 is a nice game that overstays its welcome past 100 hours of gameplay when you start getting seriously competitive and find out about its non-physics, canned features that are baked into the gameplay.
 
guidofoc
I tried RBR but it feels too old for me. Will wait for a proper modern sim title . When I want some rally action I use AC for tarmac stages or BeamNG, both lots of fun.
 
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Metla
Premium
RBR is equally as legendary in status as GPL, and equally not going to be installed on my system as its 2023.

Heavy metal ages well, Video games don't.

And, even back in the day I preferred Rally Championship 2000 and the first few iterations of Colin Mcrae rally over RBR. Still, I had it, I played it, I enjoyed it, and since then I've had kids who are now in University.

Only Rally game I currently have installed is DR 2.0 and I generally only fire it up when I want a break from road based sims. Will definitely be interested in the new WRC game if it has VR and doesn't suck.
 
MJQT
Shannon Flynn said:
RBR vanilla doesn't do a whole lot for me.
The new iterations are too much of a pain in the ass in the tweaking settings department.
I haven't tried the Rally Sim Fans version. Might have to take a look.
Rally is my THING
Click to expand...
If rally is "your thing", you ABSOLUTELY should take a look at RallySimFans and give it a try. It's much less of a pain in the ass than other versions, as far as I can tell :roflmao:
 
Metla
Premium
does VR work out of the box with the install of RallySimFans build?
 
T
Can't beat St-Jean/Laurent in AC right now. Looks fabulous, plays great - there's simply no better place to crack handbrake turns.

Tarmac rally in AC is the best about. Loose surface still seems pretty duff but tarmac on AC now is easily the best sim-rally experience I've ever had.

IMO sim-rallying took a terrible turn way back when Codemasters's Colin McCrae became a thing instead of Mobil 1 Rally Champ. And it's never recovered (though DR1 is fairly decent, in the usual short-changing Codemasters way.)

Check it out? Note, no "faked" drifts as in Dirt Rally (DR fakes drifts). And most every rally car you can think of, available largely for free.

 
T
I find very sad that the state of rally games has become so bad that a game so old as RBR is still in the conversation. RBR is very far from the physics level of ACC, Iracing or even Rfactor 1, the tyre model is as basic as a stone, not even tyre flex, and the cars always have had way too much lift oversteer that can't be tuned out no matter the amount of setup work done to tone it down.

A rally simulator with modern hardcore physics engine would be a blast. But the only game in the entire genre that ever tried to do a hardcore physics rally simulator was RBR, and that's the reason why it still stands king despite the massive amount of shortcomings and how dated those physics are.

The developers have avoided the development of rally simulators like the plage because it won't sell. Circuit racing simulators have always been a niche of a niche, rally simulators are a niche of a niche of a niche, there is almost no interest in them.

Rally games traditionally have been a genre for the casual gamer that wants instant gratification in a thrilling enviroment at a very fast pace. They don't want frustration, learning curves, cars difficult to handle, nor a realistic damage model that can make your rally end in the very first corner after a crash with a tiny tree that almost seems a bush.
 
U
gamma123152 said:
RBR is simply massively overrated. It looks, sounds and even drives ffb wise like going back to the stone ages. The only thing that's pro about is; is more accurate damage than DR2. Except that DR2 is better(yes tarman is not perfect in DR2, agree..). And yes this was all subjective.
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Have you even tried RBR?

FFB is like night and day compared to pretty much every other Rally game out there.

The adaptive FFB and the next generation physics mod is the best you can get if you're on a monitor with more than 60 Hz. FFB and physics actually get better with higher FPS.

The cars in RBR actually feel like cars. For me, it's way easier to drive because the cars react exactly how I expect them to react. I uninstalled DR2 because of its strange handling and bad FFB.

The only other Rally game I play from time to time, is WRC Generations. It has really good physics and FFB if you take some time with the settings. Miles ahead of DR2.
 
R
Carapau345 said:
Oh... I actually returned Seb Loeb Rally because I was unable to map my Fanatec wheel and pedals. Be careful with that one if you are on Fanatec gear...
Click to expand...
I bought the full edition on sale last week for less than 2 euros because it has been a highly praised game on every aspect for years, except... the control support. But I read few months ago there's a way to fix that by editing files, it is a common issue with Milestone games and the fixing works for all of its games. I think I found the tutorial on steam, you should search for it. I did not try the game, lack of time, but I'm going to try it today and let you know about this fixing process. Don't lose hope, I think this game worth our time, it was the competitor of Dirt Rally 1 and generally better reviewed for its physics, but no VR.

About this video, if racedepartment moves towards partnerships to fill holes, it should at least think about the quality of the content it gets from the partners. Basically, "RBR is overrated" in a boring introduction taking almost 20% of the full video time, but in fact it is the best in each category listed (categories excluding FFB, graphics, sounds, VR, price and long time support), but as a conclusion "it is overrated because I've enjoyed more the most modern games thanks to.... no reason".... seriously??? And, setting RBR is no more painful than the other games, one download, a few clicks and everything is done by itself (and the reviews of WRC generations stated major issues regarding the settings of the game). I know, laziness is a modern plague we should accept but... seriously??? It's even not funny... nothing professional in this video, this would have been a good joke for the 1st of april. There's tons of professional simracing content creators out here, it is unbelievable to watch that sort of less than amateurish video on a dedicated sim racing website. Well, rant time over...
 
R
MJQT said:
For hardcore simulation rally, RallySimFans Richard Burns Rally is your only option. To sum up what I've seen about other titles - WRC Generations has truly outstanding stage design but is buggy and has truly bizarre throttle behaviour, while Dirt Rally 2.0 has gravel-but-grip-turned-up tarmac feel and a much-too-forgiving damage model. DR2.0, in fairness, does have beautiful visuals, a more advanced dynamic stage surface wear than RBR, and consistently solid engine sounds powered by FMOD.

RSF RBR has massive numbers and variety of cars and stages - admittedly of widely varying visual quality - often outstanding modded FMOD engine sounds, and NGP7 handling that has many lifelike aspects. I'm always struck by how you can feel the "weight" of the car, especially on loose surfaces. You have to really brake carefully (you can't just chuck the car in and know it'll stick in some improbable way) and you must manage weight transfer. Due to a unforgiving damage model (perhaps too much so!), on "Realistic" damage in a long rally, you also feel real fear of severely damaging or breaking your car - even one bonk of a tree or rock can be enough to end your rally... as it should be in a rally simulation.

Perhaps WRC 23 will dethrone Richard Burns Rally. But for now, in my opinion, RBR is still king.
Click to expand...
I am not a rally expert and I enjoy many rally games (lately I've been enjoying a lot V Rally 4), but RBR has something (even the vanilla game when it came out) no other game gives, the feeling of the tires scratching the surface, there is something "natural" I've never felt in another title.

Lately I reinstalled the game with a pack including the last physics mod and a few others (camera...), and good setups (let's remember how bad the default setups were in this game, they for sure were the main reason the game has been rejected), launched a rally on snow and... I was at home again after many years.
 
R
the_last_name_left said:
Can't beat St-Jean/Laurent in AC right now. Looks fabulous, plays great - there's simply no better place to crack handbrake turns.

Tarmac rally in AC is the best about. Loose surface still seems pretty duff but tarmac on AC now is easily the best sim-rally experience I've ever had.

IMO sim-rallying took a terrible turn way back when Codemasters's Colin McCrae became a thing instead of Mobil 1 Rally Champ. And it's never recovered (though DR1 is fairly decent, in the usual short-changing Codemasters way.)

Check it out? Note, no "faked" drifts as in Dirt Rally (DR fakes drifts). And most every rally car you can think of, available largely for free.

Click to expand...
Interesting, I haven't tried rally stages in AC but I'm not surprised it feels good on tarmac as it is a versatile engine. I wonder why it is not that good on loose surfaces because I tried mods on oval dirt and I was absolutely surprised how good it felt. Well, I need to try that and some stages look absolutely gorgeous. The only issue is the lack of championship or career (tell me there's a mod for that!).
 
testdriver77
Ive played all rally games in all the years and RBR has its legendary status but for me its meanwhile overrated. When it was released it was the best rally sim, no doubt.
Tried all the fancy mods and also in VR but all that do not change the fact that it is an old game. Doesnt matter how cool the physics are but the rest do not match my epectations anymore.
Ive respect the community work at this point but at the end its an old piece of software.
Sometimes its better to keep the good memory....

Wrc titles are visually ok but the physics are quite poor.
The sound is just an desaster and they had so many chances to make it better but failed completly.
Ive throwed money at them for Wrc 8 and 10 but this was disappointing.

DR1 was an really good start in the right direction.
DR2 is actually my favourite despite the fact that tarmac physics are not at that good level but we know that meanwhile.
But all other points are for me quite good so far. But i guess its possible to make it even better.
As an overall package DR2 is good and i like to shred with the cars there.
Only the VR impementation could be better.
Its maybe not the realisitc game in terms of physics but the driving experience paired with good sound and visuals turns it in the best overall package.
I would love if EA/Codemasters take their chance and release a really good rally sim. The focus on rally only would be a great move and deliver us great physics and even better visual effects. The sound was already fantastic.
It would be cool to get an proper rally game which creates a solid base for the next years and with proper support.

Ive tried also the AC rally cars and tracks but here is quite similar situation like with RBR.
From one point of view its nice that community release such content and i respect that.
There are lot of people which like that.
For me its also already old stuff and SOL (and other improvements) cant "camouflage" the fact that AC is meanwhile also old software.
 

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