Once I’d set my level, in conjunction with the custom settings, I could enjoy the game at my own pace, switching up the difficulty as and when needed to experience the game how it was meant to be played. I set up an easy, medium and hard account in each of them easy is often too easy, but the arcade-like feel of the racing is much more approachable and fun, more like DiRT 4 than DiRT Rally. WRC 8’s career mode provides you with three slots. It changed the way I played entirely, and it was all the better for it. I accepted defeat and, four hours into career, I started again on easy. On medium, WRC 8’s AI is fiercely competitive. KylotonnĮven then, I felt out of my depth. There are countless opportunities to tweak your car and controls - and you're going to need to. I adjusted steering, braking, acceleration, my co-driver’s direction timings and driving views for two hours, alongside the obligatory pre-race garage edits. I don’t think I’ve ever changed my settings on a racing game as much as I have on WRC 8. Even with re-runs, you’ll find yourself pinging off your surroundings more than you do in Yoku’s Island Express. The car can lock up way too easily the deadzone is way out the steering sensitivity feels off. Playing it on standard settings, you’ll likely find little joy in your first few races, using your allotted restarts after binning your car into a pole or bystander.
![wrc 8 setups wrc 8 setups](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bkcMObPhh1U/maxresdefault.jpg)
If you’ve only got a controller, you’ll need to start tinkering from the ground up, across the board.
![wrc 8 setups wrc 8 setups](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tCJeybyM5NA/maxresdefault.jpg)
Out of the box and with standard settings, WRC 8 is a twitchy, unforgiving mess reminiscent of Project Cars’ console outing: a game that’s designed for a steering wheel peripheral.
![wrc 8 setups wrc 8 setups](https://takegaki-drive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/9213bc80a64189a0d72e0d7ec3bc9c91-3-890x500.jpg)
It’s after the following first rally that you’ll likely realize it is. "Extreme Conditions" mode is as unforgiving as it sounds.