Recent reviews by Pendl

I really like this game, despite it having a few issues. It's an uncompromising racer, with an incredible attention to detail, and is probably the best racing game I've ever played.

Amazing graphics. I play from the in-car view with all the HUD turned off, and the immersion is fantastic. It really feels like I'm in an actual motor race, with rain hammering on the windscreen and spray from the other cars in front. I don't have any issues with the AI, they behave like real people, sometimes they are idiots and take you out mid-corner, but that happens in the real world too. The driving physics can be hard to master (especially in a car with no assists) but it's so satisfying once you learn how to drive a car that initially seemed impossible.

The amount of different cars, tracks, championships and events mean this game will keep you busy for a long time if you get into it. I've barely scratched the surface after 35+ hours.

There are only a couple of problems IMO: the AI don't seem to be affected by track conditions as much as the player. They can drive really powerful cars through massive puddles at full throttle for example, where the player is aquaplaning all over the place. In qualifying they can post dry times when it's pissing down, which means a lot of the time you start from the back of the grid through no fault of your own. Cheating gits.

Some of the preset challenges are overly difficult, even early on in career mode. For example the Ginetta "Proving Ground" race has you driving a ludicrously powerful GT4 car round Cadwell Park which is a really narrow complex track. I had to drop the AI down to 20% just to keep up.

There are a few bugs. I've had slick tyres put on my car in a wet race, even though the car setup is set to "automatic by weather". Nothing major, just a bit annoying.

If you like your motorsport this game is for you.

I'll start with the positives: the graphics and car handling are amazing. The cars are a lot of fun to drive, and the game looks gorgeous.

Now for the negatives, hoo boy. The always online requirement means menus take forever to load, even in singleplayer. This is unacceptable IMO. I don't care about syncing my times to some online leaderboard somewhere when I'm playing a solo game. Why does this game need to check in with Codemasters servers all the damn time? Drives me nuts.

And career mode. I *hate* it. Not knowing what I was doing (I haven't played a rally game in years, and there is no tutorial in game) I spent all my credits levelling up my pit crew, and then realised you need to spend credits to repair your car inbetween stages (fair enough) but also inbetween events. WTF? I did some random community event, messed it up and totalled my car. Went to do a different event and the damage carried over and I had no money for repairs. Who at Codemasters thought this was a good idea, and a fun gameplay experience? I ended up with a garage full of smashed up cars and not much money to fix them. Fun times.

The need for credits for repairs means every time I hit a tree or whatever, I'm thinking "I wonder how much this will cost to fix" which just sucks all the fun out of the game.

Aha, there's a "reset career" option in settings. I'll wipe my save and start again now I know what I'm doing (kinda)

Nope, it just wipes your event progress. I still had no money and a garage full of broken cars. So I sold them all.

Career mode is *garbage*

Took a chance and bought this in the Steam sale, and I absolutely love it. Started with the pro clubs straight away and it's a nice challenge, I can feel my skills improving the more I play. I really like the swing mechanics and love the fact that the swing relies on "feel" as it will take some time to master (I play with a controller)

Really glad I picked this up, can see me sinking a lot of hours into it.

[edit] need to update my review a bit WRT career mode. Whoever decided to put one of the hardest courses in the game as literally the second event in the beginner (Web.com) tour should really think about it a bit more. You're literally learning how to play the game and it throws this course at you. It's a nightmare of elevation changes, rollercoaster greens, bunkers everywhere. I won the first event at -2 and finished the second at +18. Frustrating as hell.

Massive difficulty spikes are not fun for beginner players.