Pre-order WRC 8

Rally games have always been a favorite of mine, as rally emphasizes car control more so than perhaps any other form of motorsport. WRC 8 is set to deliver payoff in that discipline in spades, but that isn't all that the game will have under its hood. In addition to mastering your control over the course, you will also manage your team to ensure that you have the best shot at victory.

The game covers courses from 14 countries including Argentina, Chile, Germany and Turkey. The physics system has been completely redone for this title, and in my limited time playing the game at E3 2019, it certainly felt like the cars behave like you'd imagine they should. Understanding how your vehicle handles within the realistic physics will be important not only in dry conditions, but thanks to the game's dynamic weather system, there are many other conditions as well. Even in the middle of a stage, your day can go from merely cloudy to a sprinkle to a downpour, and what was once grippy dirt can become slick mud. Some epic stages can even be up to 15 to 20 minutes in length, testing both your skill and your endurance as well.

Fifty teams are featured from the World Rally Championship (WRC), WRC2, Junior WRC, and even some historical WRC teams. In the career mode, you run your own team with control over which events you enter, who's on your team, and the management of the crew. There's also a skill tree to invest points into, which pays off with greater reliability out of their work on your car or in more accurate weather forecasts for the stage ahead.

Depending on what the next stage contains, you have access to a dizzying array of options to tailor your car for it. Merely looking at the limited slip differential options amounted to quite a few different options. It was certainly possible to keep a car under control in the default configuration, but it also felt readily apparent that people who have a knack for setting up a car will have a field day in doing so in the game.

Make no mistake: WRC 8 is more than happy to let you fail at first. I was too hard on the throttle at times, especially during a rainstorm that brewed during my stage, which caused my car to oversteer and become a bit unwieldly. It wasn't long before I started to temper my controls, and it's at that point where the game rewards that finer control with letting you power through some cool rally action. Flicking the rear of the car and drifting around a boulder with a steep cliff is much more satisfying when you know it was your skill that pulled it off.

WRC 8 will be out on Sept. 19 of this year for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch release is planned but will simply be coming "later." Either way, WRC 8 is a game to keep an eye on. I'm a sucker for racing career modes that are deeper than just the action on the track or course. With WRC 8, it seems like you get the best of both worlds, and I'm excited to see how it all comes together.