Instead of Assetto Corsa Rally, I bought...

I've always been fond of racing games. As a kid I loved Outrun, Power Drift, Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge and, at a friend's house, Mario Kart on the SNES. Later in life I played some Gran Turismo, and then years past before I picked up the gaming hobby again.

WRC 10: A super cheap alternative to Assetto Corsa Rally

Racing in the modern era

On PC, I fell in love with Project CARS, racking up over a hundred hours in the game and even buying a racing wheel with gearbox and pedals! I never really got into rally games though, with DiRT Rally 2.0 being my most played with just 11 hours.

This week, a few of my Steam friends have picked up Assetto Corsa Rally in Early Access, and I must admit I was tempted to do the same. I played a dozen hours each of Assetto Corsa 1 and Competizione and liked them both, even if I did end up going back to Project CARS 1, 2 and Automobilista 2.

Too pricey for me

Alas, I decided the the new Rally game was a bit beyond my budget for a style of racing I find quite tricky! Instead, I looked on Fanatical.com and found some much cheaper alternatives, namely WRC 10 and V-Rally 4.

Side note: As part of Fanatical's Nitro bundle, I also picked up Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom and Super Indie Karts, both of which are highly rated but I regretted my purchase within 10 minutes of playing them. I don't know. I just have no idea what I'm doing in crazy arcade games like those. At least they were ridiculously cheap.

Not Mario Kart, but Super Indie Karts!

WRC 10 ticks all the boxes

Anyway, WRC 10 has made a very good first impression on me. It still looks gorgeous, and I could immediately play it with an Xbox One Controller (my wheel setup was sold off long ago). I was also happy to see that its online leaderboards are still active, and I could race against one of my Steam friend's ghosts. He's much better than I am, but I can race my own ghosts instead now. :)

As for V-Rally 4...

V-Rally 4 also looks and plays great for an aging racing game, and it has a lot of content, not just rally stages. I particularly like driving at speed through Japan. Unfortunately, the online leaderboards no longer work.

V-Rally 4 is just like the real Japan, but with faster cars!

I tell you what though. I have no idea why the menus in V-Rally 4 use (B) for Confirm and (A) for Back. I spent as much time trying to navigate the menus with this inverted control scheme as I did driving!

Cheap rally game are enough for me

The bottom line is, for less than half the price of the new Assetto Corsa Rally, which is admittedly cheap for such an established franchise, I got two rally games that more than satiate my need for off-road racing, plus two bargain-bin arcade games which might appeal to you more than me.