WRC 8

WRC 8 is the most in-depth rally sim to ever wear the official license.

With a beautiful handling model, much-improved visuals and a savvy use of the official licence, WRC 8 is a triumph.

Overall, the driving is competent, and most importantly, delivers that thrill ride as you scream over treacherous terrain. It's a shame the presentation is somewhat lacking, because this is otherwise a solid rally experience.

WRC 8 is a hugely enjoyable rally game – perhaps the strongest in the history of this long-running series – but it arrives on Switch in a disappointing state.

By far the best outing every by KT Racing/Kylotonn and in the WRC franchise as a whole. With a well-defined career mode, backed up by a wealth of stages, set across a variety of places within the world, all of which are well designed, WRC 8 offers a lot for fans who want yet another strong rally game to jump into. While not quite alongside DiRT Rally 2.0, it's certainly coming close.

While it's a slight shame that the series this year doesn't quite come out unscathed, WRC 8 is nonetheless a fun and well-crafted entrant in the World Rally Championship series.

Is WRC 8 the ultimate driving game? No, that is evident. But it is the best simulator we can find right now on Nintendo Switch

WRC 8 is a surprisingly good representative of its series. It is a good thing that Kylotonn has listened to his community and made improvements in many areas, because it really created a well-balanced rally racing game that should satisfy both arcade and simulation fans. The varied career with the challenges and the extreme weather conditions make you happy, the innovations such as the dynamic weather during the races and the skills tree also help to diversify. The improved driving physics also give the title more driving pleasure, as you can finally feel and weigh the different surfaces even with a controller. So if you can get something out of sport, you should definitely grab it, because it is easily the best part of the series so far.

WRC 8 is a fantastic leap forward from WRC 7, with a revamped career mode for aspiring drivers to sign a team, manage crew members and level up skill trees to become the best team in the dirt-rallies.

There are some issues within WRC 8, and they're not small, but the game is otherwise so good that it's easy to overlook them. For all the times your engine switches to stealth mode or a fence post sends you into low Earth orbit, there are hundreds of times when you are blissfully guiding your car into a drift around a dusty apex in Argentina, or masterfully twisting through a series of highly technical corners during heavy rain. The vehicle handling is so good — and that is so important for a rally game — that even with its flaws, WRC 8 is likely the high bar that other rally games should aspire to.