First, to tackle an oft-mentioned issue in the negative reviews and community hub - because Milestone's servers for this game (and, I presume, in general for anything in the 'older' category of their catalog) are dead, and because their implementation for what the game should do if the servers are dead is shoddy as all hell, you will in all likelihood open this game up to an almost immediate freeze. To solve this (on Windows 10, at least): Open the Network and Sharing Center menu in the Control Panel, then click 'Change adapter settings' in the sidebar, and then disable [b]every[/b] network you are connected to. Then, launch the game, and once you get to the main menu, reenable your network connection(s).
This, I have to admit, does not set a good tone for the rest of the review, any way I spin it. Chalk it down to me just being used to this; WRC 4, Milestone's last entry in that series before the baton was passed to Kylotonn, is fundamentally tight. It's neatly designed, even if it does share many of the basic mechanics as MXGP and, indeed, MotoGP. It [i]also[/i] requires you to frame-lock it (via, in my case, the NVidia Control Panel) to 59 FPS because if it continuously runs at anything above 60, the audio completely dies out mid-game. Every time you jump into any one of their games, you should expect at least one technical caveat of this sort.
That all being said, beneath the grime of viciously middling porting lies a game that is ultimately Pretty Nice. I'm not big on bike games (yet, at least) - more of a car girlie - so I couldn't tell you for sure if what's here is true to life or if the physics are accurate, but 1. it [i]feels[/i] accurate enough and 2. it plays well, when all's said and done. Good deal of choice in the difficulty department, too; once you get to the races proper, you can decide if you want a 'realistic' experience (full amount of laps, practice + qualifying before the race) or a more trimmed-down, straightforward setup (the default at the start is three laps without practice and qualifying). As I assume is standard, you also get a modest list of options regarding handling; auto-brakes and automatic handling of the rear brake, TCS that goes from full to off, stability control, stuff of that sort.
The career mode doesn't differ much from Milestone's other games around this period of time - you sign with a team of your choosing and start off in a 'lower' tier of whatever you're competing in (here, it's Moto3; in WRC, it's Junior WRC), you race and gain points depending on your performance, and at the end of the season, if all went well, you can advance to the next tier. Repeat until you're the Greatest Champion Ever™. It's a simple progression system, but that's fine. It doesn't really [b]need[/b] to strive for more, I feel. What's there is enough to play around with for a couple dozen hours - which, given the asking price on sale, makes it more than reasonable.
It's still pretty funny to me that these folks couldn't make a normally-functioning game for A Number of years though. (I say this with all the love in my heart, mind you.)
