Black Bean Games have announced that they are going to release a rally game using the official World Rally Championship licence next year. That is right, Codemasters’ DiRT series is going to have some competition.

The new WRC game is being developed by Black Bean’s internal development studio, Milestone who have worked on the MotoGP and Superbike World Championship games, it is a good sign that a team with experience on racing games is handling this. In another example of a good sign is the following quote from Simon Long, CEO of WRC commercial rights holders ISC: “it will be the most realistic and playable rally game of all time.”

That is why I am already looking forward to this new WRC game, however much I love the DiRT games I do miss the focus on the traditional point to point rallying. I have long waited for a game to come along to the PC with the official WRC licence, while the WRC may not be as popular as it once was back in the mid to late 90s it is still once of the most exciting forms of motor racing around, and it should make for an excellent game.

A final thing, if Wales still hosts the British round of the WRC next year then I should be able to race around forests which lie just a few miles from my house. That would be awesome.