WRC Powerslide (2014) - Every PC Rally Game
0WRC Powerslide by Milestone/Bigben Interactive, 2014.
This was the final WRC game by Milestone to come out on the PC. It came out on consoles in 2013 (and contains locations and cars from the 2012 season, as also featured in WRC 3). For some reason though, this one was discontinued from Steam (unlike WRC4, which actually came out before it), so you can no longer really purchase it on PC any more.
Unlike the other WRC games, this one is focused on arcade game style racing, with 4 cars going head-to-head. There are 2 ways to play, one with no collisions between the cars (as shown here, as it's more like traditional rally) and a more crazy mode with Mario Kart style power-ups (and car-to-car collisions). The power-ups include a selection to slow down rivals (lightning bolt, hailstorm, leader-tracking rocket), a smokescreen, a shield and a nitro boost. It makes the game a bit more fun, but also chaotic, as you can get taken out a few metres from the finish line!
Handling-wise it's much more arcade than the WRC games, which is to be expected. The soundtrack seems very small though (I've turned off the music) and many cars share engine noises (as they did in the WRC games). The main focus of the game is unlocking things (teams and tracks) by winning specific events, rinse-and-repeat. Multiplayer is no longer available.
The game does only contain 8 WRC events though (no Finland here, for example) but they do include some of the more scenic ones, like Mexico). There doesn't appear to be many tracks though, they're more chopped up/reversed parts of one long track (but this was likely the case for much of the WRC games too).
The game, like other Milestone WRC games, tops out at 1920x1200 resolution, although you can force higher resolutions by editing a hidden .ini file and setting it to Read Only. I've used 1920x1080 here. There's a few slight frame drops, which did appear when I was playing, not sure if that's specific to this title though. The level-of-detail improvement on shadows noticeably pops-in quite near the car though.
This is part of the Every PC Rally Game playlist, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYDobL0b26ugFuXASCIC9qmFb9_k4_fqU