The older historical stages are a fun addition because KT Racing has stripped out the contemporary advertising and safety features of the modern stages and replaced them with crowds of more period-authentic spectators, many of whom are poised dangerously close to the roadside. WRC 10 allows us to put any car on any stage, historical or modern. The good news for anyone stumped by the taxing time limits in Anniversary mode is that all of these cars – and the historical stages – can be used in identical fashion in quick play without any such pressure. It seems strange for WRC 10 to cater for new and novice players with a variety of settings, driver aids, and tutorials, but opt for a hardcore, one-size-fits-all approach for the marquee Anniversary Mode. At least a couple of the time requirements I’ve subsequently encountered in this mode so far have been surprisingly stiff certainly severe enough for less experienced racers to bounce right off this mode entirely. I thought I was cruising when I notched up the first two events on my first attempts, but that changed on the extremely tough third event (which is actually the fifth event, because confusingly the third and fourth event got skipped and remained unavailable). Inexperienced racers can dial down the intensity of their career and quick race difficulty, but at the time of review, Anniversary mode cannot be changed. One significant issue that some may have with the Anniversary races is that the time requirements don’t scale with the global difficulty setting. They’re just a small collection of time trials with a little bit of text to explain the historical context of what you’re about to do. With its own separate menu and period photography it does feel quite special at first, although there’s ultimately not really a great deal to it.

That big 50th Anniversary mode is an important part of this year’s game, and it’s by far the biggest injection of historical content to the series since KT Racing started adding classic cars in WRC 8.

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