One thing I've noticed about AC Rally compared with....pretty much any racing game I can think of that has forested areas...is that the forests look thick and DARK in AC Rally. I'm not sure if this is an unreal engine trick / SSAO or something, but even in the comparison stills above you can see that in the distance basic textured "ground" between trees in the EA Rally games, but in ACR all you see is trees and darkness. It might be a minor thing to some, but for me it really amplifies the feeling of immersion to get that utter impenetrable forest feeling. These visual aspects combined with the near-perfect sound design and true to life environment design has this game in the running for most immersive racing sim ever made, IMO. I can't believe they've come up with this on their first try.
