GTPlanet League: Codemasters Classic Championship

[MagpieRacer]

Happy to be leading after a few days, I know it won't last 😅. The championship contenders are yet to come through.

 

[IORT_Fishtail]

Looks like a 50/50 chance of making it without a terminal based on current standings 😂

Go hard or go home. What could possibly go wrong.

 

[Dreadmed]

This was always going to be something of an adventure, the '24 hybrids are unquestionably more stable then their previous iterations and no more so than at MC... I selected the i20 on a whim (I almost always go with the Puma) and spent the next half an hour trying to make it work on those slow hairpins down the Turini. I feared the worst when I skated nose first into a wall not 30 seconds into the stage proper, but aside from a few bumps and scrapes I managed to get the i20 down to the bottom in one piece... only for it to attempt to throw me off the road going through a high-speed compression in stage 2 (merely getting away with a 360 spin on the cliff edge).

I grabbed a more stable tune for 3 + 4 (which worked a treat) but it nearly went pear-shaped on the power stage; accelerating up the mountain I ran over a couple of rocks on the verge which chucked the car up sideways into a skid before it eventually started sliding down... but thankfully I still had the reset prompt up so I ate a 12 second penalty, assuming the boundary is the darker zone on Racenet I was probably half a car length away from a DNF. 😨

After that mishap it was an example of how not to drive the icy downhill section, braking too late and locking up into the boulders on every other tight turn. And it wasn't over when I got to the dry stuff, this moment shortly after doing so illustrating I hadn't learn the lesson of DON'T DRIVE OVER ROCKS from 4 minutes previously;

 

[Tool1312]

Well, other than Greece ( where I DNF ) this was my worst and most hateful rally yet. I think I span in every stage, the Puma drove as I I was on rims, in fact on the 4th stage I lost a load of time with a puncture for the last mile, didn't fancy losing 90 seconds swapping it though.

Funny thing was I created the same rally in the quick race option and stage one I drove ok ( actually would have beaten @peniu by a second or so ) but in the actual rally the grip levels seemed a lot lower.

Didn't enjoy this one very much, I'm quite surprised that I'm 5th overall so far

 

[UKMikey]

Car
Any 2023 Rally 1:
Hyundai i20 N
Toyota GR Yaris
Ford Puma​

Couple of prohibited 2024 models taking part in this week's rally. 🤔

Unfortunately the majority of my fellow Sunday drivers appear to have noped out of this championship leaving only the keeners and aliens. I consider myself very fortunate to have only blown my tyre out on the penultimate corner of the final stage enabling me to limp across the finish line with my Yaris in fewer than three pieces.

 

[Tool1312]

****, I used a 24 Puma by mistake.
Sorry @MagpieRacer

 

[Darken Azriel]

Aw crap I used the '24 yaris. I was told once that they are basically the same thing so my brain didn't even register other then "oh that's the one I have a tune for"

 

[IORT_Fishtail]

crazy how a 16 minute terminal happens on both a 5 minute stage and a 10 minute stage which makes the true penalty from the mishap much more severe on the shorter stages.

I’m securely in last place but I’m seeing the difference in which stage a terminal happens as more of an impact than I first thought.

Stage 4 and 5 were same penalty of 16 minutes but half the average completion time 😭

 

[MagpieRacer]

The slippery, treacherous Rallye Monte-Carlo served as a tough venue for the Rally1 machinery. @Dreadmed taking a commanding win in the i20 N to keep his championship hopes alive going to Portugal. @peniu took 2nd place, and is still in the prime seat for the final round. @Morbid65 took P3 in The Yaris.

As above, it is a 2 horse race for the title between championship leader @peniu and challenger @Dreadmed . 22 points separate them with 30 points up for grabs.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Round 13
EA WRC '24 - 2024

Car
Toyota GR Yaris Rally2

Location
Portugal

Touca
Celeiro
Anjos
Viana do Castelo
Fafe

Whilst technically not a full new game release, WRC '24 could be purchased as a standalone title to those who didn't own EA WRC, including all the content from '23 and '24. It's also significant as the final iteration of any Codemasters rally game (for the time being) after the shuttering of the development team in 2025.

2024 saw the addition of 2 new rallies to the calendar, with Latvia and Poland joining the roster, as well as the full suite of 2024 cars and liveries, the subtle tweaks to the 2024 Rally1 machinery coming through nicely and the upgraded JWRC Fiesta Evo proving a fun ride. The marquee addition was the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

Closely following the release of the 2024 content, 2 DLC packs followed, the first celebrating French superstars Sebastien Ogier and Sebastian Loeb, whilst the 2nd celebrated a variety of drivers and machinery. Some phenomenal cars were added across the packs, such as the Xsara F2, Polo R, Clio Rally3, i20 Coupe, DS3 WRC and a wide variety of liveries. Notably, a handful of real world stages were added from Monte-Carlo, Greece, Sweden and Portugal.

The final count for the game gave us 100 cars, 226 liveries, 20 rallies, 35 hero stages, 264 stages total, with approximately 670km unique roads and over 3070km total stage length. Signing the game off as the most content rich rally title ever made, some consolation at least for what may turn out to be the final Codemasters rally title.

To close the championship, we take on the main new addition of the 2024 season, the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, and we take it out to one of the most loved and storied rallies on the WRC calendar, Portugal. Culminating in the classic power stage blast through the iconic Fafe stage.
​

 

[Dreadmed]

Went into this one in double-quick time for a change, I've been desperately needing more space and unfortunately this has to make way... for a final run it was quite an enjoyable one although initially I was sliding about all over the place in the first 2 stages, the awkward dash-cam not helping matters. Made a couple changes and thankfully the Yaris felt a lot better after that! I've added the tweaks I made down below if anyone feels like taking a gander, although as always YMMV (brakes were unchanged apart from a moderately tighter handbrake);

 

[DarthNoose]

Yup. Not gonna even finish Portugal. Fafe is the only good thing about this rally and I'm not gonna drive through four stages of torture and agony. Just awful. Makes me want gouge out my eyes and rip off my fingernails.

 

[IORT_Fishtail]

Just happy to finish another go without a major crash or terminal.

 

[peniu]

As above, it is a 2 horse race for the title between championship leader @peniu and challenger @Dreadmed . 22 points separate them with 30 points up for grabs.

One of the horses turned out to be a donkey in disguise! Terrible rally for me, getting 3 punctures in total, with two on first stage is certainly a way to end a championship. My last resort was fighting for power stage points, but with P2 for now I think it is just enough for @Dreadmed to take it away.

 

[Tool1312]

Finished Portugal on a fairly decent note, as in 3rd overall ( I won't be surprised to drop a bit further down as @SharkyOB hasn't set a time yet ). Had a few stupid errors in stage one where I hit the barriers on the tarmac part and a couple of other places, though if it had been a clean run, I'd still be over a minute down overall after stage 5.

Tbh it wasn't error free in the other stages either but it was enjoyable.

Big thanks to @MagpieRacer for setting up the championship and the great individual leadup posts which detailed each rally in turn.

Hopefully there'll be another cos EA WRC is really such a great game despite it's faults.

Here's some shots of my run

 

[Tool1312]

I'm very fortunate to have finished the championship on the podium after being in 4th for quite a while. Definitely would have still been in 4th if @SharkyOB had raced at Portugal so I got lucky there.

 

[peniu]

Congratulations to @Dreadmed for winning the championship, thank you @MagpieRacer for organizing and everyone else for great racing! It was fun to relive the memories with all those games, my first being CMR2 - played with my father on keyboard back somewhere in my primary school days.

I was very annoyed with myself that I did not maintain the advantage from before the Portugal, but at the same time @Dreadmed was faster in every rally he attended so it is only fair he won in the end.

 

[MagpieRacer]

The final round has concluded, and we have our champion. But first, the matter of Portugal! @Dreadmed securing victory on the difficult Portuguese stages, including victory on the Fafe power stage. @GOTMAXPOWER powered to 2nd place, whilst @Tool1312 secured a solid P3 finish.

This combined with a difficult event for @peniu means we have our champion, congratulations @Dreadmed ! securing P1 with victory and taking the title by just 3 points.

A phenomenal series debut for @peniu taking P2 in the championship, victory was so close, but I am sure we will see them challenging again very soon.

And @Tool1312 held off the charging @GOTMAXPOWER to secure P3 in the championship by just 5 points.

Congratulations to our championship top 3. Here are the final standings.

A massive thank you to everyone who took part, it has been a joy to run this longer form GTPlanet league series, and the enjoyment can only come from people taking part, so thank you.

This marks the end of the Codemasters Classic series, looking back at the history of Codemasters rally games, whilst the chapter may be closed for now, let us hope that in the future we will be able to expand this series.

GTPlanet WRC League will take a short break, there are some series ideas in the pipeline, I will keep the main thread updated with when that will begin.

See you all soon!

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Thanks as ever for hosting @MagpieRacer, this season has been full of nice nostalgia and at times pretty sad when you think that Codemasters will never make a rally game again and nobody else has the interest or ability to make anything that does the sport justice.

 

[Darken Azriel]

One of my favorite club rallies over the last few months. Looking forward to whatever you do next

 

[MagpieRacer]

One of my favorite club rallies over the last few months. Looking forward to whatever you do next

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 👍

 

[Darken Azriel]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 👍

In the meantime you need to make an appearance in our series!

Welcome to EA Racenet

The racing companion app to EA racing games, where you can Connect, Compare, and Improve your racing experience.

racenet.com

 

[Pearl Jam]

Cheers for organising it all, must admit I skipped a few rallies (mostly tarmac) as to me, rallying should always be done at 3am in a forest in Wales, pissing down and freezing your nuts off ☺️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿