Sèbastien Loeb Rally Evo Delayed Until 2016, But It'll Be Worth The Wait

We were almost there. With less than two months to go before Milestone would release the much-needed contender to the DiRT series with its own racer, Sèbastien Loeb Rally Evo, and it went and dropped the bomb. The studio has pushed the release date back from October 2015 to early 2016, but don’t fret. The extra time is being used wisely to polish the game and cut out the bugs.

If you haven’t heard about SLRallyEvo, you’re not alone. At this point, marketing for the game has been minimal. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be some low quality generic racing game. The Italian studio, Milestone, has been working on racing titles for nearly 20 years. Its passion for petrol is evident in its previous games like the MotoGP series, the WRC series and the new breakthrough motorcycle racer, RIDE. You can find out more about Milestone in our introduction to Sèbastien Loeb Rally Evo.

In a recent statement to the press, Milestone said that SLRallyEvo would be bigger and more advanced than any rally racer we’ve seen. The game already has over 300 kilometres of tracks set in locations around the world including Pikes Peak (US), Sweden, Los Angeles (US), Australia, Finland, France, Mexico and Spain.

Twenty manufacturers are participating with over 60 models planned for the release. Players will be able to customise these cars with twenty different liveries and a variety of other small cosmetic customisations. From screenshots and trailer videos we know we will be able to race the Peugeot 208 PP, Citroën DS3, Citroën C4 and Citroën Xsara, FIAT 500 Abarth, Renault-Alpine A110, Ford Rs200 and, of course, the Mini.

Over the last three months, the developers have expanded the game from ten to 15 game modes. Though we haven’t been given specifics, we know the game modes will include:

• Offline Races
• Offline Practice
• Offline Time Trial
• Career Mode
• Online Head-to-Head Competition
• Online Time Trial (Worldwide Leaderboard)
• Special Events (Showcase of Special Driver Skills)

It’s no surprise that Milestone has decided to delay the release. From recent videos, anyone could tell that it would need a lot more than a couple of months to wrap it up. Besides, when was the last time a racing game was actually released on its originally scheduled date?

On the bright side, the level of detail in the screenshots gives us hope that the finished product will reflect an equally detailed driving experience in respect to interaction with the surface of the road and environment. The biggest challenge is whether this new rally racer will outdo WRC5 and heat up the competition with the DiRT series. What do you think?