On PlayStation 5, WRC 9's got a helping hand with the DualSense, Sony's handsomely featured new controller, and it's a bit of a game-changer. Force feedback has often played a big part in driving games - my first experience of a DualShock, like many others I'm sure, came when rippling across the kerbs of the original Gran Turismo - so it's only right that the best DualSense workout I've experienced outside of Astro's Playroom comes here. There's a nuance and added fidelity here that, if explored a bit more fully, could be as transformative for driving games as the shift from 30fps to 60fps.
That's because so much of driving isn't just about how far you press the loud pedal and how quickly you spin the steering wheel - it's about feel, that seat of the pants sensation that can be such a struggle for traditional control methods to replicate. I'm not suggesting WRC 9 gets all the way there, or that it's an effective replacement for an expensive direct drive wheel and loadcell brake, but it makes some convincing moves in the right direction.
The build-up of tire resistance is a more tangible thing - on tarmac the breaking of traction feels suitably rubbery given the purity of the contact there, while on gravel you'll feel that looser surface sliding under your fingertips too - in a pretty convincing approximation of the feeling you'd typically get through your bottom in a real car. The adaptive triggers also play their part - snatch a brake and you'll feel the wheel locking under your finger, and there's that extra resistance on the left trigger than there is on the right in deference to the feel of a real brake and throttle pedal. There's not quite the amount of resistance I'd really like to see, but it's able to communicate a fair bit more than your standard controller about what the car's doing.
That brake pedal can also seize up after you've punished the car a bit too much, as can the throttle - if your car's shagged, you'll feel it in the rumbles and groans of your pad as you nurse it home - and before you reached that point there are some enjoyable subtle signs of mechanical strain pushed through the DualSense. There are those exhaust pops and turbo flutters, but what I love are the little recurring knocks that subtly suggest something could go wrong if pushed too much further. Great driving games are about enabling a dialogue between the player and the car, and with the DualSense I don't think the vocabulary has ever been so broad.
