As with WRC 10, slowing down to scrutinise roadside elements close up does reveal some murkiness (and I wouldn’t really put the cars and their fairly mediocre damage modeling in the same class as Forza, GT, or even Dirt) but in motion Generations is otherwise a slick and vibrant racer with strong lighting effects. Even at a quarter of the resolution the stages are still rich with detail, and I’ve noticed no screen tearing – which has been an occasional bugbear for this series in the past. It’s worth noting that on new consoles, Generations offers a choice between a 1080p/60fps performance mode and a 4K/30fps graphics mode, and after spending time with both I’ve settled on the former. A mix of wide-open blasts and incredibly narrow channels, Sweden is extremely strong in Generations and is now one of my preferred spots – even though the snow rallies like Sweden and Monte Carlo traditionally don’t rank too high on my list of favourites. It looks seriously excellent at night, too, and it’s a great showcase for Generations’ terrific lighting, from the glow of campfires to the way the headlights cut through the woods.

The snow in particular is uncannily realistic whipping past it at high speed, with roads flanked with sloping piles of soft clumps as the ploughed edges encroach back onto the stages. The new Swedish stages are a big highlight, and are easily amongst the best-looking routes in the whole series. KT Racing has already let fans know they will not be added later, which is a shame, though it seems recalcitrant of me to gripe too much considering the glut of countries that did make the cut.

That said, I do miss my beloved Australia (last seen in WRC 8) and Poland (last seen in WRC 7), which are conspicuous in their absence. Series veterans will note that a lot of the stages themselves are repeats from previous games, but I like having them all here in one package with consistent features.

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