The less said about what happened to the DiRT games over the years, the better. (Fucking Gymkhana? Really? And don't even get me started on the annoying American voiceovers imploring me to 'put it on Yootoob'.)
But this game looks like it could be properly good, the man at the helm comes over as really level-headed and passionate about rallying, and the video of the chap playing the game in its current state looks awesome (linked below).
Currently available on Steam Early Access for the rather tempting price of £22.49, in fact I may just dive in myself. (The FAQ says it's starting cheap to reflect the current state of the game, but will get more expensive as it gets more complete, but if you buy now you're guaranteed all future updates for free.)
According to the video there should be a console release once the PC version is finalised, so they're developing and iterating with feedback from the PC gaming community, and then they'll port the finished game over to the consoles.
It does sound much more like a simulation than we've been used to, Flashbacks are gone for starters (CONFESSION - I did use those in the single player mode....), and car damage is far more of a thing too. But if you read the article at Eurogamer they've got a new physics engine designed to be a lot more realistic than the DiRT2/3 model.
Doesn't look like it has any online stuff yet though, which could be a deal-breaker for me for the time being, as Saturday rally stages with the chaps would be very appealing.
Quote:
Early Access Game Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops. Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more
WHAT THE DEVELOPERS HAVE TO SAY: Why Early Access? “It’s really important to us that we make DiRT Rally the best game it can be and we can only do that with your help. Steam Early Access is the perfect place for us to do that. We believe that DiRT Rally is the game many of our fans want and right now, our plan is to develop DiRT Rally with community feedback and get that experience absolutely right.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “We currently have plans to run our early access programme until the end of 2015, we have a whole host of new and exciting features already planned and we can’t wait to hear what the fans would like to see us add too.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “As time goes on we’ll be adding more cars, more environments and more rally stages, we’ll be climbing Pikes Peak and going door-to-door around a selection of the best circuits from the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship. We’re hoping to include competitive online play this summer and we’ll also be adding features based on feedback from our community.”
What is the current state of the Early Access version? “At release DiRT Rally will include a total of 36 rally stages spread across Monte Carlo, Greece and Wales. We will launch with a wide selection of cars, from 1960s classics right through to modern day machines.
We have in game league support, daily, weekly and monthly challenges and a career mode which takes you from grass roots rally events in classic rally cars to professional championships in some of the latest and most high tech cars available.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “Yes, the price will increase throughout the Early Access program, and again after Early Access to reflect the state of the game. All updates to the game will be free after a player’s initial purchase, ie pay once, and everything else gets added for free!”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “There are loads of ways you can help; buying the game reinforces our belief that we’re making the game you all want, playing the game enables us to collect loads of useful data about the kinds of ways you play it. If you find a bug or something that’s not quite right we need you to give us as much information about it as you can and if you have an idea about how we can make DiRT Rally even better, we want to hear it.
For those who aren’t ready to join us for early access we still want your feedback and we’ve tried to make DiRT Rally as easy to follow as possible. Our new shiny website dirtgame.com should be your first port of call; here we have blogs from the dev team, videos and our development timeline. You’ll also be able to check your stats and leaderboard standings, join or host a league, view your progress in our async events and even launch the game right from your browser!”
If you read the piece at Eurogamer the head guy on the game from the Codies sounds pretty humble about it all, openly acknowledging things aren't what they used to be at the company.
Also I think it's important to remember that they have turned out some superb games in the past, even if their output hasn't always been amazing and they turned to the dark side with twaddle like day one DLC and suchlike.
I'm optimistic that DiRT Rally, being created as it is by what seems to be a small and passionate team, and using Early Access to mould a true rally simulation game, could turn out to be really good.
(And DiRT2/3 weren't bad games, they just got a bit lost with the Gymkhana and Monster Trucks shite, the pure rallying aspects of the game were great.)
I've actually read it now, and watched the video and everything. I like the intentions as stated, and what they have so far actually looks pretty damn good. That fact that it's early access and that the developers are seemingly in dialogue with hopeful rally fans might be what makes this work in the end. That Codemasters burn, though. It stings.
All this stuff about how shit Codemasters are, is this just some received wisdom or a view based on some stuff from years ago? Because I think their recent stuff has been really good. GRID Autosport was excellent and the F1 games have been decent on the whole as well.
Well for me it goes way back to their old rally games which were launched with similar hype. Also, as far as I remember they were the first to have content locked on disc that you had to buy codes for online to unlock. They also made you sign up on their web page only to then spam your email with "newsletters".
The only recent stuff I've tried was the last F1 demo, which left me stone cold.
Thinking back DiRT2 was a bloody good game, the American twaddle had started to creep in but the meat of the game was absolutely solid, and they had a fantastic licensed soundtrack for it too.
Me and the guys got some serious mileage (literally, lol) out of it on the Saturday night slot, usually sticking to the pure staggered start rally stages, many of which were sublime tracks to race on.
I pretty much completed the single player campaign too.
If DiRT Rally basically does the best bits of DiRT2, and indeed just focuses on the best bits of DiRT2, then we'll be happy. And at £22.49 for Early Access plus guaranteed updates right the way up to and including release, along with a promise of no microtransactions, there's very little to complain about here IMO.
Forgive the slight pedantry but it's £22.49 and yes I'd say that's pretty cheap for a full game?
@Pundy - Yes there was good stuff in the DiRT games apart from the 'pure' rally stages (Rallycross was great) but they really lost me with shite like Gymkhana and and all the 'yo bro' stuff.
I've not liked a Rally game since Colin McRae Rally on PS1 which was, frankly, The Tits. Fun, bouncy and a joy to play. The DiRT games aren't (for me) but then again I ain't a fan of bland Sim games anyway.
Thinking back DiRT2 was a bloody good game, the American twaddle had started to creep in but the meat of the game was absolutely solid, and they had a fantastic licensed soundtrack for it too.
Me and the guys got some serious mileage (literally, lol) out of it on the Saturday night slot, usually sticking to the pure staggered start rally stages, many of which were sublime tracks to race on.
I pretty much completed the single player campaign too.
If DiRT Rally basically does the best bits of DiRT2, and indeed just focuses on the best bits of DiRT2, then we'll be happy. And at £22.49 for Early Access plus guaranteed updates right the way up to and including release, along with a promise of no microtransactions, there's very little to complain about here IMO.
I know 3D (like with the glasses and shit) is pretty stupid and frowned upon but I honestly can not speak highly enough of Dirt 2 in 3D using dashboard mode. It was literally so good I could have stuck my hand in the screen and touched the gages and dials.
It was also nice and slippery and very satisfying. I found Dirt 3 to be far too controlling of the motion of the car and when I turned the aids off it wasn't as good.
About the only thing I really enjoyed in Dirt 3 was the hill climb thing, in the snow, in the dark in the Audi Quattro. That was pure exhilaration.
Dirt Showdown? complete crap. No redeeming features at all.
Codemasters used to be pure simulation. Colin Mcrae was incredible "Let's see how ya dud".
I mentioned I bought it over here, before thinking about the fact that there might be a stand-alone thread for it.
Does anyone own this then? I quite like it, but I know nothing about cars and racing and Rally and stuff. (The extent of my knowledge and opinion is that rally is better than circuit racing, because it's in a normal looking car and they slide around the countryside, rather than going around the same tiny bit of track).
Does anyone here use a racing wheel peripheral? Right now I'm slumming it with 360 controller + automatic transmission.
edit: What about TRACK IR? Anyone use that expensive toy?
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Pretty good video here, from someone who's clearly been waiting a long time for a rally game like this.
In the interests of disclosure I still haven't bought this, simply because GTAV and Hearthstone are quite enough to have on the go at once (and trying to thread in Mario Kart 8 on the Wii-U as well) - however, a mate at work has bought it and absolutely raves about it.
There are some decent wheel configs out there now, and he's playing it with a wheel. He describes it as brutal but sensationally exciting and satisfying when you get a stage right.
I'd be very surprised if it was much like Richard Burns Rally. That was a ludicrously difficult (but excellent, and supposedly realisitic) game. I thought it was unplayable for the first week I had it until I sussed out you actually had to use proper rally driving techniques like left foot braking.
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Mr Burrrrt wrote:
I'd be very surprised if it was much like Richard Burns Rally. That was a ludicrously difficult (but excellent, and supposedly realisitic) game. I thought it was unplayable for the first week I had it until I sussed out you actually had to use proper rally driving techniques like left foot braking.
Dirt Rally is ludicrously difficult. I've spent a couple of hours with it and I'm largely terrible.
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I'd be very surprised if it was much like Richard Burns Rally. That was a ludicrously difficult (but excellent, and supposedly realisitic) game. I thought it was unplayable for the first week I had it until I sussed out you actually had to use proper rally driving techniques like left foot braking.
I hope it's not then, I reckon I'd really struggle to use my left foot on a playstation controller.
Just had a quick go on this. It's properly bloody difficult and I was hilariously shit on the first go but it feels perfect, can't wait to get stuck in later.
This game is hard. I was winning this first championship (the one with the slowest cars and worst opponents) until I got to Sweden, just keeping it off the sides and going in a straight line is damn near impossible but you can't really go any slower and still have a chance:
I read a review where this was described as the Bloodborne of driving games. Which is utter bollocks because unlike Bloodborne it's both excellent and fun.
To be honest I haven't yet come across the super steep learning curve that some reviews describe either. If you were to approach it like a normal racing game and attempt to not leave any hundredths of a second on every corner then you wouldn't get very far at all. But from what I've seen so far it seems to be designed perfectly to allow you to progress and win races mostly just by actually staying on the road, listening to the co-driver, paying attention to the standings and going only as fast as you need to in order to remain in front. The co-driver's notes are excellent too, each set is complete and unique for each course rather than just being the same little snippets replayed for every corner.
The online events are pretty great, there's a daily wager event where you can bet a load of your credits and then you have one go at a stage and the return depends on where you come in the rankings. No restarts, you do your time and that's that. There are also weekly and monthly events that work in a similar way, again so far I've found that going reasonably quick and not crashing will get you into the top tier of rewards, even the top few percent, although this will likely get tougher as people either give up or realise what it is that they're meant to be doing.
But yeah, best rally game ever for my money and by some margin.
I read a review where this was described as the Bloodborne of driving games.
Ha, that's such a gleefully fucking pointless and stupid comparison. I want a game that's the Wolfenstein of RTSs. Or the Destiny of match-three puzzlers. Or the Barbie Horse Adventures of first person shooters.
I read a review where this was described as the Bloodborne of driving games.
Ha, that's such a gleefully fucking pointless and stupid comparison. I want a game that's the Wolfenstein of RTSs. Or the Destiny of match-three puzzlers. Or the Barbie Horse Adventures of first person shooters.
Obviously that would be absurd but the comparison was in relation to a specific point. Those games are notorious amongst RPGs for the way they punish mistakes, for being difficult and rewarding patience (which I just didn't have) and the reviewer was put in mind of it whilst playing this. I just haven't found it to be the case so far.
I'm getting a bit quicker but frustratingly am still not Ari Vatanen:
Bloody love this game, though. I think it might very well be my favourite racing game of all time. It's actually terrifying (especially the RWD cars) once you start to realise how quick the car can go round some of the corners but only if it's positioned well with the tail hanging out and the back wheels scrabbling through the gravel to find the grip. String a few of these quick corners together though and you start feeling like you're clinging on for dear life, knowing that if you don't ease off a bit then you're surely going to end up in a tree with a fucked car. I don't think any game recreates the feeling of driving like a total cunt down the lanes better then this one does.
If a game was going to get me to pony up daft money for a wheel it would definitely be this but the pad works well enough and instead it's got me seriously thinking about saving up the money for a treat to myself and doing a day here instead: http://www.forestrally.co.uk/
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