Dirt Rally Announced and Out on Early Access

[Subyman]

Anyone try it with a wheel yet? I have a G27 and may pick this up.

 

[Dankk]

After playing for a little bit last night, I can confidently say that this is NOT like the other Dirt titles. Vehicle handling is an absolute beast. The game is very unforgiving. Haven't messed with the controls much though, I'm just using the built-in Xbox controller preset (I know, I know.. I don't have a good wheel).

I did eventually turn up the traction control and stability control by a couple notches, which made the game much more playable for me. It's worth noting that the assists are not simple "On/Off" toggles in the options menu; rather, they are sliders that run on a scale from 0-5, so you can choose varying levels of traction, stability, and ABS. By default, traction and stability are left at zero. ABS defaults to 5. (There are some other assist options that I can't remember at the moment). It's nice to have a variety of choices here, and I suspect playing with a proper wheel setup with all the assists turned off is a very grueling experience.

The game has a full suite of graphics options. I won't go into detail here, but there's as many options as you would expect from a proper PC video game, including a FOV slider for the cockpit/bonnet camera views. Visually, the game looks good, but nothing amazing. Basically Dirt 3's graphics with a bit of a facelift, mainly in the lighting department. Some people probably won't be happy with this. On the bright side, the game is very well-optimized and incredibly easy to run (like most Codemasters titles). I'm currently running the game at 1080p Ultra settings with 4xMSAA, and my GTX 980 does well to hover around 100 frames per second.

Force feedback and sound design are great. The audio in particular is the best I've ever heard from a Codemasters driving game. I love how you can really feel the vehicle rumbling and rattling down a dirt track.

Unfortunately many people (including myself) are experiencing a glitch right now where the co-driver is completely broken, so you don't get any pace notes. D: The devs are aware of the issue though and are working on fixing it.

 

[smackababy]

I might have to check this out once it stops being a pay 2 beta test scam.

 

[AntonioHG]

I might have to check this out once it stops being a pay 2 beta test scam.

I see it as funding for their continued survival. They aren't flush with cash and aren't making money hand over fist. Having the game in Early Access means they can get feedback and make adjustments.

They do themselves to blame for their problems by bringing out mediocre games year after year, but hey I don't want them to close up shop.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-09-layoffs-hit-f1-and-dirt-developer-codemasters


I'm going to vote with my wallet and pick up the game later.

 

[smackababy]

I see it as funding for their continued survival. They aren't flush with cash and aren't making money hand over fist. Having the game in Early Access means they can get feedback and make adjustments.

They do themselves to blame for their problems by bringing out mediocre games year after year, but hey I don't want them to close up shop.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-09-layoffs-hit-f1-and-dirt-developer-codemasters


I'm going to vote with my wallet and pick up the game later.

I am not in the business of funding projects with zero monetary return. That is a bad investment, IMO. Consumers need to understand the acceptance of the risk they are taking on in doing crowd funding / Early Access type of stuff.

Either way, once it comes out, I will give it a fair chance. If it continues to get good reviews as a racer and sim, I will likely pick it up.

 

[Skurge]

After playing a bit more. The stages are very challenging. To me, more so than the handling. I can see if you put a lot of focus on you pace-notes, you can save a lot of time. I saved almost an entire minute and didn't go after redoing the same stage, but paying close attention to pace-notes. Due to the cars having more heft, they don't change direction as quickly so you need to setup the car ahead of the corner and pace-notes help with that a lot.

Loving the game so far. I'm already enjoying it more than Project CARS.

 

[Rudee]

Driving quite well using the Xbox 360 controller, with controller sensibility to 100% and linearity to 0%.

 

[thilanliyan]

Ughh...apparently there's a bug with North American installs...no co-driver voice, no pace notes...so it's kinda hard to drive not knowing what to expect lol.

From my 5 minutes with it, FFB needs some work, at least on my G27. Graphics look pretty good on Ultra setting. Car handling seems to be okay, but I need to drive some more...the Mini on gravel didn't feel as loose as it maybe should have..not sure.

EDIT:
Saw someone posted this on reddit:
http://www.simracingworld.com/content/181-richard-burns-rally-an-internal-affair/

That's pretty amazing that they modeled the engines too in RBR.

 

[Whitestar127]

After playing for a little bit last night, I can confidently say that this is NOT like the other Dirt titles. Vehicle handling is an absolute beast. The game is very unforgiving. Haven't messed with the controls much though, I'm just using the built-in Xbox controller preset (I know, I know.. I don't have a good wheel).

I did eventually turn up the traction control and stability control by a couple notches, which made the game much more playable for me. It's worth noting that the assists are not simple "On/Off" toggles in the options menu; rather, they are sliders that run on a scale from 0-5, so you can choose varying levels of traction, stability, and ABS. By default, traction and stability are left at zero. ABS defaults to 5. (There are some other assist options that I can't remember at the moment). It's nice to have a variety of choices here, and I suspect playing with a proper wheel setup with all the assists turned off is a very grueling experience.

The game has a full suite of graphics options. I won't go into detail here, but there's as many options as you would expect from a proper PC video game, including a FOV slider for the cockpit/bonnet camera views. Visually, the game looks good, but nothing amazing. Basically Dirt 3's graphics with a bit of a facelift, mainly in the lighting department. Some people probably won't be happy with this. On the bright side, the game is very well-optimized and incredibly easy to run (like most Codemasters titles). I'm currently running the game at 1080p Ultra settings with 4xMSAA, and my GTX 980 does well to hover around 100 frames per second.

Force feedback and sound design are great. The audio in particular is the best I've ever heard from a Codemasters driving game. I love how you can really feel the vehicle rumbling and rattling down a dirt track.

Unfortunately many people (including myself) are experiencing a glitch right now where the co-driver is completely broken, so you don't get any pace notes. D: The devs are aware of the issue though and are working on fixing it.

Thanks for this. :thumbsup:
Will be nice to finally have a proper rally sim. Assetto Corsa and PCars for racing/hotlapping and now Dirt Rally for rally...good times.

 

[destrekor]

Just to confirm:

When you purchase an Early Access game, I know you get all content as it is added. Do you also get the full retail release (either separate product or final updates added to the current install) without paying any additional charges? So, for $30 now, you get the full retail release whenever that happens, even if it costs $60 at that time?

 

[thilanliyan]

Looks like that no voice bug has been patched.
Definitely liking this game. Only driven the Mini so far but the driving feels pretty good.

 

[Stuka87]

Just to confirm:

When you purchase an Early Access game, I know you get all content as it is added. Do you also get the full retail release (either separate product or final updates added to the current install) without paying any additional charges? So, for $30 now, you get the full retail release whenever that happens, even if it costs $60 at that time?

When you buy it in early access you own it. Typically does not include pay-for DLC (if there is any). But the full game is yours.

 

[thilanliyan]

Despite the latest patch, I'm getting some random hangs. I can alt-tab and end the process but still annoying.

 

[Firsttime]

This game is fucking hard haha. But I'm really liking what I've played. In the other Dirt games I just redo races over and over till I got 1st and it usually just took a few tries. But honestly, just finishing a segment without reseting or restarting feels like an accomplishment here.

 

[thilanliyan]

This game is fucking hard haha. But I'm really liking what I've played. In the other Dirt games I just redo races over and over till I got 1st and it usually just took a few tries. But honestly, just finishing a segment without reseting or restarting feels like an accomplishment here.

Yeah, I'm just playing against the AI on Professional and I'm getting only second and third places. Making up those last 20-30 seconds in a whole rally is gonna be hard but I'm getting better with the pacenotes. As Skurge said, paying attention to the pacenotes is crucial.

I'm still not 100% sure about the car handling though...it kinda feels like there is too much grip

 

[Gregster1970]

Hey Guys, here is my review of Dirt Rally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeWU8S34FQ

 

[Skurge]

Yeah, I'm just playing against the AI on Professional and I'm getting only second and third places. Making up those last 20-30 seconds in a whole rally is gonna be hard but I'm getting better with the pacenotes. As Skurge said, paying attention to the pacenotes is crucial.

I'm still not 100% sure about the car handling though...it kinda feels like there is too much grip

I would like less much less grip off line.

 

[Firsttime]

I got my first green section yesterday haha. That was more satisfying then any actual race win in any Dirt game I've played yet.

One of my biggest quips is with the brake/reverse. It seems like if you use the trigger to brake it doesn't reverse the car unless you hit it after the car has come to a stop. Just a little thing that probably makes sense in the realism context but is just different from other games.

 

[TheUnk]

Why is there no mouse for the menus