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Preview: DiRT Rally

It’s always interesting how a new title makes you re-evaluate how good you think you are at racing games. Moreso, when a game’s unsuspecting difficulty manages to take you down a notch or two. For me, this is an accurate summation of my experience with DiRT Rally, when I had the opportunity to check it out amidst a day of actual rally driving at The Rally School in Como Heights, Sydney.

To put it simply, the racing genre has been lacking a truly complete rally package since the release of Colin McRae DiRT almost a decade ago. It combined variety in gameplay, vehicles and locations with top-quality presentation, the latter of which has been lacking from all other franchises over the past number of years. While I’m sure there are rally purists out there who would suggest this dry spell goes back further than Colin McRae DiRT, there’s no denying that DiRT Rally is shaping up to have the elements that will make it equally as compelling; a true winner.

Furthermore, and most importantly, it’s also a return to form for the DiRT franchise. That in itself has suffered an identity crisis since Ken Block and Gymkhana were introduced in DiRT 2.

dirtrally-wrx

The first event I selected was a special stage in Finland, behind the wheel of Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Immediately, you could tell that vehicles have a noticeable sense of weight behind them — certainly more than the likes we’ve seen in recent rally-based racers, and abundantly more than what we’ve come to expect from the DiRT franchise. This adds a whole new level of authenticity to in-game physics, but also brings an added level of challenge to the mix. Input control with throttle and steering seemed more apparent than ever, and it was difficult trying to just make it through the stage without taking notice of the pace notes, let alone even trying to finish in first.

After making myself acquainted with a few ditches and trees, I finally crossed the finish line and decided to try something different. This time it was Pikes Peak, which finally makes its return to the franchise. DiRT Rally includes not just one version of the stage but three -– either complete gravel, part tarmac-part gravel or complete tarmac (as it now is in real-life). Of course, I chose to try my luck with the full-gravel variant. Jumping into the one of the purpose-built Pikes Peak twin-turbo machines, I tackled the mountain climb head on; much like Finland, it wasn’t long until I was driving off-course and into the trees on either side of the track.

DiRT Rally doesn’t hold your hand like so many racing games tend to. Gone is the rewind feature that Codemasters themselves made popular, in-line with making DiRT Rally as authentic an experience as possible, which seems to be very much the case. It’s a sink-or-swim situation with this game, where late braking just won’t cut it if you approach a jump with too much speed at the wrong angle, or a corner just a tad too fast. Older vehicles like the Pikes Peak racers above have noticeably worse handling and brakes compared to your modern rally cars, so it’s going to take some practice before you feel confident tackling each stage properly.

dirtrally-pikespeak

On face value it seems Codemasters has done a good job with Rally‘s vehicle selection, although I was slightly disappointed to learn that cars are discipline-specific. That means you won’t be able to use a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution to tackle Pikes Peak. There were also only three vehicles available for the full-gravel stage, although I was advised there are additional vehicles for the other variants.

As it stands, I’m excited to see what the final console version of DiRT Rally brings, as am I to get accustomed to the added challenge the new (and improved) physics model will bring. Throughout the preview session I also had the pleasure of both sitting in and driving actual rally vehicles around the test track at Como Park. It was amazing to compare the in-game physics with real-life, and see the similarities between how the vehicles in DiRT Rally behave with their real-world counter-parts.

Many thanks to Bandai Namco for hosting last week’s preview event. DiRT Rally is currently available on Windows PC, and heads to Xbox One and PS4 on 5 April.


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About the author

Nicholas Simonovski

Events and Racing Editor at Stevivor.com. Proud RX8 owner, Strange Music fan and Joe Rogan follower. Living life one cheat meal at a time.