Rambling about DIRT:Rally

Oh wow, it's another one of these! The world is still kinda shit, and for me on top of home issue, is kinda soul draining. However! We always have video games, and for me while anime games are my preferred choice, racing games would be a solid 2nd on the list for me. I find that because they usually have a story that doesn't really involve a plot, they are very easy to pick up, play for a bit, leave for a few months while real takes over, and start playing again, which makes them a prime candate for me to just write a few sentences on! And I've been playing a lot of DIRT:Rally by Codemasters, so let me talk about it!

Let me start off by saying Codemasters really knows how to make games look good. The graphics on  the car are astounding, the detail in the environments are amazing, and on my new laptop with a GTX 1650 and 10th Gen i5 processor, it runs at a constant 60fps, which is insane, However, please make my own livery in the next game, I want to Mini or 1600cc car that has weeb s**t on it. 

for the record, these are real cars that run in the Super GT series and have raced in Japan and across the world.

Anyways​, Dirt: Rally has 3 modes, Rally, Hillclimb and Rallycross. Rally is the signature mode, as the DIRT series is derived from the Colln McRae Rally series, and man is it hard! This is admittedly somewhat due to game being very heavy on the simulation side of things, so if your like me and use a controller, watch out!

There's also a lot of differences between this and a regular street race. If I was playing something like Grid: Autosport, the street racing there involves me being on screen with a bunch of other cars, and the roads are wide enough to accommodate side by side racing. Here, it's like a bike time trial, where everything is narrow, the road furniture constantly changes, and you're on your own against the clock.

Another thing that really hinders the experience for me is the handling, which to be honesty, is pretty fine tuned for steering wheels, and it feels like I need to play with ABS on just to stop locking up or stop the car in general. Also not helping is when I'm on a snow stage and having to deal with ice physics. ICE PHYSICS. IN A RACING GAME. Yes I know this is an off road game, but still I'm not use to this. 

However, once you get used to it, it's fun to race. I just think that the game has a lot of mechanic that you need to get use to, hell there is co driver yelling instructions at you for road furniture, what the road furniture is, what kind of turn the next turn is, it's too much for me to get use to at one time.

Hillclimb is something I honestly only put time into for this but to sum it up, it's like Rally, but with super modified cars and no co driver, so it's a little more traditional, but damn, do the cars there feel even more unstable at high speed with a controller.

But now on to the mode that I actually know the most about! Rallycross has only been around as a world championship since 2014, and this is the first official game for it. It's a bit lacklustre with tracks, as, there are only 3 with their variations. Lidden Hill in the UK, Hell in Norway, where it always seems to rain, and Hojles in Sweden. How did you guys miss the Estering? Or Loheac? Or Hockenheimring? I guess all of these and more are in Dirt 4, and GOD DAMN IT. 

Anyway, Rallycross is mix of both touring car and rally surfaces, so you have to be versatile. The races work this way: Qualifying is split into 4 heats and 4 groups of 4 drivers, and the fastest 12 from their combined finishing positions go into the semi final. The ones in Group A start on the first row, B on the second one and C on the 3rd one. The top 3 from each Semi-Final go into the final.

I honestly enjoy this mode the most because I feel as if I have control of the cars here, though the Supercars are still very slidey and I hate them for that, but the 1600 are alright and the classic mini is a joy to drive in. It also helps that the racing keeps me on my toes with the Joker Lap. This is a lap that all care have to take which is slower, and I find that this keeps things interesting, take it too early, and your stuck at the back, take it too late, and you just lost the place you were in. It's quite interesting.

Dirt Rally seems to take a lot of learning of in my opinion, which is not great for beginners in my opinion. If Dirt Rally 2.0 is better at this I would recommenced it to everyone, but the game requires you to sit down a learn it constantly for it's rally mode, which isn't great for a racing game in my opinion, you should be able to from the get go to some extant be able sit-down, play the game for a bit and get on with your day, which I feel like it's better accomplished in Rallycross mode. For that I would have say, get this if you are a sim racing fan, it's obviously made for that crowd. Besides that, I would say look for other alternatives.

I'm really sorry that I haven't written much in the past few months, really trying to get out of this hole I seem to be in, but Damn I can't get out of it atm. Got a few plans though so please look forward to them!

But for now, take care and I will see you guys next time!

Written by Nana Marfo
Good Smile Car image taken from Good Smile Racing's Twitter

Dirt Rally(C)Codemasters

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