DiRT Rally 2.0 Codemasters Confirms DiRT Rally 2.0

[Paul Jeffrey]

Earlier today British development studio Codemasters confirmed DiRT Rally 2.0 will be heading to stores in February 2019.

Designed as a sequel to the highly regarded DiRT Rally of 2015, DiRT 2.0 will be the thirteenth entry into the franchise formally known as the Colin McRae Rally series of games. With the new release, Codemasters have promised this new title will be bigger, better and more authentic than the previous DR game, something that is sure to please fans left feeling cold at the more arcade orientated DiRT 4.

Little is known of the new title at this early stage, although judging from the reveal trailer it does look like plenty of work has been undertaken by the developers already, suggesting that much of the heavy lifting is already complete as we head into the final stages of fine tuning prior to release.

What we do know makes for interesting reading however. Seemingly keen to make more of the attractive World Rallycross licence present in the original DiRT Rally, Codemasters have confirmed the initial release of 2.0 will feature no less than eight official circuits of the 2018 WorldRX season “at launch”, suggesting that more locations could be added to the game as DLC at a later date.

With WRX well covered, Codemasters have also confirmed six traditional rally locations and a wide selection of iconic rally cars from the history of the sport.

According to the announcement statement from Codemasters, players who make use of the pre order options will have an array of different benefits and perks from which to choose from, as detailed below:

All pre-orders editions of DiRT Rally 2.0 will include access to the amazing Porsche 911 RGT Rally Spec as a bonus vehicle to use on the stages. In addition there will also be a DiRT Rally 2.0 Deluxe Edition which also includes the first two seasons of post-launch additional content, each with three locations (split between rally and rallycross) and five early vehicles unlocks (Ford Escort MkII, Lancia Stratos, Subaru Impreza 1995, AUDI Sport quattro S1 E2 and Ford Fiesta OMSE SuperCar Lite). The Deluxe Edition will also allow players to get their hands on the game four days early, launching on 22nd February 2019 and also includes upgraded starter cars for My Team, in-game bonuses and high reward events. More details about the seasons will be revealed soon.​

DiRT Rally 2.0 will release February 22nd 2019.

If you want to discussion the game with our passionate community, and read about the latest news, check out the upcoming RaceDepartment DiRT 2.0 Sub Forum for a great place to pick up mods, catch the latest news and chat about the game with our community. Give it a go, just keep it DiRTy!

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[Aki Korhonen]

if you can play this game with gamepad and success its arcade so no go.codies cant do it come back warthog!!!!

 

[Aki Korhonen]

Well, before Dirt Rally came out nobody believed Codemasters would make a game close enough to reality in terms of physics.

Let's hope they will really improve physics in this one.

idont think hope got nothing to do with this. it is the skill and aknowledge how the car drives.

 

[function9]

I don't think you've been paying attention if you think they've only been adding content but not fixing any bugs or physics issues. I mean, when it comes to physics in particular, they pretty much reworked the whole thing as part of Early Access. Same with FFB, for example, that underwent a huge update.

There wasn't much in the way of fixes or revisions of anything (other than the FFB fix/update) until v2 physics came. v2 fixed some things and made some things worse and left them outstanding. Doesn't change what I said about DR feeling unfinished when they stopped development for it.

 

[Pywackett-Barchetta]

if you can play this game with gamepad and success its arcade so no go.codies cant do it come back warthog!!!!

In that case, I guess the first DiRT Rally would fall under that because I've had no problems getting to Masters level competition and beating the Community Deltas with a controller, and it's been an absolute blast.

 

[Case_]

There wasn't much in the way of fixes or revisions of anything (other than the FFB fix/update) until v2 physics came. v2 fixed some things and made some things worse and left them outstanding. Doesn't change what I said about DR feeling unfinished when they stopped development for it.

I see. So reworking the physics for all cars or noticeably improving the FFB (among many other things) still doesn't really count as "fixing bugs and physics issues", because there were still some issues left after that. Yeah, in that case, I can definitely see how they've only been adding content to the game and not fixing any bugs and physics issues at all.

 

[Sharpy Bonfire]

Got so hyped for 5 minutes, luckily saw this before pre-ordered...
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dirt-rally-20-has-no-vr-support-planned

 

[ShredatorFIN]

No VR support has been visible trend in Codemaster games. F1 series and Dirt 4. Only thing you can assume (since Dirt Rally had VR) is that it's not financially profitable

“We're focusing on making the core game experience before launch - and after that, if there is demand from our community, then we'll explore the possibility,”

That's pretty much what they said about Dirt 4 VR support...

As for physics, they are difficult to make and you change 1 part, whole handling changes. Don't think they can just simply "take sliding from Dirt Rally, tarmac from Dirt 4"

But if early tests feel good, then I guess it's promising.

 

[Ceolmor]

Got so hyped for 5 minutes, luckily saw this before pre-ordered...
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dirt-rally-20-has-no-vr-support-planned

About DiRT Rally 2.0 and VR, Codemaster say.
“We're focusing on making the core game experience before launch - and after that, if there is demand from our community, then we'll explore the possibility”

About DiRT4 and VR, Codemaster said,
"We’ve made no announcement with regards to VR compatibility. At the moment we’re working on polishing the base game, and will explore our options with VR post-launch."
and
"If there is an appetite for this [VR] we will support it."
and
"it's a business decision not a development decision."

And VR support never arrived for DiRT4.

So I don't expect to see VR in DiRT Rally 2.0. I'm out

 

[mizz]

They said if VR will be suported?

unfortunately not...
Sad but out.
without vr, it is dead. seen that with ACC. never thought it would be that big impact...

 

[Goozys]

So, this is how you try to sell a DLC to DiRT Rally as a new game?
Shame on you Codies!

 

[anton_Chez]

Hmm yeah a bit of a shame really. We know that the comments they've given on VR are just business speak for "piss off, we're not doing VR and we're sorry we did it for free in DR to begin with!". I mean, with a small improvement to the physics, and some DLC for Dirt Rally, we'd all pretty much have exactly what we're after, am I right? VR is already implemented, and the new locations would come with a graphics update simply being 3 or so years later in development. Doubt they are throwing a new engine at the game, especially if they are careful to offer people what they failed to with Dirt 4, which is basically Dirt Rally handling with some refinements. \

I can't see them messing with it too much to be honest. It's less work for them and if they know it's what most people want, then why bother?

 

[Filip Carlén]

There might be 8 countries and 12 WRX tracks, or 10 WRX tracks and 10 countries in the end. I wonder what it will be.

Huh, I guess I just assumed that the DLC locations would be split equal between the RX and rally. But your right, the did say that it would be split between rally and RX, but the didn't day 50/50

 

[Rodent]

Ah good, I was already worried when the game wasn't going to go the Dirt Rally route of early access and listening to the community, that's how we got DiRT 4. With no VR support planned I can forget about this one until it's sold with all the DLC for a tenner at a sale a year or so down the line if it proves to have any redeeming features.

Sorry Codies, it's a business decision.

 

[anton_Chez]

The only reason I'm even vaguely interested in this is because of Dirt Rally. Without that track record, I'd be more interested in a new WRC xx title coming out. That was solid, I just need to get a hold of a Gimx to get back into it.

 

[Alex72]

Tarmac was already noticeably better in Dirt 4 I'd say, in fact it was probably the best part of Dirt 4 apart from rallycross, so I would expect it to be fairly good as well in DR2.

Yeah but you know how things goes in the world of game development... DR had bad tarmac and then D4 got better, and now when DR2 comes they completely forget D4 and tries to do something new and it fails. How many times have we not experiences these things? Well, i have at least. Sounds good though. I never even tried D4 since i heard it was garbage from so many directions and i also looked at it on youtube and it didnt seem as something i wanted.

 

[Celestiale]

Got so hyped for 5 minutes, luckily saw this before pre-ordered...
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dirt-rally-20-has-no-vr-support-planned

This article just shows how clueless Codemasters are and that they have no idea both about the market research and Rally.

1. I could at least slightly understand why they made no VR support for Dirt 4 or F1. Those are more arcade oriented titles. Probably 95% (or even more) of the people buying those titles are no sim/core gamers and play with a gamepad. These people are your "standard gaming audience" with a very low adoption rate of VR.

That said, they miss(ed) already two points in their "genious" market research (seriously, the person who does that at Codies should be fired right away).
They just read the numbers: 1-3% of racing gamers own a VR headset. They assume, if they implement VR, their only benefit is 1-3% more sold copies. But that's plain wrong.

First of all, a VR implementation would lead to unexpected sales. People who are not into racing at all, but they own a VR device. So they see there is a AAA (or let's say AA) title for VR. They go for it despite not being into racing (that happened a lot with DR1).
In addition, you reach people who are into more serious sims. I for one would get any decent VR racing game, no matter if "serious sim" or not (f.ex. Forza, Driveclub etc.). Just because we VR gamers are happy with any decent content we get.
VR implementation is not very expensive (why I know that? My last employee was a company developing B2B VR/AR software). I am 100% sure that VR implementation would break even, even with only 3% more sold copies. For a big company like Codemasters, VR implementation should be no problem what so ever.
Now we didn't even talk about the indirect benefits. Just imagine, Codies would have implemented VR for all their racing games. They would be held in very high regard of all VR users (and even many non VR users for showing good intent) and would be given the benefit of the doubt for future games, even if they'd flunked a game or two.
Their strict course of non VR-implementation has the opposite effect, it angers an ever growing part of the gaming audience.
All in all, i'd say, it was even a bad business decision to not implement VR in F1 or Dirt4, but still understandable without enough knowledge about all factors.

Now we come to Dirt Rally 2, a supposedly sim title (yet to be proven), and they still don't want to implement VR? This is leaving me absolutely baffled.
In contrary to the arcade gaming market, the VR adoption rate in Sims is huge. I don't have finite numbers, but according to my own experiences in online club racing and also flight simming it's close to 50%.
When you count in the people who are planning to get VR in the near future when it's cheaper, feature X is implemented and nuisance Y is solved, it's definitely above 50%. And Codemasters tries to reach this audience, without implementing VR? I have rarely seen worse business decisions.

2. this is a short one compared to my first issue. I refer to this part of the interview of the posted link "and track degredation is a brand new feature being implemented by Codemasters for the sequel, meaning surfaces will become loose and unstable for successive drivers on the same course". I wonder if the Codies people really said that. Surfaces don't become more loose or unstable, quite the opposite is the case. The first car on the road always has the worst/most loose/most unstable conditions (unless in a tarmac rally of course, or some fluke circumstances). They should watch a bit more Rally before implementing a faulty feature

 

[Rory Wetherington]

I learned from my mistake after I pre-ordered Dirt4, It will be on my list of games to get at next years summer sale...maybe, maybe not.
Never fail's, after I finally give some positive feedback for F1 2018...
The Masters of Code strike again....if they truly listen to the community then this would have VR support from launch, because we wanted VR in Dirt4, F12017,2018,etc.
Look whether your on the VR bandwagon or not... the thing is Dirt Rally was one of the best experiences one could have in VR forget all those stupid roller coaster games, Dirt Rally was it. Codies could have been leading the industry in the VR department but instead they would rather cater to the 5 year old's with gamepad's playing in chase cam, nothings changed nor will it. This will be just like Dirt4 and the preordered content will be made available to the rest of the community a couple months (if that long) after launch as DLC.
This will just be another attempt with hopes of making the RallyRx portion a esport game IMO.
I'll bet 10 ducks(quack) that there won't be any mouse support for the PC version either.

 

[LuMue]

Funny to see (read) some people already being negative about DR 2.0 on the day of announcement
DiRT4 never really got a chance in most forums and peolpe wanted DR2.0 soooo much but the new game is already dissed on announcement-day.

Let's just wait and see...

Yes, finally we get the Volkswagen Golf !!!!!!

(My personal wishlist for DR2.0: Real Stages and YourStage for Clubs, Livery Editing on PC, Possibility of importing DR stages).

 

[bogani]

This article just shows how clueless Codemasters are and that they have no idea both about the market research and Rally.

1. I could at least slightly understand why they made no VR support for Dirt 4 or F1. Those are more arcade oriented titles. Probably 95% (or even more) of the people buying those titles are no sim/core gamers and play with a gamepad. These people are your "standard gaming audience" with a very low adoption rate of VR.

That said, they miss(ed) already two points in their "genious" market research (seriously, the person who does that at Codies should be fired right away).
They just read the numbers: 1-3% of racing gamers own a VR headset. They assume, if they implement VR, their only benefit is 1-3% more sold copies. But that's plain wrong.

First of all, a VR implementation would lead to unexpected sales. People who are not into racing at all, but they own a VR device. So they see there is a AAA (or let's say AA) title for VR. They go for it despite not being into racing (that happened a lot with DR1).
In addition, you reach people who are into more serious sims. I for one would get any decent VR racing game, no matter if "serious sim" or not (f.ex. Forza, Driveclub etc.). Just because we VR gamers are happy with any decent content we get.
VR implementation is not very expensive (why I know that? My last employee was a company developing B2B VR/AR software). I am 100% sure that VR implementation would break even, even with only 3% more sold copies. For a big company like Codemasters, VR implementation should be no problem what so ever.
Now we didn't even talk about the indirect benefits. Just imagine, Codies would have implemented VR for all their racing games. They would be held in very high regard of all VR users (and even many non VR users for showing good intent) and would be given the benefit of the doubt for future games, even if they'd flunked a game or two.
Their strict course of non VR-implementation has the opposite effect, it angers an ever growing part of the gaming audience.
All in all, i'd say, it was even a bad business decision to not implement VR in F1 or Dirt4, but still understandable without enough knowledge about all factors.

Now we come to Dirt Rally 2, a supposedly sim title (yet to be proven), and they still don't want to implement VR? This is leaving me absolutely baffled.
In contrary to the arcade gaming market, the VR adoption rate in Sims is huge. I don't have finite numbers, but according to my own experiences in online club racing and also flight simming it's close to 50%.
When you count in the people who are planning to get VR in the near future when it's cheaper, feature X is implemented and nuisance Y is solved, it's definitely above 50%. And Codemasters tries to reach this audience, without implementing VR? I have rarely seen worse business decisions.

2. this is a short one compared to my first issue. I refer to this part of the interview of the posted link "and track degredation is a brand new feature being implemented by Codemasters for the sequel, meaning surfaces will become loose and unstable for successive drivers on the same course". I wonder if the Codies people really said that. Surfaces don't become more loose or unstable, quite the opposite is the case. The first car on the road always has the worst/most loose/most unstable conditions (unless in a tarmac rally of course, or some fluke circumstances). They should watch a bit more Rally before implementing a faulty feature

Regarding number 2, that is not an absolute truth. For gravel roads like Finland/New Zeeland, sure. In Wales, roads can be a total mess after a field of MK2 Escorts go through. It all depends on what type of road it is.

 

[Julius Fahlbusch]

i dont know, i cant explain or understnad their decision to completely ignore people asking for vr support in their titles for years. but they simply dont care, thats the only take away from it.

maybe they also get rid of the cockpit perspective because the majority doesnt use it. i think the majority of xbox and ps4 users drives with a gamepad. in my opinion it would only make sense to release dirt rally 2.0 without wheel support and only third person camera then. its just a business decision ...

honestly ... f*ck them. dirt4 and f1 are two different games and i am mad that they didnt offer vr support in them, but at least they didnt have a predecessor that got vr support.

now they are releasing a direct successor of dirt rally. and they take away one of the best features of it. i just cant wrap my head around that.