DiRT Rally 2.0 DiRT Rally 2.0 - Codemasters Masterpiece

[Paul Jeffrey]

DiRT Rally 2.0 – Codemasters Greatest Achievement yet?

Following on from the surprisingly impressive DiRT Rally of 2015, Codemasters have plenty of expectation resting on their shoulders for the new game – and they have seriously delivered.

The wait for a true successor to the fabled Richard Burns Rally has been a long and often frustrating journey for rally fans, with many pretenders stepping into the ring only to be seemingly knocked straight back out again, including it has to be said Codemasters themselves - although the original DiRT Rally was certainly the closest yet to dethroning the widely acclaimed king of rally games.

Despite lacking an official World Rally Championship licence, and initially shipping without some of the more popular content from the original title, DiRT Rally 2.0 immediately comes out of the starting gates with plenty of headline grabbing new features and goodies, over and above the original title and even introducing things that have yet to be seen within the rally game genre.

Dropping the well-intentioned but poorly executed stage generator from Dirt 4, Codemasters have instead switched their attentions to developing deformable surfaces within this new release – introducing a crucial element of the real world category into the simulation and opening up a significant aspect of strategy and tyre management that was so starkly missing from the first title.

Codemasters have done stage deformation very, very well, adding to DiRT Rally 2.0 a significant increase into the depth and richness of the driving experience, whilst also increasing the useful playability of the game. With this new feature active on all locations within the title, in theory each pass of the same stage can present a wholly different driving experience, depending on the conditions of the roads and weather at the time of departure, as well as your running order in the rally itself. Start further back; expect to encounter a less than ideal road surface when out on stage.

This aspect alone makes DiRT Rally 2.0 worth the price of entry for me, and is one of the single biggest improvements Codemasters have made to any of their racing game franchise in the last 10 years. It’s that good.

The feel of the road under your wheels, and the way the car reacts to those different road surfaces, is improved considerably over the original game – itself a step above the competition in the rally game marketplace. Codemasters have clearly spent much time fine-tuning the car reaction to different racing surfaces, and these details shine through clearly when strapped into your virtual car of choice.

While we talk about cars, DiRT 2.0 does a very respectable job of presenting a nicely entertaining selection of vehicles right from the very off – with various different classes of car represented in the game more than making up for the lack of a modern WRC licence. Returning once again are the Group B monsters from the 1980’s, however Codemasters have attempted to mix things up a little by sprinkling a wide variety of different cars into the sim – so lovers of modern machinery still have something to enjoy thanks to the R5 class – featuring such beauties as the Skoda Fabia and VW Golf amongst others, while those of us with longer memories get a bonus with plenty of historic content – the ultimate king of which has to be the 90’s Group N era and the stunning Subaru Imprezza of Colin McRae, still iconic some 24 years after the great Scotsman took to the stages of the world in that wonderful car.

Traditional point-to-point rally cars aside, DiRT Rally 2.0 also does a very good job of representing the FIA World Rally cross category of racing – with plenty of content from the main series and various support categories available to do battle over what appear to be significantly updated and improved rally cross stages. More of which are set to come in future DLC packs for the game.

DiRT Rally 2.0 Full Car List

This category really has stepped up over the original DiRT Rally in almost every way, now offering a very convincing and visually stunning experience for players to enjoy. WRX has impressed me the most this time around, really stepping up in every aspect to present a very, very enjoyable representation of the category within DiRT Rally 2.0.

Moving on to the driving experience itself, I need to talk about wheel support for a little while – boring I know, but worth a few moments of your time.

I am using the SimCube OSW Direct Drive wheel for this test, and it needs to be noted that this isn’t a supported device out of the box, so some fun and games need to be had in order to get it working and producing force feedback within the sim. Plenty of google searching and overwriting of internal game files later, the wheel is now a functioning device within DiRT Rally! However, although “working” and producing force feedback, at least at this early stage I’ve been left very underwhelmed by the level of detail the force feedback is producing through my wheel. Ok, I’m getting some weight in the wheel, and the absolutely major hits and jolts are registering, but the very fine detail and the small things that communicate from the road surface to the car just aren’t present at the moment, which has frankly left me feeling a little bit disappointed.

The surface detail just doesn't feel present in the game, leaving me the impression of driving over smooth surfaces no matter what car I choose. I suspect this is specific to my own wheel, however increasingly I'm hearing of others with similar experiences, using different wheels, so that could be something to keep an eye out for as more and more people gain access to the title. What I will say however, is that the physics do feel more convincing than DR1, with more of a weight transfer feel than the previous release, and generally just stepping up the feeling over and above the original release.

DiRT 2.0 Supported Peripherals

Now to be fair I’m hearing plenty from the community about how they feel the handling of DR2.0 has improved over previous games, so I’m left wondering if it is more down to my own wheel configuration, coupled with the fact OSW isn’t supported out of the box, that is leaving me with a numb ffb experience from the title. With this in mind, during my review I am going to deliberately step away from further ffb and handling discussions, as I can’t be sure exactly which parameters are affecting my experience at this stage. I will say however, with the OSW patch and my current settings, for a driver at my (low) level of skill, the handling and feedback experience is ok, if a little "flat", although it certainly doesnt reach the heights achieved by so much else within the game…

… and those heights are very high indeed.

DiRT Rally 2.0 is shaping up to be the thing that pretty much every sim racer has been wanting to see since the glory days of Richard Burns Rally back 2004, small issues aside – hard-core, visually stunning, plenty of gameplay depth, audibly outstanding and with enough detail to present a game that you just want to keep heading back to for more and more punishment out on the stages.

Oh, and it finally has good mouse support to !

As for a career mode, DiRT 2.0 does play around with this idea, but somehow feels like it hasn’t quite gone far enough to capture the imagination over longer periods of time. Here you can hire and fire people for your team, however as a long time doubter of the usefulness of career mode style gameplay features, the lack of any depth in this department isn’t something that will keep me awake at night – anything that delays going out on stage – the actual core of the game – is best kept to a minimum in my opinion, and is a sideshow at best. It’s also worth pointing out that all cars and stages are accessible from the off, so no need for any long grinding through the game to get that car / rally combo you’ve been wanting to try.. Thankfully.

DiRT Rally 2.0 does some things very well, and some things can on occasion feel a little bit under loved, almost as if the studio have been that keen to make the action on stage as best as it can be, leaving the stuff on the edges of the driving experience a little bit behind the main gameplay itself. Frankly, this is something that is very easy to overlook, as the good things within this title are just exceptional, and more than make up for any of the small annoyances here and there.

Does DiRT Rally 2.0 deserve the unofficial crown as king of all rally Sims past and present? I think so, and by quite a margin.

DiRT Rally 2.0 will release February 26th 2019.

If you want to discussion the game with our passionate community, and read about the latest news, check out the RaceDepartment DiRT Rally 2.0 Sub Forum for a great place to share your 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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[bogani]

Little comment just for the sake of information:
It's not really that the wheel would counter the slide. It's more that the rear moves and the front wheels stay in place.
Basically "the car moves around the wheel". But since you are moving together with the car and the steering wheel only showing rotation movements, it looks like the steering wheel would counter the movement when in fact, it just stays in place while you're the moving part

I know you know that but I always wanted to have a reason to write that down

Anyway, that's the reason why I had difficulties to drift with my g27 and it's really difficult to drift with a dfgt.
These wheels rotate so slowly that the front wheels don't stay in place. They will turn together with the rear end so you have to "throw" the wheel.

Either way I agree. That's basically the only thing that's perfect in DR 2.0

Well yes, the front wheels want to keep travel in the direction the car is traveling even though the rear steps out. You know what I meant anyway

The dust effects is pretty impressive!

 

[AadHofman]

But the missing 'road feel' effect that people are complaining about wouldn't help you with that. That is the job of the Self Aligning Tourqe and it's there already. When the back end starts to come around the wheel automatically counters, and that is the clue you get what is happening and you react accordingly.

One thing that could be of benefit is if the rear wheels spinning on throttle would vibrate your wheel, it's missing at the moment. It's a fake effect though as it's not something coming from the front wheels.

It doesn't happen for me, and that is the problem. It reminds me of wonky iRacing physics a few years back, when their MX-5 was broken, its back end sliding everywhere, and you only had visual clues to notice it (when it was too late to correct).

 

[MarkR]

It certainly a strange one with the wheels because my TX wheel, and the Logi and Fanatec I tried, also force counter intuitively when the rear begins to slide - I accept others reporting their don't. Coupled to that on gravel stages the sounds effects of the gravel pinging up in the aches and shifting under the wheels adds superbly to what is going on. Again that for me is close to real, all that gravel slapping the underside and arches in the car make it difficult to hear what the co-driver is saying IRL too, in the game not so much.

 

[bogani]

It doesn't happen for me, and that is the problem. It reminds me of wonky iRacing physics a few years back, when their MX-5 was broken, its back end sliding everywhere, and you only had visual clues to notice it (when it was too late to correct).

That's strange. What wheel do you have?

I can only speak for myself and my own T500RS. I get lots of Self Aligning which tells me what the car is doing. The effects that are missing are the suspension effects like potholes, landings etc. I really dislike when the wheel rattles just because I'm on gravel so I usually only use SAT, zero suspension effects anyway.

When trying Dirt Rally, the only difference I get in FFB is when I ramp up the suspension setting. Then the wheel shakes because I'm on gravel. To me, that is not the effect that I'm after.

 

[AadHofman]

T300, tested with various settings. To be more precise, there is SAT, but it is so vague/damped that it isn't helpful.

As of now the FFB is pretty adequate for FWD cars (you can check my leaderboard times with Mini), perhaps for AWDs (haven't had time to really test them), but for RWDs it is just awful. I hope it gets fixed soon.

 

[bogani]

T300, tested with various settings. To be more precise, there is SAT, but it is so vague/damped that it isn't helpful.

As of now the FFB is pretty adequate for FWD cars (you can check my leaderboard times with Mini), perhaps for AWDs (haven't had time to really test them), but for RWDs it is just awful. I hope it gets fixed soon.

PC? Ps4?

 

[MarkR]

When trying Dirt Rally, the only difference I get in FFB is when I ramp up the suspension setting. Then the wheel shakes because I'm on gravel. To me, that is not the effect that I'm after.

Possibly because real car steering wheels definitely don't rattle (unless something is seriously wrong). Sometimes my hands tingle from the many vibrations after a racing game session, that I can say for certain has never happened in a real car - not a rally car from the Escort Mk2 to the Impreza, or the lightweights like the Caterham and Atom.

Some of the vibrations generated by games like Dakar 18 (and I really do like that game, wheel jiggy jiggy aside) belong more in a ladies pulsating pleasure device than they do in a racing game.

Then again I try some peoples posted wheel settings and they are like a strong man contest to turn the wheel and that isn't remotely realistic either. Yes some unassisted cars can be heavy to manoeuvre in the pits but once on track and the tyres are warm they are light and easy to place accurately. People have some unique perceptions of what is 'real' that's for sure.

 

[bogani]

Possibly because real car steering wheels definitely don't rattle (unless something is seriously wrong). Sometimes my hands tingle from the many vibrations after a racing game session, that I can say for certain has never happened in a real car - not a rally car from the Escort Mk2 to the Impreza, or the lightweights like the Caterham and Atom.

Some of the vibrations generated by games like Dakar 18 (and I really do like that game, wheel jiggy jiggy aside) belong more in a ladies pulsating pleasure device than they do in a racing game.

Then again I try some peoples posted wheel settings and they are like a strong man contest to turn the wheel and that isn't remotely realistic either. Yes some unassisted cars can be heavy to manoeuvre in the pits but once on track and the tyres are warm they are light and easy to place accurately. People have some unique perceptions of what is 'real' that's for sure.

I agree, that's why I don't use the suspension effects at all. You don't feel the road like that in real life.

I'm starting to feel this "FFB in DR2 SUCKS" is starting to come off as a slight mass hysteria and it affects people that have hardly tried it. It becomes a pre determined opinion.

I'm not saying people don't have real issues, I'm sure some do.

 

[AadHofman]

PC? Ps4?

PC Master Race.

 

[Case_]

T300, tested with various settings. To be more precise, there is SAT, but it is so vague/damped that it isn't helpful.

It never ceases to amaze me how drastically differently people can perceive the same thing on the same hardware.

I would honestly say the FFB I get in DR2 is pretty close to something like rF2 or AMS, apart from the mostly missing road feel. Both in strength and the amount of information it conveys.

And really, seeing how many people claim the FFB improved massively for them when they cranked up the ffb_force setting to ridiculous values, I'd say quite a few people just want to wrestle their 2 Nm wheels at every moment, clipping as soon as you look at them, otherwise they don't consider the FFB good enough. Or at least that's the only explanation I can come up with for those ridiculous FFB settings. (Not saying that's the case with you, just continuing that line of thought.)

 

[bogani]

PC Master Race.

T300 shouldn't be that different from T500.

What's your profile and in game settings?

 

[theravenousbeast]

The self aligning torque works fine, the big thing I feel missing is the tyre forces. I too don't care about rattly vibrations much but that feeling of instant pushback/resistance of the tyre and that understeer lightness you get is not here at all. I don't remember DR1 but 4 didn't have much of that understeer feeling but it did have progressive resistance.

In the latest Forza 7 update there were two sliders, mechanical and pneumatic trail. Raceroom I think had vertical load (tyre) and one more. In here the tyre forces are nowhere.

Maybe that's realistic? With the large profile tyres and thick sidewalls maybe that feel isn't there. I have no idea.
What I do know is that for FFB to be useful and actually help you it needs to inform you of the weight transfer and the tyre grip.

 

[RasmusP]

Have to say one thing is missing for me:
When I drive my road car, old c class with summer rims (225/45 R17) I get every rut or cambering sent to my wheel. Crossing ruts in the tarmac from trucks will make my wheel shake left and right and I'll have to keep it gripped.
Same but a lot less strong in force with the golf 4 combi of my dad and the 2016 VW polo of my mum.
And that's the only thing I'm really missing and which wouldn't be artificial. I really feel what the car is doing but when I start with a fully degenerated track and slide over the ruts of it, there are no forces representing these on my wheel.
The car on screen won't show them either, since they don't show on the cars trajectory when you keep the wheel in position.

All the vibrating etc would be cool for immersion but I'd like to feel the uneven surface in my hands.

That said I prefer the well done general sat in DR 2.0 over the imo kinda bad and way too lively and punchy sat from DR 1.
Just hoping codies will make the ruts more feelable ..

 

[AadHofman]

I would honestly say the FFB I get in DR2 is pretty close to something like rF2 or AMS,

What wheel are you using then? I want to experience the same.

 

[bogani]

The self aligning torque works fine, the big thing I feel missing is the tyre forces. I too don't care about rattly vibrations much but that feeling of instant pushback/resistance of the tyre and that understeer lightness you get is not here at all. I don't remember DR1 but 4 didn't have much of that understeer feeling but it did have progressive resistance.

In the latest Forza 7 update there were two sliders, mechanical and pneumatic trail. Raceroom I think had vertical load (tyre) and one more. In here the tyre forces are nowhere.

Maybe that's realistic? With the large profile tyres and thick sidewalls maybe that feel isn't there. I have no idea.
What I do know is that for FFB to be useful and actually help you it needs to inform you of the weight transfer and the tyre grip.

Indeed there are some effects missing, I just gets slightly annoyed that people screams its UNDRIVEABLE!

I mean, the first Dirt Rally came without pretty much zero self aligning. Now that was broken FFB.

 

[RasmusP]

What wheel are you using then? I want to experience the same.

I agree with him.
He's using a t300 and I'm on a csw 2.5 but I also drove it with a logitech dfgt. It basically feels like a racing sim with lower grip. But as I mentioned it's lacking the feel of uneven surfaces, ruts etc. But the general driving is really close to the loved track simulations.

 

[RasmusP]

Indeed there are some effects missing, I just gets slightly annoyed that people screams its UNDRIVEABLE!

I mean, the first Dirt Rally came without pretty much zero self aligning. Now that was broken FFB.

I quote my buddy with his dfgt on this: "you know dirt 2 feels way more accurate, real, I feel the wheel like in a real car and the physics are superb from my point of view. Dirt 1 always had these strange slaps, the deadzone and whatever.. But after a full rally event I'm going back to dirt 1 because dirt 2 is just... A bit boring, lol".

That said he finds track simulations highly boring. Driving in circles... Not his thing

 

[AadHofman]

I agree with him.
He's using a t300 and I'm on a csw 2.5 but I also drove it with a logitech dfgt. It basically feels like a racing sim with lower grip. But as I mentioned it's lacking the feel of uneven surfaces, ruts etc. But the general driving is really close to the loved track simulations.

Now I would reallty appreciate if Martin Fiala would share his settings. I could see what I have done wrong. I haven't messed with the xml-file at all.

 

[bogani]

That said I prefer the well done general sat in DR 2.0 over the imo kinda bad and way too lively and punchy sat from DR 1.
Just hoping codies will make the ruts more feelable ..

The SAT in Dirt Rally seemed to depend more on road camber than actual self aligning. If the road was flat there hardly was any self aligning. That is one reason why I think tarmac got more bad rep than it deserved. The FFB just made it feel worse.

 

[theravenousbeast]

Indeed there are some effects missing, I just gets slightly annoyed that people screams its UNDRIVEABLE!.

Oh absolutely. Like I said the self aligning torque is like 80% of the feedback and that's working fine. It's just baffling how this has happened. If it was a simple bug it would've been already fixed.