DiRT Rally Dirt Rally reaches version 1.0, console version incoming

[Alex Franchini]

Codemasters has announced that Dirt Rally is now complete with the addition of the Winter Wonderland pack, which brings some highly anticipated and very snowy content to the rally racing sim.

Dirt Rally caught everyone by surprised when it launched earlier in 2015, and rapidly affirmed itself as the most prominent current-gen rally simulator. According to the press release and Twitter page, the Winter Wonderland pack is now available, thus bringing the game to its complete status. Now the Codies team will focus on bringing Dirt Rally onto current-gen consoles, namely PS4 and Xbox One, which is slated to be completed and released April 5th, 2016.

Meanwhile, the Winter Wonderland pack adds the Sweden stages, set on the snowy and icy roads of Varmland. Two cars are included in the pack as well: players are now able to drive the Hyundai Rally and VW Polo Rally.

The latest update also adds Steam Workshop support that allows FFB settings and car setup sharing. You can find the full patch notes on the Steam page.

Check out the official launch trailer on our RaceTube section!

 

[Pascal Herbig]

I just hope they add more RX and HC stages. 3 and 1 location respectively is rather lean.

 

[JayS]

Yes, new RX tracks would be really good and at the same time I hope that the consoles does't affect further developments for the game. Let's wait and see.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Sector3 take note "FFB settings and car setup sharing"

 

[Bert Austen]

great update sweden.....great rally game.....the game gets better and better

 

[Gerbuho]

Great news. I only hope they fixed the codriver calls in spanish, they're not syncronized in the spanish versión in some of Finland stages.

 

[RaceNut]

I only took a short test drive in the Polo in Sweden but, I'm liking it so far. It seems like it's very challenging with it's narrow, snowbank-lined roads.

I noticed that CM also added auto-switching for shifter types based on the real cars like AC has.

 

[Dan Allen]

Will have to try this tomorrow. Looks cool!

 

[Brian McManus]

The best rally game in a long time.
I am really liking the rx series but it
Lacking content mostly cars,it would be nice to see full car packs in the wrc series

 

[Matt Orr]

I'd give all of the WRC and Rallycross / Hillclimb cars in the game for Australia and Portugal / Argentina / Mexico / Almost any other rally.

I'll flat out say I'm not a 4WD rallycross rocketship fan (I'd dig it if we had all the cars on the tracks though), but with it just being the one class and the small handful of tracks, like Hillclimb it feels like a half-hearted addition "because".

I'm liking the stages so far, don't care about the cars but we already have all the cars I need. The new stages are quite tough, IMO the toughest of the bunch. The close snowbanks and all the freakin' bumps man!

The snowbanks do seem odd though - for example, hit them in the 037 (or even the i20) and you spin like a top instantly almost always, while the RS200 just trucks right through them. Really hit and miss reactions on it, sometimes I feel like I should explode when I hit the snowbank yet get nothing, sometimes I feel it shouldn't really matter but the car goes psycho.

It is pretty cool that they are actually "soft" though, gonna need some more seat time before I start using them to slow the car down in Scandinavian fashion!

 

[Tal]

I have to say... If this means that there won't be any more content added, then I'm pretty upset. Couldn't care less about the rallycross honestly, I just want mainly more rally locations. Yeah I didn't get my Toyota Corolla, but I can live with that if we had a plethora of locations. As it stands we have Wales, Greece, Monaco (which is tarmac so blegh), Germany (Also tarmac), Finland and now Sweden. But There are so many more interesting locations to go to! Australia, Argentina, Japan, Africa... man, having those locations would be so awesome. Also, lets not forget that for all of these locations, the tracks are somewhat similar, and share certain parts with other layouts, so its not like you get 8 unique layouts for each rally location, you get different variations of them more like.

So yeah... I love the way the game feels, but I honestly just want more locations... I don't want to be able to memorize the tracks and take away from the sense of not knowing whats coming that you get in a rally, because we have too few locations...

 

[function9]

They should feel similar, I do believe each location is a single real world stage split up for the game. Would be nice if one of the things to come was a plugin or something that allowed custom stages, but I doubt it.

The Swedish stages are pretty nice, but what makes them tricky though is the game mechanics, not the stages themselves. Perhaps bumper bowling is a very popular sport on that side of the pond.

 

[Tommi Saari]

base game ready, more dlc on the way? Surely needs more content...

 

[Duke55]

base game ready, more dlc on the way? Surely needs more content...

I'd be happy to pay for more DLC. Hillclimbs though, RX doesn't do much for me.
They can start with this one...

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I for one, are hoping that Codies make a proper RX game, they've got the license to do it !

 

[RaceNut]

I think CM did a great job on this considering it really was just a test to see how the community responded to a new approach to Rally. In ROI terms, RBR was an epic fail and issued a huge red flag to anyone thinking about making a serious Rally title. CM has managed to make a fun and more-serious Rally title while minimizing risk and doing it in a new way - not "business as usual".

The snowbanks in DR Winter Wonderland are really impressive to me; you can lean on them a tiny bit for speed-checking and turn enhancement and occasionally, power through them but, poke the nose in too deep and get ready for an amusement-park ride! You can also run wide and how much you can get away with depends on the cars attitude and how much power is put to the rear wheels.

Watch some real Rally footage and you'll see them doing the same things. Codies have really paid attention to real-world behavior with DR. The night-lighting effects are great too; try not to be distracted by the campfires or entranced by heavy snow, both of which can happen in RL (or so I'm told).

I think the Rally stages are fun and challenging overall but, the grip levels - especially on Tarmac, still seem too high to me. Despite that, I really enjoy the Rally stages and the competition of RX mode. The Hill-climb mode would be miles more interesting to me with the ability to use different cars beyond the current limited offerings but, it can provide a bit of spice if Rally becomes a bit tedious and one needs a break.

Overall, I'm quite impressed by what CM has done with DR and how they have done it. I think it was a smart and measured approach to produce a new Rally title with minimal risk. If successful, it's better for for the community in the long run and may bring future investment to Rally games. Springing Instant Early Access on us was brilliant and avoided the usual hype-build process.

Even if Dirt Rally is not as hardcore as some would like it, pleasing 100% of players is not realistic and catering only to the Sim market not profitable. Codies have managed to bring us something different and challenging while communicating with players in a good-humored way if you've followed development. They have also listened to the community and responded very well.

In my opinion, CM's fresh approach in developing DR deserves to be rewarded whether it be by purchasing DR or simply saying well done Codies. They took a big risk, listened to what players wanted and produced a really fun yet, challenging title that started out as a market test. I'd like more of that please.

 

[Pedro K]

Bottom-line is I never really feel the urge to start this game up. Much like Assetto Corsa. I'd rather be messing around on iRacing or rFactor 2 or Stock Car Extreme. Wish Reiza developed a Rally title, then maybe it would feel a bit more dangerous.

 

[Skazz]

On the subject of Rallycross: I suspect this content is a feeler from both Codies and World Rallycross themselves. If they deem the feedback to justify a full spin-off they can go for it.

I don't think the market is there for a purely Rallycross game (let alone sim) right now, not enough coverage. But this content does give DiRT Rally a nice door to door competitive element which will help sell it on console. In fact, I could see them going for 4 tracks (12 layouts) and a secondary class (or just using rally cars on the Rallycross tracks) for the console release.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

The snowbanks in DR Winter Wonderland are really impressive to me; you can lean on them a tiny bit for speed-checking and turn enhancement and occasionally, power through them but, poke the nose in too deep and get ready for an amusement-park ride! You can also run wide and how much you can get away with depends on the cars attitude and how much power is put to the rear wheels.

I know this is nitpicking, but you lean on the snowbank on the outside, not the inside

I think the Rally stages are fun and challenging overall but, the grip levels - especially on Tarmac, still seem too high to me.

Talked to a guy who have driven with the WRC-Style studs quite a few KM's, he says it's not enough grip on the snow.
I think the main issue is that the older cars feels like the grip a bit too good. A tiny bit like it would be if they were made today, and ran with todays tyres. Which, well, they do. But it might be a bit "wrong" compared to what we see on youtube, and remember from the 90's.

I don't think the market is there for a purely Rallycross game (let alone sim) right now, not enough coverage. But this content does give DiRT Rally a nice door to door competitive element which will help sell it on console. In fact, I could see them going for 4 tracks (12 layouts) and a secondary class (or just using rally cars on the Rallycross tracks) for the console release.

Hmm, I actually think it is ready for a RX-only game, as long as they implement everything correctly, and not at least get a proper multiplayer, just imagine how stressful and epic RDRX would've been

 

[RaceNut]

@Ole Marius Myrvold, I can lean both ways - just not at the same time.

I have often wondered about grip levels in Rally, they do seem very high when watching RL footage so they may not be as far off as some think. Today's tires are pretty amazing, even just with added silica compounds / rubber compounds and sipe designs. Studs are a game changer for sure and that's where I can see the grip being even higher.

The main place I question DR grip is on tarmac but, the tires and cars of Rally are very different from so many of our typical Simulated autos; take GRC for example, zero to 60 in 1.6 seconds, lightweight and lots of power to four wheels - not your grandma's grocery getter. We have pretty good GRC coverage here of late so it has increased my interest in RX quite a bit; I'd go for a serious RX title.

I just read that Dirt Rally totally defied the odds of being made at all. The CM leaders were dead-set against it but, the Rally Heads on the team were determined enough to convince them to have another go using a new approach; I'm glad they did.