DiRT Rally Is DiRT Rally a sim?

[Chris]

I love rally, but I've never had time to get into RBR, the old DiRT series were abissmal as were the WRC games. So is DiRT Rally at least more realistic than its predecessors? certainly from the gameplay footage it looks really nice!

People who've played the game let me know your thoughts and opinions before I go giving out me hard earned dosh cheers!

P.s. I am aware that it's an early access, so I'm not expecting it to be a fully finished game

 

[eno72]

Ok, since the debate is based merely on personal opinions and not on a single bit of scientific evidence, let's contribute to the poll by saying: "Yes, I think it's a good simulator overall. Visuals are immersive and very natural, menus are essential, pacenotes are complete and detailed, cars behave in a believable way.". This is what I wish to say at this point.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Ok, since the debate is based merely on personal opinions and not on a single bit of scientific evidence, let's contribute to the poll by saying: "Yes, I think it's a good simulator overall. Visuals are immersive and very natural, menus are essential, pacenotes are complete and detailed, cars behave in a believable way.". This is what I wish to say at this point.

It's hard to debate scientific evidence on a subject where we have very little scientific evidence to go on, and where almost everything comes down to being subjective. Though things take a turn for the worst when the only argument is "XXX is king" and "XXY is Arcade" because "XXZ developed it", which is near enough a brand loyalty argument like you see so often with electronic devices.

I'm in a strange place because I don't necessarily disagree with peoples comments about Dirt, the glaringly obvious becomes apparent on tarmac. But at the same time I feel they have made an incredible baseline game to build on and improve, and one that is clearly more aimed at a simulation crowd than your average gamer.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

Ryan Vickery really has all the signs of what is known as a >mod-edit: please stay polite and within forum rules<

Codemasters been around since 1986 and you have to ask yourself some questions:

Q: Have they made any Sims, ever ? A: No
Q: Why haven't they made any Sims ? A: There's no money in it
Q: Are they known for great FFB and Road Feel ? A: No
Q: Are they known for listening to the community A: No
Q: Are they known for being masters of hype A: Yes

I have been longing for the next gen Rally Sim for years and I am 110% convinced it's not going to come from Codemasters.

 

[yusupov]

i think its fair to be skeptical & i dont encourage you to buy. but there are reasons a lot of people are saying theres something to be optimistic about here. i would urge you to remain open to the possibility that THIS time, it just MIGHT be different

 

[mister dog]

For starters (and this counts for every racing game/sim out there), most of our opinions do not count for nothing. Did we drive racecars or rallycars on the limit in real life? I bet 95% of us haven't so who are we to compare. I'll believe it when a game is being branded as a sim when it comes out of the mouth of someone who raced the real life version.

Also people tend to brand racing games as a 'sim', if the driving is difficult. Folk that drove supercars already said that their videogame equivalents are much more difficult to drive, and in the example of RBR real life rallydrivers stated that if this would be how a real rallycar handles, no one would pick up the sport as they would bend themselves around trees everywhere.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Ryan Vickery really has all the signs of what is known as a >mod-edit: please stay polite and within forum rules<

Codemasters been around since 1986 and you have to ask yourself some questions:

Q: Have they made any Sims, ever ? A: No
Q: Why haven't they made any Sims ? A: There's no money in it
Q: Are they known for great FFB and Road Feel ? A: No
Q: Are they known for listening to the community A: No
Q: Are they known for being masters of hype A: Yes

I have been longing for the next gen Rally Sim for years and I am 110% convinced it's not going to come from Codemasters.

I'd say you're showing signs of a troll or an "anti-fanboy"

1. Claiming a person to be a "fanboy" or other negative labels
2. Lack of any factual evidence, constructive criticism or any effort to explain views.
3. Ignoring points and views where a person is actually in agreement
4. Using catchphrases and self-confirmation as evidence "masters of hype"
5. Using irrelevant and debatable points of opinion as evidence "known for listening to community"
6. Brand loyalty or unloyalty as evidence.
7. Using past work as evidence, without taking into consideration new information.


If my post makes me a Codemasters fanboy then I don't even know what this world we live in is, this is one of the most childish things I've seen on RD, and I've been here for years.

 

[eno72]

UUUhhhh, all this hatred for poor Codemasters, come on!

Q: Have they made any Sims, ever ? A: No, because EA made it.
Q: Why haven't they made any Sims ? A: No car races in The Sims
Q: Are they known for great FFB and Road Feel ? A: Let's wait and see
Q: Are they known for listening to the community A: Give 'em a chance.
Q: Are they known for being masters of hype A: Not this time, come on!!!!!

Just to have fun....

 

[AndrewBo]

A reminder:
Please stay polite and within forum rules !
Simple rules:
Mutual respect between the people using the RaceDepartment.com website(s) and forums. This means you may not personally attack other forum users. malicious behaviour and bullying will not be tolerated. If there is a problem report it to the staff.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Edit: Got ninja'd between bicep curl and "g-force excerise"

 

[AndrewBo]

Done

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

Yawn............................. !

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

UUUhhhh, all this hatred for poor Codemasters, come on!

Q: Have they made any Sims, ever ? A: No, because EA made it.
Q: Why haven't they made any Sims ? A: No car races in The Sims
Q: Are they known for great FFB and Road Feel ? A: Let's wait and see
Q: Are they known for listening to the community A: Give 'em a chance.
Q: Are they known for being masters of hype A: Not this time, come on!!!!!

Just to have fun....

You confuse facts with hatred

 

[eno72]

that was a joke, of course... hope you had a laugh.

Back on topic, as someone else pointed out already, the focus seems to be principally FFB and, on a second instance, handling and surface behaviour. I reckon these are two most important aspects for what we would like to be a rally simulator and don't want to discuss further.
I would like to have your attention on the quality of the track 3D models and textures. As a former track modder for RBR I was just left breathless when driving on a perfect reproduction of the Sweet Lamb rally complex. I made that in the old days for RBR and now I can finally drive on it with all the visuals and effects that RBR did not allow me to add.
I really hope that this title (or at least some other rival title...) will leave space for extra content created by the community.
Anyway, the quality of the tracks already add a lot to what we call simulation. When on track, it's almost impossible to identify instances of the same objects, or repeating textures and so on. This is one of the secrets to make the scenery look absolutely natural, one thing that was quite difficult to achieve in RBR, for instance, because of its limitations.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

No -I was dead serious

Don't get me wrong -No one would be happier than me if we have a next gen Rally Sim, but it won't be Codemasters that deliver it even though DR will be good.

 

[Kazumi]

They are on a good way compared to the last 5 years or so. But there's no need to sugarcoat things from my point of view. It's even counterproductive since they rely on feedback from people with actual sim and/or real rally experience (assuming they are listening to that kind of feedback)

 

[Ryan Vickery]

They are on a good way compared to the last 5 years or so. But there's no need to sugarcoat things from my point of view. It's even counterproductive since they rely on feedback from people with actual sim and/or real rally experience (assuming they are listening to that kind of feedback)

Their chief designer has been doing a bit of rallying of his own (he is the co-driver in the game too, they wrote a blog about it), they have rally drivers on board. Might have something to do with the change of heart in direction? They have never had this stance of wanting to make a sim before.

It's punishing, they removed all the fluff and are having a stand against stuff like flashbacks (gone). If you restart you take a cash prize penalty, if you reset your car you take a 15 second penalty.. The only difficulty level is the championship level and you have to repair your car with limited time between checkpoints (after 2 stages). It's a brutally punishing game compared to their previous offerings and shows a grown up authentic approach to rallying.

All of the stages in the game are tight, punishing and incredibly challening. I know from the Rally Wales that they are real stages, not fictional creations... I actually live next to the Afon stage, I grew up there in those forests on my mountain bike, or watching the WRC/Mintex rally with my dad as a kid. The level of attention to detail is quite frankly staggering and it's so far above anything they have ever done before.

You talk about people with actual sim feedback helping them... Sure that is great, what is not great is "Oh arcade game bullshit, codemasters rubbish, this FFB is just ****, **** this going back to RBR" followed by berating anyone with a constructive or balanced view on the subject. It's not helpful.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

The only difficulty level is the championship level and you have to repair your car with limited time between checkpoints (after 2 stages). It's a brutally punishing game compared to their previous offerings and shows a grown up authentic approach to rallying.

But still things they had in their earlier games. So, nothing special about it.

What is special, and something I love, is the way you can knock the tire off the rims. And how it can "explode" later on.
What I don't like is how the car handles when punctured. I think this is my only experience of a front puncture making the car oversteer.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

No -I was dead serious

Don't get me wrong -No one would be happier than me if we have a next gen Rally Sim, but it won't be Codemasters that deliver it even though DR will be good.

If you think DR will be good, why the trolling attitude?

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

If you think DR will be good, why the trolling attitude?

Maybe you need to get yourself a sense of humour

 

[RaceNut]

Regarding the FFB, I have SC4 FFB working with the AF and it's really good, as are the SimVibe features. It shows that physics wise, there is some "good stuff" going on under the hood. Codies just needs to sort the game FFB for various wheels.

I like what they are doing with this; if they prove to be sincere about the goals in this case, I think we may have a real contender for a Rally Sim. One things for sure, the sounds are great and the replay sounds replicate the Rally environment better than any game to date IMO. If Codies can get the handling and FFB to that level, we're in for a treat.