It's weird, there are a lot of things he could have legitimately complained about. But I'd say overall, the handling isn't one of them. For the most part I think they did a good job trying to get each car to feel unique. Not saying they accomplished that 100% perfectly, but I don't think it's a topic I'd base a whole critique around. Unless I had first hand experience of each car in question and went in depth about what each car was lacking if anything.
FFB:
I was hoping that after they adjusted the FFB for v2 physics, it might've improved it a bit. For the life of me, I still haven't found any settings (g27) so I can feel something like the front tires losing grip. Something that's very easily noticeable in RBR. Most setups I see, people go crazy with these settings. If I want a workout I'll go to the gym. And if I want to feel like I'm driving a tractor-trailer I'll play Euro Truck Sim 2.
I also don't like in DR how FFB is completely dead in the case of understeer. I would think there's still force being applied to the wheels when a car understeers. Lighter than what's normally there, but still there. From what I've read DR doesn't use FFB based on steering rack data, but some black magic type of deal. Which could explain why some are of the opinion the cars all feel the same.
Edit: I just remembered something, after v1.0 I hopped into RX really quick to check something out. I assumed physics and FFB were final since the last RX related update, as I can't recall seeing anything in the change logs. However, the FFB for RX is now a lot better than the rallys cars, at least for tarmac.
Car balancing:
The 205 is the king of the game. With everything else equal, I don't believe there's any match for this car in the game. It's odd seeing as we have top cars from the different eras since then. And it's not an isolated case. I've found the '07 Focus and Fiesta to be no match for the '01 Focus. I'd imagine there's other cars that fall into this category, but these were the ones I tested.
Events/Stages:
There's no denying that quite a bit of time and effort went into making these stages and that they look fantastic. However, for all that work, I feel like they fell short in delivering stages that reflect the challenges encountered in the real events and part of what makes each of the locations special (if years of WRC coverage are to be believed). Let me try to explain each location I have a problem with.
Monte Carlo -
It seems like every year there's at least one leg of the event where it's more about surviving than out pacing anyone else. There might be parts of stages due to road condition and tires where you have to crawl through. I really wanted to see the weather be a much bigger factor in the game than it is. Admittedly it's been a while since I ran one of these stages, so perhaps things have changed with the physics updates. But the last time I checked, other than visibility, the weather and road conditions really didn't affect how the stages were ran. Even on the worst weather settings you still see people flying through a stage flat out.
Germany -
I can't remember if it was Malcolm Wilson or someone else at Rally Germany one year. But they jokingly mentioned they treat Germany as another gravel event because of the variances in grip level between the types of surface, the amount of dirt and dust that covers the road in places, and how rough the road is in places. There's none of that in the game. Aside from some cobble stone junctions/intersections, there's no difference in grip between the different surfaces. And while there is a nice little dust plume that's behind the car, I've yet to see any corner or other section of road that's strewn with dirt. Some parts of these roads are extremely rough and broken up. In the game they're as smooth as butter. Sure there's a bump here or there and the occasional jump. But nothing remotely resembling the surface conditions of the real stage.
It's one thing that was done really well with RBR, the Germany/Germany inspired/Czech tarmac stages were very challenging because of the things I mentioned. It was so easy sometimes to get caught out by a change in surface or gravel on the road.
And like Monte, the challenges of the real stages aren't there in game. So it's just another matter of going flat out.
Finland (aka the land of punctures) -
There's jumps and more jumps, and a few more jumps. Did I mention there's jumps in Finland? The speed is there, the jumps are there (however exaggerated they may or may not be). But something is off with the Finland stages. There's no flow to them. I guess this one maybe more a matter of perspective than the others. But, you watch onboard of Ouninpohja (or any Finland stage for that matter) and it's almost mesmerizing how the car flows from jump to jump, crest to crest, corner to corner. No matter how hard you try, it's just not there in game. Was definitely the location I was most looking forward too and the most disappointed with.
Sorry to bring it up again. But it's something that the BTB Finland stages for RBR got so right in my opinion. When you run Ouninpohja and you've been pushing the whole stage, it's so intense, but at the same time relaxing as well.
Wales -
I've heard that Wales never really dries out. And from what I've seen of [WRC] coverage there, it's typically a cold, wet, muddy mess. Your top level 4wd rally cars will struggle at times for grip, let alone 2wd cars. I can't help but feel there's too much grip for the conditions that are represented in game.
Greece -
I honestly haven't touched Greece at all. Other than maybe a random stage a couple times, never touched it. Only thing I'd say is the real event was like a mini Safari Rally. But without anything resembling a proper damage system, there's no reason to get into that.
Weather:
For the most part, it seems weather conditions are cosmetic. It doesn't seem to have as much of an affect on handling as you'd expect. Some people even claim in Germany there's more grip in rain than dry. Another let down, particularly in the case of Wales and Monte where weather conditions can play a huge role on how to drive the stages (and tire choice, oh wait...).
Damage system:
I mean really? RBR, CMR 2005, hell even Rallisport Challenge 2 had a better damage system than this. And those were all released 10+ years ago. It's been a while since I played it, but I think even Rally Trophy's damage system could rival what we have in DR. That shot of Tommy Lee Jones with the newspaper in "No Country for Old Men" comes to mind when I think about DR's damage system.
Collisions (specifically with roadside banks/verges/berms/etc. [oh yes, I'm go'in there!]):
For me, this is up there with the horrid damage system. What would be little to no damage and result in nothing more than the car being nudged in the real world, results in a stage ending/ruined spin. Why is some special "bank technology" needed to make the car not behave like a brick being thrown against a concrete wall when it even slightly taps one of these roadside obstacles? It's interesting that the car behaves relatively as expected with it collides with just about any other object
(trees/poles/posts/spectator's cars) besides these banks/verges/berms. It'll absorb the impact. Not asking anyone to cure cancer here, just do something that's logical, and that's been done over 10 years ago (see, I didn't even mention RBR this time, oops).
Replays:
I don't know how there haven't been riots breaking out over this replay system. And how CM have kept pretty much the same replay system in their games for over 10 years now. Perhaps I've been spoiled with Quake and having actual replay/demo files since the mid '90's. Small files that could even be saved to a floppy disk, that contained all the data needed to recreate the match you recorded. And were able to watch any time of your choosing.
The second thing I have about replays is, is what we're seeing what actually happened? There's been times where I'm 100% sure I've taken a corner completely sideways, or a corner, or jump, etc. where I never touched the brakes. Only to watch the replay and see no sideways movement of the car, and the brakes coming on in places I know I never touched them. I don't know if it's for everything in a replay, but it seems like some things are just canned effects and not really what happened.
This is just my take on things. Disagree, laugh, or criticize if you want. Now that people can't use the, "it's still in early access, it's not finished yet, give it time!" excuse, I'd thought I'd share my opinion.
