DiRT 4 So, first impressions? Where does it stand versus DR?

[Helmut Skrdla]

Title says it all. It's available now, so for those with much more skill than me, how does it fare? Especially compared to Dirt Rally?

 

[LuMue]

Have done about 12 hours now and I'mreally amazed so far.
Did the Daily Owners Club in the FWD Fulvia with standard setup and had great slides through the corners just by steering too much...

Have read several comments, here and in other forums, that people are missing bumps...
Well, did most of the driving in career mode so far and at Wales & Sweden the roads are very bumpy in my opinion. In the woody sections at Wales a lot of bumps make driving difficult and in Sweden I also had this experience....

I know, I dp repeat myself, but let's give Codies the chance to work a bit on the cars behaviour/physics and then we'll get a great game.
The cars behave different to DR, yes. But did they behave more realisitc in DR? Or are most people just used to the DR-behaviour and are now wondering about the D4-behaviour and think that this is not good???

Remember guys: no more hotlapping in clubs - all the rest we will get used to!!!!

 

[Mr Blonde]

If you want to Rally play Dirt Rally
If you want to have some fun with the other game modes play Dirt 4. I'll also be using Dirt 4 as my go to game if my mates call up for a blast on the wheel (not rallying). Easily accessible fun and not too frustrating for noobs.

 

[Case_]

Not right now, it's locked the way it is. But there was DLC for previous DiRT games that unlocked everything.

It wasn't a DLC, it was an unofficial mod, and more of a hack really.

Have done about 12 hours now and I'mreally amazed so far.
Did the Daily Owners Club in the FWD Fulvia with standard setup and had great slides through the corners just by steering too much...

FWD cars feel much better than RWD or AWD, from what I could tell so far. At least there's nothing that feels so completely off with them.

I know, I dp repeat myself, but let's give Codies the chance to work a bit on the cars behaviour/physics and then we'll get a great game.

Yeah, I'm all for that and I'm usually defending them, but stil can't help feeling like we should get the games finished at launch, not several months later...

The cars behave different to DR, yes. But did they behave more realisitc in DR? Or are most people just used to the DR-behaviour and are now wondering about the D4-behaviour and think that this is not good???

See my previous post. And yes, I'd argue that while DR handling was far from perfect, in many ways it felt more realistic. Like I've mentioned - if you take a Group B RWD car to a wet gravel stage, you should be able to get the car sideways pretty easy in the corners at the very least. But you can't. That's not "you're just used to the DR behaviour" thing, that's simply wrong, there's no two ways about it.

Or try to do a sustained powerslide through a corner with an AWD car. Or a Scandinavian flick. With rallycross cars, no problem, even on tarmac you can have some long drifts that will put a smile on your face. With rally cars on a gravel stage - almost impossible to do. Again, that's just not right.

What's better in D4 than it was in DR is that the cars feel like there's some weight to them and you have to be mindful of your braking. That's something that feels like an improvement. But on throttle handling - definitely not.

 

[GoodOldBakes]

I know, I dp repeat myself, but let's give Codies the chance to work a bit on the cars behaviour/physics and then we'll get a great game.

Don't you just hate it when developers release unfinished games? Think I'll be keeping my pennies firmly in my pocket until it gets finished... that is, if it ever does.

 

[Akra]

What is disappointing is RaceNet is still buggy as all hell. "Cannot connect to Racenet" is its standard status. When it does connect, half the time it can't upload the times. And to add insult to injury, every so often it reports your online stage times completely wrongly. I've done 6 stages, about 4 minutes each. Completed time is 73 minutes? I'm sorry, what?

Seen this on the Xbox One version of DiRT Rally a few times. Sad to see that bug copied over. Racenet needs to be more stable.

 

[Jan Mikuž]

Watched some videos and streams - there were instances of same road sections appearing one after another. Made me cringe a bit...but the tech behind it is groundbreaking for sure and in general it appears to be linked together seamlessly.
All in all quite impressive really.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Handmade tracks will always be much better then randomly generated though.

 

[samekyo]

Handmade tracks will look nicer and have more detail, but you will be competing with people who learned every corner. It is not rally, it is hotlaping. Random stages are more true to rally essence IMHO. Your Stage is the main feature in D4 that kept me from geting a refund.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

Wouldn't trust the Steam reviews. The metacritic user ones are good.

People just want the artificial difficulty of DR back, for the same reason they liked RBR. Once they get used to it, the ratings will go up. D4 is a living example of how a lot of simracers just want a lot of bullcrap rather than realism.

My understanding is that there's huge levels of rear grip.... Even on change of direction + under heavy throttle.

 

[Case_]

Interesting thing happened today - I've "graduated" from the first FWD car to the N4 Impreza WRX and started tweaking the setup a bit to make the car feel more alive...and to be fair, I actually managed to make it oversteer a bit under throttle in the corners and it actually felt quite nice. Nicer than in DR I'd say, mostly due to the car having more weight and proper braking being more of a challenge. Both on gravel (Australia/Wales) and on tarmac (Spain). The rear was still gripping a bit too much, I'd say, but it was definitely the best experience I've had in D4 so far when it comes to rally cars.

But then I tried the same approach with the Group B RWD once more and it was like driving on rails again This game really is a mixed bag right now.

Also, the default FFB settings definitely don't help, at least not with my wheel (DFGT - yeah, I know) - tweaking the FFB was another improvement I did today.

Handmade tracks will look nicer and have more detail, but you will be competing with people who learned every corner. It is not rally, it is hotlaping. Random stages are more true to rally essence IMHO. Your Stage is the main feature in D4 that kept me from geting a refund.

This. I hated the hotlapping aspect of Dirt Rally - most of the fastest guys in the dailies lately have been people who knew every inch of every track to the point where they didn't need pace notes at all. It's inevitable with fixed stages, but it's also not rallying at all.

 

[W_Akira]

Also noticed that on 4wd setup changes made power oversteer possible, but it made me slower as the car was much less stable, so returned to default. Have to try setup balance and rwd setup changes, but maybe D4 is not as off as many people are saying. Not every corner is made sideways and drive on insane speeds on real life must be a challenge but not the car trying to kill you every corner. On D4 is easier to turn the car with the brake and is more predictable too. It makes more sense as how to drive fast on Rally cars. But still requires habilty to go really fast. Also puddles have a effect on cars more like RBR.

 

[Akra]

I fear that Codemasters won't be brave enough to fix the Simulation mode physics because it'll reset the leaderboards and such.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

fired it up on sunday and it is great fun indeed. it's nice to have a career mode again, this will keep me busy for a month or so, managing your own team is done in loving detail, fully appreciate that. i think the mechanic who has brilliant skills and works for absolutely free is the pre-purchase gift, isn't he? will put the ffb on the same settings i used in dirtrally, i guess this will bring back some of the feel i missed on the first day out. other than that it is a nicely executed game, will try out the stage generator tonight (where do i find it?) and the hyundai which came with pre-purchase, didn't spot it when quickly scrolling through the cars yesterday, must be somewhere, though ... so far: loving it! (if only we had some juicier locations like kenia and san remo)

 

[Case_]

I fear that Codemasters won't be brave enough to fix the Simulation mode physics because it'll reset the leaderboards and such.

They've done leaderboard resets with Dirt Rally.

 

[Leynad777]

I'm in level 26 now and like to know where is this "too much grip" setting? There is far less grip on D4 than DR for my experience and took me already hours to setup way too much oversteer out of quite a few cars.

 

[Leynad777]

I'm in level 26 now and like to know where is this "too much grip" setting? There is far less grip in D4 than DR for my experience and took me already hours to setup way too much oversteer out of quite a few cars.

 

[Case_]

Can you make a video showcasing too much oversteer and less grip than DR? I just don't get how can you get too much oversteer (apart from touching the grass).

 

[Leynad777]

Can you make a video showcasing too much oversteer and less grip than DR? I just don't get how can you get too much oversteer (apart from touching the grass).

I don´t make videos. Just take out the Subaru, BWM M3, Renault Turbo, Ford Fiesta R5 for example and take some spins around Australia, which is notorious for oversteer and seems it rains a lot there

In DR i tuned most cars to have more oversteer, in D4 this never happened once yet and i use the handbrake apart from FWD-cars just for the starts. In DR i used it way more often get the car sideways and put the break balance like always to the back, in D4 only to the front if needed. Apart from that, the differential is the main setup-tab to alter the car-behavior. Stiffer diff induce understeer, loosen it for more oversteer. The rest of the setup-options can mostly be ignored if the cars don´t go nuts over bumps like in the M3.

Maybe some people should check, if gamer-mode isn´t active. When i´m reading comments here it´s like some people talking about a hole different game. The physics are overall better in D4. Not so light-weight on crests anymore and this was real BS in DR. Wet surface is far more slippy than in DR and it goes up to levels with like no grip at all. The US-Rally has about the grip of Finland in DR and the more flat surface without ditches makes it certainly easier, but many Rally-locations are like that and no WRC in Greece since over 30 years. But Australia is still a bit like Greece, just with rain, fog and more crests. Sweden seems most similar, but breaks aren´t working that well anymore and this snow-banks are rarely fluffy like in DR and more like concrete. Spain is the most easiest like Baumholder before, but D4 gets more tough in the rain. Wales is about the same, but some sunny stages possible which kills the view in the forest-sections due to shadows.

The career seems easy in the beginning, but Dark Souls coming early enough i can tell

 

[W_Akira]

I don´t make videos. Just take out the Subaru, BWM M3, Renault Turbo, Ford Fiesta R5 for example and take some spins around Australia, which is notorious for oversteer and seems it rains a lot there

In DR i tuned most cars to have more oversteer, in D4 this never happened once yet and i use the handbrake apart from FWD-cars just for the starts. In DR i used it way more often get the car sideways and put the break balance like always to the back, in D4 only to the front if needed. Apart from that, the differential is the main setup-tab to alter the car-behavior. Stiffer diff induce understeer, loosen it for more oversteer. The rest of the setup-options can mostly be ignored if the cars don´t go nuts over bumps like in the M3.

Maybe some people should check, if gamer-mode isn´t active. When i´m reading comments here it´s like some people talking about a hole different game. The physics are overall better in D4. Not so light-weight on crests anymore and this was real BS in DR. Wet surface is far more slippy than in DR and it goes up to levels with like no grip at all. The US-Rally has about the grip of Finland in DR and the more flat surface without ditches makes it certainly easier, but many Rally-locations are like that and no WRC in Greece since over 30 years. But Australia is still a bit like Greece, just with rain, fog and more crests. Sweden seems most similar, but breaks aren´t working that well anymore and this snow-banks are rarely fluffy like in DR and more like concrete. Spain is the most easiest like Baumholder before, but D4 gets more tough in the rain. Wales is about the same, but some sunny stages possible which kills the view in the forest-sections due to shadows.

The career seems easy in the beginning, but Dark Souls coming early enough i can tell

Loosen diff to make a car oversteery is kinda weird. Drift cars uses a almost full locked diff on rwd. Also, in D4 is easier to put the car sideways, braking or using weight transfer, can do without handbrake. Keep the car sideways with the gas is almost impossible and it was what made DR so fun to drive. You could really control the angle with just throttle inputs. Not talking about realism here, but DR was just amazing fun.
Edit: Messed with the setup and even making the car oversteer more (softer front, harder rear, more camber front and zero rear, locking diff). Didn't feel anywhere near DR. Noticed something: in DR you could use higher lock diff values, but using similar values from D4 to DR, made completly different behavior: still a lot more power oversteer.

 

[Leynad777]

Loosen diff to make a car oversteery is kinda weird. Drift cars uses a almost full locked diff on rwd.

Loose surface and tarmac reacts very differently to diff-changes, but a loose differential is always better for corner entry oversteer. If you want to drive with a full lock, have fun, but please don´t complain about understeering cars.