Wow. So there will be at least a couple rally games towards the end of the year (including Seb Loeb Rally Evo). Good news.
Well this has been teased for a while, leaked via nvidia/amd drivers.
What we arent sure of if this is its own thing, or whether this is really DiRT 4. Either way, if this goes back towards the old colin mccrae games, and not the overly arcade that DiRT was, Im sold.
I’ve spent about an hour with it yesterday, seriously impressive! Codies seem to be up for a surprise here and if they keep their promises this could become the first hardcore rally sim since RBR.
Its early access and there are many areas to be improved, but its suprisingly stable and smooth already and well advanced in development. It seems to be a very good base for a serious rally game and i honestly didnt expect Codies ever go this route again after seeing what the Dirt series has become. They got rid of all the gymkhana/festival/yolo vibe and went back to the basics: just plain good ol’ rally racing against the clock. Some of the special stages are up to 9 minutes long and you will end up in a smoking wreck somewhere in the forest if you dont stay focused all the time. Tracks are tight and packed with hazards that could end your journey any time. If your co-driver tells you to not cut a corner…then DONT BLOODY CUT IT!
The physics seem to be very sophisticated. According to the devs it even simulates the dirt and gravel piling up when going sideways, increasing the resistance of the surface and slowing the car down. The different car classes have a distinctive feel and a modern car drives like a modern car, while the group B monsters are just raw power and they just seem to be waiting to wrap you around the next tree if you are not careful. One thing thats strange is that the handbrake behaviour on Group B cars, i couldnt get my Quattro around the hairpins in style, no matter what i tried.
Graphics are great, even though its based on the “old” EGO engine but they went all out on this. I did one of the forest stages at night in rain using cockpit cam. What a truly amazing experience this was until i lost my headlights about 1000m into the stage (there was a tree in the forest!)…the rest was just terrifying and i immediately felt this sensation of intimidation and fear…something i havent felt since RBR.
I didnt have time to fiddle around with INI files and the default preset for my TX wheel was very underwhelming. FFB definitely needs to be improved and the game currently only offers a few options to customize/improve the wheel handling and FFB. It didnt recognize my TM shifter, even though you can switch to H-Pattern/Clutch shifting.
Even though its one of the first big studios going the early acess route, Codies seem to want to do it the right way. All upcoming content updates will be free of early access members and they promised that there wont be any microstransactions/paid DLC. It currently offers 17 cars and 36 stages in 3 regions, thats quite a lot for an early access title and they announced their roadmap for upcoming content already.
Hillclimb at Pikes Peak will be the first thing to be added in a couple of weeks and they are even going to implement rallycross racing soon as well, hope this will also give us some super special stages like in real life.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how this game is going to develop over time, Codies will get a special place in my heart if they get this one right!
This game sounds like it might be promising, I’m glad they’re getting back to basics and focusing on rally instead of gymkhana and what not. I hope Codemasters has aimed more for simulation this time around rather than arcade like they have with their last few installments.
That looks pretty promising, actually! I’m glad they’re going away from the Gymkhana/Ken Block/Bro stuff and a lot more towards where they should have gone. Looks like Colin McRae Rally isn’t dead after all.
Dust, the dev’s already confirmed that this wont be Dirt 4. Dirt Rally seems to be like a side-project of CM without the budget of a AAA title. Thats why they chose to put this up on early access and its also the reason why a port to consoles is currently rather unlikely.
I read through some of the usual sim racing boards and the CM devs/community team are already pretty active in a few of these forums. They keep emphasizing that they are going to listen to community feedback and try to implement as many feature requests as possible. Just the fact that its not supposed to be a AAA title gives me lots of confidence that this could actually become the first true sim by Codies. Looks like its not supposed to please the masses and the team working on it seems to be comparatively small and full of enthusiasts. These are perfectly fertile grounds for a true sim if Codies take it seriously enough.
Btw, about 2 years ago, one of the devs did a survey on reddit to gather community feedback and feature requests about a future off road racing game (which now turned out to be Dirt Rally). The replies pretty much reflect what they have released now…I like their way of community interaction, looks like something has changed at Codies
Thanks for the clarification Woozie.
The whole industry has to change. Making a game, pushing it out, and hoping its what people wanted doesnt work anymore.
As much as people hate Early Access, it does give the devs valuable insight prior to going gold when its to late to do anything.
Early access is a great thing if its done right. As long as devs dont try to milk early accessors by releasing paid DLC content during the EA phase or ditching the whole thing after a few months (Steam doesnt offer refunds for cancelled EA games afaik). If i recall correctly only about 25% of all early access titles leave beta status at some point. Valve recently tightened the early access rules for developers but it remains to be seen if that really helps to improve the current stats.
However, whats interesting is that devs seem to get much more valuable feedback from paid early access than from public betas. People who invested money into something thats still in development seem to be far more attached and feeling somehow responsible to help making this a great product. In public betas most just download the beta, spend some time with it and then move along.
Isnt that great? People pay you to be allowed to work for you, guess i’ll become a dev now as well 
This is what I like about the PC community. FFB is fixed (mostly) by the community within 24 hours.
I won’t be able to have it as I don’t have a suitable PC but this game sounds promising.
In a world where the majority of driving games go really arcadey targeting kids (NFS, ToCa Race Driver, Colin McCrae Rally etc.) its nice to see Colin McCrae go back to its roots and target enthusiasts. Hopefully a lot more games will go the same way.
finally got around to picking this up, looks like it will be a blast… AFTER they fix the woefully woeful FFB.
I hope this game comes out for consoles, it does look super cool.
Its very likely that it will come to console at some point. No official news yet but the devs stated already that they are considering this option. Problem is its a side project of Codemasters, done by a rather small team and not the official next DiRT Game. I suppose they wait until its out of early access in order to assess its sales potential and then make the decision.
Due to its rather hardcore approach its a niche product, but the addition of RallyCross should help to make it attractive for a wider audience, increasing the chances that it will be released on consoles too.
Its something all rally lovers can look forward to, this game is amazing in every regard and puts a stupid grin on my face every time i play it.
This game is seriously one of the best racing games I’ve ever played. I’d hated how CM drastically changed their approach to DiRT between the first game and 2, with 3 not being much better. DiRT Rally by contrast is very clean, practical, mature, and challenging. It’s not being marketed to CoD bros with godawful X Games and Gymkhana bull; this is for people who are serious, dedicated, and mature enough to accept that they will almost never get first place and instead simply need to be consistent to advance. Here “advancing” simply means moving up to longer, more grueling championships, not unlocking new cars and classes, so you can do every championship in your 60s Mini if you want.
If you enjoy endurance racing in Forza without rewind you will probably love DiRT Rally.
So this has now been confirmed to be coming to consoles and I, for one, am enormously PUMPED for it. I didn’t think I’d ever come across a game–racing or otherwise–that would get me as excited as I was the months leading up to F6, but DiRT has most definitely done that, and then some.
I don’t ‘do’ Twitch. I don’t watch competitive gaming or whatever. Heck, I hardly even spend much time on the main gaming sites watching trailers.
HOWEVER
I’ve spent the last couple of days just watching YT vids of the game. It’s so good, it’s like I’m watching a RL rally race. The extremely detailed cockpits (with adjustable FOV) The engine sounds, the co-driver pacing (I’ve played many rally games and I’ve NEVER heard as detailed pacenoting as I’m hearing with DiRT), the sheer car variety; indeed, there may be one or two cars that aren’t in the game that I’d like to see, tops (Celica WRC/Group B, Citroen BX 4TC, Renault R5, A110 are all that come to mind atm), but when you’ve got every famous Lancia (I’ve not seen that before in a rally game), two Cossies and Subarus up the wazoo, you’re fine by me.
And the stages, Oh, the stages. Monte: Check. Wales: Check. Finland: Check. Africa–AFRI-FREAKIN’-CA: check. Such variety, and we’ll probably see more via DLC.
Yes; the graphics will surely take a hit with the transition to consoles, but I think they’ll be just fine by me to keep me occupied for hours, thank you very much.
As the poster above me said: thank goodness that with D:R, we’re back, once again, to proper rallying. Bring on April '16.
I have played it a little with my friend, he has it on PC with a Logitech wheel/pedal/shifter set up. It is a hard game, not because of car control just because I suck at rally. The e30 is a blast to drive, the down hill snow track is awesome, and the rally cross is really cool (partially because it is on a track and I am good at it)