DiRT Rally DiRT Rally out on Steam Early Access

[Alex Franchini]

Codemasters has surprised everyone with today's launch of Dirt Rally on Steam, under the Early Access label.

Judging from the official Steam Announcement, Dirt Rally features at launch (which is right now) 17 cars and 36 stages taken from 3 different locations (Monte Carlo, Acropolis and Wales).

SEE ALSO: Brand New Community Made DiRT Rally Videos

As you can see from the announcement, one of the biggest bullet points is "Simulation Handling". While we still haven't tried it yet, Codemasters definitely seems to be aiming for a more unforgiving driving model, with a "brand new model that simulates everything from the way the surface of the road behaves to limited slip differentials." Exactly how sim-like it will be remains to be seen, but it's indeed a good start.

Dirt Rally will also feature asynchronous events, team management providing improved repair times, league support.

Dirt Rally is currently in Early Access and available for the price of 26,99€, and it's going to receive new content in the form of cars, tracks and features for free.

Are you surprised as well by the Codies' announcement? Let us know your opinion in the comments!

 

[nickh158]

Yes there is a cockpit view, but it`s a bit shoddy at the moment. I believe `advanced` setups are available when you`ve run a few races and can afford the required engineers (or something).
This game appears to hark back to the early Colin Mcrae series, which weren`t sims, but were great fun to play, particularly hotseat multiplayer.
As long as this is better than the truly dismal Milestone efforts, I`ll be happy

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

Looks like it's lacking a bit of sense of speed and acceleration. Looks to me like you are driving through sand rather than on hard gravel. Am i right or does it actually feel fine in game ?

I think I can't set my FOV narrow enough. Feels like driving Trackmania!

There's propably too much grip combined to a lack of engine power. Gear shifts seems to be real-ly slow too.

 

[nickh158]

So, first impressions are...

• FFB isn't there, or, the F is there, not the FB. There is a lot of force, no feedback.
  
• Either the speeds are to low, grip to good, or brakes to good. I'm not sure what yet. But it feels like I can brake way to close to the corners, both in the Gr.A and 2010's cars. The Gr.B 4WD felt better there, but I need some more testing with those.
  
• The Monte-Carlo stages... I thought I chose Col de Turini up, and down, but I never came to the mytical "flat" on the top there. Also, when I braked it felt like I had tarmac-tyres (on the snow), it just sailed, but when I released them, it was grippy as ****. So I don't know
  
• No chance to change tyres, that was a big disappointment!

Will test more through the night though

BTW: Who got the H-Pattern to work? I cannot get it to work, no clutch either O.o

The game is in very early access, and I believe the devs made it clear that the road feel hasn`t really been implemented yet, so it will feel unrealistic.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

What I do like however, is the Greek and Wales - stages. They look good, and there are some hidden dangers there, just like it should be!

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

The game is in very early access, and I believe the devs made it clear that the road feel hasn`t really been implemented yet, so it will feel unrealistic.

It might be - but that is no guarantee that it will be good. Hiding behind Early Access is something many do, but there is no guarantee that an Early Access game will become any different.

Therefor, I do, by principle, never buy an Early Access game. This time it was different, as some people actually value my feedback, something I never thought would happen.

 

[Martin Larsen]

You are Norwegian @Ole Marius Myrvold ofc people value youre feedback

 

[Akis]

There is. Just drove Lancia Fulvia with manual gears. Love it

How? Please share your settings!

FFB is nice in some aspects (road feel), but weird in SAT. Lots of things can be tweaked through some xml files though.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

You are Norwegian @Ole Marius Myrvold ofc people value youre feedback

If it had been so easy!

How? Please share your settings!

FFB is nice in some aspects (road feel), but weird in SAT. Lots of things can be tweaked through some xml files though.

Oh, I found out! Go back to profile and game preferences, then you had the chance to choose it! H + Forced Clutch on the M3 was, better than much of the other stuff in the game

 

[samekyo]

it got the "its hard so must be sim" crap..

Hi! I kind of agree with You here. I have a question- have You tried NGP physics with RBR? If so- does Dirt Rally resemble NGP in any way, or is it completely different approach? I am really curious about DR, because it seems like it COULD become my (our) new sim in the future. Makers seem to be focused on realism this time, it's just a matter of defining what's realistic for us all. I am not getting early access, I with I could get free demo to decide if I like it first.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Hi! I kind of agree with You here. I have a question- have You tried NGP physics with RBR? If so- does Dirt Rally resemble NGP in any way, or is it completely different approach? I am really curious about DR, because it seems like it COULD become my (our) new sim in the future. Makers seem to be focused on realism this time, it's just a matter of defining what's realistic for us all. I am not getting early access, I with I could get free demo to decide if I like it first.

It's not as NGP at all. With NGP you can really feel the weight transfer, you can play with the car, steering wheel and surface, and so on.
This have, well, nothing as such yet. Weight transfer is impossible to feel.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

So, after a couple of hours... The FFB is better. The rest is the same.
It really does feel like the cars lack a bit power. Going downhill at Sweet Lamb, I just only pass 160 km/h, and at the same time, I break, what I feel is way too late to a hairpin, and actually comes to a complete halt before the corner.

I am also surprised about how little the cars slide around.

It feels like a DiRT game, it really does. There are some steps in the right direction (right, as in sim). But there is a lot of work to do.

I also hope that they some time in the future realize that it is more fun with 6-8 unique stages, than 12 stages who is a mashup of each other.

So, unless you have complete faith in Codemasters to evolve this game into a real sim, or maybe you really liked the older DiRT games, but want a tad more realism. This is the game for you at the moment. If you don't have complete faith in Codemasters, you might want to wait for further developements before buying into it.

 

[samekyo]

It seems they need to reduce grip level and increase car weight to begin with. I strongly reccomend You guys post Your impressions on their forums so they get feedback from us.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

It seems they need to reduce grip level and increase car weight to begin with. I strongly reccomend You guys post Your impressions on their forums so they get feedback from us.

Oh, I will

 

[yusupov]

guys who are saying the ffb is better, no, its not. you just comfortably numb. play any sim, hell play RBR, youll remember what actual feedback feels like & youll realize again how awful this is...

also lol @ "the devs said road feel hasnt been implemented" vs "FFB is terrible aside from road feel"...its just another codemasters scamjob & were suckers...

 

[Kazumi]

I think you guys should compare it to Dirt and the old Colin McRae games, or the recent WRC games. Not doing Dirt Rally any favors by comparing it to the best sim(s) and not other "semi-sims"

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

If there are modders that feel the need to play around with liveries or other modifications of the game. The DiRT Rally mods section is open http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/categories/dirt-rally.90/

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

guys who are saying the ffb is better, no, its not. you just comfortably numb. play any sim, hell play RBR, youll remember what actual feedback feels like & youll realize again how awful this is...

Yup, I did - Actually, I had a break after the FFB-settings provided by Oscar, did some RBR-testing just to confirm the stages for next weeks RaceDepartment Rally Championship.
Then went back for some 2010's WRC in DiRT Rally. And yes, the FFB was better than it was when I first tried DiRT Rally, it is not great, and I don't think anyone means that the FFB is great either, but there are something there. Something to build on.

I do not have faith in Codemasters being able to make it a great sim, but the foundation is there.

 

[Keith_G]

Love to play Rally games but not a master of ffb or anything else but still managed to have some fun with this. Some things I noticed:
1. Seems to be implemented more for console than PC as there seems to be no support for a mouse. It uses the buttons on my Fanatec V2 wheel to move back and forth in the menus.
2. Steering feel is pretty heavy until you play with the wheel settings and the menu settings in the game. Putting the wheel saturation at about 65% seems to really make a difference.
3. There is a difference between cars with RWD and 4WD for sure but they don't really seem to react to the road surface too much. Find it hard to slide the car around much. Doesn't mean I can drive it really well but maybe I just need to play with it more.
4. A lot of controls are missing or at least not implemented. I can't seem to map my headlights or wipers so there is a way to go for wheel support.
5. The HUD is only visible in my rear view and not when I am looking out the windshield? Not sure why or if I just have something wrong. ( I have triple screens so that may be a problem but the view seems to work fine).
6. I have no voice or notes for the co pilot. Not sure if they aren't implemented or if I just don't have it set up correctly.

Long way to go but depending on how much time and effort they put into this it could be fun. RBR has much better feed back and physics but this has better visuals. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

[johnnymat]

There is definitely no support for a mouse , which is too console-like for me. I get these messages at the bottom of the screen with numbers like 18 or 19. I have no idea where those are if they're buttons. Mouse support definitely is needed.

What really bugs me is no co-driver voice; that's a serious handicap and lots of other people are having the same problem. It's not like I have some esoteric sound setup ; since this is early access, I would hope they'll fix it. I probably won't play the game again until they give me a co-driver.

 

[yusupov]

Yup, I did - Actually, I had a break after the FFB-settings provided by Oscar, did some RBR-testing just to confirm the stages for next weeks RaceDepartment Rally Championship.
Then went back for some 2010's WRC in DiRT Rally. And yes, the FFB was better than it was when I first tried DiRT Rally, it is not great, and I don't think anyone means that the FFB is great either, but there are something there. Something to build on.

I do not have faith in Codemasters being able to make it a great sim, but the foundation is there.

well, i saw the settings & tried those & that combined w/ getting out of mini cooper purgatory (i didnt know you could choose any car/course at the beginning so i started grinding career & now i cant stop), i dont really disagree with any of this, although i would still say "godawful" as opposed to "not great". if they could get it to a point where its good...well ill just say im not hating myself for buying into this anymore, not right now anyway but wouldnt recommend it to any but the most desperate rally fan. sadly there are clearly a lot of them based on the way this is being received on steam...