REVIEW – With DiRT Rally, Codemasters claimed the throne back. Milestone’s games and Kylotonn (who worked on WRC 5 after Milestone lost the license) couldn’t even get close to that game’s quality. DiRT Rally was professional and didn’t have anything unnecessary. The sequel expanded, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s still phenomenal.

 

DiRT Rally was quite difficult, but the moment you could stay on the road, you could feel Codemasters‘ unadulterated talent. The British developers improved things a bit, and I’m glad they did it while keeping the basics of the previous game. There is no gymkhana or anything that made DiRT 3 so… full of glamor. DiRT 4 decided to stay modest and on the ground instead.

Gamer, Simulation

Codemasters immediately splits the professional from the Sunday driver. Two different approaches aimed at two separate crowds. Picking Gamer will offer you an arcade-like, easy-to-control, forgiving driving experience and physics. In it, you can also modify the AI difficulty level, the driving aids, and even get used to the basics with Dirt Academy. A lot of tutorials will get you learn the grips of rally even if you haven’t played the first Colin McRae Rally around 1999 (if only he could see this game…). DiRT has become a natural evolution, a successor to the Colin McRae series.

Meanwhile, Simulation is meant to be a hardcore, professional, punishing rally AND rallycross experience, because yes, DiRT 4 even has the official World Rallycross Championship license under its belt. Its development was helped by Kris Meeke (a protegé of the late McRae) and Petter Solberg (a WRC and rallycross world champion). Back to the Simulation for one more thought: to be successful, you have to be ruthless, efficient (aka not braking in the middle of every corner), and be on the limit at all times. McRae’s thought, when in doubt, flat out, applies here… unless you fly off the road and crash big time, making your shiny car dead in a few seconds.

Your Stage

I don’t know, but the custom stage creator, Your Stage, isn’t that good in my opinion. You get two sliders, one for the stage length, one for its complexity. You get five countries (Wales, Spain, Sweden, Australia, and the United States), and that’s it.

Each country offers a different ground from asphalt to gravel. Now, the 2000 (or 1999, I forgot) PS1 V-Rally 2 already had a much more complex level designer than this game. I understand, it could have been some technical difficulties, but if Codemasters have cloned that system, I’d have given DiRT 4 9.5 out of 10 without a doubt. Maybe it gets changed in the future.

From career to rallycross

In the Career mode, looking for sponsors and utilizing their money for your facilities and upgrades will be essential to have a successful team behind you. It felt like the game didn’t punish me for trying to participate in more events than usual. (Time for a strictly personal opinion: the livery editor doesn’t feel up to snuff. It should be getting a minor overhaul.) Thus, more cars can be waiting for you to turn them on than usual, and even though the 2000s seem to be somewhat lacking, the 80s, 90s, and modern cars make up an interesting mix of cars.

One of my personal favorites was the Dirtfish rally school, where I could have some challenging trials on an open field. Challenges are back from DiRT Rally, too. Unfortunately, rallycross isn’t completely covered. A few courses are missing, but from RX to B category cars, the vehicles are present. Landrush? Well… I’ll say that I got quickly bored with this off-road racing. I didn’t get used to it whatsoever. A+ for the effort, though.

Audiovisuals

The co-driver of DiRT Rally got replaced, I couldn’t get used to that. That sound is now gone. Yay. The engines still sound extremely glorious, just as in Rally. Marvelous! The HUD managed to drop most of its colorful, almost childish drawing style from Rally. Alright. The graphics (EGO engine) still keep the level from the previous game, and on the PlayStation 4 Pro, it’s even more detailed than on the regular one, albeit on 1080p only. Allow me to tell you why.

The rallycross‘ frame rate doesn’t have sixty frames per second. On the base PS4, you can feel it being unstable. DigitalFoundry confirmed my experiences. Check out their analysis:

The regular rally has perfect performance (except for replays, which are thirty frames per second… weird), but if you don’t own a Pro console, rallycross will not run as good as you would hope.

For racers, it’s a must buy

And I was stuck here. Does this game deserve a 9? The answer is a kindhearted, but weak yes. The game offers a stonking experience, and while it has lacking features and a few missed points (such as the current state of the Your Stage mode), the other games in the same genre and way behind. Until GT Sport, Forza 7 and Project CARS 2 launches, give it a shot. You will not be disappointed. If you liked DiRT 2 or DiRT Rally, get this game immediately.

-V-

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Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Codemasters Southam

Genre: Rally, Rallycross

Release date: June 6/9, 2017