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    DiRT 4

    Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Jun 06, 2017

    Be fearless in DiRT 4.

    DiRT 4 Impressions

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    deactivated-987696

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    As a huge fan of Dirt 2 and Dirt 3 (yes, I loved Gymkhana stuff), and I thought Dirt Rally was ok too, though the progression was a bit slow and environments not as nice looking as I had hoped. DiRT 4 so far is a massive disappointment, given I'm only an hour into the game. It looks like shit, and is super boring to play. Tried both handling options, both are super arcade-y. This wouldn't be a deal-breaker, but there is none of the fun here that was in Dirt 2. Not to mention Dirt 2 probably looks as good or better than DiRT 4. Hey, at least it runs a smooth 60fps (on PS4 Pro at 4k). What are your thoughts if anyone has played?

    Edit: When I first started the game I was immediately confused for it throwing me into a game that looked like it should have been called "Dirt Rally 2".

    Edit 2: At least the soundtrack in the menus is ok.

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    Bollard

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    Oh, I didn't even realise this game was out yet (it's not till Friday here in the UK).

    I'm thinking your dislike for this game might stem from your dislike of Rally? I thought Rally was excellent, and the fact reviews claim Dirt 4 bears similarities to Rally but adds a career with progression and the random tracks really excites me. Obviously I haven't tried the handling yet but all the reviews are super positive so I'm optimistic still.

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    spamfromthecan

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    The early reviews I read said this was more like Dirt 3 than Rally. Is actually not the case?

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    Nodima

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    GRID 2 was the last Codemasters racing game I played, which from what I remember wasn't received all that well but I really enjoyed it as a PS+ game. I've always wanted to love the Dirt series but have never bought one; the original demo for the first Dirt on PS3 was one of my most played games on the system, though. Along with Motorstorm's demo it carried me through about a month of owning the system without having any games for it.

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    Bollard

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    The early reviews I read said this was more like Dirt 3 than Rally. Is actually not the case?

    I think the handling is far more forgiving and approachable to the non-sim crowd, and it has more features like 3 did. But people have been describing it as having the same feeling as Rally.

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    deactivated-5a923fc7099e3

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    Yeah from the youtube video's I've seen pre-release it didn't really strike me as a real looker. I have asked someone who is in the know about these things about the handling. He said that in pro mode it comes really close to Rally and that in some ways it is even better. That combined with the track creator might be enough for me to buy it.

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    deactivated-60481185a779c

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    These Dirt games just seem to come out spontaneously without much announcement, don't they?

    Are rally games really that much of a niche now? I feel like these sort of games were a bigger deal 10-15 years ago. Do people only care about GT and Forza now, or have the past few Dirt entries received more press coverage on other sites?

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    hack1501

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    @dgtlty said:

    These Dirt games just seem to come out spontaneously without much announcement, don't they?

    Are rally games really that much of a niche now? I feel like these sort of games were a bigger deal 10-15 years ago. Do people only care about GT and Forza now?

    I am wondering this myself. I am not normally into racing games, but when I get the itch rally style is my go to. I thought this might be a good one to get as reviews I have seen so far are positive. Also, it looks like the difficulty level is right for me as I am looking for something more arcadey than sim.

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    Shindig

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    Rally's always been niche. It's arguably more niche now due to the big manufacturers dropping out and there being no big marketable name to attach products to. 10-15 years ago, we still had Colin MacRae, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Tommi Makkinen and Sebastien Loeb.

    Nowadays you've got them driving Fords and Toyotas. Sebastien Ogier has won four titles on the bounce and nobody gives a shit.

    A review I wrote.

    I've been away from the series for a while so this felt nice and fresh to me. I never really stayed onboard when Ken Block and his Gymkhana stuff came to town. It's still trying to sneak in other forms of off-roading but it's presented in a much more buttoned-down way. And the Ego engine continues to impress. Go into a wet night-time stage and break your headlights. You can navigate the stage from the reflections of the pavement. Not a fan of Landrush, though. The vehicles feel a bit too beefy.

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    ClairvoyantVibrations

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    @bollard: This is good for me. DiRT Rally is my favourite driving game in a very long time.

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    BoOzak

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    #11  Edited By BoOzak

    I know this is a real stupid thing that has nothing to do with racing but I really liked that in Dirt 2 your menu was relegated to your caravan which you entered and exited before events. That and the X-games vibe made everything feel more lively and exciting. I remember one of the Toca Race Driver games had something similar and I thought it was cool there too.

    Anyway, I just miss the days when Codemasters made stylish menus, i'm sure the racing is fine in this game, it usually is in Codemaster's games, but I need those menus dammit.

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    p_ranger

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    While some of the Gymkhana stuff was presented poorly it was still fun to tool around in the environment and try things out. I enjoyed Dirt 3 for the most part. Will probably pick this up at some point.

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    deactivated-987696

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    Well I have certainly warmed up on the game significantly since my original post. Even though there isn't enough "fun" content like there used to, turning off all assists helped with the feel of the game, and I really like the way they have implemented the sponsor goals this time around. And how they implemented languages other than English -- I immediately changed the spotter person for Rally X races to Italian because I really don't need to understand what he's saying at all.

    Perhaps the daily/weekly content will keep me busy when I am done with the game, which will be very soon as there really isn't a lot of content and most of it is "Colin McRae" style rally. I wonder how well Dirt: Showdown sold, 'cause, and this may sound silly, but this game could use some of that kind of flare. I guess at this point I'll take what I can get. Hopefully there is a Grid 3 or something on the horizon after F1 2017 because the most fun I've had with a Codemasters racing game is still Grid Autosport.

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    ricobanderas

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    I preordered based off the glowing review from IGN on youtube (9.2) and having absolutely loved Dirt Rally. I think they're trying to walk the line between Dirt 3 and Rally with this one and seemed to have hit the mark. We'll see come Friday. Would love to get a Giant Bomb league or something going depending on what kind of stuff is available online.

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    Bollard

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    @ricobanderas: I too would be interested in some GiantBomb community online shenanigans. Excited for Friday to come already!

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    zheelz

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    #16  Edited By zheelz

    As someone who spent his teens playing simulation racing games with other people and recently re-invested in a high-end racing wheel, I had a love/hate relationship with DIRT Rally. That game was so difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, rewarding, upsetting, and gratifying all at the same time -- it was an incredibly torrid love affair to say the least.

    I recently replayed some of DIRT 3 after it was being offered free for download. I have no problem with the arcade-y feel of that game. Where it lost me, personally, was all of the gymkhana events that involved any type of drifting. I love all forms of motorsports (F1, IRL, NASCAR, Rally, MotoGP, etc...), but drifting is one of the few I just cannot get in to. Needless to say, that did nothing for me, and, at times, almost made me want to quit playing all together because I never fully grasped the drifting gameplay mechanic.

    As far as DIRT 4 goes, I'll most likely end up buying this on day 1 because I enjoy all of the DIRT games in some way. So far, the preliminary reviews have made me excited to get this game!

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    MightyDuck

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    I'm enjoying it so far. I dig the "team creation" feature. I think Grid 2 might have had that too?

    I'm a little bummed that there doesn't seem to be many races available in the "Land Rush" portion of the Career. I can only hope the Rallycross section makes up for it.

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    lobster_johnson

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    I'm interested in this, after loving Dirt Rally but becoming bored of the stages, but is there enough content here if I don't care about any of the non-rally stuff?

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    Pie

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    I'm interested in this, after loving Dirt Rally but becoming bored of the stages, but is there enough content here if I don't care about any of the non-rally stuff?

    Yep! The rally portion of the career makes up substantially more of the package than the other modes. Plus you basically have infinite tracks and from what I've seen it works really well. Plus the game has daily, weekly and monthly community events that are rally (they generate tracks/championships and you compete against the rest of the community for the best times, you only get one shot too, no restarts). And then it has the pro tour which is the multiplayer rally. It's still quite a high price but I would say if you loved Dirt Rally you'll love this and won't regret a purchase

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    lobster_johnson

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    Well that all sounds promising.

    Apparently leagues aren't in the game yet though? Maybe I'll hang on 'til they implement that (I had a lot of fun in the Giant Bomb PC league in Dirt Rally).

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    Pie

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    Well that all sounds promising.

    Apparently leagues aren't in the game yet though? Maybe I'll hang on 'til they implement that (I had a lot of fun in the Giant Bomb PC league in Dirt Rally).

    Yeah that is a weird omission. Sucks because it seems like this supports universal leaderboards between all consoles so you could theoretically make a GB league for all platforms...

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    Ben_H

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    #23  Edited By Ben_H

    I dig it so far but be warned, you're gonna have to do some tweaking of the force feedback if you use a wheel. The default settings are way overboard for feedback and turn every car into an unpredictable, twitchy mess (especially the group B cars like the 205 T16, which was my favourite car in Dirt Rally). I turned off a couple of settings and backed off a few things and now it's as good as Dirt Rally's feedback was. By default it gives you a lot of bizarre feedback that makes it feel like your car is about to spin when it isn't, causing you to overcorrect and run off the road. The opposite can also occur on straights, where it feels like you are going fine and the wheel is resisting like normal then all of a sudden you'll spin because you were supposed to correct the car but didn't feel anything. It also made doing turns consistently nigh impossible.

    A Steam forum post gave a recommendation to turn off wheel friction, tire slip, and steering force and then turn down all the other settings to 70-80 under the Vibration and Feedback menu for force feedback. I did that and the game felt a million times better and I went from getting near last to winning almost everything on hardest difficulty without any assists (I usually placed in the top 200 on Dirt Dailies in Dirt Rally so I didn't expect to be getting last all the time).

    The only other issue I have is that some of the codriver pacenote calls for the generated stages can be kinda iffy. They don't feel nearly as well timed as the ones in Dirt Rally. Some will be way too late, others way too early. It was most noticeable for me on Australia when transitioning between forest and outback desert parts of stages. In the desert sections, you're going faster and the notes often felt too late (It's say "Right 6" and as you do the right 6 it'll go "into right 3" and you'll be going way too fast for a right 3 but it's too late because you're mid-turn), while in the forest you're much slower and the notes can be two or three turns ahead of where you are, which is not exactly useful when you usually can only keep track of one or two turns at a time.

    Other than that, though, I like the game a lot. I like the team building and car management. Once you hit level 14 and can get B level parts, it becomes really easy to win stages by a fair margin. So far against "tough" difficulty opponents, I'm usually up at least a few seconds a stage unless I decide to back off (which I usually do on the last stage if I have a big lead).

    edit: Oh, and if you don't like the default co-driver, you can change co-driver under the staff menu. Colin McRae's co-driver, Nicky Grist, is the other English option and he's great. The default co-driver seems like they got her to read the notes a bit too fast and I found myself missing the turn number a lot while Grist has a decent pause between the direction and number so I don't mishear it.

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    Pie

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    @ben_h: I thought the better parts just broke less easily? Do they actually impact gameplay beyond that?

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    deactivated-987696

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    What the hell is up with the points system in competitive mode, I don't think I'll ever get out of the starting tier. Also the penalty for quitting an event is ridiculous, I mean who does it help if all the points from the previous event are negated? Don't get me wrong, I like this game, but all the small things take away from the fun to be had with it.

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