I wasn't expecting to come top of week 1, and I definitely don't expect to be top this time round once everyone is through.

I think I was doing better on average on the Sweden stages than Monaco, even though I've hardly played Sweden at all. I also gave myself a 10 second penalty on stage 5 for a jump start, so that probably didn't help with the first half total heh.

Brutal stuff! Sat down to give this a shot tonight and managed to make it all the way through, but not with a particularly great time.

Pro-tip. During the heavy snow night stages (at least in Monaco), I turn my headlights off, its far easier to see through the highly reflective snow.

Cool event, I really enjoyed that. Especially since I've been spoiled with a 85+ skill repair crew for every 2 stages in the championship modes, usually fixing everything in 15 minutes.

Quite a moment in the last stage: "The radiator's taken a hit". "THANK YOU, PAUL."

I wonder how many of us crashed out in that stage... It sure was something...

@casinoghostt: Yeah, I got that callout too after puncturing a tire and slamming into a parked car on the second Monaco stage. Thankfully the radiator was only at 79% when I got to repair afterwards.

Here are your winners for Week 2! Congratulations @woodoouk!

Honestly, everyone that survived is a winner in my book. Except the one person that used driving aids. You know who your are.

And with that sorted, prepare yourselves for Week 3!

The Giant Bomb Dirt Rally Weekly Challenge Episode 3 - The Welsh Mudslide

While this sounds like something you would do with your loved one, this is actually horrifying, wet, gross and vintage.

Prepare for some hairy 70s action in the Welsh countryside.

• CARS: 1970s
• STAGES: 12
• REGIONS: ALL WALES
• SERVICE: S3, S7, S10
• CONDITIONS: still dark and terrible
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: higher than last week. but still awful.

Ah, home advantage!

Codemasters did such a great job at replicating Welsh woodlands; I genuinely get phantom smells driving through them, remembering walks along stretches of Offa's Dyke, as a child.

Oooh, is someone enjoying the video game incorrectly? Let's get 'em.

Looking forward to trying this one, I like the Wales stuff in this game a lot.

I've only visited once, so I don't have quite the same visceral reaction, but some of it definitely looks very familiar to me too.

Yay, I finally finished one.

very slowly

Does launch control get counted as using an assist? I'd assume it would only be TC, SC, and ABS, but I have no clue. I also have no idea if I'm even the person you're talking about or not.

I guess I should probably turn off launch control anyway. Using it doesn't even really benefit you, but it's on by default.

I did not say that someone is enjoying their video game "incorrectly", neither did I tell them to switch off their assists or anything and thought it was obvious I was making a jokey dick comment. Well, the person that used assists knows I was joking. But there is a reason the leaderboard has an option to seperate assist from non-assist time and the topic could fill an entire thread with pro/contra. I use assists when driving with a controller most of the time as well, so I don't judge anyone.

You were on the non-assist leaderboard, so if you were using launch-control it doesn't count as one.

I'm not looking forward to this one; I've been using the 70s Opel in single player recently and I can only get it to not go into a spin on tight corners with significant tinkering... I'm thinking I'll try the Fiat.

Also, I've put like 50 hours into this game now and I'm still yet to win a rally in single player, let alone a championship. Is this normal?

@lobster_johnson: Yep. Took me almost twice that to start to get top two consistently.

@iron1c: Well, I was mostly joking as well so I'd say that's settled!

Done.

I had a real shocker of a first stage (had to recover vehicle twice!), but other than that things went okay.

@casinoghostt: I don't even know how you muscled that Lancia around wales like that!

@cbyrne: Using one gear higher than normal, to make throttle control easier, and surprisingly long (2+ seconds) stretches of track simply coasting using no accelerator at all.

The Giant Bomb Dirt Rally Weekly Challenge Episode 4 - Be brave into crest, into crest, over crest.

To wrap up the first month of rallying enjoy some nice weather while you fly through forests!

• CARS: Group B RWD
• STAGES: 12
• REGIONS: Finland, Germany
• SERVICE: S3, S7, S10
• CONDITIONS: sunny summer days!
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: pretty good actually!

"CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: pretty good actually!"

FALLACY; Group B RWD cars (at least on a controller) are nightmares.

I don't even want to imagine those cars with a gamepad.

Well... I survived, gamepad and all. I've only driven these cars in daily challenges before, so I was treating my Opel with extra respect, which seems to have mostly paid off. Couple of punctures though, and a pretty spectacular mishap where I flew over a jump and landed on a giant boulder, my wheels spinning uselessly, completely out of contact with the ground.

I finished miles behind WooDoo and Casino but I wasn't too far off the pace in Germany.

This was the first Group B RWD I'd ever driven, and I was shocked at how manageable it was. It felt good when I was able to concentrate on it, Sadly it was a bad time to start driving and I had to retire - is there no way to save back to menus or do you have to finish the whole rally at once?

Anyway hope to be able to compete in there when I can actually finish a race

You can save and quit at the service areas I think.

Yup. You can select "Save & Exit" at the service areas.

Yeah Group B, am I right?

Also, The OP needs updating with the results of the last event (The Welsh Mudslide).

*cough*[smalltext]I won it, please don't take that victory away from me.[/smalltext]*cough*

@casinoghostt: I was just waiting for someone to speak up with last week's results so I could update that post (hadn't seen it myself). Done!

@Trace: @casinoghostt: Uhh, whoops, I swear I put it in my original draft for my post? So in official capacity, I guess:

Your winner for Week 3: @casinoghostt! You handled being moist the best.

@iron1c: Ahh, I didn't make it that far I don't think. That's a shame I picked a bad day to make an attempt, tried my first Group B RWD career and played Sweden for the first time after being inspired by the Opel in this event.

The double paranoia of RWD and a track I've never done meant I actually finished well!

I thought I had a chance of catching up when I started making time on the short German stages, and when I got back to 100% repair on the last service, but I must have psyched myself out because I immediately did terrible on the next two stages. Group B RWD was not nearly as hard as I was thinking it would be though.

Just as a heads up, Episode 5 will be roughly half a day late, because I am on the road. It'll still hit on Thursday though and then run until the usual timeslot.

I should probably start doing these. I'm finally getting to be not completely garbage at this game (I can finish long stages with RWD cars now yay!) so it'd be fun to see where I stack up.

Congratulations to this week's winner,@woodoouk! That's two wins now! Now for this week...

The Giant Bomb Dirt Rally Weekly Challenge Episode 5 - The Greek Gravel Graveyard

We've managed to avoid the Greek Gravel Crisis up to this point. But now we have to intervene.

• CARS: F2 Kit Cars
• STAGES: 12
• REGIONS: All Greece!
• SERVICE: S3, S7, S10
• CONDITIONS: Hot, Greek summer tourism weather. But I heard it gets dark later in the day.
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: semi-decent.

I didn't used to like FWD cars.

I mean, I still don't, but I didn't used to either.

All kidding aside I'm REAL glad I did a test drive before I made any attempts because the first thing I thought when I looked at those cars was "Oh neat another 4WD 2010s style" without reading the description. I don't know how to hairpin all over again.

Had to knock this one out in a hurry, about to go on vacation. Thanks to @iron1c and anyone else that puts this together, it's a lot of fun!

Ugh... these F2 cars are a fucking nightmare. Even on the stages where I was quick I felt like I was fighting the car every step of the way.

I Duke Nukem Forevered first stage.

I flip flopped wildly between top times and 50% damaging my radiator on rocks every other stage. Narrowly escaped DNF like 3 times until the last stage where my hissing, missfiring, three wheeled car eventually rolled casually over the safety barriers.

Thanks for keeping these coming!

The sun was blazing on those early stages. I think I actually picked up time at night.

I thought I could fly, I was wrong.

You don't time travel if you hit 88% damage, then?

Congratulations to @woodoouk again! Three wins, two in a row! Someone stop him already.

The Giant Bomb Dirt Rally Weekly Challenge Episode 6 - Q3DM17

Hope you don't mind the long stages.

• CARS: 2010s
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: EVERYTHING! Don't panic. A little bit of everything. Not all at once.
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: All over the place.
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: semi-decent. At least that is what I would say.

I beat @woodoouk with my Xbox One pad before, and I can do so again! Him and his fancy wheel ([small text]I want one[/smalltext[)!

I knew the exact points where I lost the 45 seconds needed to win during the last event. Three recoveries. So if I make clean runs through every stage...

Also, Q3DM7 f'lyfe. 'Longest Yard ain't all that.

Just joined the league! I haven't raced in months, so I flew off a few cliffs and totalled the car. Gotta get back to where I was....

Had a much better run this time.. but still had a couple of bad stages that put me way back :(

Seems like @woodoouk is unstoppable! Four wins, three in a row now. Someone, please!

The Giant Bomb Dirt Rally Weekly Challenge Episode 7 - Rapid Fire

"I usually last longer! I swear!"

Hope you don't mind the short stages.

• CARS: R4
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: EVERYTHING! Don't panic. A little bit of everything. Same as last time.
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: Good!
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: Also good!

We have a new winner! Congratulations @jjd! Seems like @woodoouk didn't participate to defend his title though.

Okay people are you ready for...

Giant Bomb Dirt Rally CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION!

That´s right. 4 weeks of rallying with each week gaining you championship points towards an overall standing - the winner will be crowned at the end of April!

Week 1 - The Blizzard Controversy

This one's all about the rear...wheel drive. And Blizzards.

• CARS: Group B RWD
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: Sweden/Monaco
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: A lot of snow.
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: meh.

Week 2 - Fairweather Friends

A long summer day.

• CARS: 1970s
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: Greece/Germany
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: Sun!
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: good.

Week 3 - Those damn millennials...

They just wanna be high and fly.

• CARS: 2000s
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: Finland
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: slowly improving.
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: alright.

Week 4 - The Dark Below

Don't lose your head...lights. I'm getting really tired of these bad descriptions.

This is long and brutal. It's the finale after all.

• CARS: 2010s
• STAGES: 6
• REGIONS: Everything.
• SERVICE: S4
• CONDITIONS: nocturnal racing experience.
• CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: could be better? could be worse.

Got back into this game after some time off - I'll definitely be participating in this championship!