Quick Look: Dirt Showdown

I don't want Dirt 4 - at least not done by the same people at Codemasters. They're clearly milking the franchise and I thought Dirt 3 was just a mishap, but they're going to the wrong direction with this franchise.

Drew needs to some epic pc quick looks.

That loading icon is mesmerizing.

@Gizmo said:

I want Dirt 4 to be hard-core rally-style and laden with beautifully detailed cockpits.

YES

On a somewhat related note, I'm waiting for one developer, any developer, to try to do something about the peripheral vision problem in cockpit view. Head tracking is one approach, but what I'd really like to see is a camera script that shifts your view slightly relative the angle you're turning the steering wheel, such that your view turns in on the turn as you would if you were physically driving a car. No one has tried that yet. As far as I know, no one has even attempted it. SOMEBODY TRY GODDAMNIT.

*storms off in a huff*

In Menus until 6:14.

Oh I hate Codemasters so much. I'm still playing McRae 04 because they want to go deeper and deeper with this terrible X-Games garbage. Maybe having a spinoff to keep ruining will let them make a real rally game again, but I doubt it.

@HerbieBug said:

@Gizmo said:

I want Dirt 4 to be hard-core rally-style and laden with beautifully detailed cockpits.

YES

On a somewhat related note, I'm waiting for one developer, any developer, to try to do something about the peripheral vision problem in cockpit view. Head tracking is one approach, but what I'd really like to see is a camera script that shifts your view slightly relative the angle you're turning the steering wheel, such that your view turns in on the turn as you would if you were physically driving a car. No one has tried that yet. As far as I know, no one has even attempted it. SOMEBODY TRY GODDAMNIT.

*storms off in a huff*

Plenty of PC racing games have the option to turn the camera to apex. I think every SimBin game I've played has it, as do others. I've found it to still be kinda awkward and unnatural, in its own way.

@Nobuyuki said:

Plenty of PC racing games have the option to turn the camera to apex. I think every SimBin game I've played has it, as do others. I've found it to still be kinda awkward and unnatural, in its own way.

...huh. Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

I wonder if Codemasters lets you turn the voice volume down below 50% in this Showdown game. Dirt 3 slider wouldn't go below 50%, so I had to mute the tv every time the announcer started speaking in the menus. :/

I played the demo and thought "This is kind of boring but good for a $15 dollar downloadable, I guess" having no Idea it was a full price game.

Meh, I think I'll buy Dirt 2 instead.

Holy Crap, Rival Sons track playing at 25:00. Awesome.

@HerbieBug said:

@Nobuyuki said:

Plenty of PC racing games have the option to turn the camera to apex. I think every SimBin game I've played has it, as do others. I've found it to still be kinda awkward and unnatural, in its own way.

...huh. Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

I wonder if Codemasters lets you turn the voice volume down below 50% in this Showdown game. Dirt 3 slider wouldn't go below 50%, so I had to mute the tv every time the announcer started speaking in the menus. :/

No I don't think so. The PC version doesn't allow you to turn the commentator down below 50%, and so I never played it. My friend got it on Steam and the first thing I tried is to turn the commentator off, but you can't. I can't be bothered to turn the game sound all the way off in Windows and so i didn't bother to play this thing.

Hopefully all this trash they were pushing from Dirt 2 and 3 and has accumulated in this abortion of a game means Dirt 4 will be pure rally. They already tricked me into paying full price for Dirt 3 by saying it would have more rally than 2, when it sure as hell didn't. Now this Codemasters shit is a easy no-buy even on a steam sale.

Dirt 3 was good, skipping this one, I want GRID 2!

@HerbieBug: I think they did that in Test Drive Unlimited 2. I'd check for you but I don't have it installed anymore. I know one racing game I've played within the past year or so did that and it's really great.

Needs more dubstep.

Hard Target discussion! Thats why i love GiantBomb!

Wait, this isn't a downloadable game? huh.

I don't see how taking all of the anti-fun of Dirt 3 and isolating it into its own game doesn't make it a bad game.

Opinions, sure, but nothing they did looked fun at all.

@JacDG said:

@KarlPilkington said:

@CptBedlam said:

The fact that this game exists gives me hope that the next Dirt will be an actual Rally-focused game again without all that X-Games/Gymkhana bullshit.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Would be so awesome, the first DiRT game is still my favorite by far, never played 2 and while 3 wasn't bad at all, I want some straight up rally courses that takes more than 3 minutes to complete! The Hill Climbing stuff from the first game was some of the most fun I've had with a racing game.

Absolutely! I basically want Dirt 1 with better handling... and maybe more fleshed out rally mechanics (longer stages/rally tours, more detailled repairs in between stages etc). And, if possible, no more funsport dudes but instead some authentic rally racing flair.

I love Dirt 3 and still does not interest me in the least. The music is good though.

Has there ever been a Paris-Dakar rally game? Like one that offers streaming landscapes, navigation, the ability to drive like an endurance race uninterrupted if you so wish the full realism?
 
No?
 
Lemme call Polyphony Digital, hang on..

Very nice QL. You think you're going to watch a mildly interesting video on the game and then there's a recently rare Drew appearance and talk about DJ Atomica and fucking Bloodsport of all things! Also, that commentator can go fuck himself - no real offense intended but I didn't enjoy what I saw here very much unfortunately.

For my exceptionally rare arcade racing needs I'm going to wait for the new Most Wanted's quality first before I make any decision at all.

STOP JERKING THE MENUS AROUND, JESUS!

Can you BLOW YA RADIADA?

Right now Colin McRae IS dirt.

Nice English soundtrack!

@jasius said:

Right now Colin McRae IS dirt.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

@Grondoth: If that's a reference to Destruction Derby 2, i salute you. If it's not, it should have been. Also, whoever owns the license to Destruction Derby, please make a proper sequel, in the vein of Raw and 2. You would make a lot of people very, very happy. And please create 'characters' that drive the cars. Nothing better than seeing Learner Driver at the back of the field, three laps down or upside down almost every race, and marveling when he somehow managed to scrape into the top 10. He never got promoted from division 4 once. I saw The Master down in Division 3 one time - he must've had a bad few seasons. I will never, ever tire of nailing the chicane in Chalk Canyon, and never cease to be scared to death of exactly what may lay ahead in the blackness of Liberty City.

Fuck it, just remake DD2.

Fuck Dirt Showdown.

@artgarcrunkle: I actually thought the exact same thing a few months ago with the GB crew had it QL EX.

I've really enjoyed all of the Dirt games thus far but I feel that the original is still the best. Dirt 3 had really tight controls but I really, really hate all the bro-yness that the newer games have with all of the MONSTER and DC sponsors that started with 2. I want the series to go back to its roots and just be this awesome rally game with a variety of tracks. Dirt 3 got boring for me quickly as they only gave you a handful of track to go through especially in rally.

I'm with Drew. I hope that with this game out there, Dirt 4 will be a pure rally experience. Dirt 1 had that feeling and they threw it all away because "that's where Rally is now" BS.

Hmm what a shame, it seems like they've taken all of the things I hated about the previous Dirts and put them into one game.

THis game is a massive disappointment. 

@jasius said:

Right now Colin McRae IS dirt.

Daaaaayuum

As someone who is currently in the middle of getting through Dirt 3, I outright refuse to play another game with that piece of shit announcer repeating the same two passive-aggressive shots at me every time I repeat an event for the platinum medal. He can go hang in front of his family. Also, the gymkhana is annoying I guess.

What the fuck is this! I love Dirt 2 and 3, feel it has the best controls of any racer to date, this just looks stupid and not worthy of the Dirt name!

@SomeJerk said:

Has there ever been a Paris-Dakar rally game? Like one that offers streaming landscapes, navigation, the ability to drive like an endurance race uninterrupted if you so wish the full realism? No? Lemme call Polyphony Digital, hang on..

You dont want Polyphony making a off road game, their rally physics have always been laughable, but great idea for codemasters!

So all the stuff I love from dirt taken out, standard races and rally races etc, replaced with arena car combat. No thanks. Like Drew said I can't wait for Dirt 4.

Dirt Itch is a serious problem, Ryan. You should get that checked out.

Also, a fuckaton of my boy Rayfield all up in this QL!

Edge and Eurogamer should feel ashamed for giving this game 8/10.

@zujik said:

Patrick rules!!!

thanks for posting that, Patrick

the entire GB crew are HORRIBLE at games. demolition derby does not mean RAM HEAD ON. use the rear!

So it's basically a Burnout/Fallout-like game?

I know Ryan was too bummed about losing the first Hard Target event to really appreciate it, but the crash that took him out was AMAZING.

Some of my favorite moments from Dirt 2 were setting damage to visual-only, smashing the AI players that got preferential treatment like Ken Block into last place, and then trying to make up enough time so that I still came in first place. I'd like to say that Dirt: Showdown looks like a game themed around that idea, but it's clearly just the worst parts of Dirt 3 without the same quality of handling.

Also, I'm with those of you who have had enough of a 30-something announcer forcing the enthusiasm of a teenage Pauly Shore and encouraging me to spam social networking sites with Dirt marketing.

Leave it to Ryan to use a QL to advance his laserdisc agenda.

I was promised an earthquake up in here...

I don't know what everyone's talking about (in the quick look), this game looks fantastic to me.

Then again, I'm always the last one to say a game looks like shit... maybe I'm an idiot.

As a dirt 1,2,3 fan... I will not buy this game. This is a perfect example of not giving the fans what they want. This was made for online, yet no one plays Dirt online. I won't buy this for 1$. Seems like dlc and nothing new to me.

Hmm, this doesn't look nearly as good as the previous Dirt games.

When this was first announced I thought this was a download-only game, sounds like that might have been the better path to take.

@Metal_Gear_Sunny said:

So it's basically a Burnout/Fallout-like game?

If by Fallout you mean Flatout, then yes.

I thought it was always pretty pretty clear that they weren't going to screw over the rest of the Dirt series and make it like Showdown. I like the Dirt games, but goddam sometimes I just want to mess up some dudes. I love this game.

Forza Horizon is going to be more of an arcadey style game, right? Nothing wrong with it in my eyes. Just wait for Dirt 4.

Labrinth aint Dubstep, by the way.

I would love to see an arcady rally game. With nice landscapes and A to B races. Sadly they went into another direction.

Bring on Dirt 4 and Grid 2.