It’s back! The Dirt series, which began from the Colin McRae Rally series, has taken some turns over the years. The numbered Dirt games were all about balancing fun and realism, like last year’s Dirt 4. But the fans really loved the game when they went all-in with simulation physics in Dirt Rally. It was an Early Access game shaped with fan feedback, and they wanted it to be hardcore.
In a past episode of dia.log – The Gamer Matters Podcast, one of crew bought Dirt Rally on a Steam Sale, played a bit and immediately refunded it because it was too difficult.
Now, Codemasters are returning to full-on hardcore rallying. Rather than using procedurally generated tracks like in Dirt 4, you now have hand-crafted rally stages in New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and the USA. You do get to build your own team like the previous game.
More than 50 cars will be available. It is also the official game of the FIA Rallycross Championship so it will have official locations for head-to-head races as well.
The Rally name in the title alone should be your last warning: it will have physics simulation closer to real life. Read: it’s hard.
“We are not afraid to make a challenging game,” said Chief Game Designer Ross Gowing. “Driving a rally car down a stage is not easy and we want players to experience that same adrenaline rush from driving on the edge.”
And for Codemasters fans and fans of Dirt Rally, that’s exactly what they want. Also, the 2.0 name is a nice callback to the Colin McRae Rally games, which focused on realism first.
Dirt Rally 2.0 will arrive on February 26th for the PS4, PC and Xbox One.
Source: Codemasters