Dirt Rally 2

[Zico]

Its obviously a work in progress but I think it looks great. A lot more polished in the handling and physics department than the previous game Imo.

Their Mk2 escort could do with more a more power if its based on Phil Collins car... but otherwise it looks very promising.

Its a long video but the incar gameplay from 24:25 onwards looks really good, now imagine it with VR and looking out the side window.. :)


https://youtu.be/rhFkE2hApVE

[MrJan]

I'm excited for it, but trying to remind myself that I was excited for Dirt 4 too.

See that they had the old Rothmans 911 from Prodrive yesterday to get some audio as well, which is nice.

[[RMC]Pip]

By the looks of it, Codies have revered back to the DiRT Rally-like handling model - they live-streamed a discussion like event with a guy driving in the background. The RWD car was really dancing in NZ and ARG, was a joy to watch. One has to wonder what on Earth they were thinking when they went for a very funky, understeery setup with DiRT4. IMHO it was okay for modern AWD cars, but RWD was awful.

On the other hand, visually it hasn't evolved much, it is a polished version of the earlier editions.

[masa90]

Really happy about this game, hope it is as good as it looks 🙂

[Zico]

Ok, my Initial impressions were negative compared to DR1.... but now that I've spent about 5 hours playing it, moved the torque bias forward on the grpB cars from the default setups... its actually pretty good.

Positives.

The mk2 has more power than in DR1 and is much more fun.
They have fixed the weightlessness issue.
Small impacts and crests no longer launch you into orbit.
The diff and drivetrain modelling now give a far more realistic feeling to 4wd handling unlike the open diff feel that DR1 had.
You cant just throw the cars into a hairpin at 100mph anymore. Every corner has its own speed/grip level that you need to slow down for.
You now also have to straighten and settle the car under braking a lot more.

Negatives

The tarmac physics are flat out wrong, grip is far too progressive. Spain in the 911 GT3 RS is fantastic fun but not at all realistic.
Default car setups often need tweaking
The colour palette on the NZ stages is wrong, way oversaturated, very dark too and having your lights on doesnt help enough.
FFB needs fixing, a few effects still missing and also very weak overall. They are working on a patch though.
I have a question mark on the LSD modelling in the front engined rwd cars and how it should behave but I havent played with the settings enough to have an opinion on that yet.



Is it worth buying? If you liked DR1 then yes.
Its still simcade ish and its not perfect either but after giving it some time and dialling into it I'm really starting to enjoy it.

CDkeys.com still have a 47% off deal on it at this time of writing.

[MrJan]

I saw someone saying that one of these reselling sites is dodgy, but can't remember if it was CDKeys or not. Apparently the trick is to buy a key with a stolen credit card and then sell the Key on. Then there's a claim from the credit card company and ultimately the developers lose out because the money is refunded.

I've decided not to get the game yet on general principle. £65 is far too expensive for something that hasn't got full content yet, and £45 is far too expensive for 60% of a game (unless you pay for the DLC). I loved the way that Codies did EA for Dirt Rally, so this is a real shame. Even more of a shame for those that paid £65 and have spent the whole weekend basically playing a Beta game that was crippled with racenet issues. In a bizarre U-turn of opinion, I've decided my money is better spent on iRacing instead as that's giving me a huge amount of enjoyment at the minute.

[masa90]

Anyone else finding the difficulty really weird?

I won the fwd races with ease, rallycross races were a joke -> so easy. But, anything rwd I loose atleast 8 seconds per split. So weird, yet on dirt rally 1.0 I was steadily slow hah.

But, on the good parts the game feels really nice to drive, most of the time. Some random bugs have come across, but nothing major.

[Zico]

Anyone else finding the difficulty really weird?

I won the fwd races with ease, rallycross races were a joke -> so easy. But, anything rwd I loose atleast 8 seconds per split. So weird, yet on dirt rally 1.0 I was steadily slow hah.

But, on the good parts the game feels really nice to drive, most of the time. Some random bugs have come across, but nothing major.

Yeah, I've read other reports of the exact same thing. I only do freeplay time attack with my fav cars and stages as feel that AI times are pretty meaningless si I havent noticed that.
At least the global stage times give you an idea of where you are against real people. I'm getting a lot of top 5 times for my fav stages and even the world record holder for some which is great feeling, I expect they wont last very long now that its on full release though. :D


After a bit of messing about getting it right, Its actually quite fantastic now, It has really grown on me... and IMO actually better than RBR already!

I think you are missing out Mr Jan...

[MrJan]

I think you are missing out Mr Jan...

I've no doubt that it's a good game, but...if I'm buying it I'd want the access to the DLC, which means £65. I currently play games maybe 7 or 8 hours a week on average, some of that will be circuit sims, some rallying and some other games. So the actual amount of time I'd be spending playing it is quite low. I'm enjoying the racing that you get in iRacing, so paying their not insignificant subscription and occasional purchase of new car or track. As we move into the spring/summer I'm going to spend less time on the computer and more time cycling/hillclimbing/watching motorsport, so my average time on games will reduce quite a bit. All in all, don't think that it's worth my £65 at the minute and I'm happy to wait until later in the year when they inevitably have a sale.

[[RMC]Pip]

They have fixed the weightlessness issue.
You cant just throw the cars into a hairpin at 100mph anymore. Every corner has its own speed/grip level that you need to slow down for.
You now also have to straighten and settle the car under braking a lot more.
I have no real world rally car experience so I can only compare the feeling to previous DiRTs / rally games. I have only sampled the AWD Group A cars on gravel.
In DR1 I have to be on my toes to keep up a good enough rhythm, if I step up I literally sweat after a long stage. If I misjudge a line or a corner / don't set up the car correctly then it takes a couple of corners to get the car back up to speed and get back to rhythm. In DR2, I feel the complete opposite - you can halt the car in no time, negotiate the corners very easily and can drive way more causally as the game is way more tolerant. One can attack the stages in DR2 very easily compared to the previous two DiRT iterations. Don't get me wrong, it can be challenging as well if you are really going for it. But for me, just to stay on the road while maintaining an OKAY speed is way more difficult in DR1. Maybe as you said, the weightlessness remedy helps staying on road. But I feel that the cars are more grippy.

[Zico]

Pip;1209962']I have no real world rally car experience so I can only compare the feeling to previous DiRTs / rally games. I have only sampled the AWD Group A cars on gravel.
In DR1 I have to be on my toes to keep up a good enough rhythm, if I step up I literally sweat after a long stage. If I misjudge a line or a corner / don't set up the car correctly then it takes a couple of corners to get the car back up to speed and get back to rhythm. In DR2, I feel the complete opposite - you can halt the car in no time, negotiate the corners very easily and can drive way more causally as the game is way more tolerant. One can attack the stages in DR2 very easily compared to the previous two DiRT iterations. Don't get me wrong, it can be challenging as well if you are really going for it. But for me, just to stay on the road while maintaining an OKAY speed is way more difficult in DR1. Maybe as you said, the weightlessness remedy helps staying on road. But I feel that the cars are more grippy.


Do you prefer DR1? I couldnt go back to it now.
I like the Grp B cars (particularly the T16 and S4) and 911 RS. I've only had a brief go in the GpA Impreza, it felt ok iirc.
I think I know what you mean regarding getting back up to speed or at least feeling like you have, do you think its the motion blur effect kicking in a bit prematurely? The cars also all feel like they have a fair bit more power than in DR1

Yes, It is far easier to drive casually, to an extent understeer is perhaps too minimal... or at least feels that way after DR1.. but you can also push a lot harder and get into a nice very precise flow if you are on it.
DR1 just felt very loose in comparison... like 4wd with open diffs, no precision in comparison to the sequel.
I think DR2 has modelled the diffs extremely well,
in fact I find the gravel physics and handling realism to be quite exceptional on the whole. Tarmac is just a mess at the moment.

When I first tried it I didnt like it... it took me a lot of effort to get my G25 and the ffb working to an acceptable level. Then it all clicked. Now it has really grown on me and the more I play the better it gets. I find bonnet cam to give exactly the right feel for me. I take it you use a wheel?



Mr Jan. No explanation required, I get it. Why pay full whack for a game that isnt quite fully working yet. I wouldnt either. I dont feel short changed paying £40 for the deluxe version though. No regrets at all.. :)

[[RMC]Pip]

I would love to have a go with DR1 handling on these new stages - the hand-crafted roads are really good again and the new locations are awesome. Really don't know why can't they introduce new destinations like Ireland, Barum ...

In my case getting back up to speed doesn't have anything to do with motion blur. In DR2, I can just floor the pedal, and get very little dance from the car, it just shoots out without any wiggling. In DR1 I have to apply it more gently. DR1 is much more unforgiving - if you miss your line on a corner, it is much harder to decelerate the car and correct your mistake and get back to speed. In DR2 I can correct mid corner and accelerate / brake at will. This would mean a sure spin in DR1.

In DR1 I always have to set up the car very nicely before a hairpin, I really struggle with them to conserve nice momentum through the corner. Now, in DR2 I take 9 out of 10 with ease, much easier for me to control the car with the accelerator / handbrake.

Agreed, understeer is minimal and it is much easier to attack the stages - the flowing stages of New Zealand are awesome. Yeah, I use a wheel with dash cam.

[flykas]

Pip;1209962']I have no real world rally car experience so I can only compare the feeling to previous DiRTs / rally games. I have only sampled the AWD Group A cars on gravel.
In DR1 I have to be on my toes to keep up a good enough rhythm, if I step up I literally sweat after a long stage. If I misjudge a line or a corner / don't set up the car correctly then it takes a couple of corners to get the car back up to speed and get back to rhythm. In DR2, I feel the complete opposite - you can halt the car in no time, negotiate the corners very easily and can drive way more causally as the game is way more tolerant. One can attack the stages in DR2 very easily compared to the previous two DiRT iterations. Don't get me wrong, it can be challenging as well if you are really going for it. But for me, just to stay on the road while maintaining an OKAY speed is way more difficult in DR1. Maybe as you said, the weightlessness remedy helps staying on road. But I feel that the cars are more grippy.

Could it be that it is because cars lack realistic momentum? In DR1 it was a little bit more loose, but still couldn't really feel the natural weight of the car.

[GravelBen]

Glad to hear they have fixed cars getting thrown wildly into the scenery by tiny (or sometimes invisible) bumps! I find DR1 can be unrealistically twitchy and inconsistent at times.

Have they improved the hopeless pace notes and clunky 'original playstation' user interface?

[Zico]

Could it be that it is because cars lack realistic momentum? In DR1 it was a little bit more loose, but still couldn't really feel the natural weight of the car.

Thats exactly how DR1 felt for me too. I recently tried the RFPE mod for it the other week. It added a lot of mass to the car but it was definately too much, it made the cars power/weight ratio unrealistic... too gutless.

[Zico]

[
Glad to hear they have fixed cars getting thrown wildly into the scenery by tiny (or sometimes invisible) bumps! I find DR1 can be unrealistically twitchy and inconsistent at times.

Have they improved the hopeless pace notes and clunky 'original playstation' user interface?

They have improved the user interface but from what I remember, the notes are actually a step back? The call timing seems a lot more inconsistent from event to event.
I thought the DR1 notes system worked ok, they were the least of its problems IMO.

[GravelBen]

I thought the DR1 notes system worked ok, they were the least of its problems IMO.

I find them terribly inconsistent, some stages actually seem easier to drive by ignoring them and driving blind!

Timing is all over the place (some ok, some too early, some way too late) and some calls are just completely wrong.

With practice you learn which calls are really bad and ignore them, which I guess is easier than memorising a whole stage with no notes. I've actually wondered if they included wrong notes deliberately so that people spend more time playing to learn the stages. I don't think its possible to set good times driving to the notes without learning the stages even if your car control is excellent.

I don't like the format of the notes in general either though tbh - putting the direction before the number (which doesn't seem to even relate to gear/speed, just the geometry of the corner) seems backwards compared to most, the important information can get muddled by extra non-critical stuff and I find them unclearly spoken at times too (whether the codrivers accent is a factor there I'm not sure, I don't remember having that problem with RBR). All those small things add up to having to concentrate more on understanding the notes than I should (or take my eyes off the road briefly to look at the visual pace note indicator), which leaves less attention on the driving.

I expect I'll get more accustomed to it over time, I've only been playing DR1 sporadically for a few months not daily for years like some people.

[Zico]

I expect I'll get more accustomed to it over time, I've only been playing DR1 sporadically for a few months not daily for years like some people.

Yeah, TBH, I largely knew the DR1 stages well enough that I stopped paying much attention to them and maybe thats why its not even a memory... but now with new stages in DR2, I have to... but I'm finding them not the greatest.



If you like DR1 I think you will really dig DR2.0, Its far from perfect but lots of huge improvements in important areas.

[GravelBen]

To be honest DR1 is a game I want to like (I loved RBR and spent countless hours playing that with various mods) but so far I just find it frustratingly inconsistent (to the point of being unrealistic), which is why I don't play it more often.

[[RMC]Pip]

Could it be that it is because cars lack realistic momentum? In DR1 it was a little bit more loose, but still couldn't really feel the natural weight of the car.

Yeah, could be! The game started to grow on me after playing it more. Now I find it more in-line with DR1 (driving difficulty). The pace notes are a step back IMHO. In DR1 it was much more detailed and varied, and the calls were made more or less according to a good rhythm.

[dianysholding]

thank you!!!

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Great for Chris Ingram fans ! :cool:

http://mesasartworks.hu/downloads/dirt-rally2/287-ingram-fabia-r5-rally-hungary

http://mesasartworks.hu/images/cars/DR20/sr5/ingram/big/Ingram_FabiaR5-big.jpg

[barcalala]

imo this is one of the best rally simulators ever! mi web (https://aife.cat) ;)