So far I've put 31 hours into DiRT Rally, which is nothing really, since it took me roughly 30 hours to be able to drive confidently. Now that it's out of Early Access and despite glowing reviews from that period, I want to offer words of encouragement to those who have no experience with rally simulation games. My experience with rally sims is literally that, 31 hours. For a long time I thought my big brother was kinda crazy with his Richard Burn Rally, GT Legends and what have you. I stayed away from his racing sims, cos I knew I wouldn't be able to compete with his stage times. So instead we got competitive in games like NFS: High Stakes (the Snowy Ridge stage in particular) and the old Colin McRae Rally games, which had enough arcade handling for me to be able to compete with him. Naturally he played with assists off, where available. I on the other hand wouldn't even know how to begin to setup my car, let alone understand how turning off certain assists would translate into the handling of the car. And I pretty much still don't. For someone my age, I've driven very little in real life, but my mechanically inclined big brother knew exactly what he was doing back then. So most of the time he was kicking my ♥♥♥, both in and out of the games. I keed, I keed.
My immediate conclusion after the first few hours with DiRT Rally was that I had no clue how to drive. A drunk elephant skating on ice would have more finesse. While I didn't rage-quit as often as I was expecting to, at the start I was playing only in third person view, thinking that my experience with the NFS, GTA or Colin McRae Rally games would help me here. It didn't. What I soon realized was that an outside view of my driving made me too aware of the track, which is probably just me, but that coupled with racing sim handling spelled disaster for me. So either by brazen choice or through cunning design, I chose the cockpit view to complete an entire stage, which I had never done in any racing game before. Sure, I've toggled it on and off here and there, but I had never stuck with it until now. This had an interesting effect on my driving, cos I was assessing the track and my line of driving more by feel than by actually seeing the track from above. I mean besides listening to your co-driver, which is important if you want to win. All that said, I think it's a good idea to put some 30 hours into it before you drift off to other games, cos being an FPS guy mostly and after taking long breaks from it, I was essentially starting afresh every time I returned. Even if your skills are still there, the stage conditions from Wales to Greece will bring you back to earth in no time.
Recently I graduated to Clubman, which means you'll do 6 stages per race and have 2 opportunities to repair your car. While my initial reaction was "oh no, I want to do more races with 4 stages before I move on," which I assume you still can in custom races, but once you've qualified there's no reason to go back. You've earned your place here. It doesn't matter if you finished 3rd, 2nd or first, or think you got lucky. While there's always an element of luck in any game, DiRT Rally will never meet you halfway, it will never hold your hand and even though a beginner like myself will have assists on for the foreseeable future, the game will teach you what you need in order to progress. Practice will take you where you want to go.
DiRT Rally is an elegant product, the menus are simple and the soundtrack is smooth, as you get ready for the next stage/race or manage your team. I imagine the Early Access feedback had a lot to do with making it as enjoyable as possible, both on and off the track. This being my first racing game with achievements, the 170 achievements it now has is an additional motivator to get better at it. I'm really glad they included them and that they keep adding them with updates. If I were to offer feedback of my own, I hope to see an Estonian flag among the spectators someday. I also want to congratulate Codemasters in getting it right and returning to their roots. I've missed you immensely.
It's a great game, all rally lovers should buy it! Atmosphere is excellent, graphics and sound effects are perfect. Stages are very detailed and fun. Driving is challenging but not disturbing at all. DIRT Rally would be the best choice to feel the rally spirit! Number of cars are enough and there are heart-warming cars in game. Maybe number of rallies would be more but there are great number of detailed stages in all six rallies and there are extras; hillclimb and rallycross.
Minimum Requirements of DIRT Rally:
OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Processor: AMD FX Series or Intel Core i3 Series
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD HD5450 or Nvidia GT430 or Intel HD4000 with 1GB of VRAM (DirectX 11 graphics card required)
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 35 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible soundcard
Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: AMD HD5000 Series, HD6000 Series, HD7000 Series, R7 Series, R9 Series Nvidia GTX400 Series, GTX500 Series, GTX600 Series, GTX700 Series, GTX900 Series Intel HD4000 Series, HD5000 Series
Recommended Requirements of DIRT Rally:
OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Processor: AMD FX-8150 or Intel Core i5 4670K
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD R9 290 or Nvidia GTX780
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 35 GB available space
Sound Card: Direct X compatible soundcard
Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: AMD HD5000 Series, HD6000 Series, HD7000 Series, R7 Series, R9 Series Nvidia GTX400 Series, GTX500 Series, GTX600 Series, GTX700 Series, GTX900 Series Intel HD4000 Series, HD5000 Series, HD6000 Series
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