Stack it even twice or three times on a single stage, and you might still expect to be towards the top of the classification with 20 seconds of penalties. That’s not intended as a humblebrag: the AI really is that forgiving. What these two deceptively different disciplines have in common in Dirt Rally 2.0 is that for the first few hours, you’ll win them incredibly easily. It’s iteration and confrontation-and more qualifying rounds than seems strictly necessary, in all honesty. Rather than reactive, isolated bursts of perfection, rallycross has you honing lines and lap times. Rallycross featured in Dirt Rally 2.0’s predecessor too, so its inclusion here doesn’t represent a leap forwards but instead a quiet fleshing out of the 2015 game’s skeleton.Īs and when you do decide to dedicate some time to rallycross-several cars battling for the victory on the same mixed-surface track, for the uninitiated-a wholly different set of skills are called upon than you’ve been honing with your co-driver over in rally events. This is, as if you didn’t know, the official game of the 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship, which means eight licensed tracks spanning the globe and meticulous event recreation across several series.

Seriously-why didn’t more games rip off Race Driver: GRID? Beyond providing a sense of structure to the content that was lacking slightly in the last entry, this serves as a timely reminder of what a brilliant aspect this is in any driving game. It’s an incredibly handsome game, and one that doesn’t tax a humble GTX 1070 at max settings.īack from the venerated spec sheets of Codemasters’ GRID series is a team management aspect which sees you hiring staff, purchasing vehicles and setting liveries as you decide which event to enter next-a rally or a rallycross stage. Standing water in between muddy tyre tracks glints under your headlights, dust kicks up around your scrabbling wheels, and each of the six rally locations-New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and the USA-asserts its visual identity instantly, such is the level of environmental detail. The sequel ramps up the visual fidelity where it counts, using weather effects and time of day to create real drama. This was broadly true of its predecessor-but in truth, Dirt Rally never felt anything like as scary or as taxing. Force feedback surges through your wheel, fizzing your brain as though you’ve licked a battery, and whether using a wheel (preferable) or pad, vehicles behave just as you want them to-barely tameable, occasionally balletic in their powerslides, always convincing.

A rally stage is an assault on every sense (alright, perhaps not taste or smell if we’re being pedantic), rattling the cockpit camera violently while an audio onslaught of complicated but crucially important pacenotes hits you, whether you’re ready for them or not. How does it feel, exactly? A bit like the Normandy beach landings, but with pace notes.

Dirt rally 2.0 trainer pc