DiRT Rally 2.0 Rate The Sims: Community Edition | DiRT 2.0

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... DiRT 2.0!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

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[Scottt]

Is there some way of seeing the results without voting? I haven't played DiRT 2, so I don't want to vote... but I would like to see what others think of it.

 

[KittX]

It was quite ruff at start, and DLC policy turned many away, but it turned out to be very enjoyable to drive. I personally prefer the driving itself, especially on loose surfaces, over WRC8.
I wish they never get rid of Lancia Stratos, neither dumb it down. It's twitchy but super predictable on weight transfer and lateral movements in general, driving through New Zealand is absolute joy.

My personal 2 complains are not exactly physics or ffb-like, or content-like.
- Car body and cockpit shakes really too much on bumpy/rough condition stages. It feels like suspension is super stiff. In real life the body is a bit delayed and smoothed movements related to how the suspension absorbs the bumps. Unless the shocks are constantly bottoming out, or the suspension is set up to be too stiff.
- with all the little details that were put with so much love, how can team not include numeric FOV settings, and adjustable seat/view position for all available onboard views, available to map to the buttons?.. This is pretty simple and so basic barebone stuff to implement, should have been there in the first place.

 

[Nico]

I like this game. It has the right amount of ease and challenge for me. It has a very good amount of content if we count the DLC. But it also has some bugs, and the DLC cars aren't moddable at all due to sheer greed. Still, I can't say I regret buying, unlike DiRT 4.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

- Oculus works now in Steam too. Props for that
- FFB is okay, overall better than WRC8. Less canned effects, better weight shift sensations
- Gravel physics are better than WRC8.
- Hardcore damage isn't really hardcore, WRC8 is better in this respect
- Tarmac physics are still wrong, basically just gravel physics with grip turned up? Anyway, too floaty.
- DLC policy is a bit crap, the remasters are high quality but still.. rewarmed stuff sold for high price
- Finally has car specific transmission. Took way too long to add though, for a feature that was in DR1 already

"For a feature that was in DR1 already" sums a lot of it up, actually. 7/10. I could give it an 8/10 if the DLC policy wasn't how it is, and without their stupid RaceNet.

Will wait for discount to get that last batch of DLC (Seasons 3+4). But honestly, I guess in some way it's 10/10 because it's the best rally sim out there. Easy to be best with so little competition. WRC8 has better stages, more stages, but bad sound and worse FFB (WRC8 has better tarmac physics though, on gravel I prefer Dirt Rally 2)

 

[KittX]

Still, I can't say I regret buying, unlike DiRT 4.

Dirt 4 had few great great things that makes it even more pity that everything else turned out that way.
The graphics IMO was better, less post-process FX, sharper textures, great puddle mapping, and dynamic cloud shadow effect which drastically changed color palette of big portion of stage. Then there was a very nice carreer mode.

 

[Belgakinen]

There is some great stuff in the works at Codemasters yet to be announced, it should be coming at the start of next year.

And I think rally fans will really enjoy it.

 

[Shovas]

and dynamic cloud shadow effect which drastically changed color palette of big portion of stage.

Off-topic but this is one of the best things I've experienced in iRacing since they introduced day/night. It gives this incredible and almost surreal yet totally reminiscent feel to actual real-world sunny days and how clouds change the ambience as they pass in front of the sun.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

5

Not having the game myself, but having tested it for some time on a friend's PC with the same wheel I have at home and after having done about 300 hours in the first Dirt Rally I came to the following conclusions:

Pro:
Graphically better
Runs smooth
Stages are entertaining

Con:
Rallycross doesn't interest me in the slightest
FFB feels iffy
It doesn't feel like a new game, but a DX upgrade

Biggest con and game/scorebreaker:
The way this game sells its content and how it constantly misleads people so it can charge even more. With that in mind, a 5 is even generous, but as the game works, it should at least pass score for the game itself. That concludes my logic.

 

[Shovas]

Is there some way of seeing the results without voting? I haven't played DiRT 2, so I don't want to vote... but I would like to see what others think of it.

+1

 

[Momperface]

isn't dirt 2 a really old game?

 

[Pierre Hox]

Is there some way of seeing the results without voting? I haven't played DiRT 2, so I don't want to vote... but I would like to see what others think of it.

Agreed !
Maybe add a "I don't own it" choice ?

 

[CaptainBigleux]

voted 7... I almost put 6...
Loved Dirt 1, I was expecting may be too much of the second opus, that's probably why I have mixed feelings about Dirt 2.

Let's talk pros first :
+ decent amount of content compare to Dirt 1, which was his biggest negative point.
+ very fun physics on loose surfaces
+ nice looking on normal screen
+ bit better interface. At least can go either keyboard or wheels buttons !
+ FFB okish

But some important cons :
- Pricing model is weird. Bit confusing. Bought rcently only, in deluxe edition on steam. I was bit lost about what I had or not, and still am sometimes.
- Feels like having to pay extra... for old stuff coming from Dirt 1.
- Lack of some recent cars. WRC 8 has exclusivity.
- main disapointment : VR is crap. First let me see I just start in VR, until now I was simarcing in normal or triple screen. compare to the other games I play actually (Assetto and iracing), Dirt 2 looks like crap, very shiny on trees, not sharp, not natural. And very demanding on PC ressources often drop in FPS causing lack of immersion, or sickness. Whereas the 2 other titles I mentionned looks very sharp, natural, and much better FPS.

 

[Rory Wetherington]

Dirt 2.0 + VR = 7
wish they would add the car customizing (paint/design your own car, sign sponsors,etc) from dirt4

 

[Andor]

Without Career is not good.

 

[LibranRabbit]

Dirt Rally 1.0 only with the additional mods from TemplarGFX made it brilliant. The mods were FFB, extra particles etc...so close to really rallying using a motion rig.
Dirt Rally 2.0...what a mess. FFB is practically non existent, glitching, audio dropping out, they keep releasing DLC without fixing the basics in the code.
Will it ever get fixed, probably not.
I gave this “Game” 5/10, not a “Sim” in this form.
P.S. I have experience driving a Rally Car on dirt and bitumen.

 

[Marc Collins]

isn't dirt 2 a really old game?

Yes, this thread should have the same title as the forum that it is in

 

[Stig Bidstrup]

Rally in simracing don't get better than this at the moment

 

[Er!c]

Best rally sim available, agree with Stig Bidstrup.
I have Accuforce, so maybe my FFB experience is better than others.
Must agree that there have been some bugs that hurt the experience, but overall it's too much fun for me to hold a grudge.
Tarmac not great, I agree with basically everyone on that, but my complaint is that it seems too sticky. I'm no expert though. Just having fun with randomly jumping on to test myself, set a time for friends to beat and vice versa, and also daily/weekly challenges are nice.
Seems to me that some are harsh with ratings, not just rating the quality of the sim, but the pricing strategy. Depends on what is meant by "rate the sim" I suppose.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

^^ If IRacing would be rated I'd rate it for its insane price marketing strategy as well. It's part of the product.