Title says it all. It's available now, so for those with much more skill than me, how does it fare? Especially compared to Dirt Rally?
DiRT 4 So, first impressions? Where does it stand versus DR?
- Thread starter Helmut Skrdla
- Start date
Hard to say, it dosent work with my standalone G27-Bodnar-cabled pedals. It just dosent recognize them. Well, the game sees the pedals, but wont bind them to their respective axis. Anyone else having this problem or a fix? Its a first for me after using them for 7 years.
It's easier, but I'd dare say it's more realistic. A lot of the ridiculous things you could exploit in DR are largely gone (though I'd say the brakes are still a tad overpowered) and I'm happy with the handling, just as I was with DR's. Only real issue is that the grip is too high and the feeling doesn't extend to the traction on exit. There are a few niggling problems with the game here and there, but those should be fixed eventually.
I like the feeling of the weight transfer this time around, while a friend who was extremely good at DR is surprisingly scared of it, so it's clear that people are going to have different views on it.
I like the feeling of the weight transfer this time around, while a friend who was extremely good at DR is surprisingly scared of it, so it's clear that people are going to have different views on it.
I have mixed opinions so far. I like the handling, although I haven't tested all the cars. It feels similar to DR, but I think I agree that the weight transfer feels better. So in this department D4 delivers the goods.
The menus took some time to get used to, at least when using a steering wheel. I use the keyboard to navigate, and having all options labeled "3", "12" etc. doesn't really help me. It wouldn't help me even if I navigated with the wheel, because the buttons aren't numbered. I would prefer the options being labeled for keyboard navigation. In DR this could be fixed by making a custom controller config, I don't think that's possible in D4.
Rally Cross and landrush are meaningless game modes, that's my opinion at least. The main game is still rally. Thank God.
Car selection is good, all the classics are there, but there are way too few liveries, and the few that are actually included all suck. There are hardly any original liveries in there. Big disappointment.
Small things like automatic selection of gear box is missing. Controller mapping is better than in DR though, and seems to be without bugs (which controller mapping in DR isn't!). I have seen better controller mapping options, but all in all it's ok, with the exception mentioned earlier. I would have liked to see a few more options for brake linearity and so on, but it works good enough.
I was excited about the "your stage" generator, but I have to admit that after driving 10 stages in one location, they all pretty much feel the same. The generated stages lack variation both in scenery and road side details as well as track layout. Major bummer IMO. In DR the hand made stages are much more varied and interesting, and I would actually prefer a limited number of good quality hand crafted stages, rather than an unlimited number of almost identical, rather boring stages.
If anyone can prove me wrong on this matter, please let me know. I really wanted this to work for me.
I also miss the classic locations Finland and Monte Carlo. Future DLC?
The camera mods for DR are also a must have, hopefully they'll make their way into the game, along with some proper liveries.
Perhaps some future mods, DLC or patches can make D4 better, but for me, DR is still the best game. By far.
The menus took some time to get used to, at least when using a steering wheel. I use the keyboard to navigate, and having all options labeled "3", "12" etc. doesn't really help me. It wouldn't help me even if I navigated with the wheel, because the buttons aren't numbered. I would prefer the options being labeled for keyboard navigation. In DR this could be fixed by making a custom controller config, I don't think that's possible in D4.
Rally Cross and landrush are meaningless game modes, that's my opinion at least. The main game is still rally. Thank God.
Car selection is good, all the classics are there, but there are way too few liveries, and the few that are actually included all suck. There are hardly any original liveries in there. Big disappointment.
Small things like automatic selection of gear box is missing. Controller mapping is better than in DR though, and seems to be without bugs (which controller mapping in DR isn't!). I have seen better controller mapping options, but all in all it's ok, with the exception mentioned earlier. I would have liked to see a few more options for brake linearity and so on, but it works good enough.
I was excited about the "your stage" generator, but I have to admit that after driving 10 stages in one location, they all pretty much feel the same. The generated stages lack variation both in scenery and road side details as well as track layout. Major bummer IMO. In DR the hand made stages are much more varied and interesting, and I would actually prefer a limited number of good quality hand crafted stages, rather than an unlimited number of almost identical, rather boring stages.
If anyone can prove me wrong on this matter, please let me know. I really wanted this to work for me.
I also miss the classic locations Finland and Monte Carlo. Future DLC?
The camera mods for DR are also a must have, hopefully they'll make their way into the game, along with some proper liveries.
Perhaps some future mods, DLC or patches can make D4 better, but for me, DR is still the best game. By far.
It is a bit weird that they didn't actually make it so that the keys shown would change depending on what you last used, just like in F1 2016. All you'd need is to press one key and you'd get the keyboard shortcuts instead. Very weird choice.
Depends on the wheel. With my G27 I've memorized all my button numbers, so something else would, if anything, be more confusing to me.
Why bother with that? There's a livery editor for career mode right there in the game, and I'm fairly sure you can even use it online. I'd understand if the editor was bad, but it's very good. You'll likely also get new livery mods on here very soon, provided that people figure out how to crack the new file format.
Yeah, forgot about this one. Really don't like how, if you choose a layout, like the shifter, you're forced to use it for everything.
Isn't that one of the things they're planning on patching very soon? Unless v1.02 is already out, that is, which would be rather disappointing.
I'd be shocked if they or other locations weren't included later on. This game is really struggling on the content front, and the easiest way to make up for that is to at least add new locations and let the (hopefully eventually improved) generator do its thing.
Are they? I've found the default camera to be far better than anything DR ever had, which also helped a lot with the sense of speed and my severe motion sickness.
Matthew Allington
Wham!ming into Spanish rocks
Apologies for the wall of text.... 
Bearing in mind that I was playing RBR earlier today, jumping into DiRT 4 was a bit of a shock. DiRT 4, particularly on gravel, just has so much grip. To me, it feels like "the Forza of rally games" - designed for the mass market, but with simulation elements. Compared to RBR or even DiRT Rally, this will take some getting used to...
Compared to RBR and even more so to Rally, the change of balance of the car when going from on-throttle to off-throttle on gravel is much more extreme and this seems prevalent in some cars more than others (in FWD cars I expected this behaviour to a certain degree - but it also seems to vary between cars of the same class). It's very off-putting, particularly on the brakes. Hairpins are simply not satisfying at all as the car just has so much grip at low speeds
Tarmac is not bad, but I miss the responsive bite that the DiRT Rally tyres had upon turn-in, particularly for FWD cars, even if it may or may not have been unrealistic. Sweden is really nice, and I'm personally thankful that the snowbanks are more forgiving!
I'm liking what I've seen of the stage designs thus far. You do have to listen to your co-driver and he or she is usually pretty accurate, which gives me confidence to attack the turns. Elevation changes are very much appreciated.
Good news! You're no longer guarenteed to crash the moment you bring a wheel ever so slightly off the stage. The car feels much more settled than Rally in this regard (and is also much more predicatable over bumps & jumps - no more praying for your life during each and every jump!). On the other hand, the rear end of the car suddenly seems to lose all of its grip in these situations, which makes life difficult.
As a "controller" player, I tried the chase cam view which worked well for me in Rally. Nope. For whatever reason it serves to make Rallying a harrowing experience. My experience with on-car cameras was completely different, for the better. Chase cam is still neat for RX and Landrush, though.
Speaking of crashes - DiRT 4 is extremely satisfying in this respect if you do muck it up. The physics and damage models are definitely a step up from DiRT Rally RBR still has it beat in a few areas (particularly sensitivity) though.
Rallycross feels good - it really benefits from the reduced floatiness of cars compared to DiRT Rally Group Bs feel tame as they, like the rally versions, are neutered and in RallyX it really makes it feel like just a feeder series to the Supercars. Landrush is just downright fun, although the tyres seem to have an awful lot of traction...
Which brings me to my single biggest bugbear - to me it feels like there is too much traction in places (who needs traction control - says the keyboard player?), particularly on gravel and in RWD cars. Realistic or not, I feel that a Lancia 037 with no traction control should be trying to spear me off the road when I apply full throttle - the RWD experience has been brutally neutered. As said many times over in the community, the gravel tyres have tons of lateral grip and it makes the gravel rallying experience the worst part of DiRT 4 for me
On a different note, team customization is not very in-depth but it is still a nice feature - I have a car that looks about as good as an Opel Adam can get! It's also really nice that you gain credits just for doing free play events.
As a skinner, it's disappointing to read that Codemasters have taken to further trying to restrict modding capabilities. Before you get unlocking stuff there's a lot of plain-liveried cars that I really would like to see with something more realistic and/or inventive, official content or not.
On a positive note - attention to detail is insane. The service areas, car detail (you can see fans spinning, etc), strength of signs, fences & bollards (they're no longer immovable solid objects), the whole presentation of the game... I love those little bits. I also love the soundtrack.
The summary;
The good
) Am I jumping on the "I hate DiRT 4" bandwagon? No - there are some good things about this game. Sadly it's not completely good
I should stress that I play with a keyboard and that I've never driven a rally car for real in my life So of course, this is all my own opinion, feel free to agree or disagree - but hopefully this will have been helpful to some people
Bearing in mind that I was playing RBR earlier today, jumping into DiRT 4 was a bit of a shock. DiRT 4, particularly on gravel, just has so much grip. To me, it feels like "the Forza of rally games" - designed for the mass market, but with simulation elements. Compared to RBR or even DiRT Rally, this will take some getting used to...
Compared to RBR and even more so to Rally, the change of balance of the car when going from on-throttle to off-throttle on gravel is much more extreme and this seems prevalent in some cars more than others (in FWD cars I expected this behaviour to a certain degree - but it also seems to vary between cars of the same class). It's very off-putting, particularly on the brakes. Hairpins are simply not satisfying at all as the car just has so much grip at low speeds
Tarmac is not bad, but I miss the responsive bite that the DiRT Rally tyres had upon turn-in, particularly for FWD cars, even if it may or may not have been unrealistic. Sweden is really nice, and I'm personally thankful that the snowbanks are more forgiving!
I'm liking what I've seen of the stage designs thus far. You do have to listen to your co-driver and he or she is usually pretty accurate, which gives me confidence to attack the turns. Elevation changes are very much appreciated.
Good news! You're no longer guarenteed to crash the moment you bring a wheel ever so slightly off the stage. The car feels much more settled than Rally in this regard (and is also much more predicatable over bumps & jumps - no more praying for your life during each and every jump!). On the other hand, the rear end of the car suddenly seems to lose all of its grip in these situations, which makes life difficult.
As a "controller" player, I tried the chase cam view which worked well for me in Rally. Nope. For whatever reason it serves to make Rallying a harrowing experience. My experience with on-car cameras was completely different, for the better. Chase cam is still neat for RX and Landrush, though.
Speaking of crashes - DiRT 4 is extremely satisfying in this respect if you do muck it up. The physics and damage models are definitely a step up from DiRT Rally
RBR still has it beat in a few areas (particularly sensitivity) though.Rallycross feels good - it really benefits from the reduced floatiness of cars compared to DiRT Rally
Group Bs feel tame as they, like the rally versions, are neutered and in RallyX it really makes it feel like just a feeder series to the Supercars. Landrush is just downright fun, although the tyres seem to have an awful lot of traction...Which brings me to my single biggest bugbear - to me it feels like there is too much traction in places (who needs traction control - says the keyboard player?), particularly on gravel and in RWD cars. Realistic or not, I feel that a Lancia 037 with no traction control should be trying to spear me off the road when I apply full throttle - the RWD experience has been brutally neutered. As said many times over in the community, the gravel tyres have tons of lateral grip and it makes the gravel rallying experience the worst part of DiRT 4 for me
On a different note, team customization is not very in-depth but it is still a nice feature - I have a car that looks about as good as an Opel Adam can get! It's also really nice that you gain credits just for doing free play events.
As a skinner, it's disappointing to read that Codemasters have taken to further trying to restrict modding capabilities. Before you get unlocking stuff there's a lot of plain-liveried cars that I really would like to see with something more realistic and/or inventive, official content or not.
On a positive note - attention to detail is insane. The service areas, car detail (you can see fans spinning, etc), strength of signs, fences & bollards (they're no longer immovable solid objects
), the whole presentation of the game... I love those little bits. I also love the soundtrack.The summary;
The good
- Your Stage
- Co-drivers
- Landrush
- Rallycross improved
- Sweden improved
- Crashing
- Attention to detail
- Soundtrack
- Visual presentation
- Team system
- Physics feel less sim-my
- Ridiculously grippy tyres
- (Really these two are pretty big negatives - they serve to castrate the RWD experience and make gravel not very pleasurable)
- Hairpins
- Chase cam in rallying is dreadful, even to controller players
- Tougher on computers than Rally (particularly Wales)
- Not sure if there is enough content
) Am I jumping on the "I hate DiRT 4" bandwagon? No - there are some good things about this game. Sadly it's not completely good I should stress that I play with a keyboard and that I've never driven a rally car for real in my life
So of course, this is all my own opinion, feel free to agree or disagree - but hopefully this will have been helpful to some people
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After a couple of hours spent with Dirt 4, my brief thoughts in my head are:
I want to do some Rally Racing: Play Dirt Rally
I want to do some RallyX: Play Dirt 4
EDIT: Having just watched the Project Cars 2 E3 trailer and finding out they are doing Rallycross aswell (looks even better), then Dirt 4 may be digitally shelved.
To me its obvious where the time spent most was, I think it was evident in the lead up too with all the videos etc.
I'm staying away from Rally on this one. Do one long stage on any track and after about 2 minutes, you will have seen the same corner multiple times and seen all the different "track pieces" once or twice. Definitely isn't nearly enough to keep a track fresh and different from all the rest.
Adding to that, Australia, Michigan and Wales are all basically the same, forest and farmlands! Something I've noticed about all the stages is: they are all walled, like you are driving through a tube and anything outside is "off limits". There's also no verticality or BIG jumps, or major points of interest really.
It is a shame as it has so many good little bits to it like the stopping at the end, the crashed cars during a stage, the extra tires in the car etc. The tonnes of weather options too are great, with standing water around. These however can't make the staleness of the stages any less stale.
I think I'll just Rally on Dirt 4 for the RDRC if it happens.
End Conclusion: Underwhelming.
I want to do some Rally Racing: Play Dirt Rally
I want to do some RallyX: Play Dirt 4
EDIT: Having just watched the Project Cars 2 E3 trailer and finding out they are doing Rallycross aswell (looks even better), then Dirt 4 may be digitally shelved.
To me its obvious where the time spent most was, I think it was evident in the lead up too with all the videos etc.
I'm staying away from Rally on this one. Do one long stage on any track and after about 2 minutes, you will have seen the same corner multiple times and seen all the different "track pieces" once or twice. Definitely isn't nearly enough to keep a track fresh and different from all the rest.
Adding to that, Australia, Michigan and Wales are all basically the same, forest and farmlands! Something I've noticed about all the stages is: they are all walled, like you are driving through a tube and anything outside is "off limits". There's also no verticality or BIG jumps, or major points of interest really.
It is a shame as it has so many good little bits to it like the stopping at the end, the crashed cars during a stage, the extra tires in the car etc. The tonnes of weather options too are great, with standing water around. These however can't make the staleness of the stages any less stale.
I think I'll just Rally on Dirt 4 for the RDRC if it happens.
End Conclusion: Underwhelming.
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First 3 hours done....
Biggest "problem" for me is the fact, that I'm confused by the Vibration & Feedback of the wheel. It's far different from DR. I had everything turned down to 80% in DR and in D4 I have everything up to 125% but still it doesn't feel properly. In DR at Finland the wheel was rumbling all the time...in D4 at Michigan there happens nearly nothing.
But maybe it's just so strange for me as I'm used to DR so much...
Anybody else having this feeling about FFB? I'm using a Logitech G920.
The physics and grip levels will be tweaked for sure by CM in the near future, so that's nothing to worry about in my eyes.
Modding will be as easy as in DR I'm sure. That's why every car has some unpainted liveries...we just have to be a bit patient guys.
Regarding your stage: of course the corners repeat themselves...but the order of the corners varies...that's the challenge. Be honest, what do you expect from a stage generator? 20 different types of corners for a '3 left' and so on??? That's unrealistic (for now). The base has been build by CM and everything can be developed...
Tried the weekly historic event with the Kadett at Wales. It was a lot easier to drive than in DR. I play SIM with no assists so I expected to have at least the same difficult but realistic behaviour on gravel lime in DR...but I hope it will be fixed someday...
Biggest "problem" for me is the fact, that I'm confused by the Vibration & Feedback of the wheel. It's far different from DR. I had everything turned down to 80% in DR and in D4 I have everything up to 125% but still it doesn't feel properly. In DR at Finland the wheel was rumbling all the time...in D4 at Michigan there happens nearly nothing.
But maybe it's just so strange for me as I'm used to DR so much...
Anybody else having this feeling about FFB? I'm using a Logitech G920.
The physics and grip levels will be tweaked for sure by CM in the near future, so that's nothing to worry about in my eyes.
Modding will be as easy as in DR I'm sure. That's why every car has some unpainted liveries...we just have to be a bit patient guys.
Regarding your stage: of course the corners repeat themselves...but the order of the corners varies...that's the challenge. Be honest, what do you expect from a stage generator? 20 different types of corners for a '3 left' and so on??? That's unrealistic (for now). The base has been build by CM and everything can be developed...
Tried the weekly historic event with the Kadett at Wales. It was a lot easier to drive than in DR. I play SIM with no assists so I expected to have at least the same difficult but realistic behaviour on gravel lime in DR...but I hope it will be fixed someday...
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Regarding FFB, im using a Logitech G27 and I can barely feel anything and its all on 100% (didnt realise it could go higher tbh!)
Regarding Your Stage: for what this game is (a stage generated racing game with some added rallycross tracks and a handful of cars), yes i expect 20 different types of corners for a 3 left. especially at the RRP
There is no meat and bones to this. Just a bit of crackling on the side (which is good), but I pay for meat and bones.
Regarding Your Stage: for what this game is (a stage generated racing game with some added rallycross tracks and a handful of cars), yes i expect 20 different types of corners for a 3 left. especially at the RRP
There is no meat and bones to this. Just a bit of crackling on the side (which is good), but I pay for meat and bones.
Just had a couple of test stages with the hyundai in Spain. God that thing is fun on tarmac. The hairpins with some handbrake put in or a little braking at turn in, i slide that thing around. I'm getting to grips with the driving feel.
I was actually distracted by the scenery at one spot. Because of some water jets from some farmland.
I was actually distracted by the scenery at one spot. Because of some water jets from some farmland.
Sounds are downgraded as well as physics side unfortunately, 2001 Ford in DR was very tricky, now smooth as silk. Why they do this for 'simulation' mode. We need patch asap.
for 'simulation' mode. We need patch asap.
TeSL9
Pessimistic (rarely flying) Finn :)
Sounds are downgraded as well as physics side unfortunately, 2001 Ford in DR was very tricky, now smooth as silk. Why they do this
Sounds downgraded? First time my gearbox started to wine or a brake was starting to fail scared the crap out of me. Loud as hell. To me the game sounds are very good. At least in cockpitcam.
