DiRT Rally 2.0 - Ain't no ordinary Rally, it's evolved!

"DiRT Rally 2.0 dares you to carve your way through a selection of iconic rally locations from across the globe, in the most powerful off-road vehicles ever made, knowing that the smallest mistake could end your stage.

You will need to rely on your instincts with the most immersive and truly focused off-road experience yet, including a new authentic handling model, tyre choice and surface deformation.

Power your rally car through real-life off-road environments in New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and the USA, with only your co-driver and instincts to guide you. Race on eight official circuits from the FIA World Rallycross championship, complete with licensed Supercars and support series.

Develop your team and cars around race strategies, and progress through a varied selection of Events and Championships in both a single player Career Campaign and a competitive online environment."


Very much a throwback to Colin McRae Rally where the sequel to that game also took on the same 2.0 moniker for its sequel. If Codemasters are to believed then this is very much a direct sequel to DiRT Rally, in the way that DiRT 4 kind of wasn’t, with a returned focus to the hardcore rally and rallycross racing seen in DiRT Rally. Your Stage is out and back are the lovingly, handcrafted stages modeled on (what look to be) real-life roads seen in DiRT Rally, alongside all the WRX licensed content you come to expect since D:R. Plus in comes the addition of features such as tire choice, so tire degradation across stages could a thing if choice between harder and softer compounds is in.

No Early Access release planned this time around by the looks of it, just a four day head-start if you buy the Deluxe Edition. However, in addition to the six rally locations and eight Rallycross locations available at launch there will also be two seasons of confirmed post-launch DLC; which will add in six new locations to the game, split across rally and rallycross, among other additional content.

All coming at you 26th February, 2019…


http://blog.codemasters.com/community/09/dirt-rally-2-0-announcement/

Gotta love that release date.

Within a week of Anthem, Days Gone, Metro Exodus, Anno 1800, Left Alive, Trials Rising, and maybe Crackdown 3.

Good VR support I expect? Given Dirt Rally had that I think.

Hopefully so, though no mention just yet of VR support. I know a lot of people would appreciate the return of VR support for PC and PS4.

Six rally locations plus 2-3 DLC ones would be great, especially if there are more than two long stages each.

I’m fine with two long stages each, like in the first DiRT Rally. I got over 300 very entertaining hours out of it, and I still don’t know how to do Finland and Sweden. Finland because it’s hard, and Sweden because it isn’t fun. I really wish they hadn’t added Sweden.

Ah, Finland, the literal home of “Crest-Jump Maybe?”, you really need to set yourself up for some of those corners before going over the preceding crest. Sweden happens to be my best rally in the NR4\R4 class of car for some reason, probably one of my favourite rallies once I got the hang of it. Touching those snowbanks at the wrong time or angle sure can give you a bad day though…

I’m already looking forwards to tackling El Condor in Argentina, which was in the announcement trailer. Hoping for some satisfyingly long stages in D:R 2.0, WRC 7’s 23 km-long Rally Poland ‘Epic Stage’ was immense.


Should have more information and possibly game footage come Monday next week, which is when the embargo lifts apparently. Press event was held at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere today to coincide with the reveal announcement.

I haven’t played WRC 7, but in WRC 5, there’s a few stages that are just long and boring. They feel like the stages in DiRT 4 that are procedurally generated, even though they’re probably not. I’m saying that in the context of the really interesting stages from DiRT Rally where they really picked some beautiful and thrilling spots. Even the German tarmac one that’s not all that pretty is just really interesting to drive.

Still, I’ve only played a couple of WRC 5 tracks, like the one from the demo. Maybe I shouldn’t judge them all based on those two tracks.

Excellent. Totally there for this.

Yeah, WRC 7 is where the stage design took a noticeable step up and is basically the major selling points for that game since it still falls a bit flat in areas such as the sound department. So WRC 6 and below do not have as great a quality of stage design as what 7 conjured up, since that was actually a common critique pre-WRC 7. And you can notice the difference when driving the newly designed stages, such as Poland and Germany, over those that were carried across from the earlier games, such as Wales.

No mention of VR support on the steam page, so i wouldn’t count on it. Maybe it will be added post release, if we’re lucky. But since Dirt 4 never got VR support…

No VR, no sale!

Haven’t been playing much racing stuff in recent years, but I kind of want to get this for this reason alone.

:(

Embargo from the press day is over, so time for a flood of previews and interviews, See the summary for a collection of stuff released so far.

Summary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLHeJsUNB3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS7JHernQRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9nK7b7e_Y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKmnE7CXK2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_l8pMfs1HI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_zeGwlIWmo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpUxDskLWfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njFdTmBSBWE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqVhuWkwZTg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ochXkEUNAhg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOq35Ue2ioM
https://www.gamebyte.com/dirt-rally-2-0-designed-with-experts-in-mind-preview-and-interview/
https://www.thumbsticks.com/getting-our-hands-dirty-with-dirt-rally-2-0/
https://www.gamereactor.eu/previews/698073/Dirt%2BRally%2B20%2BHandsOn%2BImpressions/
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/10/02/interview-how-dirt-rally-2-0-will-answer-the-calls-of-sim-racers/
https://www.squarexo.co.uk/dirt-rally-2-0-hands-on-preview/
https://www.pcgamesn.com/dirt-rally-2/dirt-rally-2-hands-on-impressions
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/10/01/dirt-rally-2-0-is-more-of-the-hardcore-rallying-you-want/
https://www.redbull.com/za-en/6-professional-tops-to-help-you-succeed-in-dirt-20
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2018/10/01/five-reasons-to-get-excited-about-dirt-rally-2-0-coming-to-ps4-in-february-2019/#sf198767740
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/dirt-rally2-interview-codemasters

The major points I noticed so far are:

  • The Peugeot 205 GTI joins the Volkswagen Golf GTI in the H2 (FWD)
  • Have to wait and see what 4WD and RWD cars are like since the rally car was FWD
  • The New Zealand rally stage is based on the Waikato region
  • Poland will be another sandy\gravel rally location
  • Tire choice does indeed include choosing between harder and softer compounds
  • The rally stages are 100% bespoke handcrafted, no return of DiRT 4’s ‘Your Stage’ feature.
  • The Rally track deformation is based on running position, deformation occurs in progressive states rather than calculated in real-time.
  • For NZ gravel, road starts out un-deformed with fine layer of loose dirt on top, then later starters experience gradually increased material displacement in road with formation of ruts and such.
  • 2003 WRC winner, co-driver for Petter Solberg, Phil Mills will be your co-driver for the game
  • Gamestar DE’s preview say fan favourite rally locations seen in DiRT Rally might return in the DLC (Rumour)
  • Attendees say the handling and physics felt great, return to simulation values of DiRT Rally and improved
  • VR will not be supported at launch, but similar to DiRT Rally, could come post-release if community wants it… (So wait and see I guess)

If you want to see someone do the New Zealand stage quick in the VW Golf GTI then look no further than this video:

That looks nice. I’ll probably have to buy this once I build a new PC.

The first DiRT Show of the DiRT Rally 2.0 era just finished up recently. As well as answering some fan-submitted questions we also got to see a live playthrough of the New Zealand stage (again) and the Argentina stage in the front-wheel drive VW Golf GTI plus some RallyCross around the Trois-Rivieres WRX circuit in the VW Polo R.

Skip to the 19:30 mark if you want to go straight to the Argentina rally gameplay or the 31:10 mark for the Trois-Rivieres WRX gameplay. I’m already looking forwards to some proper DiRT: Rally style fun with the Argentina stage…

This does look fantastic. Both New Zealand and Argentina look great.

I hope the rumor about DiRT Rally’s content being available as DLC is true. I’d love to selectively get Wales, Greece, Germany and maybe Finland in there. And maybe Pike’s Peak too.

Guess I’m the only one that immediately thought it looked a little floaty, like it was modeled on a single axis. Then again, it is months from release.

I suppose I’m the only person who wants a lava level. And a Moon level.