I recently purchased Dirt Rally 2.0, playing on the PS4 Pro. And I'm having enormous fun.

Spent the first few races just doing time trials (one off arcade style races) to get used to the vehicle handling. So. Many. Crashes.

For those of you who don't know, Dirt Rally 2.0 is very much on the "sim racer" end of the sim-arcade spectrum. Very realistic driving physics. But it's also beautiful, visually. And for some reason, despite the punishing difficulty, I am finding it really fun and rewarding as I slowly improve.

I'm still terrible. But I'm no longer like a bumper car just bouncing from wall to wall.

The game really comes into its own in career mode, because on top of the races there is the added strategic element of repairs/upgrades to your car between races. The fact that you have to repair damage to your car, lest it persist from one race to the next, really adds extra meaning to the balance between speed and caution when racing. Crashing has consequences that don't just reset when you end the race.

This is when I began to improve a lot more. On time trials, the lack of consequence meant I just kept throwing the car down the track in a reckless way, resulting in lots of crashes. My handling improved but my risk taking expanded proportionally with my increased skill.

In career mode, the presence of consequences introduces a real fear of crashing that makes you take the whole thing a lot more seriously, like you were racing the car in real life.

A small example:

I had the opportunity to repair the car between stages 2 and 3 of a rally. I had some minor damage to engine, radiator, and wheels, and major damage to bodywork and headlights.

In the limited repair time I had available, I decided to repair the damage to the wheels and body.

To my surprise, my next race was then in the dark. I had no headlights at all. I had to drive incredibly carefully, peering through the dark, enjoying the thrill of being able to hit the gas on those rare occasions when I hit an open straight with enough moonlight to see a semi-decent distance ahead.

And even though this race was probably my slowest time since starting career mode, it was enormously fun. And I didn't crash once. Very satisfying.

Anyway, I can really recommend the game, and it's on sale on the PS store at the moment. I got the GOTY edition for just a few more pounds, which comes with a ton of extra tracks etc, but be warned: buying the GOTY edition also means you start with a stack of the in-game currency which is almost like having a cheat code enabled as it allows you to buy loads of upgrades that you're supposed to have to work for. So I am just pretending that the money isn't there.

I'm really looking forward to when I move into my new apartment, get my new TV and new sound system and can play this with much better visuals and sound.

 

@Taure DiRT Rally 2.0 really is a wonderful game – if you’ve got all the DLC. It’s certainly the most complete offroad experience on consoles in this generation… and hell, perhaps even ever.

If you find yourself struggling for money, there’s always the opportunity to do the quick-and-dirty Daily Events in MyTeam mode. Provided you don’t crash out, they usually pay quite handsomely – and sometimes they do so even if you do crash out. It’s also a handy form guide if you want to check your progress versus other players im different categories and want to earn some money on the side.

By the way: I haven’t checked this week, but I think the eSports qualifiers are still on. If you participate even once, you get the new Ford Fiesta R5 (or Rally2, as the new lingo goes), which you can’t buy with credits.

Have you tried the rallycross section of the game yet? It’s got almost all of the tracks and cars from the 2018 and 2019 World RX seasons. The supercars can be a handful at first, but once you understand them, they’re easily the most fun cars to drive in the game. I absolutely love the 2018 Megane and the 2019 Ibiza, and the 2019 208 is a very good car as well.

You can check the event guide for the rally if you want to know the weather, time of day, stage length, etc. That helps me a lot when I have to decide which repairs to make and which tyres to put on, or whether to make any set-up changes.

 

crash team racing nitro fueled (a remake of crash team racing from 1999) is a fair bit of fun if you're into kart racing and plays well as a co-op game. Out of all the more realistic racing games I've played, I think Forza Horizon 4 is probably the best. I've played a bit of Dirt 4 on gamepass and Forza is definitely a better game... Forza looks better and I like the rewind feature however the load times can be brutal. Thanks for the good word on Sonic All Stars Ched, I've been eying that game for a while but now I'll definitely get it when it goes on sale again.

 

In terms of racing realness IRacing is about as good as it gets followed probably by Assetto Corsa. Still, it is expensive.

 

Managed to come 6th in an event. Progress! Immediately came 28th in the rally after, so that put a damper on my overconfidence.

I also have Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fuelled, which is fun, but I don't like how OP the power sliding mechanic is. Basically the whole race is spent just trying to engineer power slides for the boost they give you. It reduces the game to a single mechanic and distracts from just having mindless kart fun. Half the time I'm so focused on power sliding that I barely notice I've picked up a weapon. For that reason I think Mario Kart is still definitely the #1 kart racer - it's designed for immediate accessibility, perfect for casual play with friends. Pity it's only on Switch.

As for the other end of the spectrum - personally I've not got much interest in Assetto Corsa, Gran Turismo etc. type games. For me racing on a track is just not nearly as interesting/fun as rally games. I really enjoy the mechanic of having a co-driver with pacing notes forcing you to react quickly to a completely unknown route, and the visuals of driving through beautiful scenery in all sorts of weather/lighting conditions.

I'm really hoping Codemasters put out a PS5 patch for Dirt Rally 2.0 which gives it an upgrade. The PS4 Pro version is locked to 1080p @ 60FPS whereas the Xbox One X does 4K @ 60FPS, dropping down to 1800p when necessary to maintain the frame rate. Would be great if a PS5 update was released to allow native 4K @ 60FPS.

 

I‘ve spent a significant portion of my week-long holiday with Assetto Corsa Competizione. The base gameplay is uncompromising, but so much fun and very rewarding. I do notice that the gamevis stretching my PS4 to its limits, though.

In somewhat related news, I‘m looking to upgrade my rig from a T300 base and the cheapest Thrustmaster pedals to the Fanatec CSL Elite Starter or F1 set after Christmas. Depending on the set, I’ll be getting either the single-seater or the WRC rim as well. That upgrade has been a long-held dream of mine, and I hope it‘ll be worth the expense, which should be in the region of ~800 Euros. That should set me up well for the PS5 era as well, as the base and all the peripherals are fully compatible.

 

Updating this thread to say that GT7 has been out for almost two weeks now. Yeah, the driving is nice, there’s more tracks and cars than in GT Sport, but what keeps tugging me back into the game is the sublime photo mode. This is probably the area where the PS5’s power is most noticeable. I mean, look at this:



So whenever I’ve been away from my wheel, I’ve been busy creating liveries and taking photos. It’s glorious.

Speaking of the wheel, I finally upgraded to the new Fanatec GT DD Pro in February, after Fanatec discontinued the old belt-driven CSL Elite line in late 2020 just as I was ready to make the plunge. I’m not complaining, though, since the feeling even from this small direct drive unit is really, really good. It’s so much smoother than my old T300, and the modulation from the pedals is a vast improvement as well, even without a load cell. (I do have a bit of flex in my rig now, though, due to the force I need to fully press the brake pedal). I also got the McLaren GT3 wheel, which feels nice with GT7 but can also be used for ACC and F1, provided that one will finally be worth playing again this year, which I doubt.

 

I might actually pick it up, if only to live the dream as Takumi in my ae86.

I'm assuming a purist like Yamauchi doesn't have Teslas in the game? Would have liked to see how they stacked up.

I know you have a wheel, but did you try playing with the DS? How's the haptics?

 

There‘s a Model S in the game, as well as a Taycan. They have good power and acceleration in a straight line, but are obviously more sluggish due to their weight.

I‘ve driven with the controller, and the vibration effects are really nice. I‘m less of a fan of the haptic triggers, at least at full strength. I‘d definitely recommend using a weaker setting.

 

yeah I can imagine fatigue setting in real quick

 

GT7 got reviewbombed after a recent patch killed the servers for a day, which meant no one could play the game, and nerfed the highest-paying races. Payouts were already low across the board before the patch and in addition, the game has been pushing microtransactions really hard right from the go. For example, a new “Legendary Cars” dealership is aiming to cash in on FOMO by only offering a few of the rarest/most expensive cars at a time based on a so far thoroughly incomprehensible rotating system. Oh, and you also can’t sell any of the cars you win or buy to make some money back.

Kaz’s & Polyphony’s response to the backlash was… well, let’s be generous and call it “a bit shit”:



A true masterclass in how to burn up a quarter of a century of community goodwill in two weeks. The Metacritic user score is currently standing at a whopping 2.4.

 

I don't think they're in a position to be this dickheadish, not when Forza is basically eating their lunch and releasing games every 2 years...

 

I finally managed to get gold in all of the license tests in GT7. I'm not very good at being consistent, so s-10 took me a few hours and was pretty annoying. I also play with a controller not a wheel, so maybe that contributed too. I generally liked the licenses, but I also haven't played a gran turismo game since GT4, and barely played forza horizon 5 as my only other racing game since then. I did also just do all of the licenses instead of progressing anything else, so now I'll actually race some and see how that is. So far I'm having a good time playing though.

 

Still terrible at racing games but have decided to progress my terribleness to the next level by getting a wheel, pedals and a rig to bolt them too.

Watch this space...