[PC] Dirt Rally review

[dataDave]

Charles has joined the Master Race!

[charlesr]

Aye!!

Did one of today's daily challenges.... Hit a tree on the first corner and destroyed my lights. Had to finish the stage in the dark with just the driver notes and no HUD. Somewhat tricky.

[charlesr]

Found that making the rear antiroll bar a bit softer (advanced menu) stopped my Peugeot Hillclimb car from oversteering in every corner. Can actually get up the hill without going off the road now. Just need to work on maintaining speed through the corner.

[VR46]

Really don't like PP and won't revisit until I can use the rally cars there.

I'm not too keen on the night time Rally races, only good thing is that the AI tend to drive quite slow in the dark. Turning the monitor brightness up temporarily can help.

Friday to Sunday daily challenges are always the long eight part stages. You should try the monthly challenge when you're a bit more comfortable with everything. 24 stages no restarts and 30 minute repair time after every other stage only. Only completed it totally once. Great fun though and really makes you take care of your car.

[charlesr]

Hah. I'm enjoying PP - played it a lot today, although I'm still not as fast as you. Different car though

I love how the road disappears over blind crests where you have no idea which way the road is going to go. I'm also enjoying turning off the hud so that I have to rely on the navigator's voice in the rally stages.

[charlesr]

Today's Owners' club Fiat 131 challenge was a joy to drive. Really great fun.

[charlesr]

Blimey this is tough.
Think I did pretty well on this run!

[VR46]

Well, the jury is out on that Fiat 131 Daily, such a slow car, nice stage though. You beat me by 11 seconds Charles.

I did manage to beach the car 150 yards from the end, take a few photo's then had to take a 15 second penalty to reset my car sadly. Wish I hadn't spent ten seconds trying to reverse back on track. Not that I'm trying to justify it, you must have had a good cleanish run.


Full size http://images.akamai.steamuserconten...D7DDBFE027B22/


Full size http://images.akamai.steamuserconten...81BA228EC8D9F/

[VR46]

Once you learn the PP stages it's not too bad. Stage 2 is the hardest. Stages 1 & 3 are OK once you memorise them.

Nice bit of wall riding at 1:25 in the video Charles. Told you, slower = faster

[charlesr]

I did have a clean run, but found it super easy to keep heading the right direction (maybe compared to the PP stuff!!).

Mowing down pedestrians is not allowed. I might ask for my money back.

[VR46]

Yes avoid the yellow tape around spectators for sure, 15 second penalty always.

Hard to believe the fastest time in the Fiat 131 Daily is 6 minutes 20 seconds. Would love to see a reply of that run.

[charlesr]

This is officially the best thing ever. Love the long stages. Love the stage design. Love the look. Some of the cars are a real pain. Some of them are great. Driving along without a tyre and the rim sparking along the road was wonderous. The fact that there is no rewind option, so you have to weigh up the risk at each and every corner.

[VR46]

Thought you would enjoy it, glad it's money well spent. Is the best rally sim for a decade by a country mile.

All the stages are real life ones (if you didn't already realise) eg this one in Moanco, someone put a comparison video up a few weeks ago



And a Greece one is shown here in two side by side videos

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=KP16RbQnOaE&start1=366&video2=Rjw-Stb8qtU&start2=8&authorName=Case

[charlesr]

Yeah figured they were real. Pretty impressive

[charlesr]

Tried the monthly event. Was taking it relatively easy over the first 6 of 24 stages and then misjudged a corner and went straight over the edge and totalled the car. End of that game for the month!! This is proper gaming.