Title: DiRT 4: How Codemasters code their groove back
Author: plut
Recovered Author: plut
Published Date: 2017-06-20
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2017/06/dirt-4-review-dont-cut
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170716215426id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za:80/2017/06/dirt-4-review-dont-cut/
Recovery Confidence: high
Categories: Games
Tags: codemasters, Colin Mcrae, DiRT 4, DiRT RALLY, review

- Developer Codemasters
- Distributor Apex Interactive
- Genre Driving
- Game modes Single Player, Multiplayer
- Players 1
- Reviewed on Playstation 4

- Available on Xbox One

- plut

- 4 weeks ago

- 0 0

To this day the only other rally game that measured up to Richard Burns Rally was the brilliant but brutal Dirt Rally. You can read our very own review of Dirt Rally here . The WRC series of games that came afterward were fun, but lacked enthusiast content (cars, in short). Then DiRT 4 came along. You can think of DiRT 4 as the more sociable younger brother of its competent but abrupt older brother. Make no mistake, his skill is there – but you can talk to him about far more than which wires to splice in case of electronic failures in the middle of a rally stage.

If the previous DiRT games before Dirt Rally were too exuberant for you, then DiRT 4 will be a surprise. It’s a mix of the technical competency of Dirt Rally; and the accessibility of the previous DiRT titles. The main challenge for Codemasters here was to balance the two. If they applied too much of the latter, racers looking for driver engagement would turn a blind eye to it and if DiRT 4 was another Dirt Rally, then those after the fun factor would overlook it. Were the two playstyles balanced out well enough there’d be a bigger target audience for the game. So, did Codemasters get it right?

Being a Colin McRae Rally nerd myself (having played almost all in the series), there were many boxes I wanted ticked. Would the game punish me for recklessness enough to want to improve? Was there enough variety in the game apart from the actual rally stages and championships? Is the A.I. engaging enough to feel challenging but also fair? Is the old repair system that Codemasters tuned so well in Dirt Rally back? If Codemasters made DiRT 4 more accessible – was the sheer terror of careening through those serpentine hills and troughs still be prevalent? Were the awesome Australian rallies in Richard Burns Rally going to feature?

The answer is yes to every one of these questions. I don’t know how much time Codemasters spent on play testing and responding to player feedback but they created one of the best rally racers I’ve played in a long, long time so let’s get into the details.

DiRT 4 is a great looking game. I love the little details like well-modelled tire tread and painful looking scratch marks on body panels; and more importantly, how they transfer between stages if you choose not to repair them. The level of detail these cars have is fanatical. You’ll see torn bumpers, bent bonnets and shattered headlights. The visual feast doesn’t end in vehicular damage. If you’re driving through snow, your vehicle’s going to pick it up as the stage progresses. The same goes with dirt and dust.

The best bit for me, though, was how the car interacted with the environment. To be more precise, how each vehicle reacted to changes in elevation and different surfaces – this is what blew my mind. Snowy Sweden, for example, had some serious undulation changes on both the horizontal and vertical axes. While I felt it in the game, the replays showed how my Ford Escort’s body rolled around, and how the car’s wheels tucked into its fenders.

If that wasn’t enough – there’s the excellent lighting the game uses throughout. I loved watching how the sheen of headlights bounced off textures and objects on the road. On a dirt road little specks gave back these tiny little reflections; whereas headlights on snow showed up the surface mapping on the road – but with far less shine. Then, on the vehicles themselves – water and dirt would build up over time resulting in a realistically worn car. While water physics only applied to windshield, seeing it on the outer shell of the car was quite impressive.

Up until now, I’ve talked about the cars. The environments do look less impressive, even if lighting effects look quite great. Tree, plant and prop texture resolutions are quite low compared to the rest of the game – like the roads. The same went with little sprays of dirt and snow. While racing it’s certainly not a problem, but when watching a replay it’s a somewhat painful detail to notice. I’m not saying it destroys DiRT 4’s presentation, since headlights actually interact with these objects, it’s more of a slight distraction from the rest of the stellar visuals. I’d put this design choice down to the need to have the game run at a stable 60 frames per second on console.

Onto the sound. For those who’ve heard a rally car going through its gears – there’s a buzzsaw quality to its engines. This is down to how their engines get tuned. The combination of exhaust noise and mechanical bits spitting, pumping and rotating combine to make a rather unique ruckus. Codemasters have captured this perfectly. The crunch of suspension on landing hard, squeak of brakes combined with shredding rubber when stopping hard. The sound of chassis bending is here too. You hear your car lurching through each undulation and bend. Colin McRae’s co-driver Nicky Grist is also the one feeding you the pace notes, and thanks to his clear-cut information and professional voice, navigation is a cakewalk. Great job guys!

Let’s talk driving physics. Dirt 4 is more accessible than Dirt Rally, and far less punishing. There are two distinct handling models – Gamer and Simulation. Gamer is best described as arcade with full assists. Simulation turns most assists off, making cars more responsive to player inputs and, and in the process making each vehicle more lifelike. If you’re going to play the game on the latter you’re going to have to practice your technique. Codemasters rather thoughtfully implemented Dirt Academy, their take on Richard Burns Rally’s Rally School. Want to learn how to do a Scandinavian Flick? You can. How about the differences between four wheel drive and rear wheel drive? That’s covered here too. Newcomers to this style of racing will find this area of the game quite useful. I found it useful when relearning more advanced technique like getting a front wheel drive to oversteer, or curbing the backend on a twitchy rear wheel drive. It’s also a great place to practice technique before going online.

Codemasters have mastered the art of gamepad handling. Like with Dirt Rally, Dirt 4 is an absolute pleasure to drive. The combination of well implemented camera shake and gentle but sharp vehicle control make it a pleasure to drive. Dirt 4 is a fun game to play. Sure you can customise your controller preferences but really, these out of the box settings work so well I saw no reason to change them.

There’s a flow to driving in DiRT 4. Every car you drive in DiRT 4 will handle quite uniquely. It’s a mix of counter-steering, using the brake to stabilise the car and lifting the throttle to induce weight shift. Like with Dirt Rally, you build a flow from each corner to the next. The loss of grip leads to gaining it back, whether through applying throttle or controlling speed. DiRT 4 really feels like a more accessible experience due to more forgiving grip loss thresholds when driving on the limit.

While it’s easier to handle than its hardcore big brother, it’s still a challenge to keeping your car on the road. On simulation handling you’re going to have to keep an eye on the road. Coming too hot into a corner will punish you with terminal understeer and smashed components. Careful use of brakes and throttle, combined with steering will reward you with higher corner speeds and better times as the front end rotates corner to corner. You’re in control, and the game wants you to know it.

Aspects like traction control or ABS are adjustable, along with AI difficulty and transmission preferences. I found semi-automatic gearing the easiest to work with while orienting myself with Dirt 4’s physics. After a while I turned up the AI skill level, and then watched my times improve as I practiced.

The car selection in DiRT 4 is great! There are all the WRC classes, and then the older more challenging classics. You’ll find Audi’s pioneering quattro, Renault’s Alpine, Ford’s Escort as well as Lancia’s best lineup, based on class. In Land Rush mode, you’ll also get the great stadium buggies and trucks along with the insane cross karts. There’s also a solid Rally Cross style of play featuring the entry level 1600 engined cars all the way to powerful RX supercars. There really is a car for everyone here.

DiRT features several different modes. There’s a standard career mode – which most will use to progress their driver level, but will ultimately become a grind over time. In the Competitive area, Codemasters provides rotating challenges – including community events and an online league mode featuring fixed vehicles where players compete in various time trials. DiRT 4’s career mode can be monotonous – and for impatient types, it’s something that won’t last. Unless you’re a fan of the plodding work of going stage to stage, it’s not something you’ll enjoy.

Since the most extensive part of DiRT 4 is rallying – expect to spend most of your time on the dirt and snow but there are the more directly competitive modes to enjoy. Rally Cross is a great change of pace from the hair-raising rally mode. Land Rush is more closed-off and intense than both rally and rally cross – and the most fun in my view. Joyride modes feature time trials through warehouses, containers and makeshift bridges. Smash attack has players hitting blocks within an alotted time to win experience points. There’s a huge amount of variety in DiRT 4 – and enough to pull you away from the career mode if the need arises.

On a side note, the old system of repairing your car every two stages returns – but with a twist. You’re now hiring a team and managing them the facilities they use. As you win, you earn in-game credits – and then use them to buy new cars and facilities. For example, a Grade B part upgrade requires above-basic levels of R&D – which costs a pretty penny in the game’s currency. As you get more sophisticated parts, the time to repair will increase – resulting in a unique risk-reward system. The faster your car, the better you need to drive.

Let’s talk snags. Joyride modes, while fun, have little depth to them and are often a better distraction than fully committed mode. The game’s A.I. can also be excessively aggressive – leading to unnecessary restarts. There really were too many instances of me flailing into walls because of deliberate sidelining from the A.I. I hoped for an aggression modifier like the one in Forza Motorsport 6, but didn’t find any.

DiRT 4 is a great racing game that any rally fan will enjoy. Its brilliant visuals and sound design will delight your eyes and ears. The framerate remained at a steady 60 frames per second on boost mode when playing on a PlayStation 4 Pro. DiRT 4 had enough variety to keep my attention no matter what. I loved the terror of blasting through snowy Sweden or dusty Australia. The gamepad controls were great and cars responsive and if Dirt Rally was a return to form, DiRT 4 is further proof we’re dealing with a company whose found their mojo again. Excellent work Codemasters! I cannot wait to see what you’ve got lined up next.

To this day the only other rally game that measured up to Richard Burns Rally was the brilliant but brutal Dirt Rally. You can read our very own review of Dirt Rally here. The WRC series of games that came afterward were fun, but lacked enthusiast content (cars, in short). Then DiRT 4 came along. You can think of DiRT 4 as the more sociable younger brother of its competent but abrupt older brother. Make no mistake, his skill is there - but you can talk to him about far more than which wires to splice in case of electronic failures in the middle of a rally stage. If the previous DiRT games before Dirt Rally were too exuberant for you, then DiRT 4 will be a surprise. It's a mix of the technical competency of Dirt Rally; and the accessibility of the previous DiRT titles. The main challenge for Codemasters here was to balance the two. If they applied too much of the latter, racers looking for driver engagement would turn a blind eye to it and if DiRT 4 was another Dirt Rally, then those after the fun factor would overlook it. Were the two playstyles balanced out well enough there'd be a bigger target audience for the game. So, did Codemasters get it right? Being a Colin McRae Rally nerd myself (having played almost all in the series), there were many boxes I wanted ticked. Would the game punish me for recklessness enough to want to improve? Was there enough variety in the game apart from the actual rally stages and championships? Is the A.I. engaging enough to feel challenging but also fair? Is the old repair system that Codemasters tuned so well in Dirt Rally back? If Codemasters made DiRT 4 more accessible - was the sheer terror of careening through those serpentine hills and troughs still be prevalent? Were the awesome Australian rallies in Richard Burns Rally going to feature? The answer is yes to every one of these questions. I don't know how much time Codemasters spent on play testing and responding to player feedback but they created one of the best rally racers I've played in a long, long time so let's get into the details. DiRT 4 is a great looking game. I love the little details like well-modelled tire tread and painful looking scratch marks on body panels; and more importantly, how they transfer between stages if you choose not to repair them. The level of detail these cars have is fanatical. You'll see torn bumpers, bent bonnets and shattered headlights. The visual feast doesn't end in vehicular damage. If you're driving through snow, your vehicle's going to pick it up as the stage progresses. The same goes with dirt and dust. The best bit for me, though, was how the car interacted with the environment. To be more precise, how each vehicle reacted to changes in elevation and different surfaces - this is what blew my mind. Snowy Sweden, for…

Video Game Review: DiRT 4: How Codemasters code their groove back

Video Game Review: DiRT 4: How Codemasters code their groove back

2017-06-20

plut

DiRT 4

Total - 9.2

92
9.2

DiRT 4 is one of Codemasters' best games. The level of polish is brilliant to behold, and the visuals match the great controls.

User Rating: 4.75 ( 1 votes)

9

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plut

Gaming / Tech / Entertainment Author at Geek Node

Zubayr could be defined as any one of these traits: Grizzled, optimistic, jaded, blunt, opinionated, irreverent and reserved. His experience was once carbon dated to the glory days of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. It still amazes him how irrelevant those have become these days.Some say his tears generate DLC unlock codes, and that the WASD combination was discovered by his typo while on Yahoo Chat.

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Article Tags:
codemasters · Colin Mcrae · DiRT 4 · DiRT RALLY · review

Article Categories:
Games · Video Game Review
