DiRT 4 (Xbox, PlayStation)

[definitelynotbob]

I recently saw this one and wondered if I should get it. From the screenshots it looks like a decent game, and from the reviews I’ve found online, people say it’s pretty good. Have any of you guys played it? What do you have to say about it?

Since I really like racing/driving games, I’m pretty excited for this one.

Here’s the PC Gamer review. The reviewer seems to think that this is a good game.
https://www.pcgamer.com/dirt-4-review/

[BlasteroidAli]

They shut down the servers on it, so you cannot play it live. As such it should be cheap. I hear it is a good game.

[Cafeman]

I played it quite a bit on PS4 and still go back to it sometimes. Definitely worth getting for 20 bucks or less in my opinion. It’s has a different style of racing courses compared to Dirt 2 and 3. The courses are procedurally generated and you’ll start to see the same stretch or the same turn at times which is irritating. I prefer when there is a pre-designed landscape to race over, those are usually more beautiful too.

I also downloaded WRC9 about a year ago, it was very cheap and has a great career mode with many great tracks to race on. Follow up WRC 10 could be cheap by now as well.

[definitelynotbob]

Thanks you guys for the responses! I think I’ll look into getting it now.

[GStratos]

I recently saw this one and wondered if I should get it. From the screenshots it looks like a decent game, and from the reviews I’ve found online, people say it’s pretty good. Have any of you guys played it? What do you have to say about it?

Since I really like racing/driving games, I’m pretty excited for this one.

Here’s the PC Gamer review. The reviewer seems to think that this is a good game.
https://www.pcgamer.com/dirt-4-review/

I have heard from multiple people that this is by far the worst DiRT Game. It's because it employs procedurally generated level design, meaning that the tracks are all extremely samey and extremely uninteresting. The campaign is supposedly a bore, too. If I were you, I'd stick with DiRT 2.

[Atariboy]

The people stating that are clueless. Dirt 4 was great.

It was a dedicated rally racer unlike previous Dirt games, had tons of stages, quite a few cars, varying conditions, and lots of sections that are little more than the width of your car (just like God intended for rally stages).

And with full sim mode enabled, it was a pleasing simcade experience with a console gamepad controller. Much unlike the full fledged Dirt Rally simulations from Codemasters that scream for a proper wheel/pedal setup and are left very compromised when played with a gamepad.

As one that has played and 100%'ed all of them except Dirt 5 (I even have all the achievements unlocked for Dirt 1-3), here's my ranking from best to worst for the mainline Dirt series. Dirt 4 is easily the best, Dirt 3 was next (with a pleasing blend of rallying, other forms of off-road racing, and with a bit of X-Games tossed into the mix without dominating the game like it does in Dirt 2), Dirt 1 would be in 3rd place (I liked it, but it's showing its age), Dirt 2 would be 4th (way too 'X-Gamey" with rally little more than a barely represented afterthought), and lastly is Dirt Showdown (more of a spinoff, but I'll toss it in anyways as solidly in last place).

I'll reserve judgement on Dirt 5 and not try to rank it. I tried it via a Game Pass trial on my Xbox One when it was recent. It seemed like an okay game and very different from any of the past games. But I was spending more time at loading screens than I was racing, so I decided to wait until I buy a PS5 or Series X with their SSD drives that transform load times. But I've yet to return to it since then.

If X-Games style stuff is what you want, stick with Dirt 2 since the focus very much is on that style of content with the game. If you want a rally racer that has you barreling through the woods over jumps on a gravel road with just your headlights and pace notes from the co-driver to rely upon, Dirt 2 shouldn't even count.

[Stalvern]

Hated all the parking lot crap in Dirt 3. For a serious rally game, I don't think you can beat Colin McRae Rally 2005.

[Atariboy]

Hated all the parking lot crap in Dirt 3. For a serious rally game, I don't think you can beat Colin McRae Rally 2005.

So did I, at least for the first 2/3's of the game.

I hate to admit this, but going for 100% completion I ended up getting good at those sections by later in the game. I actually started having fun stringing together a ton of different maneuvers and finishing with a split second to spare.

I still don't think they belonged though, but Codemasters was deep into trying to broaden the appeal of their racing games and inserting this stuff was the result of that mandate. All the extreme sports silliness very nearly sunk the company (alienating their fans while not bringing in millions of new customers that don't typically purchase racing games). But it led to good things. We wouldn't of had Dirt Rally otherwise, which was a love letter to rally fans and an apology for those missteps.

Sadly though, we're probably about to see the end of Codemasters thanks to the EA purchase back two or three years ago. They just killed off the rally development team after the excellent EA Sports WRC (essentially Dirt Rally 3 with official WRC branding), despite an expensive WRC license with several years left to run under the agreement. And it's widely believed that they'll be killing off F1 after the latest game launches at the end of the month.

EA is pushing no big game licenses, the F1 license is about as expensive as they come, and it's due for renewal after this year. So it looks likely that it's going to be the end for the rest of the studio after they wrap up working on F1 2025.

[Quick_Man]

I loved Dirt 3 and its gymkhana stuff. Felt really fresh and exciting at the time. I remember Dirt 4 being decent enough. Dirt Rally 2.0 is where all my time has gone after Dirt 3 though.

[Herschie]

I play Dirt 5 sometimes, and I cannot for the life of me stay on the track. Sure I'm usually stoned as hell, but I'm fine with games like Ridge Racer or GT.

Last time I played I got frustrated and turned on the Cubs, and that didn't go well either.