Gaming

DiRT 4 Review

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June 13, 2017 11 Min Read
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Today we take a look at Codemasters’ recent addition to the DiRT family.

Right 6, over crest, into review.


Title: DiRT 4
Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
Platform: PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4
Genre: Racing/Simulation
Price: £44.99 / $59.99 MSRP

System specification for review:

Intel Core i5 6600K
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GTX 1070

Codemasters are back with DiRT 4, released on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Following in the footsteps of DiRT Rally, they’ve decided to step away from the hardcore driving required by DiRT Rally and instead offer a much more accessible platform for those hoping to equip the knobbly tyres and hit some corners at maximum attack.

One of the biggest features added to DiRT 4 is the ‘Your Stage.’ This tool allows the user to very quickly build a completely unique race track with the use of just two sliders; one for length and one for complexity. This offers an almost unlimited amount of stages to be created, further embracing the sheer terror of off-road rally driving.

Another big addition is the DiRT Academy, offering a driving school alongside a three million square feet playground, from which many of the in-game tasks and challenges are set out from.



Once set up and going, you would be hard pressed not to instantly notice the beauty of the surroundings. Codemasters have really pulled it out of the bag this time, with the lighting and details being incredible! The reflections from other cars, the sunlight breaking through the trees, even the crowds look better, instead of their 2D counterparts from previous games. Another thing to note is the fog, this is unlike any other game, making the rally stage you’re currently blasting through absolutely terrifying.

Audio has also been absolutely nailed with DiRT 4, the pops and bangs from the red hot exhaust along with the whistle of a blow-off valve when lifting are all excellent. The gravel scuttling along the underside of the car sounds perfect, giving a true feeling of how quickly you’re approaching the coming bend.

Physics and aero both feel vastly improved, with weight transfer being properly pronounced and grip being very predictable and consistent. Codemasters have clearly put a lot of work into this area.

Veterans to the Colin McRae franchise will remember Welshman, Nicky Grist, he’s back and better than ever, providing you with pace notes along with a dash of nostalgia. Canadian, Jen Horsey, also accompanies you through the forests.

Codemasters on DiRT 4:
DiRT 4 takes the passion and authenticity of off-road racing to the next level, whilst also re-introducing gamers to white-knuckle truck and buggy racing in Landrush.

System Requirements

MINIMUM:

• OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
• Processor: AMD FX Series or Intel Core i3 Series
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD HD5570 or NVIDIA GT440 with 1GB of VRAM (DirectX 11 graphics card required)
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 50 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible soundcard
• Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: NVIDIA GT 440 or Above, GT 530 or Above, GT 630 or Above, GT 720 or Above, GTX 900 Series, GTX 1000 Series AMD HD 5570 or Above, HD 6570 or Above, HD 7570 or Above, R7 Series, R9 Series, RX Series

RECOMMENDED:

• OS: 64bit Versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5 4690 or AMD FX 8320
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 or AMD R9 390
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 50 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible soundcard
• Additional Notes: Supported Graphics Cards: NVIDIA GT 440 or Above, GT 530 or Above, GT 630 or Above, GT 720 or Above, GTX 900 Series, GTX 1000 Series AMD HD 5570 or Above, HD 6570 or Above, HD 7570 or Above, R7 Series, R9 Series, RX Series


Specification used for testing:
• OS: 64 bit Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5 6600K
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1070

Single Player

The Single Player mode offers two different styles of driving, Gamer or Simulation; each of which can entirely change the focus of the game. The Gamer setting feels much more like DiRT 2 and 3, with a focus on having fun and being much more forgiving; whereas the Simulation setting, for those of you who were a little worried that DiRT Rally may be entirely forgotten, gives you the feeling of speed, along with the harsh reality of rallying. This is the setting which should be chosen to truly appreciate the game as Codemasters intended. Alongside the Gamer or Simulation choice, you can further alter settings to your exact requirements, allowing traction control, anti-lock brakes and a host of other settings to be configured.



Codemasters have pushed the boat out with the career mode, fleshing out this section vastly compared to DiRT Rally; you set out your own path, with a driver of your making, to fight your way to the top, gaining sponsors and establishing your team along the way. The revival of Land Rush, from DiRT 3, is also welcomed, providing a variety of gameplay for those who prefer the rumble of a 700HP V8 truck or the high-revving, 600cc Cross Karts.

Random events have been added into DiRT 4 in the form of co-driver mumbles and late calls, wildlife running across the track and low flying camera drones, this all adds to the excitement of DiRT 4.

The career mode consists of several disciplines for you to tackle: Rally, Land Rush, RallyCross and Historic Rally. Stages and events can be found all over the globe, each offering their unique challenges, from the compacted snow and high snow-drifts of Sweden to the tight and twisty asphalt of Spain and the wide, open, dusty arena of Australia.

Rally

The Rally mode is the bread and butter of the entire DiRT franchise, with 5 very different locations to put your skills to the test in DiRT 4: Wales, Spain, Australia, Michigan and Sweden.

You begin your endeavour in the front wheel drive cars, skipping over the loose surfaces, before moving up to their bigger and faster cousins, offering upwards of 300BHP and AWD.

Welshman Nicky Grist has made a return from the Colin McRae series, which is bound to please many veteran fans of the series. Recorded in that iconic accent and played to perfection through your headset; a true touch of class from Codemasters.

Driving up to the race Marshall at the end of the stage feels like a must-have for the DiRT series, but we’ve not seen this before; excellent addition from Codemasters, adding a further level of realism.



Wales offers fast paced forest runs, tight sections and plenty of hairpins. Best played in the rain, as is expected from Wales.

The twists and turns of Spain, along the asphalt, is something to behold. The grippy surface offers plenty of traction, and therefore the ability to carry your pace; but increasing your speed invites the possibility of accidents. The off-track respawn limits are put to the test in Spain, allowing for some spectacular high speed crashes. This may involve some explaining to your co-driver.



Australia is the most forgiving of the 5 rally stages, with the biggest run off areas and widest tracks. Grip here is low, however, due to the fine dust covering most stages.

Sweden is where the fun begins, the best of luck to anyone wishing to hit these stages at full tilt. The compacted snow and low visibility make this area tricky!

Michigan is a mixed bag, offering beautiful visuals but terrifying speeds at the same time. You’ll more than likely find your first perfect stage to occur here, but it can all go wrong in the blink of an eye.

FIA World RallyCross Championship

FIA have awarded Codemasters the title of “The Official Game of the FIA World RallyCross Championship,” and along with that, the rights to the cars and tracks. Unfortunately, not all circuits have been included, and neither have the cars, but the selection is still good and the racing is plenty varied.



Codemasters have further improved on the RallyCross formula, carried over from DiRT Rally, bringing with it another couple of stages along with a broader selection of cars. This game mode is incredibly unforgiving, with aggressive AI and incredibly fast 600BHP supercars. The door to door racing is unbelieveably fast paced, relying on the driver to respond to overtakes on either side of their car, while powersliding. The Joker laps also add a unique touch, shaping the racing in a different way to any other game mode.



Stages can be found in England, France, Norway, Sweden and Portugal; each featuring several track layouts. Some of the track layouts, however, can be incredibly difficult to work out on your first couple of laps, with barrier placements being few and far between; this feels like a forced measure from Codemasters to push the user into using the practice feature, and to add an element of the “real world” into the game.

Land Rush

Involving buggies, V8 trucks in RWD and AWD flavours and crosskarts, the Land Rush is an incredibly fun game-mode, though a little short, including only 3 circuits, all of which are found in the USA.



The Land Rush events are hosted on short courses, featuring jumps and several hairpin turns. The buggies can be extremely fun, but the real meat on the bones is in the V8 trucks; pumping out 700BHP and offering only 4 gears, they’re simple but fast, allowing for very close racing.



The Crosskarts are almost impossible to control, with a slight nudge from the AI sending you into a spin, but this characteristic is unfortunately a part and parcel of the short wheelbase and light weight. The 600cc motorbike engines sound absolutely fantastic and offer brutal acceleration, which paired with the incredible brakes and agile steering, can make for some fun racing, if you can tame it.

Historic Rally

The Historic Rally aspect of DiRT 4 is almost identical to the standard Rally mode, but using the cars from the past, including the iconic Mini, Lancia Stratos, Ford Escorts and the Mitsubishi Evolution V. This feels almost like an after-thought from Codemasters, put into the career made as a last-ditch effort to pad out their career offering. It does add the ability to drive some of the previous generation cars; however it doesn’t feel well utilised. More cars within specific genres would increase the appeal of this mode hugely.

Multiplayer

After our testing, the multiplayer appears solid, with good gameplay, depending on the game mode chosen.

The rally aspect works best here, if you’re looking for clean racing, where you can show off your times. There’s no ghost car feature, the only distraction from other players is their icon moving along the left hand side of the screen, showing progress only. An ability to set lap times to compete against friends would be welcomed, with there being no current custom time-attack method, across pre-set courses.



Land Rush and RallyCross are an entirely different story, with multiple cars on track at the same time. These game modes are hectic, and if you’re looking for clean(ish) racing, avoid this at all costs. These are incredibly fun game modes to play with friends, however, providing you can discuss the rules beforehand.

The Joyride aspect of DiRT 4 is a fun sector, allowing users to set times against each other, across specific challenges. The leaderboards can be configured to show only your chosen platform or all three platforms (PS4, Xbox One and PC), further opening things up.

DiRT Academy

The DiRT Academy covers all disciplines included within the game, Rally, Land Rush, RallyCross and Historic Rally, allowing you to test out all of the games cars on the 3 million square foot playground in Michigan.



The academy also includes lessons, ranging from acceleration and braking, to Scandinavian flicks and attacking jumps at speed. All of the lessons are easy to follow, well explained and provide an excellent starting area for anyone new to the world of rallying.

Your Stage

Your Stage is Codemasters’ attempt at prolonging the life of the game indefinitely, and preventing users from learning a stage to set unreachable times on the leaderboards. All 5 of the countries open in the Rally mode can be used to create your own custom point-to-point race, which is as simple as selecting the length of the track with one slider and the complexity with another. You don’t get anything more than that, such as the ability to move corners around or adjust elevation etc, but you can keep clicking the generate button until you’re happy with the overview.



This is extremely well done by Codemasters, they should be proud of the work they’ve put into this; the element it adds to the game is incredible, by genuinely adding that fear of the absolute unknown, putting full trust into your co-drivers calls. The beautiful thing about Your Stage, unlike other games offering a similar feature, is that you wouldn’t know the stage has been generated by an algorithm, rather than thousands of hours of human input. The surroundings are brilliant, co-driver calls are spot on, corners feel incredibly well put together and no two tracks ever feel the same.

Conclusion

No other racing game from the past few years has had the same appeal or grip than DiRT 4 has managed, the scenery is beautiful, the cars look stunning and have the feel and performance to match. The re-introduction of Colin McRae’s co-driver, Nicky Grist, is an awesome feature worthy of mention several times, though you must feel a little sorry for Jen Horsey, as Grist steals the limelight. Whether you’re a DiRT veteran or brand new to the series, this game offers a play style for you, along with an extensive DiRT Academy to hone your skills.

The Your Stage feature of DiRT 4 is epic, allowing an almost unlimited supply of brand new stages to blast your Ford Escort round, keeping things fresh, but also doing so with very little user input required – A genuinely amazing feat from Codemasters.



If you purchase one game this year, DiRT 4 has to be it, offering hours of fun with a plethora of cars, along with the beautiful scenery managed by Codemasters.

Pros
+ Excellent mechanics (Aero and suspension)
+ Beautiful scenery and graphics
+ Great choice of recent cars
+ DiRT Academy offers extensive training
+ Your Stage implemented brilliantly
+ Choice of handling model
+ Range of game modes available
+ Multiplayer works well
+ Amazing audio

Cons
– A little pricey at launch
– Needs more historic cars
– Highscores between friends could be better set up


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