NEWS
by Murray Lewis
Codemasters announce and release Dirt Rally
Today, Codemasters announced a new entry into the popular Dirt series of rally games. In an unusual turn of events, they released the game at the same time.
Okay, so it's not released released, but it's out now as an Early Access title. Seriously, you could go and get it right now. But stick around, and I'll tell you a bit more about it first.
Dirt 3 was (in)famous for introducing Gymkhana events, which were a bit like circus events for a rally car. They were a bit strange, a bit silly, and definitely not rally, so they divided the community. This time around, there's nary a neon-coloured Styrofoam block to be seen; Gymkhana has been dropped entirely. So that's good.
Instead, what we have is an honest-to-god rally simulator, potentially of the calibre not seen since Richard Burns Rally back in 2004. Dirt Rally has been built from the ground up for accurate, challenging physics simulation. That it just happens to look like brilliant fun is a nice bonus.
The game currently has 3 events in Wales, Monaco, and Greece, each split into multiple stages, and 17 different cars to tear into them with. The current word is that Codies are looking to release a beefy content update at the end of next month, with more coming at regular intervals thereafter, until a planned final release in November of this year.
As time goes on we’ll be adding more cars, more environments, we’ll be climbing Pikes Peak and going door-to-door around a selection of the best circuits from the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship. We’ll also be adding features based on your feedback so be sure to let us know what you’d like to see included in future updates.
Interestingly, the game is also a PC exclusive for the time being, although a console release has not been ruled out if demand warrants it.
Find out more on the official Steam page.