Super Unofficial DiRT 4 Thread (PS4/XB1/PC)

[Jay84]

I sold it in the end, I hate to say it but it felt so half baked. They just slapped it together and called it a day, its a sad state when WRC is a better game.

 

[Northstar]

It seems like a typical Codemasters game in that it's really good for the first week or so (about the amount of time reviewers play a game) than it drops off a cliff.

It's like they are the VAG of the video game world.

 

[Brend]

It was a good game but DiRT Rally and WRC 7 have it beat.

DiRT 4 does have the most comprehensive feature set of the three but track design is just such a huge miss.


I also sold it recently. Your Stage just kills off the replayability for me a bit. It seemed like it would enhance it long term (as pointed out in my review) but after seeing the repetitive nature of the tool I dropped it.

 

[Wolfe]

It's my number 4 or 5 depending on the mood I'm in.

SLRE, DR AND WRC7 all come above it for me, with Baja and D4 tussling over 4th and 5th.

SLRE does have its sim physics, two versions of Pikes Peak, and nice stages worth revisiting. For me it's #2 behind Dirt 4 because its difficulty balance is poor, the pacenotes are awful, the career mode is uninspiring...and, well, it has finite stages.

Dirt 4 has adequate physics, engaging gameplay, an appealing car list and career mode, and yes, the trump card of Your Stage. I'm not blind to the repetition and there's no denying the tool leaves room for improvement, but to me it's certainly no worse than repeating whole stages I can memorize. The experience it provides is like no other rally game, full stop.

Your Stage just kills off the replayability for me a bit. It seemed like it would enhance it long term (as pointed out in my review) but after seeing the repetitive nature of the tool I dropped it.

Maybe I'm not bothered by Your Stage because I sort of perceive it as an arcade-racer-style feature, like a "shuffle mix" of corners. I fondly equate it to retro racing games, the most relevant being Lotus II: RECS. In a sense it's as old-fashioned as that game, antithetical to modern obsessions with painstaking photorealistic authenticity. I hope Codemasters doesn't give up on it and will work to improve it.

 

[cjr3559]

SLRE does have its sim physics, two versions of Pikes Peak, and nice stages worth revisiting. For me it's #2 behind Dirt 4 because its difficulty balance is poor, the pacenotes are awful, the career mode is uninspiring...and, well, it has finite stages.

Dirt 4 has adequate physics, engaging gameplay, an appealing car list and career mode, and yes, the trump card of Your Stage. I'm not blind to the repetition and there's no denying the tool leaves room for improvement, but to me it's certainly no worse than repeating whole stages I can memorize. The experience it provides is like no other rally game, full stop.


Maybe I'm not bothered by Your Stage because I sort of perceive it as an arcade-racer-style feature, like a "shuffle mix" of corners. I fondly equate it to retro racing games, the most relevant being Lotus II: RECS. In a sense it's as old-fashioned as that game, antithetical to modern obsessions with painstaking photorealistic authenticity. I hope Codemasters doesn't give up on it and will work to improve it.

I couldn’t have described ‘Your Stage’ better. 👍 I’m telling you, I love creating my own championships with some dice rolling and creative thinking to determine the combination of stage length and complexity, time, weather probability, and placement of service areas in D4. Granted you can do this in other games to an extent, but the random stage feature in D4 is loads more unpredictable in comparison. It’s also a great way to relieve the repetition of pre-baked championships that get predictably more difficult as you progress in your career and unlock faster cars (in this game or any other game for that matter).

Speaking of which, and maybe I’m mistaken, but my impression of SLRE was that it was difficult to unlock decent cars until you’ve gained enough experience by ultimately running stages multiple times and basically memorizing them. Boo. That’s why I played it for about an hour. At least WRC7 lets you jump into WRC cars right away if you wish. Don’t need my hand held thank you.

 

[MonkeyMan_707]

I also love your stage. For me it captures the essence of rally where you actually need to listen to the codriver and pay close attention to the road. You get this in other rally games the first couple time you do the stage but then it becomes more like track racing where you know the corners and are just trying to go for the perfect line through them.
Maybe it's because I haven't put crazy hours into the game but the stages being dull (compared to hand made ones) isn't a big issue for me

 

[oli440]

The mixed reviews on steam put me off buying the game initially, but since the game is one sale for £20 right now, I've decided to pick it up! If nothing else, I'll be glad to have Nicky Grist as my co-driver again

 

[Moglet]

I'm currently really enjoying Dirt 4 however I have one issue with it; the co-driver pace notes are often far too slow on the Australian stages and I can't find a way of speeding them up. It seems to be caused by a lot of "crest and dip" notes being called out on a fast straight ahead of a sharp turn. It means by the time the turn has been called out it's way too late to slow for the corner.

 

[Wolfe]

I'm currently really enjoying Dirt 4 however I have one issue with it; the co-driver pace notes are often far too slow on the Australian stages and I can't find a way of speeding them up. It seems to be caused by a lot of "crest and dip" notes being called out on a fast straight ahead of a sharp turn. It means by the time the turn has been called out it's way too late to slow for the corner.

You can set pacenotes to be called earlier in the options; I set mine a notch or two earlier than the default. I think there's also a small degree of randomness in when notes are called, to recreate a bit of human error in your co-driver.

 

[cjr3559]

Speaking of randomness, it’s been ages since I’ve encountered any of the random distractions during stages like (SPOILERS) below:

Broken down opponents
Crazy flying drones
Critters running across the road

Anyone else see these lately? Been a while for me, like since the early stages of my off-line career.

 

[Moglet]

You can set pacenotes to be called earlier in the options; I set mine a notch or two earlier than the default. I think there's also a small degree of randomness in when notes are called, to recreate a bit of human error in your co-driver.

Thanks Wolfe, do you know which menu the option is under? I had a look last night and couldn't see it anywhere.

Speaking of randomness, it’s been ages since I’ve encountered any of the random distractions during stages like (SPOILERS) below:

Broken down opponents
Crazy flying drones
Critters running across the road

Anyone else see these lately? Been a while for me, like since the early stages of my off-line career.

I had a broken down opponent and saw some critters in my last session. 👍

 

[MonkeyMan_707]

Speaking of randomness, it’s been ages since I’ve encountered any of the random distractions during stages like (SPOILERS) below:

Broken down opponents
Crazy flying drones
Critters running across the road

Anyone else see these lately? Been a while for me, like since the early stages of my off-line career.

I totally lost my s*** the first time a drone buzzed barely over my roof. So awesome.
Personally from that list I've only seen a broken down car recently, the others I haven't seen since my first couple weeks playing.
Actually thinking about it do they only appear in career? Basically I'm asking do they appear in dailies/pro tour because that's mostly what I play and I could imagine it being a conscious decision to not have random distractions for competitive modes.

 

[cjr3559]

Actually thinking about it do they only appear in career? Basically I'm asking do they appear in dailies/pro tour because that's mostly what I play and I could imagine it being a conscious decision to not have random distractions for competitive modes.

They’ve only appeared in career that I’ve seen. Ditto my thoughts about competitive modes.

I think there are also distracting helicopters that fly low, but I could be mistaken for another game.

 

[Wolfe]

Thanks Wolfe, do you know which menu the option is under? I had a look last night and couldn't see it anywhere.

Under Game Preferences, below the sliders for FOV and camera shake. 👍

 

[Moglet]

Under Game Preferences, below the sliders for FOV and camera shake. 👍

I can't believe I missed that so many times! I've adjusted it now, thanks 👍

 

[BKGlover]

Bought the game the other day, finally got to grips with it, and while it's unmistakable, and I still hate the buggies and now karts with the ferocity of an acid fire, there's one unchecked box...fun.

I'm not having fun with it. Not only do I still suck, but there's nothing really engaging. The team thing is a letdown, the rallies are ok, progression seems awfully abbreviated, even for this series. I'm not feeling it.

 

[Gunn3rZo0552]

Just got the game on sale, loving it! A lot of fun, graphics are amazing and simulation is a really good challenge at the moment. However, my steering wheel (T T-80) doesn't work at all. It clearly is recognized, but no input for the pedals or steering in general.. A little frustrating to say the least!

 

[cjr3559]

Ever notice how in Rally events the same AI opponents seem to typically finish in a particular order? Well I think I figured out that CM must have ranked them by country on an A to F scale.

The top finishers are always from Argentina and Australia.

Then Belgium

China
Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia
England

And rounding out the drivers that always finish near the bottom are France and Finland.

I may have missed a few, but this is what I can recall off the top of my head. Interesting.

 

[Georgeagea]

Wow cjr never noticed that! I was once competing with a Polish guy ! I'm that bad! (no offence to Polish people it's about the letter P)

 

[cjr3559]

Wow cjr never noticed that! I was once competing with a Polish guy ! I'm that bad! (no offence to Polish people it's about the letter P)

There’s also Austria and the Netherlands, though the latter drivers are usually classified ‘D’ for Dutch.

 

[cjr3559]

Currently doing the Monthly Online Rally, and it would be fun if CM reduced the number of service stops to 3 or 4 to make it more challenging. 6 service areas is a bit of overkill. Just a thought.

 

[Katiegan]

Just started playing this after finally getting my hands on it. I've got to say, I'm having a lot of fun, especially with Land Rush and rallycross. I can't see it holding much replayability once I've finished the career though. Ah well, it was a birthday gift, so it won't be my money going to waste when I stop playing it.

 

[HellzFire]

Man, codemasters really lied on our faces about leagues, havent they?

What a terrible developer they are. Not even the F1 games that they support for like 3 months after release date had such a terrible support from them.

Absolutely disgraceful.

 

[Pfei]

Man, codemasters really lied on our faces about leagues, havent they?

What a terrible developer they are. Not even the F1 games that they support for like 3 months after release date had such a terrible support from them.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Will be released "this week or the following" according to Christina yesterday.

Pathetic, six months after release and they're still only appearing in their own forums just to promote stuff that may, or may not, ever appear.

For Spanish speakers I just wrote an article titled "The Year Codemasters became Codemasters Again": https://simracer.uno/blog/el-ano-que-codemasters-volvio-a-ser-codemasters

It provides some insights into why this company makes a DiRT Rally only once in a blue moon. I will never buy another product of Codemasters again. DiRT 4 was just an over-hyped, thin-content, buggy fraud.

 

[HellzFire]

Will be released "this week or the following" according to Christina yesterday.

Pathetic, six months after release and they're still only appearing in their own forums just to promote stuff that may, or may not, ever appear.

For Spanish speakers I just wrote an article titled "The Year Codemasters became Codemasters Again": https://simracer.uno/blog/el-ano-que-codemasters-volvio-a-ser-codemasters

It provides some insights into why this company makes a DiRT Rally only once in a blue moon. I will never buy another product of Codemasters again. DiRT 4 was just an over-hyped, thin-content, buggy fraud.

I couldnt agree more with your title.

Codemasters lost me after the fiasco that F1 2011 was on the PS3. Terrible framerates, multiplayer and other stuff that never got fixed.

I didnt buy a game from them til F1 2016 came out for the PS4 (i was really in need for a racing game at the time, Pcars was a glitch festival and GT was nowhere to be seen), that i really loved. Then i bought Dirt Rally and it was a fantastic game. They were showing some signs that they were back.

Then i bought Dirt 4 on preorder. I gotta say i still enjoy the core gameplay. Rallycross is great and rally is fantastic. The content wasnt good enough, and the most important feature for me (leagues) were promised to be delivered on a near future update. I played the game for about 2 months i think and it got really repetitive, still fun to play, but i really wanted leagues. After that, i never even touched it again.

Really really disappointed.

Edit: I'm reading your article, and what the hell about codemasters robbing a model and putting on f1 2017. Jesus cristo they are even worse than i thought.

 

[cjr3559]

What are ‘Leagues’ going to entail anyway? Doesn’t sound all that exciting to me personally. Give me more tiles and Rally/Rally Cross locations first.

 

[Pfei]

What are ‘Leagues’ going to entail anyway? Doesn’t sound all that exciting to me personally. Give me more tiles and Rally/Rally Cross locations first.

Leagues (now called clubs) allow you to create rallies and your friends can race. The system keeps track of results. Supposedly like DiRT Rally leagues, but improved. At this point I'm not interested. Deleted D4 three months ago.

 

[FT-1]

After many months of silence, we finally have an update including Clubs!

DiRT 4 Road Book - 06/12/17

I haven't been that keen on Clubs, but the patch notes do say that AI has been fixed so I look forward to actually being able to race with historic rally cars now. 👍

 

[Wolfe]

I made some steps toward finishing off my Dirt 4 career recently and I have to admit I found it somewhat frustrating to have to get used to such wacky driving physics again. I also expected better post-release support for how long it has been now, in terms of both bug-fixes and additional content.

Still nothing can beat Your Stage in spite of its current limitations, IMO, so it's a real shame how Codemasters dropped the ball. Well, the handling is to be expected from a CM game -- I took their "simulator" claims with a large grain of salt and will now never take them seriously -- but Dirt 4 could have been extra special with some fresh content.

 

[Georgeagea]

TBH i never felt Dirt4 physics were THAT bad! Maybe I'm a "stupid inexperienced in real life racing" guy (which is true).
Yes it felt a bit too grippy but they mentioned lots of times in many occasions that this is how cars behave in reality and that the grip of DirtRally was too low. They also said that following interventions and help from many real life drivers and deep simulation studies they come up with Dirt4 handling which is more close to reality.
So, being stupid as mentioned above , I took their word for it and drove the game.
IMO, it's still the best rally game in terms of weight balance/transfer and in terms of force feedback! It felt so Assetto-ish which blew my mind! Braking is way more realistic too (similar to SLRE) and might kill you, unlike DirtRally.
I mean I left the game because of the boring stages and because I went back to DirtRally to benefit from my PS VR.