Yeah, RBR is my defacto "god level" of rally games.

I decided to try the demo because my little cousin might like it (or me too, who knows?) but it doesn't recognize my TM 430 Wheel. I just have the option for 'Keyboard' under controls.

I reinstalled Dirt 2 and went through all the unskippable menus (I forgot how tedious that was) and the Options->Controls worked just fine, was driving right away.

Not sure why the 'Codemasters' can't get into 'coding' one of the more popular low-budget wheel setups. I remember this being an issue in Dirt 3 except I did get it working but it would ignore wheel input once in awhile for a few seconds. Not sure if they ever resolved that but I never bothered buying it. Dirt 2 is fun though, played it for a few hours.

I agree, RBR is great, I wish Dirt 2 had evelved into that. One game I never see mentioned which I love is TOCA3. It tries to be a jack of all trades yet is successful at most of them, except the rally part.

Dmitri_M wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:04:
No Rally game has ever lived upto Rally Championship 2000 released back in '99. Not open world, but it featured true accurate track lengths. So you'd be stuck in the cockput of your beat up rally car trying desperately not to total it at the 34km mark of a 41km stage. Intense.

Richard Burns Rally.

Best... ever.

EDIT: Just saw your post below

JaguarUSF wrote on May 3, 2012, 19:21:

Dmitri_M wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:04:
No Rally game has ever lived upto Rally Championship 2000

Richard Burns Rally?

That was my personal opinion steeped in nostalgia

RBR was a much better rally sim, but I was never as attached to it as I was RC2000. I don't recall RBR having the RC2000 track lengths either. That might have changed with mods though. Last I followed RBR someone had released a track editor, but that was years ago and I don't know if anyone released lengthy stages.

RC2000 was flawed. The vehicle handling often felt like you were driving on glass. I just loved those tracks though - colourful and really nicely put together without obvious object duplication. I prefer atmosphere to dry simulation. I thought RC2000 captured the essence of rally driving perfectly.

This comment was edited on May 3, 2012, 22:10.

PHJF wrote on May 3, 2012, 12:45:
OK, I have to ask... What the fuck is a gymkhana???

Pretty much timed (scored) obstacle courses that you can do various car maneuvers on (360 spins, jumps, smashing obstacles, timed checkpoints, etc.)

Thanks for all the responses in this thread. I am enjoying Dirt 3 but it definitely needs longer rally races. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in sucking at gymkhana.

Dmitri_M wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:04:
No Rally game has ever lived upto Rally Championship 2000

Richard Burns Rally?

JayDeath wrote on May 3, 2012, 09:45:

Bumpy wrote on May 2, 2012, 22:40:
Keeps getting worse with every release. Hate the extrovert menus. No cockpit view is a big no-no for me. I stopped buying/playing this series after Dirt2 and don't miss it one bit.

No cockpit view!??!! Why would the devs do that? That's the only way I play racers. Thanks you for the info as I was intending to buy this. You are right though. Dirt 2 is still the best, imo.

Theres a first person view but no visible dashboard or steering wheel. Racing games have always been spotty in this regard, and I love the full immersion of a rendered in-car camera too :-/

More disappointing to me was the broken multiplayer. Practically the only reason me and a buddy downloaded the demo last night was to try the multiplayer and its fucking broken, cant even access it.

PHJF wrote on May 3, 2012, 12:45:
OK, I have to ask... What the fuck is a gymkhana???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btViXvIDsi0

OK, I have to ask... What the fuck is a gymkhana???

Dmitri_M wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:04:
Dirt and the original Colin McRae Rally featured bite size 2 to 10 minute track lengths which just doesn't feel like authentic rally style play.

That's what got me in Dirt 3. I liked the game, I even enjoyed the gymkhana events, but the 1 to 2-minute rally tracks were extremely disappointing. Even 10 minute tracks would have improved the game immensely.

DiRT3 was still a great game. The problem was that it was just more of the same.

Anyway, I tried the demo. I wasn't impressed by the preview videos but it's actually pretty decent. They've basically taken the destruction derby mode from GRID and given the vehicles turbo boosts. I'll pick it up when it's discounted, though I'm certainly not going to pay full price.

The reality is that it does exactly what it says on the tin. If you're not into arcade system destruction derby then this game will not appeal to you. There really isn't any need for a cockpit view and in fact it would be a disadvantage considering that you can be side-swiped by other vehicles on the circuit of eight tracks, meaning you need to time your boosts and decide when to back out. Personally I'm hoping we'll see a sequel to GRID sometime soon, as I loved that game.

Indeed DiRT is ruined, drifting and arcade BS now.
Only Car racer to look forward to is Project Cars.

Bumpy wrote on May 2, 2012, 22:40:
Keeps getting worse with every release. Hate the extrovert menus. No cockpit view is a big no-no for me. I stopped buying/playing this series after Dirt2 and don't miss it one bit.

No cockpit view!??!! Why would the devs do that? That's the only way I play racers. Thanks you for the info as I was intending to buy this. You are right though. Dirt 2 is still the best, imo.

HoSpanky wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:35:
Personally, I enjoyed the gymkhana events. They required control of the vehicle instead of smashing everyone's car into the wall to get ahead.

Funny you've said that, most of my friends that are really good at racing games (F1, Forza, Dirt, Grid) are terrible at gymkhana, those few friends that are not a big fan of racing games and usually bashing into everyone in online races for fun, are absolutely amazing in the gymkhana , and drifting events.
I love racing games, usually buy them all, but I absolutely hate gymkhana, it frustrates the shit out of me. Since this game is all about gymkhana and demo derby it isn't worth the full retail price imo. I might pick it up down the road from the bargain bin, but it is not a day one purchase for me, based on my demo experience.

HoSpanky wrote on May 3, 2012, 07:35:
You guys DO realize that CM is making dirt showdown to appeal to the people who found gymkhana and the various non-racing events in Dirt3 entertaining, right? And that Dirt4 is *supposed* to be more rally-centered.

Thanks Captain Obvious

You guys DO realize that CM is making dirt showdown to appeal to the people who found gymkhana and the various non-racing events in Dirt3 entertaining, right? And that Dirt4 is *supposed* to be more rally-centered.
Personally, I enjoyed the gymkhana events. They required control of the vehicle instead of smashing everyone's car into the wall to get ahead. In online multi, it separated "people who can actually handle their car" from the idiots who relied on ruining other people's controlled trajectories. I was more annoyed at the frequency of door-to-door racing in multi.

They've really gone on an arcade tangent with this one.

eRe4s3r wrote on May 3, 2012, 02:19:
I still wish someone would do a *real* rally Dakar game. You know, the full stretch, open world, free pathing, just get there somehow and free choice of vehicle (bike, truck, car)... add to that world events, animals, weather and a fully realistic damage/support system and I'd be in racing heaven.

No Rally game has ever lived upto Rally Championship 2000 released back in '99. Not open world, but it featured true accurate track lengths. So you'd be stuck in the cockput of your beat up rally car trying desperately not to total it at the 34km mark of a 41km stage. Intense.
Dirt and the original Colin McRae Rally featured bite size 2 to 10 minute track lengths which just doesn't feel like authentic rally style play. Too much flash and extreme sports muck in the last few CM titles too. Extreme sports = zero attention span, which is not what rally is about. Though zero attention span is perfect for current gen gamers.

I agree, I generally enjoy Codemaster racing games but this one feels like a step back from the Dirt series. The destruction derby which this whole game is built around from Grid was a lot more fun and better graphics and damage simulation then DirtShodown, at least what I can see in the demo.

I won't buy this game sorry Codemasters, put a little more effort in next time.

Yes, kind of a bummer. I was hoping with Dirt 3 they'd go more towards longer, more realistic rallies, instead they shortened them and added too much casual stuff. My mom (who is 65) likes playing Dirt 2 with the wheel. I never bought Dirt 3 but they did and don't play it. I doubt I'll even bother with this demo.