Recent reviews by AddictivePenguin

Absolute Classic.

Today's business model in the video-game industry has unfortunately taken a toll on my favourite game-series.

Let me start off by saying that Dirt Rally 2.0 is a great game. In fact, it's better than Dirt4 and DirtRally1, both graphically and technically. The physics feel and look realistic (especially gravel), which is something professional rally drivers will agree on. Graphics wise DR2 has some of the best vegetation I've seen in a video game, especially considering how decent it runs. So at first glance, the core aspects of the game have improved greatly.

However, it soon becomes obvious that Dirt Rally 2.0 is a product which, when looked at independently, can be considered finished, but once compared to the previous titles, you soon realize the devs have cut down development costs to the ABSOLUTE necessary. Essential features that we waited months for in DirtRally1 and Dirt4 are not in this game! There is currently no way to setup an online league/tournament, even though the implementations in DirtRally1 and Dirt4 were already there and worked fine. Many assets (trees, houses, spectators, car sounds etc.) have been re-used from the previous games. In addition, some important car classes (KitCars, GroupB RWD, 2000s WRC) have either been entirely removed, or are sold seperately as DLC, without providing free alternatives to balance it out! Lastly, when comparing the new cars to the ones from the previous game, there is a noticeable difference in quality/accuracy.

I have nothing to comment on the career mode, as it is very simplistic. They cheaply used a locked difficulty-mode as a false sense of progression, so your only goal is unlocking the next difficulty setting and buying a new car. In my opinion, that's not the definition of intuitive and original, especially if you look at other games made by Codemasters like the F1 series.

So in summary, the amount of NEW content the customer is getting is not proportionate to the price, especially compared to DirtRally1. On top of that, the quality of the new additions barely meets that of the older games'. However, for me, all the pain stems from the hypocritic marketing that clouded this product. In contrast to the previous titles which were abandoned after launch, we were promised at least 6 months of support for this one. Ironically, that support is so far limited to the paid DLC releases. Updates that improve the game for free are scarce and mostly involve minor bugs that I personally never experienced. Essential features like the horrible tarmac physics and the Force-Feedback issues on wheels are systematically ignored.

TL;DR Dirt Rally 2.0 is a perfect example of a product that -barely- has what it needs to be better than its ancestors, and nothing more. Codemasters didn't try to make a great game. They tried to make something cheap-to-develop that looks good enough on paper and took advantage of the customers' loyalty.

Physics wise it's the best PES. Goalkeeper wise, it also happens to be the best. Animations are also amazing.

But it's all ruined due to an inconsistent difficulty option and extremely obvious scripting, which becomes worse when playing with mediocre 2nd division teams. The oposing players are always stronger, faster, more accurate and do better teamwork than your players even if their stats are worse. My fastest player is Lynden Gooch with 90 speed rating while also being in top form and he couldn't catch another player who had a 75 speed rating and ALSO had the ball.

Also, whenever you score, it is as if the AI goes to the next difficulty setting, which is terrible. Your may be dominating your enemy, but after you score a goal, they exchange a series of one touch passes and score an equalizer. Also, your team becomes worse. My best middlefielder who played excelent the entire first half, suddenly misses a header even though the ball was going terribly slow and passed right next to him. This didn't happn once. One game it may be my middlefielder, it may be my defender, it could be both of them. It happens every single game and only after I score. Every single game.

It has gotten to the point where this game is not enjoyable. Heck, I could even say it is infuriating because you know that once you score a goal, the enemy 2nd division team plays like Barca, and there is nothing you can do about it.

A number of other issues:
-Defenders don't mark properly. They leave too much space and often run away from the ball(!!!)
-Annoying transfers in Master League (Manager Career). Liverpool literally gave away all their good players and bought some randoms.
-All teams play the same. Counter attack and nearly perfect short passes. Even the worst 2nd division teams play like that.

I was really hoping for something better, since my last PES was 2012 and 2013, but the improvement is only graphical. Gameplay is a joke. Save your money for next year's game.

(EDIT - Extra Issues)
-Terrible foul system/tackle system. Your tackles are 90% of the time an instant yellow card.
-Perfect opponent tackling - Always inch perfect accurate tackles and never a foul.

ATTENTION: I FOCUS ON PHYSICS MORE THAN SOME PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE PREFARED. THIS IS DONE BECAUSE THE GAME WAS MARKETED AS A SIMULATION-TYPE GAME. THE ONLY REASON I HAVE 100+ HOURS IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER RALLY GAME WORTH MY TIME

I rarely post negative reviews because I know that, behind all this, stand passionate people who have devoted hours into providing us with their game, and even if it doesn't live up to the expectations, it's still something they have worked on hard and don't deserve to be bashed about it. But with Dirt 4 I feel like I have been tricked, cheated, so this mindset of mine didn't apply here; thus the negative review.

But what is trully wrong with the game?

Unfortunately, what ruins everything is the heart of the game. Off-road racing. Dirt 4 is an off-road racing game, it's not a rally game, it's not a rallycross game, it's off-road racing in general. And while I respect that this has been Codemasters' plan with all Dirt <number> games, it didn't work for Dirt 4. Either due to lack of developers or time, the end result is an unfinished game. Sure, we managed to get Rally, Rallycross, crosskarts and landrush trucks. However Rally has nothing special about it, neither does landrush, nor crosskarts, nor Rallycross. Codemasters tried to focus on so many things that the result is a stale experience.

The game gives you an option to choose between Arcade and Simulation physics. Rally "Simulation" physics are wrong, especially at mid to low speeds. Despite being marketed as "Better than Dirt Rally", all cars are stuck to the ground and you can't carry a slide around a corner no matter how hard you try. I have never driven a rally car in real life, however when I compare in-game replays to real-life ones, they bear no resemblance, especially when it comes to how much they slide.

Rallycross has, by far, the best physics. The car behaviour is nearly identicall, if not the same as in real-life. But none of this matters because the FIA World Rallycross championship only has 5 tracks, 3 of which were in Dirt Rally. Worst of all however, the AI which is extremely slow on the straights and doesn't change its line in the corners, meaning if an AI car is slightly faster than you in 1 corner, it hits you and sends you off the track. There is no racing unless you go Online, where there are rarely any lobbies even with the Region set to England, Eastern, or Southern Europe.

Landrush only has 2 stages and no real championship, while Crosskarts, which are quite popular in certain countries, don't have any tracks of their own. You must drive them in landrush tracks, or RallyX tracks, none of which suit them well.

The Career is by no means immersive. It's basically a series of Championships starting from extremely short ones with 1 event, to bigger ones with multiple events. It may sound interesting but it really isn't, especially when the game forces you to complete similar events in order to unluck the next tier of events, with better Cars. Why should you have to slowly "unlock" events and cars, when you could simply go straight to the World Championship because you are good and have the money? While this helps newbies a lot, they could've easily made 2 seperate Careers to choose from; a realistic and a not-so-realistic. But they didn't.

Now most people will go ahead and call out YourStage a ♥♥♥♥ feature and while I do admit it could have been better, every new technology has to start from somewhere. Codemasters surely learned a lot from the making of YourStage and hopefully we will sea it again in future dirt games and even in other Rally games by other developers (WRC etc.)

Verdict: A person who is just here for fun will most likely find the game enjoyable and won't even notice the problems I mentioned. So don't be shy, buy the game. However if you are a Rally fan who is looking for an immersive experience, think twice before buying. You might probably end up getting it because there are no other Rally titles worth your money, but just be warned.

EDIT: As of 20th September, the game has not received any updates feature wise since release. Do not buy it in hopes of future updates, unless you are interested in the current state of the game.

The game itself is all about:

Mining in space
Building in space
Crafting in space
Killing in space
Exploring in space
Dying in space
Inventing in space
Crashing in space
Teaming in space
Raging in space
Having fun in space
Losing your ♥♥♥♥ in space
Floating off in space

10,49693011/10,49693010