Ok so first things first:
If you are comparing Dirt Rally to Dirt 4, you're comparing apples to oranges. Dirt 4 is supposed to be a continuation of where Dirt 3 left off, with a lot of added elements and in depth realism of game mechanics found in Dirt Rally, not a direct successor to Dirt Rally like all the bad reviewers said they were expecting.


Now that that's out of the way, did you like Dirt 3? Did you want a game thats easy to pick up like Dirt 3 but with a good variety of realism and depth of team management and sponsorships? If you said yes to those, you should pick up Dirt 4. It adds a very good mix of what a lot of people liked about Dirt 3 and made it better. Sure, theres some things people want back, I have some of my own I will list later in this review, but overall, the game feels and plays great whether you want to have as much realism as possible or if you just want to sit down and just drive balls to the wall.


Ok so first of all, the mechanics do feel great. For me, I don't have a racing wheel, and use a controller to play my PC racing games. Sure, I might be a pleb, but I grew up playing racing games on controller, and while Dirt Rally is playable on a controller, it's a game that I felt like I needed to be at my 100% to play, and never really played it for fun. Dirt 4 changes that perspective and it's a game that is just fun to start up and just race with some friends, be it serious or for fun.


Now for some of the things that I'm hoping for in the future, I really want to see Raid and Trailblazer classes from Dirt 3 come back. I see hope in where they have a garage upgrade for up to 120 cars, and there's nowhere near 120 different cars in this game right now. So here's to hoping Codies adds some of those back.

Another complaint I have about Dirt 4 at this time is why the f*ck is it at every service area, your car could look perfect, but the dampers always have some sort of damage? Seriously though, go into any given race or rally, every service interval, you have damper damage. I don't think dampers are that weak and susceptible to damage.

Thirdly, the sponsor contracts early on are on such short contracts that it's difficult to keep track of them over the course of the championships, I don't want to know in messages that the contract is ending -soon-. I want to know when their contract is up, so that I know I need to go pick up a new sponsor deal or engineer. At this point, I'm being really nitpicky, but hey, this is all my opinion, and its constructive criticism.


For another nitpicky but good thing, It has to be that it has a really heavy focus on old-fashioned rally racing. Dirt 3 felt lacking to its roots, and you could be running a short rally one minute, gymkhana the next. then doing landrush. I don't like being all over the place in championships like that, it felt really broken up in the overall gameplay, and Codies really focused on fewer disciplines, and did a damn good job on it.

So overall, if you loved how Dirt 3 played and want something much more in depth and has a good online mode, please pick this game up. Codemasters has done an impeccable job on a casual, but very addicting rally game, and it's the best in the Dirt series yet!

Oh, also forgot to add this, but i give MASSIVE props to Codemasters for being so in depth with the realism, like the sponsors for example, you cant have more than one of the same type of manufacturer on the car because it would cause a conflict of interest. I rarely ever see anything to that nature in a game, it's little details like these that get you immersed into the experience,

Ok so first things first: If you are comparing Dirt Rally to Dirt 4, you're comparing apples to oranges. Dirt 4 is supposed to be a continuation of where Dirt 3 left off, with a lot of added elements and in depth realism of game mechanics found in Dirt Rally, not a direct successor to Dirt Rally like all the bad reviewers said they were expecting. Now that that's out of the way, did you like Dirt 3? Did you want a game thats easy to pick up like Dirt 3 but with a good variety of realism and depth of team management and sponsorships? If you said yes to those, you should pick up Dirt 4. It adds a very good mix of what a lot of people liked about Dirt 3 and made it better. Sure, theres some things people want back, I have some of my own I will list later in this review, but overall, the game feels and plays great whether you want to have as much realism as possible or if you just want to sit down and just drive balls to the wall. Ok so first of all, the mechanics do feel great. For me, I don't have a racing wheel, and use a controller to play my PC racing games. Sure, I might be a pleb, but I grew up playing racing games on controller, and while Dirt Rally is playable on a controller, it's a game that I felt like I needed to be at my 100% to play, and never really played it for fun. Dirt 4 changes that perspective and it's a game that is just fun to start up and just race with some friends, be it serious or for fun. Now for some of the things that I'm hoping for in the future, I really want to see Raid and Trailblazer classes from Dirt 3 come back. I see hope in where they have a garage upgrade for up to 120 cars, and there's nowhere near 120 different cars in this game right now. So here's to hoping Codies adds some of those back. Another complaint I have about Dirt 4 at this time is why the f*ck is it at every service area, your car could look perfect, but the dampers always have some sort of damage? Seriously though, go into any given race or rally, every service interval, you have damper damage. I don't think dampers are that weak and susceptible to damage. Thirdly, the sponsor contracts early on are on such short contracts that it's difficult to keep track of them over the course of the championships, I don't want to know in messages that the contract is ending -soon-. I want to know when their contract is up, so that I know I need to go pick up a new sponsor deal or engineer. At this point, I'm being really nitpicky, but hey, this is all my opinion, and its constructive criticism. For another nitpicky but good thing, It has to be that it has a really heavy focus on old-fashioned rally racing. Dirt 3 felt lacking to its roots, and you could be running a short rally one minute, gymkhana the next. then doing landrush. I don't like being all over the place in championships like that, it felt really broken up in the overall gameplay, and Codies really focused on fewer disciplines, and did a damn good job on it. So overall, if you loved how Dirt 3 played and want something much more in depth and has a good online mode, please pick this game up. Codemasters has done an impeccable job on a casual, but very addicting rally game, and it's the best in the Dirt series yet! Oh, also forgot to add this, but i give MASSIVE props to Codemasters for being so in depth with the realism, like the sponsors for example, you cant have more than one of the same type of manufacturer on the car because it would cause a conflict of interest. I rarely ever see anything to that nature in a game, it's little details like these that get you immersed into the experience,