Introducing DiRT Rally!

Today marks an important day for the DiRT series because not only was the latest instalment to the award winning DiRT franchise announced today, it was made available today for $35 / £25 (10% discount until May 4th) on Steam early access.

DiRT Rally was developed as a response for the abiding fans dating back to the days of Colin McRae Rally who have been longing to a no-nonsense off-road racing game. Despite favourable reviews and decent sales figures, DiRT 2 and 3 have been critiqued by purist fans for the lack of point-to-point rally content, inclusion of X-Games events and Gymkhana in the latter title proved unpopular with many players. DiRT Rally hopes to take the franchise back to its roots and win over the affection of its loyal fans.

Being an early access game, the consumer is entitled to free updates over the year through the development phase. The vanilla edition of the game contains the following:

17 Cars – Having hundreds of cars doesn’t interest us, rally is about having the right car and we intend on having all of the right cars. These 17 are just to get us started and we’ll be adding more cars over more classes as the year goes on.

36 Stages – Winding paths through forests, death defying drops off hillsides and narrow mountain paths are what this is all about, it’s you and your car versus the road ahead. To get us started we’ll be heading to the muddy paths of Wales, the dusty trails of Greece and the icy tarmac of the legendary Monte Carlo rally.

Simulation Handling – We’ve accurately recreated how every part of the car works and to support this we’ve developed a brand new physics model that simulates everything from the way the surface of the road behaves to limited slip differentials. This is how these cars drive and with real-world rallying experience on the team, a deep understanding of car setup and handling, countless visitors from the worlds of rally and rallycross plus the help of some of our biggest DiRT Fans we’ve got the handling as right as we can.

A-Synchronous Events – Take on the world in Daily, Weekly and Monthly challenges. These are the ultimate tests of skill and determination and it’s going to take everything you’ve got to finish on top.

Team Management – Hire and fire your crew members each of whom which will have different skills, improving repair times for different parts of the car. Teach them new skills as they gain experience and work together as a team to improve your performance in events.

League Support – Get together with friends and run your very own racing league. You can join up to six leagues at any one time and run them how and when you want. For more information on setting up and joining a racing league visit dirtgame.com

Unfortunately, there are no plans to release DiRT Rally on consoles at this stage. This comes as a blow to many fans (myself included) who planned to purchase this on the Xbox One or Playstation 4. However, don't rule it out just yet because Codemasters will see if there is enough demand (I'd be surprised if they found out there wasn't!) to justify a console release. If the popularity of the past games is anything to go by, Codemasters would be making a massive mistake to avoid making this a multi-platform title.