DiRT 4 Review - No Country for Old Men

The genre of rally simulators, whether arcaded or not, is much like a football game: from year to year games are updated, becoming more inventive, realistic and more beautiful. The main thing that the simulator of races can offer is emotions. The sense of speed and freedom with which you rush along a narrow dusty road is incomparable. The canvas leaves the horizon, and every meter here is a living danger. Racing simulator DiRT 4 gives some primitive feeling, a premonition of a desperate fight, as if you went to the site not just to reach the finish line, but to test yourself and beat the death itself.

The authors of DiRT 4 in the advertising campaign called the riders to be fearless and this has its own truth. In this endless struggle with the wild nature of cowards is not the place.

The degree of the player's required courage DiRT 4 offers to choose right after the launch. There are two levels of difficulty to choose from: Simulation and Gamer. The first involves a real test for the strong-willed: all the assistants and support services are off, the car on the track behaves as realistically as possible. Each pit and flight at speed from the hill threaten with disaster, but because the game gives a unique feeling of danger, forcing to be on the alert. To reach the finish line without spitting the nuts on the go will already be a good result.

For beginners, the Gamer mode is more suitable. In this format, DiRT 4 helps a little: the car drives quieter and more smoothly. The chance to finish the race in the ditch after a small bump, which you unsuccessfully hit, is reduced. However, this does not mean that the mileage will turn into a trip along the smooth road on the Cote d'Azur. The track is still a source of increased danger, and the player will need a maximum concentration. In this case, just adjusting to the control will not work - each car feels a bit on its own. Some weigh a little more, they carry less, there are those that are easier. It also takes into account the driveability of the car, as well as many other details and factors, but in general it is very convenient to play the controller, and for fine tuning there are separate "sliders". If you have a steering wheel and pedals with a gearbox, then there must be something completely miraculous.

Fortunately, for those who did not participate in the race, there is a detailed and detailed training mode. Here they will teach you how to accelerate and brake correctly, keep the trajectory, cross ravines with water and overcome the springboards. In addition, in a special section of the DiRT Academy, you can try every car on a special test range.

At the first acquaintance with the game, I immediately rushed into the fight, but my arrival ignominiously ended in the first ditch. After the training course, the situation improved noticeably, and after a couple of hours of practice on the track, I almost did not have equal. I increased the level of complexity, disconnected a couple of assistants and the race returned to excitement and competition. DiRT 4 is friendly to beginners, but those who are hungry for a call, she will find something to offer. Developers follow the model of "easy to learn, it's hard to become a master," a proven experience of many simulators, including from the studio itself.

Codemasters respects motor racing and rally racing in particular. The racing tracks of DiRT 4 are spread all over the world, that for the series, once under the auspices of Colin MacRae, it can not be otherwise. Great attention was paid to the United States this time, where it is possible to races on the roads of several states. Immediately there is snowy Sweden, rainy Powys in Wales, dusty track Fitzroy in Australia, Spanish Tarragona and other regions in different parts of the world

Races are divided into four categories: classic championships, rally cross with the simultaneous participation of several cars on the tracks of the FIA ​​World Rallycross and Land Rush races. In the latter, you can sit behind the wheel of brisk buggy or heavy trucks. Cherry on the cake - a special mode Historic Rally. Here you can ride on retro cars from the eighties: Opel, Mini Cooper, Ford, BMW, etc.

Fans of arcade entertainment will probably enjoy the Joyride mode - a pool of amusement races for a time where the emphasis is not so much on the competitive spirit as on fun. At the test site for a certain period of time, you must break the colorful blocks scattered throughout the territory.

For those who appreciate not only the race, but also management, in DiRT 4 there is a corner. In the My Team section, you can manage your team, recruit staff, assign them a salary. In return, you get pleasant bonuses for won races. For example, an experienced PR man will help find a profitable sponsor and, if certain conditions are met, bonuses will be paid in the championship. It also has the ability to customize the appearance of the car, choose the colors of the team and other cosmetic aspects. Earned money can be invested in development: hire more engineers, create a recreation area to motivate colleagues, expand the garage. There are many options, but if you want, you can do without them. The real impact on the situation is a kind of pumping the team only at very high levels of complexity. "Managerial chip" in this case is not the main aspect of the game process and is present rather as an extension of opportunities for those who have only few races. The section is difficult to be called for by most fans of racing, and relatively small functionality does not represent value for game mechanics and long pastime.

What contributes to immersion in the atmosphere of motorsport, so it's sound. Cracking gravel, rustling tires, furious roar of the engine - DiRT 4 sounds great.

In the long term, Codemasters has prepared a system for generating Your Stage tracks. In it with the help of simple settings (just a few parameters to choose from) you can build a route for yourself. Everything will be according to your rules: type of coverage, weather conditions, time of day. If you like the result, you can share it with your friends and ride together there.

In addition to this, DiRT 4 will support today's fashionable daily, weekly and monthly activities. In fact, this is a track chosen by developers with a certain preset of settings, for the passage of which players receive bonuses. The amount of prize money depending on the result can be impressive.

DiRT 4 - not a breakthrough and not a revolution in the genre, but it turned out to be a strong project from the studio, where they know how to handle races. The game became visually even more beautiful in comparison with its predecessor, more and more diverse in modes and fleet, and the developers focused on the community. It will be interesting here as beginners, who in life did not rush on rally routes, and veterans of virtual motorsports. The most important is the feeling of excitement that you discover in yourself on a steep turn, when you gain speed you fly out from behind the hill, not knowing what awaits you on the other side. At the moment when the wheels come off the ground, it remains only to be fearless.