Dirt Rally 2.0 is the hardcore racing simulator of choice for the connoisseur of finely cut strafe jumps around expertly manicured Quake level geometry, for the gastronome of slide-slamming from one piece of perfectly Feng Shui-ed Gears of War cover to another, for the Bon Vivant of traversing the richly textured terrain of Death Stranding, for the handsome genius with a disarming smile that belies a mind which has been not unreasonably compared to the labyrinthine library-universe of the Jorge Luis Borges short story La biblioteca de Babel, the library universe which contains the knowledge that a lot of videogames could be a lot more fun if they made the simple act of trying to reach point B from point A more engaging.

This game IS rally, especially on the current gen of consoles. DR2.0 feels like it was made by rally fans, for rally fans. The engine sounds are beautiful, stages are made for maximum fun, with tons of iconic cars from multiple eras of rallying. The gameplay is fast, fun, requires a lot of good reaction time. After a long day of work, I love sitting down and grinding away at stages, trying to get top 100 or top 50 on random stages in my favorite cars. A truly wonderful love song to the sport of rally.

Yep, this sure is DIRT Rally again. It looks prettier, sounds prettier, has much more detailed, varied, and punishing physics, and has more cars and a lot more stages. This game also has a stupid amount of DLC, and I'm really not a fan of the fact that owning all of it means I start the game with 2.4 million credits and seemingly at least half the cars in the game already in my garage. The first DIRT Rally game did a really poor job of introducing new players to the game, and this game does even worse, which is tragic. I'm also really not a fan of the fact that the very first career race it gave me was a snow rally after I chose a rear wheel drive car, because them there snow physics are seriously unforgiving compared to the first DIRT Rally, and that's a real tough pill to swallow as a first race after a long time away from the games, so I can't imagine how much that must suck for less experienced players. I struggled for a while in shakedown runs, then gave up and decided to just go for it and take the loss... and then won anyway. By a considerable margin. So the AI drivers are also easier. And on top of all of that, they somehow managed to make the game camera fail to convey the position of your car. There were numerous occasions where I could have sworn I was in the clear, only to slam into the wall anyway, and out of every racing game - not just from Codemasters, any racing game - I've ever played, this one is the most difficult to tell how far out the back end is sliding from the cockpit view... and that's pretty important to know in rally. Really disappointing stuff.

There are a couple new things I do like though. They finally got off the fence and got serious about restricting restarts, so now instead of getting a small credit bonus if you restart less than five times in a stage, you can only restart five times at all before being forced to take what you get or retire. I also really appreciate no longer being forced to finish a stage or two without having tuning available, because now tuning is a purchasable upgrade, though I don't think that's a particularly good solution either, especially since it's so expensive on some cars that it could take you a whole event to afford it anyway. Assuming you're not starting with millions, that is. But they also shrunk the gap between a new car and a fully upgraded one considerably, so that's nice I guess. The repair system is dramatically simplified too, and now it actually makes sense, so that's really nice.

With all of that said, even with my disappointments, this is definitely the better game out of the two. My problems with the camera are the most serious out of the complaints, but that can be adjusted to, and the massive improvement in the driving experience and stage variety more than makes up for everything else. If this game had hill climb events, it would have been even better. But, like I said, it really is just more DIRT Rally but better, so I have nothing else to say about it. Good game overall.

And now that I've played all the DIRT games, I can confidently say that I will be playing a lot more of this game and DIRT 2, and aside from booting up the first DIRT Rally occasionally for a hill climb, the rest of the series can stay on the shelf, or in the trash.

New Zealand in F2 kit cars is one of the most fun experiences I've had in any racing game, by the way. Best class, best location.

(from my web zone: https://kerosyn.link/i-played-every-codemasters-racing-game-to-prove-a-point/#dirt-rally-20)

THE best simcade rally experience on PC.

Whether you are hauling ass in a Ford Escort (my personal favorite rally car) or flying through the forests of Finland in a more modern rally machine, you will gain a massive appreciation for the guts and skill it takes to pilot a rally car through a stage. Guttural and realistic sound design immerse you into the game while you hang on for dear life. Ample amounts of content for both fans of single-player and multiplayer mean that most people will find their preferred mode of operation.

The only gripe I can think of is that the physics engine becomes a bit subpar when flying around on tarmac but it isn't game-breaking considering the vast majority of the time, you'll be racing and sliding around on dirt or gravel.

With just about every memorable rally car in history as well as a wide berth of locations that span around the world, this is Codemasters' Magnum Opus.

Sets out to make rallying as authentic, challenging, and as detailed of an experience as it can be. Courses are long and winding, and with no HUD to rely on you absolutely must be focused and react accordingly to what your co-driver is telling you. There's a decent variety of environments, and there can be no prouder feeling than coming out of a course with your car still functioning.

The game is split between proper rallying and rallycross events, but sadly I don't really care much for rallycross so the massive 100 GB install is just for rallying to me. Still, if that's the kind of experience you are looking for, you can't really go wrong with this.