STACK #152 Jun 2017

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DiRT is a rally racing franchise. It’s all about going hard into the corners, praying it’ll stick, and hoping you’ll come out the other end

What do the pros think of DiRT 4 ? For DiRT 4 we have worked with Kris Meeke (current Citroen WRC driver), and Petter Solberg and his son Oliver, who also races rally and rallycross. Petter was 2003 World Rally Champion and 2014 and 2015 World Rallycross Champion. Getting their insight on the tweaks we have made to our simulation and making sure that we have dialled in the setup of the cars as tightly as possible has been a vital part of the development process.”

frustrated with how many unique stage miles we were putting in our games as it was

never enough for our fans. With the new hardware, we wanted to think differently about

Paul Coleman

in one piece. The game’s story mode has always been a franchise focus, and according to CGD Paul Coleman, DiRT 4 ’s campaign is the series’ most in-depth yet. “You start off after leaving the Academy in some local events in Michigan, before spreading your wings and heading to other rally locations around the world. You’ll then get invited to Landrush, Rallycross and Historic Rally championships.” He says it’s up to you how you tackle the campaign. “You can play through the whole game as a driver for hire, taking on team offers and earning cash and reputation along the way, but you can also start your own team. This opens up a whole suite of additional elements. You can design your own livery, choose your team name, hire (and fire) staff. You can buy facilities that improve your team’s chemistry, and allow you to take on bigger challenges, and of course you can buy vehicles.” One of the biggest changes headed to the series is DiRT 4 ’s newYour Stage. Your Stage is a mode that allows procedural generation of tracks for you to cruise around on, and the idea’s been floating around since the days of DiRT 3 . “We were becoming increasingly

how we built our stages.” Your Stage will be all about player preferences. “It really is an amazing piece of technology. We wanted it to be as immediate for players as possible, so you choose your stage length and then set the complexity and hit ‘Generate’. It’s practically instant, and you get a preview of the stage you are about to run. If you don’t like the look of If you don't like the look of [the track] just keep hitting generate until you are - it's as simple as that it just keep hitting generate until you are - it's as simple as that.” Additionally, there’s a new handling mode that Coleman hopes will help ease newcomers into the game. “With DiRT 4 we’ve developed a new ‘Gamer’ handling model which helps

Kris Meeke Oliver and Petter Solberg

new players get to grips with the cars. This isn’t us just throwing a load of assists on the sim model and driving the car for you. We’ve actually done a lot of work to make sure that the cars are as fun and rewarding to play as possible while using Gamer handling.” Landrush also makes a welcome return. “Landrush is based on Shortcourse racing seen mostly out in America. We’ve built our own tracks, but they take features seen in all of the best tracks out there, and combine them into a heady mix of jumps, banked corners and mogul style washboard sections.” “All of these elements mean that whatever skill level or experience players have, they should be able to find their feet and get competitive within DiRT 4 without any barriers to entry. We have found that players who start by using Gamer Handling get familiar with the game and eventually switch over to Simulation handling to experience the deeper, more challenging vehicle dynamics.”

• DiRT 4 is out June 9

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