DiRT Rally

[PZ]

Received a Father's Day surprise the other day, DiRT Rally.  My son sent it via Amazon - he was an amateur rally driver when he was young, and has always had affection for this kind of driving.

I loaded it up and chose a Monte Carlo stage using a car that I drive in real life (different year though).  This was the first I'd done and actually placed 6th in a group of 18 real world players - I thought I would be dead last as always!

The game is quite fun, and the physics of the car was very much like the real thing (probably why I was able to place reasonably).  You drive carelessly and the same kinds of bad things happen as in real life - I spun wide on a curve and cracked my windshield, then through a bump and damaged my radiator.  Brakes, throttle, just about everything I can think of works like it does in real life.

I might be able to get into this title even though racing games are not my favorites.

[Art Blade]

so there is still some space on your gaming to-do list. That list must have grown into a book by now. :-D

[PZ]

 

My "need to finish" book is much longer than my "completed" book

[Art Blade]

I reckon that by comparison your "completed" book is more like a list, then  :-D You could attach that list as an "addendum" to your "need to finish" book, perhaps use it as a bookmark, even :-D

[fragger]

Art :-D

Nice PZ :-X I'm not much into racing games either, but there have been a couple I've liked. There was a Microprose F1 game years ago that I got into in a big way (can't remember which one, they made quite a few sequels or versions or whatever). I got to know all the tracks and got right into specific car setups for each track, and so on.

I'd like to see someone make a game based on the Red Bull Air Races. That would be something different, but it might not have much mass appeal as they're not races as such - they're time trials, so there would only be you flying. I don't really know why they call it a "race" when they only fly one at a time. I guess "The Red Bull Air Time Trial" doesn't have much ring to it :-()

[fragger]

I'll be buggered... After I'd posted the above, I went on Google just out of curiosity to see if anyone had had the same idea. They did...

Looks pretty cool actually (this clip is from last year)

! No longer available

However, there seems to be confusion about whether a PC version has been developed, is still in development, or ever will be developed. Poking around online is yielding mixed results, I can't seem to ascertain whether the thing even exists or not. There is an Android App version, but definitive info on a PC version seems harder to nail down. Don't really have time to dig right now as I have to go out.

[Art Blade]

wow, looks cool  :-X ???

[PZ]

Indeed! 

[Binnatics]

Dirt games are excellent. I haven't ever been much farther from Need for Speed than Dirt, and I don't think I want to go much farther. I don't like games like Gran Turismo on the PS. Did try them but it's not my cup of tea.
I like the roughness of the rally sports. It's more adventurous racing. In Dirt 3 they added Gymkhana which I really enjoyed. They develope stable racing experience without having to know a lot about cars, technical stuff etc.
The differences between the cars are imho realistic and above all, the game is colourfull with great graphics. Dirt 2 was actually the first game where I experienced DX10, a great advancement in graphics back then. I got the game for free with my HD5870.  8)
I was very curious for this tittle, since it promisses to go back to the raw rally racing with long tracks cross country. Let me know what you think of PZ, and if posible some screenies ;)

[PZ]

Will do, Binn,

I'm on the PS4 for this game and the graphics are very good.  It does feel like "raw racing" without the circular track style of GT5.  I've only done one race so far, and it was traveling the back roads of Monte Carlo - never saw the same place twice (as far as I know, and went from dirt to gravel to snow on a variety of road conditions such as bumps dips, and others.  You have a co-rider that gives turn conditions, direction, hazards, etc.  It is wise to listen to him, as you can find yourself wrapped around a tree if not careful.

However, I've not experienced a car game except for GT5 and Fuel as far as I can remember.  I loved the music and graphics plus environment of GT5, but did not care for lap tracks.

Evidently you can tweak just about everything, although I'm so new to the game that I've only been flying by the seat of my pants so to speak.

[Art Blade]

Rallye Driving consists of applying the seat of one's pants to the seat of the driver's seat. And perhaps keeping all wheels attached to one's car on one's way to and across the finish line :-D

[Binnatics]

 :-D


It's raw. Gravel and dirt. That's what I like about it :)

[PZ]

It sure is - you really get a "feel" for the different road conditions as they affect the handling of the cars.  As one of the purchase perks, I downloaded a 60's era Mini Cooper that is fully modified.  Have not tried it out yet.

[fragger]

The Minis were amazing back in the 60s. There used to be an annual touring car race in Australia called the Bathurst 500. It was named after the nearby town and was a 500-mile race around a circuit, which equated to about 150 laps, so it ran for most of the day. The circuit doubles as a public road outside of race season with some residential properties along the road, and I've driven around it a few times. The main stands and support buildings are permanent fixtures around the starting grid, which remains painted on the road, so despite being a public street it's like driving on a racetrack, except you can't drive at race car speeds - the cops will throw the book at you if you try :-()

I bring this up because there were often quite a number of Mini Cooper Esses taking part and they could hold their own against the big Hemi Pacers and the like. The Minis were well suited to the track as it's quite twisty in places, and the greater power-to-weight ratio of the Minis gave them an edge in the uphill portion of the track (there's a 174-metre difference in altitude between the circuit's highest and lowest elevations).

I used to love watching that race on TV as a kid, while Mum would hassle me to go out and play ("But I can't - I'm watching the Bathurst 500!"). Hey, it was a big deal to a kid like me! Later they upped it to 1,000 kays when Oz went metric and it became known as the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 (after its chief sponsors). It's still going. After moving through many sponsors' hands over the years, it's now known as the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

I haven't watched it for many years, but it was a fixture event in my childhood. Without the Minis and other unlikely contenders, it doesn't seem to have the same character any more. These days, the cars are all souped-up musclers with oversize intakes and skirts and spoilers and other high-tech innovations, covered in the logos of their corporate sponsors. Back when it started in the early 60s it was mainly an amateur affair and the cars were basically just street machines like you'd see - well, on the street, with just a number stuck on them (they'd often have a bit of internal tweaking though, but not a lot beyond removing all extraneous seats and other "dead-weight" bits). You'd see things like Citroëns and VWs and even the occasional Mercedes in the mix. I think this is what gave the event its rustic charm ^-^

[smg id=8875 align=center width=600]

Ah, the olden days! Note that many of the cars actually have license plates on them - a clue to the amateur nature of the event. When they weren't racing, they'd be taking their owners to w@&k!

[Art Blade]

nice and nostalgic :)

[PZ]

Excellent post fragger!  +1  :-X

Those big fat hemis could not handle the curves that well - they were designed to do the quarter mile in as quick a time as possible, and their sheer weight precluded them from doing well on stages that had lots of curves.

The photo brings back memories of a time in my life when life was very simple.

[Art Blade]

life is never simple. It's the long time between then and now that wiped your memory clean of the unpleasant bits  :-()

[PZ]

In a sense, yes, but I grew up in a time where there was no identity theft, we could walk the streets at all hours of the night and still feel safe, and we kids could go trick or treat and eat the candy without fear of poisons or sharp cutting objects.

Sure some of those things happened but they were the rare exception rather than the norm.

Today terrorist attacks are common, and I can't recall much of that back in the 60's.

Just found out that the officials in my state are making it legal for anyone to carry a concealed weapon without license starting this Friday.

So, taken into context and comparison, life was much simpler, and certainly much safer "back in the day"  :-().

[Art Blade]

alright  :)

[fragger]

Thanks for the kudo PZ :)

So, taken into context and comparison, life was much simpler, and certainly much safer "back in the day"  :-().

I tend to agree mate, I really do think life was simpler back then. I've always felt that way. There were still monetary woes and wars and all the usual human strife going on of course, but I think people generally felt more secure, were more upbeat in their general outlook and had a greater sense of freedom. For one thing, there was no "political correctness" to have to be on guard for - you could call a spade whatever you bloody well liked :-() Parents could let their kids play out in the street without having to be constantly vigilant for predators. I remember when Mum used to take me shopping with her during school holidays, and knowing that I'd get bored she would leave me in the toy section of one of the big department stores while she did her shopping. I'd be happy as a clam and Mum didn't have to worry about coming back to find me gone. That would be an unthinkable thing to do nowadays.

The prevailing attitude of people was different. We were confident enough in ourselves and our abilities to go to the moon. Now there are a lot of people who claim it was all a hoax. Looking at the movies, music and general popular trends, things seem to be a lot darker and nihilist nowadays. The sunny "make love, not war" outlook has been replaced by the gloomy "yeah, whatever" mindset. I'm glad I was a kid when I was.

When it comes to modern technology and the computer age, I think it's both a blessing and a curse. And sometimes I'm not too sure which side of the scale it actually comes down on...