[ UPDATED: DiRT Rally is on sale on the UK/EU PS Store for £11.99 (or the € equivalent) until May 24 & on the US PS Store for $11.99 (or $13.99 for the VR Bundle) until May 22! ]
"DiRT Rally is the most authentic, challenging and thrilling rally game ever made, road-tested over 80 million miles by the DiRT community. It captures the essence of what makes rally unique like no other game: that white knuckle feeling of racing on the edge; trying to remain in control of your emotions as you hurtle along dangerous, undulating roads at breakneck speed, aiming to squeeze everything out of your car whilst knowing that one crash could irreparably harm your stage time.
It’s the ultimate test of a driver’s skill, and the ultimate in high risk, high reward gameplay.
The first time you play DiRT Rally may be a little daunting. Not many drivers finish their first race without a crash, and even fewer will win their first event. The game is designed from the ground up to be an authentic simulation of real world rally. The good news for you is, real world driving techniques are applicable to every section of every stage in the game.
A better understanding of rally driving techniques will lead you to become naturally faster as you gain confidence and understanding of the car you are driving and the surfaces that you are driving on. It is much easier to add speed to a good technique."
Couldn't have said it better myself. Long story short: DiRT Rallly is probably the best rally racing simulation game out there. Brilliant mechanics and physics, beautiful graphics, great collection of iconic rally cars of past and present, plenty of different locations and game modes. Even the best racers can often make mistakes in rally and that's the beauty of the sport.
Available Rally Types:
Rally
Hillclimb
Rallycross
Game Modes:
Championships (SP career)
"Start out at the bottom and work your way to the top of the rally world. Hire a crew chief and engineers to build your competitive edge as you race the most iconic cars from rally history across the rally, hillclimb and rallycross disciplines."
Online Events
"Take on the DiRT Rally community via Daily, Weekly and Monthly RaceNet challenges to earn in-game currency rewards or take to the track in online multiplayer rallycross races."
The online challenges are a great way to try out different vehicles in different locations and in different conditions.
Leagues
"Get together with friends and run your very own racing league, or join an existing one within the vibrant DiRT Rally community. You can join as many leagues as you like and they are fully customisable all the way down to the weather conditions."
This is the mode we could make the most use of on the crew scale, organise crew rally championships.
XDBX DiRT Rally League: https://www.dirtgame.com/leagues/league/102999/xdbx-casual
Locations: Monaco, Wales, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Greece, England (RX), Norway (RX), USA (Hillclimb)
Some iconic cars from the game: Mini Cooper S, Renault Alpine A110, Ford Escort MK II, Lancia Stratos, Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500, Audi Sport quattro Rallye, Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 2, Subaru Impreza 2001, Ford Focus RS Rally 2001, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, Volkswagen Polo Rally (2010s), Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak, Audi Sport quattro S1 PP
Some official hints and tips for the game: https://www.dirtgame.com/uk/about#hints_tips
The only thing I personally kind of dislike about the game is that you can't drive a specific rally car unless you've purchased it and that process can take a lot of time and trial & error, because earning money is rather slow in the beginning and you don't really know which car suits you best until you've bought them and tried them out. It's a very small issue overall, though.
Verdict: DiRT Rally is a must-have for any true rally fan and rally simulation enthusiast, but if you're a casual gamer and/or mainly an arcade racer just looking to try out rally racing for a change, you should look into getting DiRT 4 instead. There is nothing arcade-y about this DiRT game - it's all about simulating the real thing.
I'm already running an XDBX league in DiRT Rally, so if you have the game, do let me know! Skill level doesn't matter at all, just looking at having a fun time together!
Here's a taste of what the game is like:
Rallycross (RX):