Dirt Rally 2.0 Review (Yukon Cornelius)
Eagerly waiting for the next installment. If you prefer sim to arcade, this is currently the title to pick from the Dirt line-up.
Do you need the original Dirt Rally?
DiRT Rally 2.0 lacks the HIll Climb mode (2 time-trial runs up, Driver-only) from the original game. If you'd like to take historic and more modern cars up Pikes Peak (both dirt and semi-paved) options, then you'll want the original game too. There are a few cars in the original that weren't included with DR2.0. The rally areas are all included in DR2.0 with Monte Carlo getting an overhaul on its surface. If I had to pick one, I'd pick this game. The original often goes on sale at the same time for a pretty low price though, so if you have the means to pick up both, I would for the Hill Climb mode.
Do you need all the DLC for DiRT Rally 2.0 or just the base game?
I recommend everything. At a minimum, you want the DLC that adds all the rally areas. This is especially important if you want to play the online events (daily / weekly / monthly community challenges), or if you want to join a club.
I heard the online-only format of the game causes problems - Is that true?
When the game launched, and when DLC originally dropped, there were some hiccups with the online requirement. However, I have not faced issues with that since.
What game modes are there in this?
A lot...Some highlights are below...
• Rally career mode where you pick the class of car and AI difficulty increases as you progress through seasons. Rally is a single car on a stage at one time, with a co-driver providing notes about upcoming turns and obstacles. Damage to your car is carried over from stage-to-stage until you reach a service interval where repairs can be made within a set time period. Stages can be dirt, snow, pavement, or a mixture of all of the above.
• Rallycross career mode. Similar to the above, but with rallycross. Rallycross is multiple cars on a closed circuit, doing laps on dirt and paved surfaces. Strategy comes into play with timing your Joker lap, which is typically a long path around a portion of the stage.
• Daily / Weekly / Monthly events competing against times set by AI or real-life drivers around the world in a cross-platform environment.
• Time Trails - Pick a stage and a car and see where you rank against drivers around the world or your own ghost.
• Clubs - Join an existing club or start your own where events can be scheduled, stages and conditions can be set. Aside from community events - This is my favorite mode as it allows my extended family to set up events where we challenge each other, and are able to play as our schedules allow (rather than trying to all be online and available to play at a given time).
• Colin McRae challenges - Try your hand at scenarios against AI competitors. There are a lot of these to do. Some are 1 stage, others are multiple stages. You may need to finish in the top 4 with a heavily damaged car, or you may need to come in first even after getting a 10-second penalty, or you may need to finish a series of stages without damaging your car at all. You can set the difficulty in this mode.