DiRT Rally 2.0 is out now for everyone to try

The first DiRT Rally title was a blessing for those who wanted a proper rally simulation, and was a huge success in between the tears and smiles of those who had to deal with some hardcore off-road racing. Looking at this, DiRT Rally 2.0 was released officially by Codemasters this Monday (25), in order to carry on the legacy of its predecessor.

Focus was the word this time and DiRT Rally 2.0 is split between rally and rallycross only, with 50 machines, six rally locations and eight rallycross tracks are featured to punish recklessness or reward ability, from the first WRC machines to the latest World RX monsters.

The car lineup features most of the classes that were present in previous DiRT games, with the base game having the noticeable absences of the F2 kit cars, the RWD Group B, the 2000s World Rally Cars and at least a single Hyundai machine. Despite this, a new class is in, as Rally GT features cars that would be commonly in a closed tarmac track instead of gravel, like the Porsche 911 R-GT of Romain Dumas and the Mäkelä Auto Tuning Aston Martin Vantage GT, which are essentially a GT Cup and a GT4 car prepared for off-road madness.

Back are the handcrafted stages like in the first DiRT Rally, with the procedural My Stage method being scrapped, and the locations list is completely new compared to it, as New Zealand, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Australia and USA take place of Germany, Monte Carlo, Sweden, Finland, Wales and Greece, though some of the old locations may come back in the seasonal DLC content to come.

The handling and physics were totally revamped and brought huge improvements in DR2.0, meaning that a more careful approach and right timing around the corners settle the difference between hitting the apex and hitting a tree or a rock. This counts to rallycross too despite the fact that the supercars need a more aggressive driving.

About the career mode, it doesn’t differentiate too much from the first DiRT Rally, where you build you car collection, hire and train engineers, and then you can select between devoting yourself to rally or rallycross. You can also try your skill in daily, weekly and monthly leaderboard challenges at your will.

Talking about events, the FIA World Rallycross Championship has now a section outside the career, as well the historic rallies, though you can get a sample of this in the Custom mode, and the Time Trial lets you tackle rally and rallycross events for the best time possible outside the challenges.

DiRT Rally 2.0 is out for everyone on PC, PlayStation 4 and XBox One, and if you get the Deluxe Edition you will get two seasons of DLC cars, tracks and events added to the base game.

IMAGE: In-game screenshots