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Oof. I was just getting used to the idea that we have a decent rally sim/game (Dirt Rally) again. It's a niche genre that requires a specialized physics engine
by exDM69 6y ago
Oof. I was just getting used to the idea that we have a decent rally sim/game (Dirt Rally) again.
It's a niche genre that requires a specialized physics engine, and there hasn't been decent entrant after Richard Burns Rally (2004) or before that. That was/is maintained by community binary patches for years and years after it EOL'd.
Rally car physics can't be simulated with just any car physics model, there is a lot going on with tyres on loose surfaces, differential gears in the drive train, turbo chargers etc.
I can't see it being lucrative enough for EA to make a niche game like that.
- thetanil 6y agoDon't worry, you will be able to buy this exact same game for 60$ per year for eternity now
- illumanaughty 6y agoDon't be ridiculous they'll at least change the driver names, totally worth $60.
- texasbigdata 6y agoHand brake turn? $12 unlock
- exDM69 6y agoI don't think that's going to happen, they will just quietly kill Dirt Rally. That game is just way too difficult for a mainstream audience so it makes a poor platform to milk microtransactions. The rest of the Dirt series (same name, very different game) might continue to exist to complement their NFS car game lineup. Most likely though is that EA only wanted the licenses to F1 and WRC series.
- ehvatum 6y ago> Most likely though is that EA only wanted the licenses to F1 and WRC series. Typical.
- nightcracker 6y agoNo, for $60 each year you're purchasing the base game. Extra race cars will be made available from random loot boxes costing only 15 DiRTCoInZ each! What a steal! Your friends will be so envious when they see you in that ultra rare limited edition car, so get those boxes!
- citrons 6y agoFor 15$ moreyou can get the deluxe edition with 2 exclusives cars and 5 soundtracks.
- sneak 6y agoAnd now there is a sale on for 14 DiRTCoInZ for the low low price of $9.99, or, if you like, an even better deal: 29 DiRTCoInZ for only $14.99!
- m463 6y agoI remember when EA bought popcap and Plants vs Zombies 2 put literal price tags each plant.
- grawprog 6y ago99% of the time though, you'll just win the same paint job for a car you don't own, or maybe a nifty steering wheel cover you can't see in game maybe if you're really, really lucky, you'll win some cool spinning rims....again...that only works for a car you don't own that can only be won from a different kind of lootbox available only during special events... Also, all these things are one day trials...that have to be used within 7 days or they expire.
- mustacheemperor 6y agoNot if it suffers the same fate as the Burnout series, in which case we’ll get one sequel before it’s put to pasture.
- colejohnson66 6y agoBurnout and Burnout 2 were made by Acclaim, yes, but there was more than just Burnout 3 with EA. Wikipedia mentions eight games. And yes, the series is dead (which is a shame), but Burnout Paradise became available on the Switch around June this year.
- kranner 6y agoI bought a racing wheel with pedals and shifter just for that one game. RIP Dirt Rally.
- leghifla 6y agoI did that for Richard Burns Rally
- timthorn 6y agoMy hours playing Colin McRae Rally 2.0 with a force feedback wheel possibly saved my life. Driving on a motorway one winter coming round a bend, I suddenly encountered a patch of snow that hadn't been cleared. There was no time to slow down ahead of it, I was in the outside lane and with a vehicle in the lane next to me - I just gripped the wheel and responded with the reflexes I'd built up from the snow stages. The car twitched and started snaking but I kept it under control in a way I know I wouldn't have been able to without the hours of in-game training.
- giobox 6y agoI’ve never felt that time spent in a static simulator translates to real world car control at all. So much of driving at speed or at edge of vehicles performance is understanding the balance of the car as it shifts in bends or slides etc, something you simply can’t feel in a static chair no matter how impressive a force feedback steering wheel you purchase. I’ve unfortunately been in several cars where driver has lost control and avoided an accident - most drivers in my experience can counter the scenario you describe intuitively - steer opposite way of slide, lift off gas to correct etc, just feels natural if you have driven a car even a small period of time. Other’s mileage may vary of course!
- core-questions 6y ago> lift off gas to correct Good in an FWD car, but this could kill you if you're driving RWD - lift-off oversteer is a common thing, so you really want to _reduce_ throttle input without completely cutting it.
- dogma1138 6y agoDirt Rally was a decent sim, the issue is that no company can release a pure sim today simply because of how niche the market is and the cost of game development. Codemasters have been going more arcade like and focusing on community content for a while now, they had a rather successful experiment with Onrush and many of the Onrush features are in Dirt 5 now, EA is essentially looking at Codemasters as those who can deliver the fortnite of racing games and they might be able to do so. That doesn’t mean you won’t get a game that is a good enough sim, codemasters still has the exclusive rights to the rally franchise, so you’ll get quite a wide range of driving mechanics and good simulation and steering wheel support but you can’t build a game that requires a steering wheel and pedal setup today and expect it to sell.
- InitialLastName 6y ago> Codemasters have been going more arcade like and focusing on community content for a while now The F1 game has been solidly arcade-y since at least 2010.
- DanBC 6y agoAlso, don't EA kill every racer they have in order to funnel money towards NFS?
- zelos 6y agoI loved the Dirt series, I think I might have to go buy a recent version. I've been getting into racing games again recently and the sheer number of RPG elements, unlocks, micro-transactions etc. in things like Forza is exhausting. And that isn't even EA. I can't just restart the race, I have to wait while it loads 3 screens to show me how I'm 300 points nearer to unlocking some pointless skin or hitting the next tier or whatever.
- exDM69 6y ago> I loved the Dirt series, I think I might have to go buy a recent version. Do note that Dirt Rally isn't really related to the rest of the Dirt series. The former is a pretty decent simulation of rally driving, while most of the Dirt series are "car games" with a physics model that's not intended to be realistic but fun to play on a gamepad.
- TheCraiggers 6y agoTake a look at a game called DRAG. It's still in beta, but it has good reviews so far and does have a native Linux version. The devs seem to be pro-Linux. It looks to be very much in the simulation category of racers.
- andrepd 6y agoDirt Rally 1 is also Linux native.
- louhike 6y ago"It's a niche genre that requires a specialized physics engine" That will be a big problem as EA tends to push all its companies to use the Frostbite engine.
- maeln 6y agoThe engine is not really the issue. They could develop the Frosbite Engine to handle proper Dirt racing physics. I think the main show stopper here is that EA doesn't make niche game. They make games that will sell millions of units. So I highly doubt that they will develop a accurate Dirt racing game, they will do what they did with every franchise: Make the gameplay incredibly "accessible" but dumbing it down a lot. You will end up with another generic racing game with a slightly more slippery physics.
- Hamuko 6y agoThey are at least publishing some nicher titles with EA Originals. I'm also not entirely convinced that DiRT is more niche than for example Madden, which is a series of sports games about a sport that is really only popular in one country.
- dagw 6y agoI'm also not entirely convinced that DiRT is more niche than for example Madden Madden is one of the better selling game franchise of all time with over 130 million copies sold. Despite this years Madden game being by far the worst reviewed Madden game in ages, it's still the 3rd highest selling game this year.
- Hamuko 6y ago>it's still the 3rd highest selling game this year Globally or in the US?
- dagw 6y agoSorry, you're right. Globally It appears to be the 8th best selling console game this year. But more importantly it consistently sells those sort of numbers every single year without fail. Far from a niche game (or at least its a very popular and extremely profitable niche).
- jron 6y agoRichard Burns Rally is still played today. Unfortunately due to Codemaster's requirement for RaceNet, Dirt Rally 2.0 will not see the same longevity. CM should remove this requirement before the EA acquisition. EA has a long history of shutting down online services required to play games.
- VonGuard 6y agoActually, EA doesn't always kill games it shuts servers for. In fact, it gave the rights to online hosting of its entire back catalog of games to the amazing Aussie Scott Kevill, who runs GameRanger. You can play games as far back as Dungeon Keeper 2, or as recent as some of the new Battlefields on GameRanger, completely for free. It supports almost 1000 old PC games, and allows you to play online in games that only supported LAN play at launch. Command and Conquer, Medal of Honor, tons of others: https://www.gameranger.com/games/ https://www.gameranger.com/games/ EA made an announcement about this but didn't make a big deal about it: https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/Info-Generals-ZH-C-amp-C3-RA3-online-with-GameRanger-Revora/m-p/3203203 https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/Info-G... I hate companies that kill online servers for games, and have dedicated a large portion of my life to bringing these games back, but EA hasn't really caused this type of situation in a while, thanks to GameRanger. There's plenty to dislike about EA, but killing online servers is something they actually handle better than most other PC game companies: everything is on GameRanger.
- jron 6y agoThe decisions to withdraw particular features or modes of certain EA games, or to retire online services relating to older EA games are never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into our games, their features and modes almost as much as the players, and it is hard to see one retired. As games are replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the games that have been live for some time dwindles to a level – typically fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles – where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping the online services for these games up and running. [1] [1] https://www.ea.com/service-updates https://www.ea.com/service-updates Games impacted by the above policy: https://www.ea.com/service-updates/a-h https://www.ea.com/service-updates/a-h https://www.ea.com/service-updates/i-q https://www.ea.com/service-updates/i-q https://www.ea.com/service-updates/r-z https://www.ea.com/service-updates/r-z
- timthorn 6y ago> or before that You forget Colin McRae Rally, surely?
- exDM69 6y agoYes, well, sort-of. Colin McRae was a pretty cool game in its day but didn't really have the great physics that RBR did. But it was an earlier game so it was the best that there was available.
- mhh__ 6y agoI think RBR's physics are still well beyond anything Code masters has on offer today.
- Tycho 6y agoI remember Rallisport Challenge 2 was a fantastic game. Then I got the original DiRT, which had incredible graphics, but the car physics felt off. The cars seemed to rotate from a centre point when you turned. Like if you were square against a wall or barrier on your left, and tried to steer right, the back end of the car would initially press into the wall. Can't remember exactly, but I remember many people had similar complaints. To be fair, it wasn't terrible, but the steering just felt a bit more floaty than it should, IMO. Do you know if the physics in Dirt Rally have improved on this? Or does the underlying issue remain?
- fredzel 6y agoI don't know about this specific issue, but it's hard to compare those two. If DiRT was simcade (more arcade than sim) then Dirt Rally would definitely be sim. Maybe not on the level of iRacing or Asetto Corsa, but it's as good as it gets (maybe Richard Burns Rally is more authentic, but it is pretty old)
- Throwaway1771 6y agoiRacing has rally, so not technically "as good as it gets", but definitely know what you mean.
- jdietrich 6y agoiRacing has rallycross and dirt track, but no rally mode.
- exDM69 6y ago> Do you know if the physics in Dirt Rally have improved on this? Yes, the physics in Dirt Rally is not at all the same as with other Dirt series. It has got a pretty decent simulation of rally cars on gravel and other surfaces. It's awesome!
- wavefunction 6y agoThink of the immersion when new virtual tires for your virtual rally car cost as much as actual tires! Another EA innovation!
- durpleDrank 6y agoWRC is a GREAT rally game. Check it out.
- daniellarusso 6y agoThe original ‘RalliSport Challenge’ for the original X-box is one of my favorite racing sims.