Additionally, there’s a Dirt Academy at the DirtFish Rally School in Washington, USA, where you’ll be taught the basics, and which later serves as a free training ground of sorts. Speaking of locations, you get Fitzroy, Australia Tarragona, Spain Värmland, Sweden Michigan, USA and Powys, Wales. Codemasters says that there are a billion possible stages, which means you can create a rally stage that no one else would have driven on. It will let you create, race, and then share tracks with your friends, by choosing five variables: location, time, weather, length, and complexity. It’s essentially procedural generation of racetracks. With Dirt 4, due to the lack of licensed content, Codemasters is adding an option to create your own rally route, dubbed 'Your Stage'. The crux of any Dirt game is the Rally experience, which is a given since the franchise had its beginnings in the Colin McRae Rally series. But there are changes across the board, so it’s better to introduce them all one by one. If this is your first Dirt game, you’re probably wondering what the other game modes aside from ‘Rally’ mean. In terms of car variety, there are a total of 50 off-road vehicles in Dirt 4, including the likes of Ford Fiesta R5, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, Subaru WRX STI NR4, and Audi Sport quattro S1 E2. Of course, you can expect the full tuner system to make its return as well, which lets you tweak your car set-up based on the track and weather conditions, along with vehicle type and status. The developers brought rally driver Kris Meeke and two-time World Rallycross Champion Petter Solberg on board to work on the handling, so you know you can expect the real deal. While the former is the more arcade-y feel (from Dirt 3) that allows you to focus on having the most fun, simulation is self-explanatory, in that it’s as close to real driving as possible. In acknowledgement of its target audience’s preferences, Codemasters is providing two handling options with Dirt 4: ‘gamer’, and simulation. The rally franchise is doubling down on its roots with the latest chapter, eschewing the gymkhana mode from Dirt 3, and instead borrowing more from the previous 2015 entry, Dirt Rally, which showed its simulation chops.

Six years after the last numbered Dirt title, Codemasters is back with the next instalment: Dirt 4.

Dirt 3 vs dirt 4