It seems like forever ago when we pushed the button and surprised the world with DiRT Rally. To everybody reading this screen we can’t thank you enough. Today we're really pleased to be able to push the button on our first big update, the Pikes Peak Pack which is available now and included in DiRT Rally no extra cost. It should start downloading the next time you log into Steam but if it just so happens that you don't own a copy of DiRT Rally yet you can purchase it on Steam right here.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/310560


The world famous Pikes Peak - Built from the ground up in its full fat modern tarmac state (the first time in a video game) and the mixed surface variant we all grew up loving. We’ve also included a variety of weather conditions and three iconic Hillclimb cars to add to your garage.

You’ll find that we’ve rolled Hillclimb into our Championship mode, it will crop up from time to time in our Online Events and you’ll now be able to select it in Custom Events and add it to your Leagues.

That’s not all though, we’ve also made some improvements and additions to the rest of the game including.

Some of our AI drivers have got fed up with watching you driving so well so expect some of them to start trying to rival your performances and give you more of a run for your money.

A few changes in the UI where we’ve labelled the stages in custom events 'Long' and 'Sprint', new players will see little pop up tutorials on first visit to each game mode (don’t worry they aren’t unskippable videos). We’ve also added some new messages in other areas of the game so you know what’s going on.

We’ve changed how your engineer slots unlock so that they now pop based on distance driven rather than cold, in-game cash. If you’ve already blown a load of cash on those slots... Sorry!

Custom Events will now use the fully upgraded versions of a car rather than the poor man’s version and we’ve made sure that your favourite livery will be stored for the next event.

We’ve also added in some new liveries including the Rallysport Development wrap for the Fiat 131 Abarth, the Peugeot Sport livery for the Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 2 and the Phil Collins Rally livery for the Ford Escort Mk II. Teams like these were kind enough to give us access to their awesome machines during development and without these guys and the rest of the rally scene here in the UK, DiRT Rally wouldn’t be the game it is.

On behalf of everybody at Codemasters thank you to those awesome rally folks and a huge thank you to you for playing.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1A6WusIwZsE

• New – Added over 4,300 metres of rock otherwise known as Pikes Peak
• New – Or old depending how you look at it, yes that’s right we’ve also added the mixed surface version of Pikes Peak too
• New – Each route on Pikes Peak is available with a variety of weather conditions (Sunny\Rain\Overcast\Clear)
• New – Hillclimb car class featuring the Peugeot 405 T16 Pikes Peak, the Peugeot 205 T16 Pikes Peak and the Audi Sport Quattro S1 Pikes Peak.
• New – Hillclimb career mode and full support for Online Events and Leagues
• New – Added a few tutorial messages and hints and tips to some menus and loading screens
• New – Sent all our AI drivers back to rally school, turns out they were struggling to keep up with you guys so expect a bit more of a challenge from now on
• New – Your changes in position are now shown on the event and championship standings
• New – Added a message to let you know when you’ve been promoted or relegated in Championship mode
• New – 13 new achievements for all you unlock and rub in your friends faces.
• New – Added the ability to map clutch and gears for the following steering wheels: Logitech Driving Force EX, Logitech Driving Force GT, Logitech Driving Force Pro, Logitech MOMO Racing Wheel, Thrustmaster F430 Force Feedback Racing Wheel, Thrustmaster Ferrari GT Experience Racing Wheel, Thrustmaster RGT FF Pro, Microsoft Wireless Xbox 360 Racing Wheel
• New – Added analogue handbrake support
• Change – Engineer slots now unlock based on distance driven rather than spending your hard earned credits
• Change – When using a wheel the ragdoll shake effect is now turned off
• Change – Custom Events now use the full fat versions of the cars rather than the poor mans versions
• Change – Improved our Steam error reporting, this won’t really change anything for you right now but it will help us in the future in particular with getting to the bottom of error 41 issues
• Change – Made it clearer when you can’t afford a car
• Change – Improved the messages which tell you what the different game modes are
• Change – Custom events now tell you if a stage is a “Long” or “Sprint” (short) version
• Change – Changed certain title headers in the leagues reward screens to make it clearer where you finished
• Change – The weekly event is now six stages instead of four
• Fix – If you’re using a H-Pattern with clutch setup, the game no longer shifts to neutral when contact with your kit is lost.
• Fix – Turns out that sometimes the AI would overshoot the start line, we’ve had a word with them about it
• Fix – Hand braking when using manual clutch now no longer locks all four wheels on the Ford Fiesta
• Fix – Position indicators will now stop showing the incorrect information
• Fix – Fixed a weird thing that would sometimes let you have more than one go at an online event (bet you’re gutted you didn’t notice that one)
• Fix – Ever been caught in an infinite loop of disconnects and reconnects at the end of an online event? Yeah, we fixed that.
• Audio – Increased overall volume of game audio
  
• Audio – Co-driver should now be clearer
  
• Audio – Fixed volume issues of cockpit cameras not lowering in volume when changed in options.
  
• Audio – Clearer audio feedback on skidding and locking
  
• Audio – Fixed gear grind for stuck gears
  
• Audio – Collisions should be more obvious
  
• Audio – Landings should now sound better
  
• Audio – New aero sound effects
  
• Car update – The Fiat 131 Abarth now has historically accurate rear lights
• Car update – The Fiat 131 Abarth now features the Rallysport Development livery
• Car update – The Ford Escort Mk II now features the Phil Collins’ livery
• Car update – The Lancia Fulvia HF now features the Lancia livery.
• Car update – The Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 2 now features the Peugeot Sport livery

Thank you for all your support on DiRT Rally, it's been an awesome first few weeks and we don't plan on slowing down anytime soon.

Next stop... Germany.