Dirt 4 vs Dirt Rally 2.0

[Ice]

So i have recently been getting into Dirt 4 Recently (after it sat mostly untouched for 6 years) with this being my first adventure into rally simulation after playing Forza Horizon for around 1 year and have been doing quite well (usually around 1500-3000 on the stage leaderboards, with some runs going into the top 1000. And i decided to take a look at Dirt Rally 2.0 since it is currently on sale (and often heralded as the best Rally game out there). But when i sat in the same cars i love driving in Dirt 4 i could barely get around even a 5 corner (assissts set up same way, ABS 5 Traction and Stability Control at 2). And i am a bit confused to what's happening there. How are these two games handling so differently? Why do i suck so hard in Dirt Rally 2.0 when im doing absolutely fine on Dirt 4? Is there anything i overlooked/ don't understand?

(just checked, im set to "Gamer" handling on Dirt4, which i guess is much easier than simulation and Rally 2.0 defaults to Simulation handling? is that what i was overlooking?)

[VeeDubz]

Forza horizon and Dirt 4 are both arcade ‘couch’ games, where as Dirt rally 2.0 is a simulator.

Are you using a wheel or controller? You can set up Dirt Rally 2.0 to feel much better on a controller but it will always be harder, require more skill to be quick!

For controller i use..
Manual gears clutch overide ON
no assists apart from stability 3
Steering Sensitivity 45
Steering Linearity 0
Steering Deadzone 5
Steering Saturation 100
Throttle Deadzone 0
Throttle Saturation 100
Brake Deadzone 7
Brake Saturation 108
Clutch Deadzone 0
Clutch Saturation 100
Handbrake Deadzone 0

[Ice]

I am playing with a controller, and being an fps player on pc most of my life i struggle a bit with it i guess. I usually do instant full turns on the stick and try to correct with quick flicks in both directions, similarily i usually either give full throttle or braking or none at all and dosing it by tapping them quickly when needed. i guess that works much better on arcade handling than simulation games (I was spinning out A LOT in Dirt Rally 2.0). I also kinda stuggle with manual shifting while driving, so what exactly does the "manual gear clutch override" do? is it relevant when driving on automatic shifting? Im gonna give those controller settings a shot, thanks for the help!

[VeeDubz]

You tend to always be faster using manual gears when you get used to it.. Forza for example, manual gears and clutch is faster than just manual with the game operating the clutch. And both are faster than automatic, but this is when you are chasing ‘tenths’ so you're not at a loss if you want to/feel more comfortable with automatic.

Manual sequential with clutch overide on just means the games gonna do the clutch for you, I’m personally no good with manual clutch!

You will get away with the steering flicks, but the throttle needs to be respected a little more.. not super precise but try make a habit on holding half throttle and using left foot (finger) braking to modulate the speed and control. Keeping slightly more throttle than you need for a corner while dragging the brake also will keep a turbo on boost, allowing you to get out of the corner faster :)

[Ice]

Yeah i have been putting off learning how to do the manual shifting , which is kinda weird since irl manual shifting feels so natural to me and i struggle more with an automatic. And i have been chasing for tenths in forza, but the leaderboards are a bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ since faster PCs produce faster times (i ♥♥♥♥ you not, it has pay2win in rival mode, up to 0.3s per minute difference from hardware) unfortunately you can't see on the leaderboards in dirt 4 how many entries it has. I still haven't quite figured out the triggers for more detailed braking and throttle, whenever i want to do partial presses of the triggers i really gotta focus on that and it cramps my hand up which gets uncomfortable quite quickly. Altough i am thinking about getting a steering wheel and pedals, which should help to get rid of those issues, haven't looked much into options for that tho.

Also thank you a lot for the advice and explenations!

[Fluffy Chops]

The dirt rally games spite there only being two out are like the new branch off from what the normal dirt games are known for of, always making it arcade tho dirt 4 was for sure different as it came just after dirt rally 1 and it seem codemaster decided to make dirt 4 a more of what we see a lot now days of a hybrid aka mix of arcade and mix of realism. They must of enjoyed or saw a tick in profits from the first dirt rally game to even decide to do this.

After all arcade games have been dying out since about 2014 with very few ip's still being full arcade *cough NFS being one of them* tho heard the unbound might very well be the first NFS to start to shift to a hybrid model so perhaps in the future NFS will be dropping from the full arcade ness to join everyone else. Not played unbound tho so take what am hearing as a pinch of since might not be true.

Every car game beyond around that year has either been a hybrid like a game you metioned Forza Horizon (moterspot being their more realstic series) or just full on realistic mainly. It is for sure becoming quite hard to play a arcade racer now days since it seems only AA and A studios are the only ones to still make full arcade driving games now days.


So they made Dirt 4 a hybrid but did let the players still enjoy in the past games handle the gamer handling what as you said you been using but doing it in the other handle mode would turn on the hybrid handling where your still getting somewhat of what the dirt arcade games have been but the new realsitic take that can really challage a player and yeah isn't as easier to beat the game on.

For real i thought to play with the sim handling ever since i picked this game up and i have switched to the gamer mode before but it just doesn't seem like fun sort of like baby level of rallying to me its hard to go back to the dirt 3 and under arcadeness for this game to me.


Dirt rally from 1 to 2 are not even hybrids there are full on hard sims where you really got to know cars aka how a car handles from RWD and FWD to torque of the car the weight etc etc etc. And those games also do not give out their hand for you to hold, no it expects you to either learn by failing and failing or just letting you get on aka you know how exactly to drive a car off a road fast.

So yeah if you don't know lot about cars more so how they handle on gravel and such at speeds and banks you are likely to do very poor in the dirt rally games, since it's pretty realistic in many ways. Since you really got to know cars and perhaps even done few of your own race days in real life to really get a grips of a game like the dirt rally games. Tho force feedback helps a lot in those games hence most players will be on a sim rig.