Flat Out pack: My early impressions!

[Xenial Jesse]

I've only had 2 or 3 runs over each of the new tracks, and have only toyed about in the first tier of the new challenges (they're tough for me), so my thoughts could easily change in a few days.

I'm gonna do this as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly... in reverse.

The Ugly

1. Sadly, Scotland's stages are probably the ugliest in DR2.0 in my opinion. A handful of things jumped out at me:

• The stages are very, very low on visual pop.
  --- Saturation in general is really low, and it feels very odd to witness in the same game that dazzles you with Australia's and USA's prettiness. This single point is the hardest for me personally and sadly really sucks down the enjoyment for me.
  --- The background is very repetitive, so many pine trees lining the horizon, and while I know this the case in many stages and really is just the way it is, in Scotland I was really feeling it. I actually got a very strong vibe of WRC 8 while driving DR2's Scotland, and I didn't like that vibe because WRC 8 really looks like butt at times.
  --- One thing WRC 8 does excel at over Dirt Rally 2.0 is the use of visual landmarks in its stages, and DR2's Scotland really suffers for the lack of them. I know all DR2's stages have the same issue, but Scotland is already struggling (badly) with visual pop, as well as looking a little too similar to Wales, so my guess at the moment is that the lack of landmarks hits Scotland harder. Early impressions though, I will admit. Maybe this thought will change in time. I'll extend that comment to all my visual comments: it's an early impression.
  
• The fog is a thing unfortunately. I'd say day stages in Scotland are 2nd only to Finland in terms of foggy visual annoyance. It looks better in other times of day at least.
  
• Visual similarity to Wales. Honestly I thought this would be my biggest problem with Scotland but sadly the previous issues bother me much more. And obviously Wales and Scotland are very close to each other so it's not a surprise, but it still is what it is.
  
• The actual track edges jumped out at me as being a bit too crisp and defined, always. I find it hard to believe the real tracks in Scotland have such crisp edges. This is a minor complaint though; it just felt a little odd.

2.
There are 1 or 2 lines of Mills' new speech that just drop out completely in audible volume. I feel like they need to be fixed.

The Bad

1.
It seemed a bit too much hype for 1 location, 2 cars, and a mode that is ultimately just some extra tick-boxes on a set of single player rallies. Honestly, I think this overhyped impression is the result of a year of CM remastering older stages (which I have no problem with) then having to build a completely new stage. The greater time required to build the new stage is the reality, but to the consumer it feels disproportionate.

2.
I don't find the new challenges to be worth much since, in terms of gameplay, they offer very little that you can't already do, much better, elsewhere in the game. You're still ultimately trying to complete each stage you're given as fast as you can. The only changes from what I've seen so far are that some stages also have limits on the damage you must finish or start with.

That's not a lot to grab the player's interest, when the player could instead go to Custom or Time Trial and set up the exact same stages and cars. Or any stage, car, weather, time of day, online or offline or with ghosts and most of all: against actual humans.

Or you can lose all that just to get the odd damage restriction on a preset stage against some preset times. I find it disappointing not just because it's so low on creativity and playful mix-ups, but also because while I agree with the approach taken here of not actually building new content for the mode, the devs still could have been creative in that approach but they weren't.

Saying that in other words: they could have produced something more playful with the same approach of adding interface-only features without building new content. AI ghosts, time-lag challenges, cross-class challenges, single-split challenges, etc., are all fun ideas without needing new content. The new challenges feel like not only was the cost minimised, but so was creative effort, just to pad out the DLC.

I doubt I'll complete the new challenges, since for the most part they're just offline races against meaningless AI times. I'd rather spend my time doing the same and more against humans.

The Good

1.
I really liked the flow of the new Scotland stages. Curves and turns come at you quite frequently, but there are only a few actually heavy corner to deal with on each stage. In other words the level of curvy-ness is pretty low in general, so overall the Scottish stages let you keep a nice pace while having lots of chances to pull of some nice slides and drifts. The surface is pretty consistent and reliable throughout; next to no camber anywhere, constant gravel feel, and the narrowness of the track made me feel like the threading and sliding I was doing had more emphasis, which was a good feeling.

So topology-wise, I was quite happy with the new stages. They are very punishing if you slip off the track at all or even just bump something; there are very, very few places where you'll actually get away with a screwup and manage to hold onto any sort of speed. It's not like bumping off rock walls in Australia or cutting through scrub in USA or Poland.

Scotland is like a more timid Wales when you're on the track, but completely unforgiving when you're not.

2.
I also really liked the new comments Mills has for the new stages. "Very big crest", "neat", "short and tight"... I'm pretty sure I haven't heard him say "nunty" before either (Ninety hehe). It was fun to hear all these.

3.
It's also nice that Scotland's arrived with the proper range of weather and time of day options out of the box. No waiting for that.

[Xenial Jesse]

Oh yeah, world record lol. :D

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2033913449

[Crash McWreakit VR]

well, what do you expect, this last DLC is the same as a Friday afternoon "Pi$$ off early tomorrows Saturday" attitude found in every workplace around the world, half hearted, half ar$ed effort. Tired, bored, wanna go home, it's curry night.

Shame to attach Colin McRaes' name and legacy to this DLC.


Shame on you Codemasters, shame.

[Wololo_King]

Two cars and a new rally location .. I mean its like choose car and stage and go ... nothing new ...I was so hype because I think they gonna make some big , or remade the old Colin McRae stages from old games ...

A empty mode in terms of ideas ... soo sad , so so sad

[MasterBlaster]

go and play the game in multiplayer. I think that's the most fun part of it....i love it!