[RANT] Codemasters

[[XC] Oj101]

Dear Codemasters,

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 was one of my favourite games of the 2000s. WTF is Dirt 3? What did you do to the rally game I loved so much a decade ago??

Car Configuration - Part 1
Why the devil is it so dumbed down? There are a grand total of SIX items which can be tweaked, and tires aren't even one of the options? What happened to having to choose your tires according to the track? Dry Gravel, Wet Tarmac, etc. What happened to the 60 minute time limits placed on tweaking your car which wasn't enough to change EVERYTHING and you had to choose your most important options carefully? It feels so arcadey.

Car Configuration - Part 2
Why does my car configuration not do a damned thing to my ability to win a race? Whether I go with the default setup, drag all sliders to the left, all to the right, or select according to how it should be set up for the track my car behaves almost EXACTLY the same? I tried it out on one of the tracks that had a long climb. Short gear ratios, maximum speed of 128 KM/H reached about 50 metres before the top of the climb. Long gear ratios, NO. FREAKING. DIFFERENCE.

DLC
This one is probably my biggest irk with the game. Why the #$%& do I have to spend about $10 to complete the career mode? Yes, you read correctly. Several races are missing unless you spend about $10 buying Microsoft points which can then be used to buy the missing tracks. Without buying the Monte Carlo and Tokyo DLC there's no 100 % completion for you :/ I also get taunted with cars blatantly rubbed in my face which need to be bought. DLC should not be like this!! Make it something completely separate from the main career, either cars and tracks only available for quick races or hidden from the career mode until purchased. Let me get 100 % completion without paying another cent after I buy the damned game.

Difficulty
It feels as if they've removed Rally mode and only left Arcade. In the Raid game mode (staggered start, timed event so no need to overtake anyone) I can often overtake the car in front of my AND THE CAR IN FRONT OF IT. Why am I winning by as much as 13s on a 1:53s race on the first attempt? First attempt on a track I don't know shouldn't net a win, never mind a win by 10 % of the time it takes to complete a race. I've had a look at all recommended racing lines, it's not exactly rally either. Absolutely no drifting is recommended, you're "supposed" to slow down until you can do your corners without a single wheel losing traction. I stick to the racing lines I've been using since Colin McRae 2.0, when I compare what I can do using my own lines with plenty of sideways action to what I can do sticking to the lines the games tries to teach you to use I am an average of about 6s faster.

Gymkhana and Ken Block
WTF is this gymkhana $%&*? This just ain't cricket, and neither is it rally. Why does Ken Block have a rally game named after him? He is, to be fair, crap at rally. He doesn't have any titles to his name. He will never be a Tommi Makinen or Colin McRae. He's a stunt driver made famous by a couple of viral Youtube videos. His racing lines are sucky. He belongs the same place gymkhana belongs - anywhere but a rally game.

May EA buy you out and shut you down as they do with every second game studio. Oh, and don't even get me started on Showdown. What a load of bollocks.

Yours,
An ex-supporter

[Spectrobozo]

I agree with most of your points, unfortunately Dirt 3 didn't wen in the direction I was expecting... I had some fun playing some MP rallyes, but never really progressed in SP because of the annoying events; hopefully with Showdown out now, they can focus more on rallying for Dirt 4....

and... play some Richard Burns Rally