The circuit-based Ultra Cross races, point-to-point Rally Raids, Ice breaker short circuit events, and super off-road Pathfinder tracks are all high points, but the key is that there's a lot of content here, with all the events spread over 10 locations. The good news is that there's so much on offer that this kind of picking and choosing doesn't make the game feel small. Trick-focused Gymkhana also doesn't really do much for me, so I skipped over most of those too. I'm not a huge fan of the sprint races that require the use of the cars with the ridiculously oversized wings, so avoided them. While this starts off as a linear path through the races, it soon opens up to allow for any less favored race types to be ignored. While I thought this deliberate omission would lead to frustration, in truth I rarely felt the need for it and instead made more of an effort to learn where best to take risks on courses.Ĭareer mode presents you with five event groups, each comprised of numerous races. There's also no rewind feature, a series mainstay for years. While Dirt 5 has some traditional rally stages, they are not the focus and are not multi-stage affairs - plus you have the entire pack of opponents jostling with you, which isn't very pure rally.Īlso missing is a co-driver, so you don't get useful info on upcoming corners.

If you want the point-to-point stage events, Dirt Rally is there for you. Importantly, Dirt 5 is a very different experience to the Dirt Rally series. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This is a longwinded way to say that Dirt 5 is a top-notch arcade racer, and one that fills a gap that very much needed filling. Dirt 5 is such a game, letting me feel like I'm in The Matrix and have taken that special pill from Limitless. I get enough of being okay in everyday life, so when a racing game makes me feel like I am one with the car I think a special part of my brain unlocks. I enjoy feeling great at video games even if I'm bang-average. Codemasters moves Dirt firmly into arcade racer territory, with great success.

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