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Tips and tricks for mastering DiRT Rally
Codemasters have made of one the most realistic rally sims ever. Here’s how to tame it.
To get to the podium in DiRT Rally, you’ll need to master your car in everything from the snow of Monte Carlo to the vintage gravel of legendary Pikes Peak track – which will be included with the game for the first time on launch. And you’ll need fingertip control to hustle your car through hairpins, jumps and bends. Ahead of the game's release this April, we got a few pace notes from Paul Coleman, chief game designer at Codemasters.
If you want to get closer to the true experience of rallying, using a steering wheel is probably best. But like many developers, Codemasters have spent a long time shoehorning that sensitivity fingertip feel into the controller.
Do your homework first
But before you even get out into your first stage, Coleman recommends that drivers of all levels should take a quick look at some of the game’s included rally guides. “These guides explain the theory and the mindset required for rallying and describe what makes it different to other forms of motorsport,” he says.
Once you’re on the track, it’s all about starting slow and steady – so don’t expect to set the world alight on your first few stages. “Build up your speed as you grow in confidence. If you go into your first stage and try and beat the times being set by your competitors, the chances are that you will be overdriving the car and that will make you more susceptible to making mistakes,” says Coleman. “Find a rhythm and a pace that you are comfortable with and listen to your co driver.”
How to learn the stage
Unlike most racing games, you probably won’t ever learn every corner of DiRT Rally. Why? Because instead of defined tracks, DiRT Rally takes place across winding routes or stages around the world – that you only drive through once. “Over time you’ll start to recognise corners and sequences but the co-driver will still be a very useful reminder as to what is coming up next,” Coleman says. Rinse and repeat while listening to your co-driver, and you’ll start to see big improvements.
If you’re starting to fancy yourself as the next Richard Burns, DiRT Rally offers some serious depth to keep you hitting the road. Once you’re pushing the limits of the car DiRT Rally also lets you tinker with the settings, to extract as much performance out of the car as possible. But where do you start?
“When setting your car up the best thing to do is to make one change at a time, that way you can feel the effect that that one change has had,” says Coleman. “Each of our setup options has a description that explains the type of effect that the changes will have so if you know what you want the car to do then finding the appropriate setting and changing that is the best way to work through things.”
All that’s left is to try and focus on your driving even more, and setting a fast time hinges on a mixture of confidence, talent and technique. “Having confidence in the way you are accelerating, braking and steering has the biggest impact on how well you move the weight of the car around and therefore how much control you have,” Coleman tells us. The more time you spend on the road the more confidence you can build and the faster you will find yourself going. Be patient, listen to your co-driver and be as smooth as you can be with your inputs.
A tip for more advanced drivers
Happy with the basics? It’s time to start looking at the more advanced manoeuvres you can pull on in DiRT Rally. We finish off by asking Coleman how to pull off the basic handbrake turn and the cooler Scandinavian flick – two of the most complex and essential techniques for a rally driver. Here’s how to do them.
It’s probably best to start with a handbrake turn as that is the simpler of the two manoeuvres. The aim of performing a handbrake turn is to get the car to dramatically oversteer at relatively low speed which enables a tighter turn to be taken than using the steering axis of the wheels only. By using the steering wheel to shift the weight of the car and then applying the handbrake you can get the rear of the car to slide.
The Scandinavian flick is probably the most advanced technique used in rallying. They are used specifically to prevent the car from understeering on loose surfaces when approaching sharp turns or hairpins at relatively high speed. The technique works by using the momentum of the rear of the car swinging from one direction to the other. It must be timed correctly so that the final weight shift happens at the turn in point for a corner. A perfect Scandinavian flick will see you hitting the apex and accelerating through the corner exit. It is an advanced technique and practice makes perfect. The advantage of a Scandinavian flick is that by deliberately using the momentum of the rear of the car you can actively prevent the car from understeering into a tight corner. Good luck!
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