Dirt Rally

DiRT Rally focuses on rallying and rallycross. Players compete in timed stage events on tarmac and off-road terrain in varying weather conditions. On release, the game featured 17 cars, 36 stages from three real-world locations — Monte Carlo, Powys, and Argolis — and asynchronous multiplayer. Stages range from 4 to 16 km. Updates added three further locations — Baumholder, Jämsä, and Värmland — along with rallycross and player-versus-player multiplayer.

Codemasters announced a partnership with the FIA World Rallycross Championship in July 2015, leading to the inclusion of Lydden Hill Race Circuit (England), Lånkebanen (Norway), and Höljesbanan (Sweden).

The game covers 16 manufacturers and a wide range of eras and classes: cars from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Group B, Group A, Group R, 2000s and 2010s modern rally, rallycross, and Pikes Peak. Each car carries up to 10 liveries. The PC version supports Steam Workshop for user-shared vehicle setups.

Development began with a team of 10–15 people at Codemasters following the release of Dirt: Showdown in 2012. The team rebuilt the physics model from zero, starting with a handling prototype and creating tracks from map data. The Ego engine was used throughout.

Sound recording placed up to ten microphones in each of nearly fifty real-world rally cars — at the engine bay, intake, exhaust, and inside the cabin. The audio mix responds to the player's camera position and models reverb per stage; details captured included gravel kick-up, waste-gate chatter, and straight-cut transmission whine. Recording was done on-track rather than on a rolling road to capture cars under load and on deceleration. Game director Paul Coleman voiced the English-speaking co-driver, recording calls while seated on a D-Box motion rig using his own real-life co-driving intercom system.

An early version was shown to journalists in late 2013; the official announcement came in April 2015. Early Access was chosen deliberately to gather player feedback. Codemasters planned monthly content updates throughout the Early Access period.

DiRT Rally received generally favourable reviews. GameStar gave the game 90%, calling it "the best rally simulation at the moment and one of the best racing games of all time." Evo praised the audio design as "some of the best we've heard in a racing game," noting it "serves real purpose, with the co-driver almost perfectly matching his pace notes up with a stage." Top Gear stated that "Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo's handling remains nowhere near as satisfying or convincing as Dirt Rally's superlative scrambling," and Stuff said it "leaves WRC 5 eating gravel." Official PlayStation Magazine called it "the most exhilarating driving game Codemasters has created in years, and undoubtedly the best rally game on PS4." PC Gamer dissented, writing that "in physics and handling detail, it falls a little flat" and that "the lack of any sort of precarious feel when flying over ice and mud is an absolute shame."

The game reached number 1 in the UK PS4 physical sales chart and number 19 in the European download chart. Game Informer awarded it best racing game of the year; it was nominated for the BAFTA best sports game award in 2016. The Official PlayStation Magazine listed it as the 16th best PS4 game of all time one month after release.

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