It’s Road Book time! And with just under a month to go, we’re bringing you more exclusive info on DiRT 4. Within today’s glorious edition we give you a little bit more on our two handling modes, Gamer and Simulation – as we know some of you have been wondering about how that’s going to work!

In addition to the handling chat, as usual we’ll do a quick round-up of what you might’ve missed this past week or two. So without further any further ado, let’s crack on…

The Gameplay Trailer

Just in case you’ve not seen it already (which we hope at this point is unlikely!) here’s our latest lovely gameplay trailer:

We have plenty more where that came from, too – we may or may not have another few videos for you in the works, so you can see more of DiRT 4 before it drops.

Getting DiRTy at Hockenheim RX

Product Manager Andy Gray and Chief Game Designer Paul Coleman are both out in Germany at the minute, showing the good people at Hockenheim RX DiRT 4! Have a quick watch of the below to see Mr Coleman go head-to-head against a virtual Andreas Bakkerud, Reinis Nitiss and Timmy Hansen at Loheac RX:

If you’re over at Hockenheim and fancy playing the game, then you’re in luck! We’ve got a couple of wheels set up at Petter Solberg and Johan Kristofferson’s PS RX tent – so head over there to take on the WRX vehicles in virtual form.

The DiRT 4 Steelbook

Fancy getting a better look at our DiRT 4 Steelbook? The first one’s arrived in the office, so we’ve popped it on our Instagram Story from all angles! Don’t forget, the Story will expire in 24 hours – so head over to @dirtgame now to make sure you get your glimpse. However, I posted just the quickest preview earlier…

When you’re so committed to being on-brand that you search @Codemasters HQ high and low for an orange wall to film against. pic.twitter.com/9pngTdrv14 — Christina McGrath (@xtinamcgrath) May 5, 2017

DiRT 4’s handling modes

Right – and now for the meaty bit… So, we know that DiRT Rally had an incredibly steep learning curve – where you as a driver were expected to either sink or swim. A lot of you swam (and incredibly well too!) but for DiRT 4, we’re giving you two different handling models to choose from – just in case you struggled with diving straight into a simulation handling experience last time round. These handling models aren’t assists (which, by the way, we do have in the game, and are applicable to both handling models) – they are two separate handling modes: Gamer and Simulation.

For those of you who loved the simulation handling from DiRT Rally, don’t worry – our simulation stuff for DiRT 4 is very much based in the foundations of that, but refined in certain areas. One of the places you’ll most definitely feel the difference is in our aerodynamics. We’ve worked on aerodynamics across all disciplines, and the way the vehicle travels in the air feels a lot more stable and authentic to the real life experience.

We’ve also worked hard to nail down the tarmac experience of DiRT – especially where Rallycross is concerned – and you can hear Chief Game Designer Paul Coleman discuss those changes we’ve made in the DiRT Show – cut to the 20:54 mark for the tyre chat:

For those of you wanting to know the difference between Gamer and Simulation, that’s where we have to start getting a little foggy. After all, what makes our Gamer handling special is super secret sauce… However, we can say that it’s not necessarily made up of different assists – as all assists in game can be added to both handling models. So, even if you were to switch everything off on Gamer, it’d still feel different to our Simulation handling.

What we can say is that we have some incredibly clever stuff working under the hood for Gamer handling, and we can guarantee that it’s still the incredibly fun, rewarding and quality experience you’d expect from a DiRT game. :) And not even a hefty order of kebab pizza would make us give up our secrets!

For those of you who love the game in all its forms, it will allow you to play it in two different ways. Gamer is very much a challenge to blast it down a stage, stay between the lines and get the fastest time against some challenging AI – whereas Simulation is the challenge to yourself to keep it on track and not ruin your stage time. A fan of DiRT can easily play both modes and get a different experience out of each model, and at same time find both methods of play completely exhilarating in different ways.

For example: in the studio, we’re finding that when we’re running time trial competitions (we have two stations set up for these competitions – one Gamer, one Simulation) – and when things get a little tougher with a historic RWD, some of us veer to the Gamer handling so we don’t have to be constantly terrified of our repercussions. It’s definitely a less stressful way to approach certain vehicle/track combinations, if you’re interested in something like that!

As we’ve alluded to earlier in this piece, we have the usual suite of assists you’d expect to find in a racing game – and these are based on systems that either exist in real life, or replicate the real life actions of motorsports drivers when they’re at the helm of the wheel. You’re not on rails, you’re not having anyone turn the car for you – the systems in place are ones which ultimately still leave you in control of the vehicle, but perform a certain function in making sure you stay in control of the situation. However, we’ve worked on an assist or two of our own…

A big example of this is our new Off-Throttle Braking assist. When this is enabled, the brakes are automatically applied whenever the throttle is released – so for all of you who like to use the ‘lift off’ method, it’s a very natural-feeling bit of help to slow your car down. When learning the skills of off-road racing, you’re very much taught to be either on the throttle or on the brake, and so the effect of the assist implements a driving style closely associated within this particular motorsport.

The strength of this assist can be adjusted too – so whether it’s just the smallest bit of help you’re looking for, or for the game to look after most of your braking needs, we’re there to offer a spectrum of assistance.

For maximum attack, and to experience the ultimate rawness of being in control of one of DiRT 4’s vehicles, we recommend you go for the full-frontal, unbridled simulation handling with as little assists as you can manage! However if you’re new to DiRT and want a slightly less hardcore experience of the game, then we have some cool stuff under the hood to keep you on track. Or at least, we hope so. We’ve given you the tools to do it – the rest is up to you!

Pre-order DiRT 4 now

As always, it’s my duty to remind you about the glorious goodies up for grabs if you pre-order the game ahead of its drop date! A reminder of the goodies…

And a reminder on where you can pre-order it now >>> http://dirt4game.com/uk/buy

And that’s all for this edition folks! Have lovely weekends and we’ll catch up with you soon. And yes – for those of you looking, those were some new screenshots too. ;)