Hey guys! My name’s Darren Hayward and I’m a Senior Games Designer on Dirt Rally. One of my main responsibilities over the last couple of years has been working out the best way for you all to play online together. I thought I’d give you a rundown of the challenges that you’ll find waiting for you to celebrate the launch of Dirt Rally today on PS4.

Once you’ve found your feet in the game, grab your best set of Engineers, your fastest upgraded vehicles, and head over to Online Events — it’s where you’ll find all the top players hanging out in Dirt Rally. Here there’s a calendar of multiplayer rallies with each one populated by thousands of drivers like you from the Dirt community.

These rallies are all completed asynchronously, meaning you don’t need to be online at the same time as the other drivers. Just get your entry in before the end of the event and you’re good to go.

The headline feature for all of these events: there are no restarts. No restarts, no flashbacks, no second chances. Just like a real-life rally, every corner genuinely counts.

I know that might sound intimidating, but the thing to remember is that when you crash out (and you will, we all do), you still get to the end of the stage for a finish. In the worst cases when you fail to finish, there’s always the next event to get stuck into. We feel like this system gives each event a sense of permanence, increasing the tension but reinforcing the feeling that your actions have consequences.

If you’re still with me, I’ll break down the event types so you know what you’re up against.

Daily Events

We’ve tried to cater for all schedules with these events, whether you’re logging in for a quick 20-minute stage or an epic six-hour rally.

The Daily events are the former, giving you an opportunity to test drive cars in the game before you invest your hard-earned credits. Each day is a new car on a new stage, with just 24 hours to log your time. There’s no need to own the car, so there’s no excuse for not entering. If you stack it, like I said earlier, you can always come back tomorrow!

The Dirt Daily Live is a straightforward time-based rally featuring one car on one of the game’s 70+ stages. You’ll mostly be playing Rally, but RallyX and Hillclimb will both make an appearance once a week if you feel like dipping your toe in one of the other disciplines.

The Delta event is based on the community average time for the featured stage. You’ll need to beat that average to get the top rewards from this one, but barring a serious crash or spin you should be able to manage without too much trouble.

Wager Events are where we start toying with you a little bit. We won’t tell you the car or stage that you’re about to compete on, and we’ll ask for 100,000 CR up front as a stake. It’s then up to you to finish in one of the top tiers to make sure you get a return on your investment.

The Owner’s Club event is the only daily stage that requires you to own the featured vehicle. You’ll be rewarded for your trouble, with extra CR on offer. You’ll also be able to tune your car. You know, since it’s yours.

Weekly Events

The two Weekly rallies are both six stages long, but one is not like the other. One will be a reasonably forgiving event, around one location, with reasonable rewards. The other will be much more taxing, with either brutal weather conditions or six long stages around three countries. If you can finish, the CR rewards are very generous indeed.

We’ll be advertising the less punishing weekly rally through the PlayStation Events system, so be sure to drop by and register your interest each week. We’ll be looking for your screenshots on Twitter so check the event descriptions for more information.

Monthly Events

The Monthly event is the pinnacle of competition in Dirt Rally, requiring not just skill but also bottle and nerve. You’ll be up against an epic twentyfour stage rally that spans four countries around the globe. Remember these are still one shot events, so you’ll need to balance your push for the top spot against the risk of pushing too hard and having a rally-ending crash.

We’re really excited about these events, and they’ve proven popular for the Dirt community. We can’t wait for you to join us on PS4 and show us what you’re made of. Be sure to drop by our official console community — Dirty Gossip — and let us know how you’re getting on. You’ll find several members of the development team there, including me, to compare times with. You can see the latest events schedule on the official site.

Thanks for reading — I’ll be around to answer questions in the comments so let me know what you think.

I hope you enjoy the game!