Kit Cars, Game Pass and the VR update you’ve been waiting for, it’s time for The DiRT Roadbook!

DiRT Rally 2.0 – Available Now on Xbox Game Pass, PC Version on Microsoft Store

As mentioned in last week’s DiRT Roadbook, DiRT Rally 2.0 is now on Xbox Game Pass! What we didn’t mention though was our plans for PC, and if you caught Inside Xbox this week you’ll see that we’re now also on Xbox Game Pass for PC! On top of that, the PC version of DiRT Rally 2.0 is also available to buy on the Microsoft Store. All the details are on Codemasters.com so check out our announcement there.

As an Xbox player myself I’m delighted to see this great game make its way to a whole new audience of players. If you’re new to DiRT and concerned that “the Dark Souls of racing games” (as the media put it) is too tough for you, don’t worry. DiRT Rally 2.0 is a highly accessible game that does challenge you, but also rewards you with personal victories and stories you’ll be sharing with friends for years to come.

Thanks to our knowledgeable and passionate DiRT community you have access to a wide range of tips, tricks and settings to help you tackle the most authentic off-roading experience available today. I will also say from personal experience that the game plays brilliantly on an Xbox controller, and with a little tweaking you’ll be right at home. Below you’ll find a short controller settings guide I made before joining Codemasters, SkyRex’s excellent “How to DiRT” video and here’s a link to the Community Rally School on our forums, where you can ask questions and get all the help you need.

Peugeot 306 Maxi & Seat Ibiza Kit Car – Available now in DiRT Rally 2.0

The F2 Kit Cars are here! Mighty front-wheel-drive (FWD) machines from the 1990s are now available in DiRT Rally 2.0 and are an absolute blast to chuck around the Stages. If you’re more used to driving RWD or AWD cars in DiRt these may seem a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of them you’ll be flying.

One thing to remember when in a FWD car is that the front wheels have to handle both the forward momentum (accelerating and braking) as well as the turning. That’s a big ask of the tyres, so you have to be mindful of your inputs and strike a balance between your turning and throttle application. In short, the more throttle you apply, the less grip you’ll have to turn with and vice-versa; if you ease off the throttle in some corners you’ll turn better.

Those are my 2 pennies of advice but let’s get a real hotshot to show you how it’s done. Check out our Onboard videos above of Jon Armstrong absolutely flooring it through the Greek countryside. You can tell he’s confident by the fact that on multiple occasions he’s sending the cars sideways over jumps to line up the next few turns. A quick browse through our community video thread shows many of you having fun with them too.

Before we move on I just want to give a shout out to some talented artists in the DiRT community, check out these drawings of the F2 Kit Cars from ICR Designs and Carlos Sampol Salom, real good stuff.

DiRT Rally 2.0 World Series – Round 1’s Final Week

The DiRT Rally 2.0 World Series has finished up its second set of Qualifiers and we’re now on to Qualifier 3. This week Rally drivers head to New Zealand in R5 cars whereas the Rallycross competitors take on France in the RX Supercars.

After you’ve done some practice in Custom Event or Time Trial, head on over to the World series tab in-game and lay down your times. You only get one shot so make it count!

If you took part in any of the Qualifiers so far you’ll already have your BMW M2 Competition waiting for you in My Team Rewards, and if you’ve yet to try out the World Series you can get your M2 this week by setting a valid time in either Event. Players will only be awarded one BMW M2 Competition throughout the course of the Qualifiers, so keep that in mind if you’re ever thinking of a My Team garage clearout. This special version of the BMW M2 competition comes with free car repairs.

While we’re talking about the World Series here’s a few updates on hot topics within the community:

We’ll soon be adding Leaderboards to DiRTRally 2.com so that you can see how well you’re doing.

The Qualified players from Round 1 events will be announced in the coming weeks, once we’ve verified all of the top Leaderboard runs.

As mentioned in the Sporting Regulations, any Qualifying times that seem suspicious will be investigated before we confirm the results.

Oculus SDK Support – Coming to Steam Next Week

You may be wondering why this article’s featured image is Jon Armstrong taking on DiRT Rally 2.0 in VR. Well, we’ve got some news about next week’s update. Version 1.9 of DiRT Rally 2.0 will see the inclusion of the much-awaited Oculus SDK on Steam! Many thanks to all of you for your continued feedback since VR became available, and to the many people behind the scenes who are making this happen.

As a quick note, when you launch DiRT Rally 2.0 in Oculus VR Mode on Steam next week it will apply your graphics presets from the 2D Mode. This is set to be updated in Version 1.10; in the meantime we recommend you review your graphics settings when playing in Oculus VR Mode. We also have some more VR improvements across the board in Version 1.9, take a look below:

Added “Launch DiRT Rally 2.0 in Oculus VR Mode” command to Steam version.

Adjusted default Chaperone setup by forcing Seated Mode.

Improved readability of various UI elements.

Made various improvements to reduce stutter during head movement.

The complete list of Version 1.9 Patch Notes can be found here.

“Dashcam” – Coming in Version 1.9 Next Week

Also coming on October 1 is the Dashboard camera, another popular community request. This new interior camera (which is an addition to what’s in the game already) is highly popular amongst wheel users and will arrive in the Version 1.9 update. Above you’ll see some comparison pics, showing what the different camera views look like, and a quick glance back at DiRT Rally which had a similar angle.

Here’s some words from Mike Robson, who took to the forums a few days ago to share more about the feature and answer your questions:

Bringing back the original dash camera as an addition to, or replacement of, the new dash camera has been on the cards since about a year ago. We trialled the new position during the beta phase and feedback was split between the new and old positions. We decided to go with the new position and monitor feedback in regards to bringing back the old position.

After a few months it became clear that it would be well received if we brought back the position used in DiRT Rally and DiRT4. It has taken some time to do so because of our work commitments on GRID.

We will continue to monitor the feedback given to implement new features in to DR2.0 or future titles.

You’ll also see above a brief mention of GRID. Here at Codemasters HQ our development teams work on multiple projects and learn from every game we release. Yesterday Chris dropped information on GRID‘s wheel support, mentioning the various improvements made to the configuration process. Many of the things that came about in this were due to direct feedback from the community, most notably in the “Input on Inputs” thread on the DiRT forum. The DiRT community (especially on Steam) really know their wheels inside-out, and tapping into that knowledge has proved very beneficial. If you’re a DiRT fan this is another reason to check out GRID when it releases in October.

Broadcast Mode (Beta) – Coming in Version 1.9 Next Week

We’re not done with Version 1.9 news just yet! Also coming next week is the first iteration of Broadcast Mode (Beta), which will allow you to spectate in Multiplayer Lobbies! This feature is primarily developed for the DiRT Rally 2.0 World Series however it’s also a great tool for community championships like our friends at AOR and Actrollvision, or for you to see how your friends are tackling the Stages.

As the (Beta) tag implies, this is an initial version of Broadcast Mode and will improve over time, with more updates and tweaks planned for Version 1.10.

That’s it for this monster of a DiRT Roadbook, thanks for reading! I’ll catch you all next week for your usual dose of DiRT news, insights and cool things the community’s up to, farewell!

–PJ