DiRT 4: Day One Edition - Xbox One

Also known as: DiRT 4: Day One Edition

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Also for: PS4, PC
Viewed: 3D Third-person, over the shoulder Genre:
Racing: Off-Road
Media: Blu-Ray Arcade origin:No
Developer: Codemasters Racing Studios Soft. Co.: Codemasters
Publishers: Codemasters (GB)
Released: 9 Jun 2017 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 3+
Connectivity: Live online enabled

Summary

DiRT is back, and having swerved into different territory with DiRT Rally the franchise has brought that particular brand of off-road racing back into the main series.

The headline feature this time out is Your Stage. It's a piece of technology that takes a chunk of real world landscape (from Australia, Spain, Michigan, Sweden or Wales) and does the all the heavy lifting to create a racetrack through it for you. Newcomers can create short, simple stages, while veterans can build highly technical, complex courses. You can then share them and challenge your friends to get involved!

Some DiRT Rally fans have been a little concerned that the fact this is DiRT 4 and not 'DiRT Rally 2' means that the series is returning to the more arcade-y style of recent entries in the series, but they need not fear. Underpinning the handling of the latest game is a robust set of mathematics tying its cars to real-world driving, and some improvements have even been made since DiRT Rally to the aerodynamics of the vehicles.

Still, newcomers need not be too worried. DiRT 4 also features 'Gamer Mode', an option that tweaks performance to make life a little easier, resulting in the ability to throw your car around the course with wild abandon while still having the handling underpinned by all those complex mathematics.

Making a return from DiRT 3 is Land Rush mode, which is a more American way of doing off road racing. It basically involves thrashing around in vehicles that look a bit like buggies. Make no mistake, though, the same physics that underpin the rally driving are present and accounted for here.

Once again, the latest DiRT game is the official game of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, which means you get five official venues - Montalegre, Lohéac Bretagne, Hell, Holjes & Lydden Hill - in a multitude of different series. While we're naming names, there are also over 50 cars available to drive this time out, including the Ford Fiesta R5, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, Subaru WRX STI NR4 and Audi Sport quattro S1 E2.

All this comes, of course, with the sorts of online features you'd expect, including daily, weekly and month-long challenges against racers across the world and a freshly tweaked Racenet with a live ladder, leagues and tournaments, cross-platform leaderboards and an enhanced CREST telemetry system.