DIRT 5: Screwed Both Ways 

To summarize it from my perspective: They tried so hard to distinguish themselves from Dirt Rally, that they completely failed to understand what made the mainline series so good in the first place. All they had to do was copy all of Dirt Rally's strengths (or even content), simplify the handling, add more game modes and everyone would have been happy. Instead we got floaty handling, awful game speed and visuals that have definitely burned my retinas.

Dirt 5's floaty physics is kinda like the first two motorstorm games, I think the reason why this physics worked in motorstorms and failed in dirt 5 is cuz that motorstorms track design is generally wider (full throttle all day) and it have a boost button.

So fun fact. 1 Week after launch, Dirt 4 had more active players than Dirt 5. This stayed like that until Dirt 5 was added to gamepass.

Dirt 5 has a similar problem I think most arcade or simcade racing games these days have. They feel like the people who created them don't actually like cars or racing games (or video games at all sometimes). They know what people want but they don't know why people want it. They're missing the extra effort and attention to detail from understanding what racing game fans want. You get the usual beats, but it feels like they were copied from somebody watching a video instead of somebody who actually experienced it. Instead the focus always feels like it's on the extra non-racing aspects of the game. Like "environment details", social media integration, featuring celebrities, etc. Worst of all is that they all seem to be moving away from the more competitive aspect of racing and especially the idea of consequences. The last part is probably more of an industry wide phenomenon, which is why souls games got so popular instead.

DiRT 5 was more like imitation of Gravel or Sega Rally, the only thing that DiRT 5 shares with DiRT 2 is DiRT name.

We all know the reason why the damage models are worse in Dirt 5. Goddamn Car Manufacturers.

This is the greatest DIRT 5 honest review video of all time

I get the appeal with Dirt 5. trying to bring new comers to the franchise and trying to stand out as much as possible. but gosh they tried terribly hard. enjoyable for a few time and few days later is dusting on your Steam game list. comparing Dirt 5 with the previous Dirt games is crystal clear how the quality decreased in Dirt 5 compared to Dirt 3 (my favorite game) and I hate doing comparisons like these. I never heard about Dirt and Grid until 2016 when both games was on giveaway on Steam and made me into a motorsport freak fan to this day. I wonder myself why Codemasters believes the approach of Dirt 3 cannot work to new comers compared to what they did with Dirt 5. Believe or not I used to play Pro Race Driver as a kid (Toca Race Driver in the UK, Grid's successor) and I never knew both of these games introduced me into motorsport were made by this same developer, Codemasters. Codemasters were the far cry when it comes to racing games. launching quality after quality hit like anything alike. you can't see a twisted whole chassi in Gran Turismo or Forza like in Grid 1. for me it's the best of both worlds. excellent arcade handling grounded in a racing enviroment not being a simulator. and now with EA in the play, the milking on Formula 1 has started, the lost legacy of the Colin Mcrae games and full live services sacrifincing the singleplayer experience with their shitty services. I guess we're starting to witness an another downfall.

Your opinion definitely aligns with mine... I tried it on Game Pass shortly after it landed and genuinely hoped it'd be some good fun arcade offroad racing, but man... I think you hit the nail on the head with the camera/sense of speed and general floatiness - compared to almost every other racing game I've played in the last 10-20 years I don't think I've ever come away from a game *bored* before this one. I distinctly remember finishing a race and being 'wait, was that it?'. Uninstalled it after that... Power to the people that enjoyed the game obviously but even nowadays with less arcade racers of that ilk around DiRT 5 felt uninspired and a bit drab to me...

Here is my view on it: Codemasters Cheshire was seriously trying to distinguish DiRT 5 from the DiRT Rally series after DiRT 4 being known as just an easier version of DiRT Rally. But the strategy they used was not that great, because they used the basis of a niche vehicular combat game instead of basing it off DiRT Rally, adding the features that DiRT 5 has (Gymkahna, Playgrounds etc.) and making the handling & physics more accessible with DiRT Rally’s graphics in place. But I did enjoy DiRT 5 a lot, it also had an amazing soundtrack, the game just could’ve been so much better. Your opinion does align a lot with mine.

It's ludicrous that DIRT 5 got a lot of praise and pCars 3 got a lot of hate. What a complete joke it is that DIRT 5 was a top contender for Racing Game of the Year 2020 by many 'critics'.

Dirt 2 and Race Driver: Grid are exceptional games that no one including Codemasters themselves seem to be able to reproduce. If there was a way to make remasters of these games I would buy them on every new console generation.

Very like how you see this game. I got same feelings in my review on release day. Love yor videos Jake, keep it up

DIRT 5 really disappointed me because it didn't have true stage rallying with pace notes. Man I just want a good arcade rally game.

Dirt showdown, but it's a main series entry

GRID Legends was the first time I had fun with a GRID game since Race Driver GRID, which I still have installed on my computer.

I love the PS2/PS3 era of gaming

Your thoughts on DIRT 5 really echo mine. I do think the game looks gorgeous in its own rights and I kinda like the car list too. But it's really just a "meh" game other than that for me. Would much rather play DIRT 4 and that really says something.

I Personally enjoyed DIRT 5 quite a bit, But it wasn't prefect. It couldve used some improvements in most areas I think.

man, i didn't know someone knowed gravel

i actually loved D5, got all stars on the main campaign

I watched this just before I was going to download 5 for free and just after I happened to get Dirt 2 for PS3 again. I know what I’m playing now

It's a fun game with the steering wheel or the PS5 controller for me. It's the fact I'm one trophy away from the platinum and the goal is to drive 1000 miles for me.

Wow after you mentioned Onrush, I feel there’s a big similarity to how that game and Dirt 5 plays

My first DiRT was the 4th game back in early 2018.

I first started playing the series with the 5th game on Game Pass. I thought that was a pretty solid game (although it can get a bit boring after a while), and I still do. But I tried DiRT 4 when that released on Game Pass as well. It was absolutely VICIOUS, and difficult up the ass. I knew that DiRT 5 was more arcadey than its predecessors, and I expected more of a racing sim, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. That being said, even if I could barely complete the game, it was still an absolute blast. Of the very limited experience I have playing racing games (I’ve only played NFS Heat, FM6, FM7, FH3, FH4, FH5, DiRT 5, and DiRT4, with the hopes of playing all of the Codemasters games available on Game Pass), DiRT 4 is definitely the best I’ve ever played. It made DiRT 5 look like a shit show in comparison, that’s for sure

I would say I liked Dirt 5 but that's because I got it for PS4 for free, and it's my 2nd Dirt game overall. The only ones I had were Dirt 3 Complete Edition and Dirt Rally (which I know is an entirely different thing than), and I also got those two for free on Steam.

As a huge DiRT fan like me, am I the only who prefers this game than DiRT 4? (the first three are still better don’t get me wrong) Obviously, the game is not perfect. The collision physics is awful (and sometimes funny too), the colors look a bit too oversaturated, but I really enjoyed playing this game, even though I love the older DiRT games more. I hope the next DiRT game (if that’s ever going to happen) will be a big improvement. Just like GRID Legends was a really big improvement from GRID 2019.

I had fun with Dirt 5 for a while, but when EA bought Codemasters, somehow the AI started to have insane rubberband to the point that I ragequitted the game and never touched it again.

Staying up until 3AM was worth it LMAO. I played DiRT 5 for 30 minutes in a friend's PC and it didn't click with me like DiRT 2 did (almost instantly). It's a shame.

I would say the game does look nice mud effects ground texture and lighting sometimes

I will repeat what I always say about "modern" arcade racing games physics. They suck and the biggest problem is suspension model. If you look at Xbox360/PS3 era racing games, you will see a lot of suspension movement and compliance. Audi Quattro from Dirt2 you've shown, has significant body roll&pitch as a result of player inputs. While going over bumps car keeps all wheels on the ground and smoothly absorbs vertical shock. In Grid reboots and Dirt5 cars looks like cars have their suspension fully extended as a "default state" and dampers immediately stop wheel travel after bumps. Due to this issue, cars look unnatural, are unpredictable and unresponsive, as wheels constantly lose contact with surface on rough terrain and curbs.

onrush was sooo fucking fun imo

lacking proper rally mode is my concern that rally would be exclusive to Dirt Rally

I honestly liked it but I was expecting playgrounds to be more like EventLab and I feel like it really fell off long term for me because basically everything that was new was DLC and there wasn’t too much f2p additions

Speaking of visuals I would add that the game has such a poor draw distance it stinks, it really is noticeable during the race, and the pop-in issue is quite distracting, even with the settings cranked up to the max. Not to mention how TAA smears and blurs the image into the wacky mess even on higher res, so these 2 issues I mentioned are what turn me off from playing this otherwise pretty looking game altogether. While the effects are juicy, dynamic clouds in the sky at times look heavenly well, and it even got a ray tracing update sometime ago - it still isn't as much of a looker as it marketed, despite all of it strenghts. With all that said, I still prefer the look of DiRT2. The game was ahead of its time IMMENSELY, and it's still a one helluva stunning racer!

God I hated the Camera in this Game.

I have played all the 360 era Dirt games and they all feel like there was a lot of effort put in to each one them from the lighting setting and tone to even how they play from physics and handing and this goes for all the game on 360 even Dirt Showdown. But i haven enjoyed any of the Xbox One/SX Dirt games apart from Dirt4. i feel that the Dirt Rally games (i havent played Dirt Rally 2) are to realistic for a franchise that i feel is meant to be in the middle ground of both arcade and realism. Dirt 5 is a OK game is not bad but its not DIRT as you should know it

.......I just want to play Dirt 1 and 2 again. I liked Dirt 3, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel as lively compared to 1 and 2

well ea basically destroyed project cars and dirt franchise in a nutshell

i think it has nothing to do with the game engine at all, using another games game engine is like using a different oven, if the cake come out mid, its bc yeah made a mid game, not bc the game engine is lackluster.

Dirt 5 was disappointing i remember wanting it because finally another dirt game but then tried it and it felt slow the gameplay was easy that i got bored and felt like playing dirt 2 again and I did.

Dirt 5: Gravel with pointless voiceovers.

As someone who was very hyped about onrush, I honestly didn't think the game was that good. The controls felt bad, too stiff if I recall, gameplay didn't feel fully fleshed out, and artistically the game lacked authenticity and style. Honestly, it looked like a high end mobile game just in terms of style and liveries and unlockable skins. Everything just felt very generic. Even compared to Dirt 5 the game felt devoid of personality.

Only good thing about it is it's 4 player split screen. Other than that, it's just meh.

i wanted to like dirt 5 but i just cant

Dirt 3 is still so good today I don't see the purpose of making a similar thing, just worse

We just need a good dirt rally 3.0

DIRT 3 is where its at Dirt 5 is fun and all mostly the playgrounf part and the relaxed car "handling" just simple fun

DiRT 5: Looks and feels like a budget game like Gravel, but way worse. And the art style is way too saturated and bright.