DiRT Showdown

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I apologize for double post but I feel it has been long enough and I want people to be alerted that this is posted so that they read this.

I'm going to somewhat review the game.

I'll start with this: it is very fun, but I am so let down by what CodeMasters has done. They took a great concept and made a mediocre game.

For one, there's the small things. One of the things I would have expected, especially since the series seems to have run on similar engines for quite a while now, is that they haven't made dust and smoke seem realistic enough. It's so small, but you'd think it wouldn't be hard to add that. But, the games isn't rally so I suppose the lack of dust is passable for now. They have a YouTube uploading and screenshot ability as seen in the past, and I'm quite a big fan. Look me up on YouTube under this name to find some gameplay.

The damage is an absolute joke. Yes, I understand that Derby cars are reinforced, but so are multi-million dollar race cars that have been featured, and beautifully destroyed in past CodeMasters games. They said that they really worked on the damage model, well I don't buy it because it's the worst I've seen between GRiD, F1 2011, DiRT 2 and 3. They also put several cars in that have metal cages and such around them, probably so they would have to work less on damage modelling. It just isn't satisfying to push one of the cars into a wall and see a slight bend on the surrounding frame.

The Demolition modes are extremely backwards. Points... Really? You don't win a demo-derby by hitting the most cars, you win when you survive. I suppose I can see why they did this online because people would just avoid contact to win, but there are ways around this (like a contact timer that DQ's you of you don't touch another car for so long). They could have at least done it the right way for single player. The push off is fun, regardless of the stupid scoring method. My favorite destruction mode would be the one in which you have to survive several other cars targetting only you.

I have to say, they did a great job with the AI. They are challenging and during a race, they push you around but not too a frustrating and unfair degree. They find your car just fine in the demolition modes and in the Hoonigan 1V1 the other car will challenge you, unless you are better than me, which is likely.

The physics are absolute crap, but I'm busy focusing on crashing so I don't focus too much on it. But the series had physics that were arcade enough to be fine for this game. The cars always feel slow and clunky, unless you use boost which I guess was put into the game to attract 6 year olds. I can turn many corners without even the slighest bit of lifting on the pedal (trigger). If you played DiRT 3 and were good at Gymkhana, the physics here will throw you way off in Hoonigan events. Collisions are similar to past games.

The sound is alright. I've been mostly listening to music though. I really apologize if this is a big point for you, if you want I'll listen closer and give you information about it.

They got really lazy with tracks. I've seen a lot of the same locations in DiRT 3 (Smelter, Aspen, Battersea...), but the new locations are fairly interesting.

Also, they really did design some cool cars. It's a shame the damage modellers didn't do their parts.

The multiplayer is just like the last games. I quite enjoy it. From my few games I've found that my good experience with these games online is good, I don't have connection issues or annoying people driving backwards. Of course, that is nothing on the developer and is all personal experience.

As much as it appears that I hate this game, I really don't. It will probably keep me busy for a while especially if DLC is released. So I do reccomend you buy the game. Many retailers have taken a third off the price, so I reccomend picking it up.

My overall rating is a 6/10. It just isn't the quality I've come to expect from Codies. They just didn't try hard enough this time. There was no innovation here.
 
You had me at demolition derby. :drool:

Is it me or does the car at 27 seconds, look like a Cadillac ambulance?

I see a cross on the side. Looks like a Cadillac Fleetwood hearse.

Edit: Holy crap that was an old post. My bad.
 
They got really lazy with tracks. I've seen a lot of the same locations in DiRT 3 (Smelter, Aspen, Battersea...), but the new locations are fairly interesting.

Tokyo is recycled too. They've gotten a lot of mileage out of that one, Dirt 2, Dirt 3 DLC, and now Dirt Showdown :rolleyes:

The game really seems half-arsed to me. Menu/UI is dirt 2-ish, many recycled tracks, no improvement in any aspect of the engine (damage, graphics, physics, etc.)

The whole thing just feels like a $20 expansion/standalone PSN/XBL game. To think some out there might have paid $60 for it...ouch! :ouch:
 
I forgot to mention, the graphics are not very good. Yes, in comparison to some older games not bad but in comparison to newer ganesh, even DiRT 3 it just doesn't cut it. You'd think they would make eventually be able to make a 1080p game wouldn't you, especially considering they didn't do much new.
 
BubbleBelly542
I forgot to mention, the graphics are not very good. Yes, in comparison to some older games not bad but in comparison to newer ganesh, even DiRT 3 it just doesn't cut it. You'd think they would make eventually be able to make a 1080p game wouldn't you, especially considering they didn't do much new.

You do realize there are very few games rendered in 1080p on console? Just because it says "1080p" on the back of the case doesn't mean it is really 1080p. Most console games are rendered at 480, fewer at 720, and then blown up to fit a 1080 screen.
 
II-zOoLoGy-II
You do realize there are very few games rendered in 1080p on console? Just because it says "1080p" on the back of the case doesn't mean it is really 1080p. Most console games are rendered at 480, fewer at 720, and then blown up to fit a 1080 screen.

Did not know that.

Regardless, the graphics are unacceptable.
 
I am enjoying the game at the moment, the AI get more challenging throughout the tour and will actively try to spin you out of a position which is new. The elastic band effect is far too strong though, Mario Kart style... I forgot to pause the game before starting a race and came back to an empty grid and my car alone. Decided to go for it and see, by the end of lap 1 I was second and on the tail of first. So for all the effort of avoiding being spun or crashed into, you know that if you have a lap or 2 spare that it doesn't affect the result.

Didn't realise the extent of the revived areas though. I knew DiRT 3 venues would feature heavily but DiRT 2, and GRiD as well were welcome. I noticed the GRiD locations (the Yokohama Docks and Tokyo) both had construction elements about them, I think that it is a clear nod towards GRiD 2's development.

Currently doing the joyrides, which I enjoyed within DiRT 3 and seems to be have been overlooked so far in showdown.
 
pezzarinho17
I am enjoying the game at the moment, the AI get more challenging throughout the tour and will actively try to spin you out of a position which is new. The elastic band effect is far too strong though, Mario Kart style... I forgot to pause the game before starting a race and came back to an empty grid and my car alone. Decided to go for it and see, by the end of lap 1 I was second and on the tail of first. So for all the effort of avoiding being spun or crashed into, you know that if you have a lap or 2 spare that it doesn't affect the result.

Didn't realise the extent of the revived areas though. I knew DiRT 3 venues would feature heavily but DiRT 2, and GRiD as well were welcome. I noticed the GRiD locations (the Yokohama Docks and Tokyo) both had construction elements about them, I think that it is a clear nod towards GRiD 2's development.

Currently doing the joyrides, which I enjoyed within DiRT 3 and seems to be have been overlooked so far in showdown.

We should play some time.

Anyone having trouble with RaceNet servers? Says they're down. I can't even upload to YouTube.
 
I haven't signed up to RaceNet yet and don't know what exactly it is? Do I need to sign up to be playing this online? Probably makes sense regardless, I have a lot of the CM games on my radar, even before they decided to focus on racing only.
 
pezzarinho17
I haven't signed up to RaceNet yet and don't know what exactly it is? Do I need to sign up to be playing this online? Probably makes sense regardless, I have a lot of the CM games on my radar, even before they decided to focus on racing only.

You don't have too but I reccomend it. If any thing, it's free and you get a new challenge weekly. This weeks challenge gives you a free livery for a car. Nothing special but they claim they will add more and there's no reason not to.
 
I'm about to join Racernet because I'm sick of waiting 5 minutes when I start the game to search for my profile on Racernet when I don't even have one. I will say, I will give the game an 8 now because it has grown on me and gotten more interesting. The tracks are recycled, but it's still fun. The graphics look good to me, but the damage is a little weird. Looking for some people to race with, hit me up rap129 on PSN
 
Hmmmm mixed reviews, I think I'll give it a miss for now and maybe pick it up when it's dropped in price.
 
I'm having trouble with these smash hunter events. I'm slightly colorblind so the green and yellow smashed look identical!
 
Problem I'm having is that I bought it online from the Playstation store and there's no manual - I know the game's dead simple, but I can't figure out the YouTube controls. I finally got it linked to my YT account, but when I push the YT button during the replay, there's 2 confusing controls: D-Pad up-down changes a number from 1.0 to 0.5 and then to 0.25 - I'm guessing this means either video resolution or video speed, but I have no idea. The other control is a checkmark - does this start the recording (I've read that you can only upload 30 seconds to YT so you'd need to indicate when to start it, right?) stop the recording or just make a giant checkmark on your video?

Somebody gave me a free $50 PSN gift card so I only paid $9.99 of my own money for this game =]
 
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CWR
Problem I'm having is that I bought it online from the Playstation store and there's no manual - I know the game's dead simple, but I can't figure out the YouTube controls. I finally got it linked to my YT account, but when I push the YT button during the replay, there's 2 confusing controls: D-Pad up-down changes a number from 1.0 to 0.5 and then to 0.25 - I'm guessing this means either video resolution or video speed, but I have no idea. The other control is a checkmark - does this start the recording (I've read that you can only upload 30 seconds to YT so you'd need to indicate when to start it, right?) stop the recording or just make a giant checkmark on your video?

Somebody gave me a free $50 PSN gift card so I only paid $9.99 of my own money for this game =]

Okay, the 1, 0.5 and 0.25 are indeed replay speed. Obviously, the lower the number the slower the video will be.

Once you press triangle, find your starting point by using L2 and R2, then press L1. Now find your endpoint and press R1. Then I believe you press Square and it will ask you if you would like to record the clip. If something is wrong here please let me know.
 
...they haven't made dust and smoke seem realistic enough. It's so small, but you'd think it wouldn't be hard to add that.

Hi BubbleBelly,

Thanks for your feedback. Some interesting points in there. I did the FX for Showdown including smoke and dust. It's all down to performance. When you have 8 cars on a dusty track, the dust fills a lot of screen space causing overdraw.... which results in Framrate drop. To combat this, we reduced the amount of dust/smoke that was in Dirt3. As you pointed out, it's not a Rally game, so we felt this was an acceptable compromise. Hope that helps :)
 
I was playing the demo again last night and I noticed how flakey the points were during online... Is it better in the full game?
 
anim8r_uk
Hi BubbleBelly,

Thanks for your feedback. Some interesting points in there. I did the FX for Showdown including smoke and dust. It's all down to performance. When you have 8 cars on a dusty track, the dust fills a lot of screen space causing overdraw.... which results in Framrate drop. To combat this, we reduced the amount of dust/smoke that was in Dirt3. As you pointed out, it's not a Rally game, so we felt this was an acceptable compromise. Hope that helps :)

If this is true, which I somewhat doubt, don't take it personally it's the internet so I can't trust anything, then good job. Even though I wish it could last longer, when it's there, it looks really freakin' good.
 
Yeah, I know what you mean. There were 2 of us working on it. I was senior VFX artist for Showdown. We were responsible for all the FX in the game, not just dust/smoke. We also did the pyrotechnics (track side), fireworks (sky), car collisions (particles not physics)... basically all the particle work. I have also worked on Dirt3, F1 2011 and Operation Flashpoint: Red River since starting here :)
 
anim8r_uk
Yeah, I know what you mean. There were 2 of us working on it. I was senior VFX artist for Showdown. We were responsible for all the FX in the game, not just dust/smoke. We also did the pyrotechnics (track side), fireworks (sky), car collisions (particles not physics)... basically all the particle work. I have also worked on Dirt3, F1 2011 and Operation Flashpoint: Red River since starting here :)

I thought the pyro was great in Showdown and 3. As for collision particles I am not really sure what that is but cool haha.
 
....As for collision particles I am not really sure what that is.....

Collision particles are all the pieces that fly off the car (not the really large body pieces), so all the sparks, broken glass, carbon fibre pieces, metal pieces (springs, clamps etc) and paint pieces. Pretty much all the small bits that fly around in the air when you have a big hit :)

This image shows collision particles...
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/419701_259720997433809_534736108_n.jpg
 
Got it yesterday afternoon, beat it tonight. Hardest difficulty (IF you can call it that).

EDIT: %100 on Yoko Docks and Battersea Joyride.

Will get back when I've Plat'd the game.
 
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Enjoying this game so far, great wee muck-around to be honest!
 
I'm 1 trophy away from the Plat in Showdown! But I need someones help, the last trophy I need requires me to "Dominate a friend in Challenge Mode," This requires that a friend who owns showdown sends me 10 (Easy to beat, please) challenges, and I must beat all 10 in a row (Or else you won't receive the trophy.

Could anyone with the game lend a helping hand. :)
 
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Antonisbob
I'm 1 trophy away from the Plat in Showdown! But I need someones help, the last trophy I need requires me to "Dominate a friend in Challenge Mode," This requires that a friend who owns showdown to send me 10 (Easy to beat, please) challenges, and I must beat all 10 in a row (Or else you won't receive the trophy.

Could anyone with the game lend a helping hand. :)

I'll help when I'm back from vacation if no one else does.
 
I'm just wondering, is it okay to crash people in 8 Ball and racing events online? On one hand I hate getting crashed in other games and don't do it to others, but on the other and that's what this game is about, and I fully expect and am fine with being shoved in a corner in a race online in Showdown. What do you think?
 
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