“It’s a unique way of immersing yourself in the history of a sport”
Reliving Colin McRae’s greatest moments in DIRT RALLY 2.0
recently acquired a Logitech G920 steering wheel for my PC, which inspired me to revisit the brutal, brilliant Dirt Rally 2.0. And while I’m still working on keeping my car on those rugged, muddy tracks for more than ten seconds at a time, I’ve been enjoying the game’s recent Colin McRae-themed DLC.
IMcRae was a household name in the late 1990s and early 2000s, not just for his talent behind the wheel, but for the series of superb rally sims he lent his name to. You can trace the DNA of Dirt Rally directly back to the Colin McRae Rally series, which makes this a fitting game in which to honor his career.
Celebrated the career of a rally legend. objectives, each mirroring a pivotal (or disastrous) moment in McRae’s career. It’s like an interactive history lesson, which fans of McRae will get an extra kick out of.
In a 1988 rally in Wales, a fresh-faced McRae’s Peugeot 205 GTI suffered a damaged engine mount, which forced him to retire. In the DLC’s challenge, you begin the stage with the same broken engine mount and must place at least 5th, without breaking down, to finish it.
Later, in 1992, McRae finished a rally in Finland, having sustained heavy damage after suffering several dramatic rolls. In this challenge you have to survive a gruelling threestage rally in Finland in a badly damaged Subaru Legacy RS, which is a nerve-racking experience.
FINNISH LINE
Finland’s white-knuckle woodland tracks are littered with sudden, severe jumps, and with every chassis-rattling jolt you run the risk of taking internal damage and being forced to bow out of the rally early.
I love how this challenge mode isn’t just a list of arbitrary objectives, but rooted in actual events. This gives everything you do added context, and it’s a unique way of immersing yourself in the history of a sport. But be warned: It’s tough.
If you’re a Dirt Rally 2.0 first timer, you might want to spend some time playing the base game before you step into McRae’s racing boots. Navigating his notoriously powerful, twitchy Ford Escort RS Cosworth through some of those treacherous, snowy Swedish stages is hard work.
If you prefer a more straightforward rally experience, you might find the challenge format a little too gimmicky. But I love it, and I hope other driving games steal it. By being put in these wildly different situations, you get to experience everything the simulation has to offer in a clever, compelling way.