WHAT. A. WEEK. I mean, just, wow. This week’s been one hell of a ride, so thanks for joining us on it! With our spectacular launch on Tuesday, a cracking night at the BAFTAs on Thursday, and a weekend of DiRT Rally with the console community to look forward to, it’s been one of the most memorable weeks in DiRT history! We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride too. <3
Rally Around the Capital
Unless you were living under a rock this week, you’ll have noticed this Tuesday that DiRT Rally launched on PS4 and Xbox One – with the new content arriving on PC players’ desktop too! To celebrate this monumental milestone for DiRT Rally, we dropped off lots of jars of dirt in a Subaru, drove a #DiRTRally convoy around London, and THEN took over the Southbank Centre with said convoy of classic rally vehicles, plenty of PS4 pods, and a DiRT Rally Motion Simulator!
Those are just a few photos of the day – but you can check out the full photo album on Facebook, here.
For those who made it down to the Southbank Centre, thank you so much for joining us! We had so much fun, and it was great to see so many people getting hands on with the game. A special shout out must go to Mark Kearon too, winner of our Crazy Kart competition – we hope you enjoy your new toy. Our pals over at ShopTo certainly did…
Of course, we (and some of you!) were also tweeting about it all day too – so here’s just a few of the highlights!
Media are getting their hands DiRTy today – literally! Because this is how their copies are arriving. ;) #DiRTRally pic.twitter.com/1REDq4YYyT
— DiRT (@dirtgame) April 5, 2016
SPOTTED: #DiRTRally‘s convoy is en route to the Southbank! Here’s just a couple of the cars with us today… pic.twitter.com/Yc3TtTE4n1 — DiRT (@dirtgame) April 5, 2016
@dirtgame 4:04:80 in the Lancia Delta on #DirtRally Great Simulator Quickest so far ?? pic.twitter.com/xaPF8swKGf
— Mark Kearon #TeamLH (@Marky264) April 5, 2016
You should get round to the back of the Royal Festival Hall to check out @dirtgame and these beauties. pic.twitter.com/7tOMRF9dUh — Sean Cleaver (@cleaverslips) April 5, 2016
For those of you who missed the #DiRTRally convoy through London earlier, here’s one of our favourite shots… ??? pic.twitter.com/fp9bvy5Pru
— DiRT (@dirtgame) April 5, 2016
In London today? Head down to the Royal Festival Hall to try out #DiRTRally – we’ve just spotted @neilcole! #WorldRX pic.twitter.com/pz2eTnxXQ4 — FIA World Rallycross (@FIAWorldRX) April 5, 2016
We’ve pulled up at the Southbank! Come try the game, check out the cars – and get your hands DiRTy! #DIRTRally pic.twitter.com/Y9xdDY79J7
— DiRT (@dirtgame) April 5, 2016
No word on if the press have been able those games out of those jars yet – but they’ve certainly been a bit of a talking point!
Jar of dirt. Get it? DiRT Rally, jar of dirt. DiRT/dirt? I’ve had some weird deliveries but @dirtgame wins! pic.twitter.com/OcladjiWtb — Hollie Bennett (@HollieB) April 5, 2016
Limited Edition DiRT Rally t-shirts
To coincide with the launch of DiRT Rally on PS4 and Xbox One, we’ve launched our Limited Edition DiRT Rally t-shirts! If you remember a while back, we ran a community competition to design the office merchandise – so here is your winner! We’ve had our mitts on them for a couple of days, and they’ve been selling like crazy – so snap one up now if you don’t want to miss out! We won’t be printing any more – so once they’re gone, they’re gone!
Buy them here, exclusively on our very own Codemasters Store.
Community tips
For those of you new to DiRT Rally, we asked our PC players to give you some top tips on handling the game. We asked, and they delivered! Here’s some of our favourites – but you can get the full list of replies by expanding the replies to the first tweet.
DiRT Rally players – your console friends are going to need your help! What’s your top tip for a DiRT Rally newbie? pic.twitter.com/5I3sg4bWTv
— DiRT (@dirtgame) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame Don’t cut https://t.co/feompzFJ9t — Lee Williams® (@justbiglee) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame don’t think you can just jump in and drive flat out straight away. If you do, you will have many many big crashes.
— Luke Harvey (@Rallycameraman) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame you will crash alot, but keep practising till you dont crash anymore, one small corner can make you feel like a pro :) — Stella Stig (@StellaStig) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame Having cut a few corners and witnessed the consequences in my first days with the game, “Don’t cut” still seems like solid advice.
— maxen (@13mxn) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame Being a DiRT veteran I’d have to say TURN OFF ALL ASSISTS. Learn to play the real way, you’ll be better in ALL driving games after — VR DerrickGott007 (@derrickgott007) April 4, 2016
@dirtgame Winning = Making it to the end of the stage. Anything beyond that should be considered a bonus. Slow, smooth and steady.
— Angry_B (@Hirsutable) April 4, 2016
BAFTA Games Awards 2016
It was a privilege to be able to represent the DiRT team and Codemasters at the BAFTAs last night. Sadly, we didn’t bag the gong – but of course, we’re still hugely proud of the game, and every single person who’s had a part to play in making DiRT Rally what it is today – both Codies and community. So again, thank you for your thoroughly brilliant and continued support. <3
Studio update
Alas, we have no studio update this week! As you can imagine, Paul and Darren have had crazy weeks – and at present, they may or may not be nursing slightly sore heads after last night’s shenanigans. ;) However, the patch notes for v1.1 can be found on our last blog post, and the relevant bug threads have been set up on Steam and our forums. If you find something’s up with the update, please let us know so we can fix it. Hatward’s also been knighting some more VIPs – so watch out for a further flurry of shields on your leaderboards!
Screenshot of the week
This is a pretty exciting moment – our first screenshot of the week from PS4!!! Here’s @batotaq’s pretty impressive water splash.
CLEAN Rally ;) #DirtRally #PS4 #PS4share @dirtgame @ThePs4Share pic.twitter.com/kduVw4KZ85 — ShamatOtaq (@batotaq) April 6, 2016
Video of the week
Our video of the week has to go to vajbTV. A PC player from the heady days of Early Access, he’s been killing it on PS4 since he got an early copy! If you’ve not had a chance to play with the new Renault Alpine, this guy will convince you to give it a spin. SO. MUCH. FUN.
