Codies Racing Line – July 9, 2020

Hey everyone,

Once again we hope everyone is happy and healthy, and making use of gaming to stay sociable and entertained. It’s good to be back with yet another bumper blog on all things Codemasters from the past fortnight!

This time around with the Racing Line, we’re shaking things up a little. As well as your usual updates on live and upcoming Codemasters titles, we’ll be bringing you a nostalgia hit from the world of DIRT, and be getting an update from our friends over at Slightly Mad Studios.

Of course, though, we have the matter of a brand new game launch this week to kick us off…

F1® 2020

Welcome to the Racing Line – and this is an especially exciting one. Not only are we in the middle of back-to-back race weekends; it’s also F1® 2020 release week!

Reviews of F1® 2020 rolled out from this past Monday – and they have certainly been glowing. We’ve been so proud of how the game has been received by media and Racing Ahead content creators. You can read the best of them right here, and watch all the gameplay highlights in our handy playlist:

If you have the F1® 2020 Deluxe Schumacher Edition, you’ve already been playing for a few days, and it’s been fantastic to see your early reaction and feedback. If you have pre-ordered the Seventy Edition, you’ll be able to start playing tonight from midnight in your area on PS4 and Xbox, and midnight BST on Steam.

Still looking for more information about F1® 2020? Last week, we released the full features trailer for F1® 2020, which you can check out below:

There are so many details to take in from the content we’ve shown you, so here’s a quick snapshot of some of the new features:

Deeper F2™ Integration
Choose from a full season, half season, or three-race F2™ experience, before getting started on your 10-season driver career. We’re also adding the 2020 F2™ season as a free update later in the year.

Shorter Season Options
F1® 2020 is all about giving you more ways to play, including shorter season options. Choose between the original and full 22 race season (including Hanoi Circuit and Circuit Zandvoort), or shorter 10 or 16 options.

Rear-View Mirror
Not only have we given you more options to play F1® 2020, we’ve also been listening to your feedback from previous games. This year, we’re introducing a rear-view mirror to help you race wheel-to-wheel against your opponents.

Customisable OSD
Want to move your circuit map somewhere else? Change where your rear-view mirror sits? Move everything to wherever you’d like on screen!

Simplified ERS
Based on feedback from F1 drivers, we’ve simplified the ERS to make it more realistic. All you need to do to activate it is press a button!

Want to learn more? We’ve got everything you need to know right here. We’ve also given our official game website a brand new look – let us know what you think.

To all of you who’ve been playing F1® 2020, or are about to get started, we hope you enjoy playing! What have you called your team in the new MyTeam mode? We want to know – send your names and screenshots over to us at @Formula1game.

– Jenny

DIRT 5

We’ve promised you that DIRT 5’s focus for July will be all about revealing new game features and details, to further fill out the smorgasbord of off-road action awaiting you come October. Consider this, our full reveal of car classes, your opening course…

An incredible variety of driving experiences await you in DIRT 5 – from the most modern all-terrain race cars available today, to classic rally heroes, to converted GT and SUV road champions, to insane rock bouncer and sprint cars. It’s all in DIRT 5, and we can’t wait to see which class takes your fancy the most. The car classes reveal also mentions more previously-unannounced cars for the game, including the Porsche 959 Prodrive Rally Raid, Aston Martin DBX, and Peugeot 208 WRX.

Enough to whet your appetite? Pre-orders for DIRT 5 continue to go live across all six (count ‘em) of the platforms we’re launching on. Xbox and Steam pre-orders are available on their stores, both including a 10% discount on the Amplified Edition for players of previous DIRT games!

Oh, and by the way, make sure to catch the latest episode of Donut Media’s Up To Speed, in which they tell you everything you need to know about Ariel – the UK factory known for incredible lightweight cars including the Nomad, which features in DIRT 5. Donut’s James Pumphrey reveals more details on his and Nolan Sykes’ in-game involvement – expect plenty of car chat and pot-stirring from the Donut duo.

Digested all that? Good. Grab a refill, kick back, and prepare for plenty more as we blast through July…

…Now I’m hungry.

– Chris

PROJECT CARS 3

Hello fellow racers! I’m Fernando Moutinho, the Social Media and Community Manager for Project CARS 3. I am incredibly thrilled to be part of such a fantastic team, working on our most exciting title yet.

Since the announcement trailer of Project CARS 3 last June, quite a lot has happened. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the reaction from our community and have been taking notes of the valuable feedback fans have been sending our way. We know our fans are just as passionate about the franchise as we are, and it’s my job to make sure the fans are getting a good and open look at our new game.

You can learn more about what’s coming your way in our first two Dev Blogs, which we published on our website (Dev Blog 1 and Dev Blog 2), and keep an eye out for more coming in the next few weeks. We’re also currently preparing an FAQ that will address many of those burning questions you’ve been sending our way.

There’s a lot of cool stuff happening behind the scenes, and as a racing game fan myself, I really can’t wait to get the green light to get it all out to you. We’re only around 6 weeks from launch, so get ready for a lot more details about Project CARS 3 coming your way on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and our website.

– Fernando

DIRT RALLY 2.0

Before we kick off with today’s best rally game, let’s look back:

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 – 20 Years On
Earlier this week, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the legendary Colin McRae Rally 2.0. For many (myself included) this was where the fascination with the sport began, and was a direct influence on some of the DiRT Rally developers wanting to make games for a living.

If you fancy some bangin’ 90s beats, check out the opening movie here, and we have quotes from various Codies people here on their memories of playing the game. Special shout-out to our Senior Graphic Designer, David Alcock, who has worked on every single DIRT and Colin McRae game, and is still at Codies today on DIRT 5!

A while back I found an original Colin McRae Rally 2.0 manual while raiding the “Codies Swag Cave” (yup, we have one of those for when we need to ship out promotional gear). Still looks good in 2020, check out the pic above. David worked on that, and is still proud of the bespoke metallic ink that was used.

And now… back to the present:

World RX Esports Series – Final Round – The FIA World Rallycross Championship’s gearing up for real-world action once more, but before then we’ve got an esports champion to crown. This Sunday (July 12), top rallycross drivers and special guests from other disciplines will go head-to-head on DiRT Rally 2.0’s virtual Killarney International Raceway circuit in South Africa.

2019 real-world champion Timmy Hansen leads the standings with 79 points, with Aston Martin GT driver Tom Blomqvist (his dad rallied the Group B quattro, y’know) in second with 67. Timmy’s brother Kevin is in 3rd with 61.

Among the new drivers competing this week are GT driver (and professional sim racer) David Perel, Bentley driver Jordan Pepper and Jaguar driver Simon Evans. Mika Salo also returns, bringing some F1 flavour to the grid once more.

Missed any of the previous rounds? We’ve got everything on the DIRT Esports section of our YouTube channel – go take a look.

Other Esports Activity – Here’s a quick roundup of what else is happening in virtual DiRT Rally 2.0 competitions at the moment:

• The British Rally Championship Esports Invitational has ended, and you can watch all 4 rallies here on YouTube.
• Alongside this, the eBRC has also completed. Check the final results here.
• Citroën’s “Play with C3 R5” series is still active. You can compete and find all the info here for this hardcore rally series.

Last week’s Car of the Week was the Renault Clio S1600 and this week’s is the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally. As for next week? Who knows (well, I know, but you’ll have to tune in to find out).

That’ll do it for now – good luck out there on the road.

– PJ

 

F1® MOBILE RACING

Already have F1 withdrawal symptoms as we await another trip around the Spielberg mountains? Don’t worry – F1® Mobile Racing is here, free to play on handheld devices, whenever and wherever you need a fix of official F1 action. Plus, it’s complete with all the 2020 drivers, teams, race helmets and circuits! Follow that new-season update, we’ve also just rolled out a new patch with further gameplay improvements, based on community feedback – so there’s never been a better time to jump in, download and play for free on Android or iOS

Live right now, we have the 2020 Championship GP Event – our unique global event that mimics the revised 2020 World Championship Calendar in a multi-round test of skill and endurance. Be the best at Austria, Hungary, Britain, Spain, Belgium and Italy for big prizes. Fancy something even more frantic? From now until July 31, our Street Circuit GP Event is also open to all players, featuring the new Vietnam track alongside Monaco, Singapore and Azerbaijan. Good luck!

– Chris

ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

You’ve heard of the Racing Line, but have you heard of Racing Ahead? Racing Ahead is our content creator partnership program. We team up with a handful of YouTubers and streamers to give you a sneak peek into what’s coming up in the future with Codemasters games.

Our Racing Aheaders – as we fondly call them – have been all over F1 2020 ahead of the launch this week, with many getting their first look at the new My Team mode. Tiametmarkduk took plenty of time in setting up his team before getting a good result in his first race of the season, whereas Aarav took a different approach tasking his subscribers to pick his engine supplier, team name, and even team colours.

Earlier in the month, some Racing Aheaders were lucky enough to get their hands on a very early build of DIRT 5, despite it not being out until October! ShinyOdd’s hilarious video went over the history of the DIRT franchise right up to DIRT 5 and Jeff Favignano’s reaction at seeing DIRT 5’s dynamic weather transition to thundersnow for the first time is not to be missed.

Keep an eye on our socials where we’ll continue to share some of the latest and greatest Racing Ahead videos and streams around with the hashtag #RacingAhead. You too could be a part of the Racing Ahead crew – head to creators.codemasters.com and we may be in touch.

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