The rest of the Dirt series (same name, very different game) might continue to exist to complement their NFS car game lineup.
Most likely though is that EA only wanted the licenses to F1 and WRC series.
Typical.
Also, all these things are one day trials...that have to be used within 7 days or they expire.
EA made an announcement about this but didn't make a big deal about it: https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/Info-G...
I hate companies that kill online servers for games, and have dedicated a large portion of my life to bringing these games back, but EA hasn't really caused this type of situation in a while, thanks to GameRanger. There's plenty to dislike about EA, but killing online servers is something they actually handle better than most other PC game companies: everything is on GameRanger.
[1] https://www.ea.com/service-updates
Games impacted by the above policy:
https://www.ea.com/service-updates/a-h
Again, it's not a complete solution, butit seriously supports the vast majority of popular old EA games. Yeah, it doesn't support Monopoly for Wii... but for PC games it's the tits.
Yes, thanks to a small community of volunteers (to whom I am very grateful) maintaining it with patches you need to download from a forum website.
If you install it from original install media to a Windows 10 box, it won't even launch without the 3rd party patches.
I've been getting into racing games again recently and the sheer number of RPG elements, unlocks, micro-transactions etc. in things like Forza is exhausting. And that isn't even EA.
I can't just restart the race, I have to wait while it loads 3 screens to show me how I'm 300 points nearer to unlocking some pointless skin or hitting the next tier or whatever.
Do note that Dirt Rally isn't really related to the rest of the Dirt series. The former is a pretty decent simulation of rally driving, while most of the Dirt series are "car games" with a physics model that's not intended to be realistic but fun to play on a gamepad.
That will be a big problem as EA tends to push all its companies to use the Frostbite engine.
I think the main show stopper here is that EA doesn't make niche game. They make games that will sell millions of units. So I highly doubt that they will develop a accurate Dirt racing game, they will do what they did with every franchise: Make the gameplay incredibly "accessible" but dumbing it down a lot. You will end up with another generic racing game with a slightly more slippery physics.
Madden is one of the better selling game franchise of all time with over 130 million copies sold. Despite this years Madden game being by far the worst reviewed Madden game in ages, it's still the 3rd highest selling game this year.
Globally or in the US?
So, yes, mostly in the US.
I used to work on Madden. Maybe this is non-obvious if you're not in the US, but it is hard to understate what a monumental cash cow that product is. It is like Excel is to Microsoft. It's a veritable firehose of money.
> really only popular in one country.
Sure, but that country has the third largest population in the world, and a greater GDP than the next two countries combined.
Dirt Rally, the rally sim, definitely is a smaller niche and the only one of its genre still under active development.
The rest of the Dirt series, which don't AFAIK share the physics engine with Dirt Rally, is much more mainstream.
Although I can't guess what the market size is for a racing game these days.
It's actually changing since Patrick Söderlund left and Respawn has been succesful at releasing games not on Frostbite ( Apex Legend, SW Jedi Fallen Order ).
The car twitched and started snaking but I kept it under control in a way I know I wouldn't have been able to without the hours of in-game training.
When I was driving IRL.
I’ve unfortunately been in several cars where driver has lost control and avoided an accident - most drivers in my experience can counter the scenario you describe intuitively - steer opposite way of slide, lift off gas to correct etc, just feels natural if you have driven a car even a small period of time.
Other’s mileage may vary of course!
It does, but you have to be intentional about recognizing the deficits, similar to how you can only get so much takeoff + landing training from a flight sim, and too much is detrimental. A quality FF setup + good pedals makes a massive difference on practicing good road-feel response into your brain. VR steps it up further with the full visual experience and helps with yaw angle management.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/robert-reid-virtual-rally-safety/
Good in an FWD car, but this could kill you if you're driving RWD - lift-off oversteer is a common thing, so you really want to _reduce_ throttle input without completely cutting it.
Chances of you driving anything today without ESC/DSC/etc (whatever your manufacturer labeled it) on really rare too unless you decided to turn it off, especially if it's only driving the rears. ESC is incredibly effective even on 20 year old cars.
That said, I believe commercial flight simulators fulfill some of the FAA requirements of flying an aircraft.
That said, how is the dirt racing in iRacing? I haven't had the time to try it in several years.
Well it's not as if the game is going away right? You can still play it.
It works pretty well on Linux as well.
Codemasters have been going more arcade like and focusing on community content for a while now, they had a rather successful experiment with Onrush and many of the Onrush features are in Dirt 5 now, EA is essentially looking at Codemasters as those who can deliver the fortnite of racing games and they might be able to do so.
That doesn’t mean you won’t get a game that is a good enough sim, codemasters still has the exclusive rights to the rally franchise, so you’ll get quite a wide range of driving mechanics and good simulation and steering wheel support but you can’t build a game that requires a steering wheel and pedal setup today and expect it to sell.
The F1 game has been solidly arcade-y since at least 2010.
Do you know if the physics in Dirt Rally have improved on this? Or does the underlying issue remain?
Yes, the physics in Dirt Rally is not at all the same as with other Dirt series. It has got a pretty decent simulation of rally cars on gravel and other surfaces. It's awesome!
You forget Colin McRae Rally, surely?
Colin McRae was a pretty cool game in its day but didn't really have the great physics that RBR did. But it was an earlier game so it was the best that there was available.
It's a niche genre that requires a specialized physics engine, and there hasn't been decent entrant after Richard Burns Rally (2004) or before that. That was/is maintained by community binary patches for years and years after it EOL'd.
Rally car physics can't be simulated with just any car physics model, there is a lot going on with tyres on loose surfaces, differential gears in the drive train, turbo chargers etc.
I can't see it being lucrative enough for EA to make a niche game like that.