It’s been months since I first posted about this game but I’ve since decided to keep this permanently installed on my PC so that I can periodically return to it. It’s the only game that gets such treatment on my PC. I fear that my driving skills will deteriorate too much between games if I don’t keep practicing and I do want to get good at rally games in particular. Even though I’m only playing this once in a while, it still takes up some of my gaming time and reduces my ability to try new stuff and write about them here.

Since then, I’ve also upgraded my setup by getting a proper wheel stand which me more confident about throwing the steering wheel around as needed. It really helps when driving through the more twisty tracks. I’m still figuring out what kind of chair to go along with it though as a dedicated racing chair takes up too much space. At the same time, I’ve also switched to fully manual driving, a change that I ought to have made long before this. I’d always put this off as I can’t drive manual in real life but it turns out it’s really not that hard, at least using the paddles that come with the wheel and within the context of a game. It still took some practicing get the hand-eye coordination right but I surprised myself by how quickly I could match and then beat my previous speed records by driving manually. You get so much more control over the car and safely navigating through difficult turns becomes so much easier with the ability to choose exactly which gear to perform the turn in. I still probably up shift a little too late as I’m too tempted to stay in a low gear to stay safe through a series of turns that I know is coming up but overall performance is incontestably better.

I’m relatively new to this as I’ve still yet to test the setup and manual driving across all of the tracks and cars. It takes a lot of time to really learn the tracks thoroughly plus I find that I’m constrained by my body’s ability to do so much driving. My hands and fingers do get sore if I drive too much and it can be physically exhausting to maintain such a high intensity of concentration for prolonged periods. I still need to experiment and perhaps get new gear like driving gloves at a minimum to prevent my skin pinching. Perhaps getting a separate handbrake unit can help too so that my hands don’t have to contort into weird positions. Even using the paddle shifters can be difficult when the wheel is turned all the way upside down. It’s fascinating to realize from my experience that there is an existing debate over whether paddle shifters are best mounted on the steering wheel or the column so that they are always in a fixed position.

All this is to say that I’m still playing games but I may not have much to write about while I’m busy with Dirt Rally 2.0. It’s an expensive hobby but the gaming highs, from the intense concentration required to the high skill ceiling that is possible to achieve, is just incomparable. In the meantime, enjoy the screenshots.