DIRT 5

Has Dirt become the perfect pick-up-and-play racer?

- Justin Towell

INFO

FORMAT PS4 (REVIEWED), PS5

ETA OUT NOW

PUB CODEMASTERS

DEV CODEMASTERS

We’ve been waiting a long time, but finally Dirt 2 gets its true sequel. Dirt 5 is consistently beautiful, more colourful than any other Triple-A racer of the past ten years and wants you to have fun. Indeed, it’s the antithesis of Dirt 4’s serious rallying sim. If you’re looking for a simple yet premiumquality racer, this is it. It’s almost perfect.

It’s not even slightly pandering to the sim crowd this time round. Traditional rally stages have simply been omitted. Instead, one to four players (locally!) can take on a career mode full of closecompetition events, sliding around hairpins, and adopting the ‘if in doubt, flat out’ approach through dust storms in almost zero visibility. Gymkhana events (doing donuts and smashing polystyrene boxes for points) are single-player only, but you can always pass the pad.