codemasters | Intensive Gaming Diary

Back Again to Play Some EA WRC

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Viljami

I have been recently playing some EA WRC (again). I first got into this game when it was first released in the end of last year. It is a very good rally and racing game. Last year also a new Forza Motorsport game was released. There was a sort of a competition going on with these two on which one would be the greatest racing game of the year 2023.

I am playing EA WRC with a game controller. This is the way I have been playing racing and rally games since I first stumbled on Gran Turismo and Colin McRae Rally 1 and 2.0 back in the dominant era of the first Sony PlayStation. I got a wheel and pedals for PS3 in the 2010s but I never truly played racing games with them. Although I did purchase a converter to adapt my PS3 wheel and pedals to PS4. I also got a stand for these. I never had a racing seat. That would have been expensive and I didn’t really get into this so much after all.

I did play recently some Dirt Rally 2.0. That game was released a bit earlier. It was released in 2019. I first got the game for PS4 but I have also it for PC and Xbox Series S/X as a digital copy. If you know anything about the history of Codemasters it is not needed to say that it basically was the rally game company of the 90s and even 2000s . It has brought us some very memorable classics.

There is however another good rally game series that has to be mentioned here. It is the WRC series. It has had the official license of WRC. It has brought us many very good rally games and especially in the recent, say, five or ten years. So there has been a healthy competition. Codemasters hasn’t earlier had the opportunity to make a rally game with a license but now it was the time for that since EA WRC was finally released last year.

We can have some sort of a comparison between Dirt Rally 2.0 and EA WRC. I think these both games have a similar price so this is a good way to think about which one should you get. Which one has the most value out of these two games? The price is actually about 30 euros. I can only tell you how it feels to play these with a controller. Graphics are awesome in both. Music in the background and defnitely while in menus is great also in both. What makes me go to the direction of EA WRC is how the controlling of the car feels.

I find myself constantly spinning or flipping my car around while I play Dirt Rally 2.0. The driving feels realistic and I don’t know if a wheel would actually make the steering more comfortable. So I think this is an issue with playing with a controller. So, EA WRC feels better in this sense. Of course also in the last mentioned some cars like RWD and Group B feel also more difficult to handle.

I have put about 20 hours in these games solely on Xbox Series X. I am more familiar with the older game that is Dirt Rally 2.0. I would think that playing one game more would make it a bit easier in the end but I guess that the experience with game pad only makes the sense in this one. So my conclusion to the question at hand is that I would be rather playing EA WRC if I have to use a controller and not a wheel and pedals.

Okay. I hope that this post once again gave you something. I am trying to write to the blog more often. It has been a while since the latest post. It was nice to write you about my experiences with gaming lately. Have a nice day and I hope to see you again soon.

Some Notes About Grid 2 for PS3

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Viljami

I have spent most of this day right today with a racing game that I thought would be nice to get into again and after some time. It has been originally released in 2013 for PS3. It has been developed by Codemasters. They are of course very well known from their efforts in bringing some high quality rally racing games to video gamers. So this is something that differs a bit from what we are used to see from them. So, this is a game that brings you racing on different kinds of asphalt roads.

I remember how it was with me, games and game consoles back in 2013. While I was a student back then it wouldn’t have been possible for me to buy this game in 2013. I remember that it cost about 60 euros back then. I even remember thinking very long about buying this some months after the release for 40 euros. I just didn’t have the money. I know it would have been a very nice game for me to play with my PS3.

Time went by and I found this very nice racing game available for a decent price. It eventually cost me 20 euros to finally get this game after some years of its release. It has been several years since I first gave this game a serious try. I tried continuing to play from where I left off. It didn’t work. I couldn’t immediately jump in and continue playing. I started playing this game right from the beginning.

Grid 2 has some differences if you compare it to games like Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport. It also cannot be described as a very realistic game like Dirt Rally for example. What it is that makes it a bit different? It is simply put the controlling of the car or how it feels to drive. You have this way to drift your vehicle. You have to also break and slow down your cars speed but also there is this drift type of element which makes the driving a bit special (in a good way after all).

I don’t clearly recall how long did I spend playing this game today. It might have been something like 5 hours. I did manage to get a grip to this game. The website that I use for checking how long a game lasts says that it takes 17 and a half hours to complete Grid 2. Completing Racedriver Grid, the first game of this series, takes, according to the website, 20 hours. I think they might have shortened this sequal a bit. I think I can complete this game if I just spend enough time playing it.

I have also played some Diablo IV and lots of NBA2K23. It is just that NBA2K takes months to finish meaning mainly that you win the championship with your team and get to maximize your stats. So it is not even possible to complete it in a month. At least not for me. I decided to play Grid 2 because I wanted a change for a while. I also keep thinking about different games that I already own and if I will have some day time to play them or even complete them. That is why I sometimes change a game. It might sound irrational. That is just the way it is. Grid 2 is also available for PC and Xbox 360.

Playing Some Dirt 4

Posted on April 28, 2023 by Viljami

I have been playing Dirt 4 a lot lately. I got to admit that I do like it as a rally game. It was released back in 2017. I have it for PS4, as a physical copy and also for PC. I have been playing it on my PC. The featured image is this time a screenshot of the rally of Sweden. I think the game feels better on PC. I am quite satisfied with my PDP controller. I have had some thoughts about buying this new controller that is actually Elite Pad 2. It would cost me something like 130 euros. I am considering still if I am going to buy it or not.

Codemasters is one heck of a rally game maker. There is some worries about what is going to happen now that Electronic Arts bought this game studio. This happened in 2021. Dirt 4 was released before that. There have been many good quality rally games released as games of Codemasters in 2010s. Back in the days when our retro games were newest games that existed Codemasters was delivering a heck of a quality. I got my introduction to rally video games as I played Colin McRae Rallly 2.0. I was actually first playing this and after some time I also just had to get my hands on the first game that was titled Colin McRae Rally.

Back in the 90s there were no serious competition for Codemasters. More recently there has been some competition in the form of a game series WRC. They have actually held the official game badge since they have had the rights to the license so they have been able to claim that they are the official rally game. I like also these new WRC games. I really got into them as late as 2020 when I bought WRC 9 for PC. Lately there have been games like WRC 8 for PS4 and WRC 10 and WRC Generations. I like these titles also.

Codemasters is responsible also of Dirt series. It started witb a game called Colin McRae Dirt and advanced into titles called Colin McRae: Dirt 2 and Dirt 3 and then again Dirt 4 and even Dirt 5, which in my opinion, slightly flopped as a video game. There is also Dirt Rally seiries that currently consists of two games. Dirt Rally games brings us gamers some simulation type of rally racing.

Dirt 4 is still a game you definitely would like to play. It has flashy graphics and even the soundtrack is bouncy. Driving feels somewhat challenging. Maybe not so realistic as in Dirt Rally. I like Dirt 4 a lot. One game that wasn’t mentioned, yet, is Richard Burns Rally. That is also a very good rally game. It is a bit old one but I can still recommend it to you if you don’t mind or if you are a retro fan.