 Hey guys a little bit of a different video here today but I'm going to be talking about what I think was the best racing game of 2017. Now if any of you have watched my last few videos you have noticed that I've talked a little bit about Victor Lucas being a sponsor and helping out his show EP Daily a show that I've grown up with as a kid and it's one of the greatest media platforms for anything about video games and movies. So Vic sent out a message to all the current sponsors talking about contributing to the Rocket and Ray Gun Awards. He gave us a list of all these categories and he told us to do a little video talking about what we thought was the best game in that category. I didn't play a lot of games this year admittedly I was really just waiting for Shadow of War but I did find another great racing game. I've had this unorthodox tradition of finding a great racing game at the end of each year. In 2016 I finally dived into the Forza Horizon universe and played Forza Horizon 3 which in my opinion is still one of the greatest racing games of all time. In 2017 I dived back into a series that I started playing back when I was 14 years old. If anything it's probably the first racing series I ever played the Dirt series. Call of McCray rally games have been a part of my life for years. So when I finally dived back into Dirt 4 it was like coming home. The game has some of the best driving simulation mechanics in the industry today. Admittedly going from Forza Horizon 3 to this game was a bit of a challenge considering you go from a game where you can drive into trees and have no consequences to a game where you make the slightest mistake and everything goes wrong. The game offers three different styles of rally racing starting off with the classic stage setting. This is a single car race where you have to navigate through twists and turns over and under and through several different obstacles. One of the greatest aspects of Dirt 4 is how you will never do the same stage track twice. There is a random map generator which will generate different tracks, different turns, different aspects of each stage. So you are always going into something new, you are always having your limits tested and it is an amazingly fun time. Then there's the rally cross segment that lets the player get behind these super powered tiny little rally cars and drive in these multi car races with different changes in the environment, changes in the weather and he goes from pavement to dirt and back. It's always intense and the computer is a pretty dirty driver constantly taking you out and you always have to be on your toes. Then there's the off-road truck portion where you're pushing these super high powered vehicles over these giant jumps smashing the chassis and bashing against other trucks and just revving the engine. Now like I said earlier, this is a simulation game first. You can play with a casual difficulty but you're robbing yourself of the real experience of playing it on simulation. The game is so committed to being an actual simulation environment that the manual gearing can go as far as having to use a clutch and move the right analog stick into the proper position. If you can do that well, good on you, I'm still trying. Every time you think you've got the mechanics of the game down with the current car you're driving, they put you in a faster car and you start from scratch basically. Now some racing game fans especially from this current generation may not enjoy this game as much because of its frustrating difficulty. It is nowhere near as forgiving as the Forza series. While the game is challenging, it's always rewarding you for finishing stages. As you level up and get more and more abilities in terms of what you can get for your crew as well as what you can get for your car, the game opens up more avenues. The visual aspect of this game is also fantastic from the damage to the car to the sweeping vistas that you drive through to the actual different gradations of dirt that apply to your truck or your car as you go through stages. And of course you can't talk about the dirt series about talking about the absolutely fantastic sound design. From the roar of the engine to the pop of the exhaust to the squeal of the tire going from dirt to pavement to snow to the authenticity of the navigators. In the end, Dirt 4 is fun, aggressive and it's incredibly loyal to the fans of the Dirt series and the Colin McCrae series before that. Codemasters definitely brings back the glory days of the Dirt series and that's why it's my favorite racing game of 2017. And if you guys are interested in supporting Victor Lucas and EP Daily, I'm going to leave a link at the end of the video taking you to his gaming channel where you can sponsor him and help him keep creating the awesome show that is the electronic playground. And of course, thank you Victor Lucas, thank you for continuing the electronic playground despite the adversities that you've been going through. Thank you for continuing to bring us great content about video games and movies. And then thank you again also for the shout out that you did when you showed my video talking about helping sponsor you. That made my day, that made my week, that made my month, sir. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you guys like any more of my content, I more so do movie reviews. But if you guys like this, maybe I'll try more game reviews in the future. Anyways, if you like what you see, leave a like down below. And if you guys want some more, maybe subscribe. Anyways, I'll see you guys next time.