DIRT 5 goes to Norway in new Ice Breaker reveal trailer

DIRT 5 isn’t far off now, with Codemasters steadily revealing more about the game on the approach to launch. The game arrives for PC on October 9, and the development team has now shown off Ice Breaker. Ice Breaker is a new mode containing short, slippery circuits that take place entirely on ice. It builds on DIRT 5‘s premise of injecting some fun into the next mainline entry, with the DIRT Rally series going down the serious route.

The trailer shows off Ice Breaker in Norway, one of the game’s racing regions. The mode does feature elsewhere though, with tracks in Nepal and a frozen New York river. Going by the trailer, these events could be a slog if you don’t have the patience for a ridiculously low level of grip. Hopefully, DIRT 5 contains enough driving options to make modes like this palatable for all players. It’s encouraging to see fresh game modes though, as it can be tough to deliver genuinely new experiences with racing games.

Robert Karp, Development Director on DIRT 5, spoke in a press release about the variety that the team hopes to bring to this latest iteration. The team wanted to blend in some fresh experiences with existing favorites, and Ice Breaker proves that. It also channels parts of a different game; Onrush.

DIRT 5 is the first DIRT game to be headed up by ex-Evolution Studios developers, who last worked on Onrush. The team were bought by and folded into Codemasters recently, who is now taking the DIRT series in a few different directions. DIRT Rally delivers a realistic rally experience, where DIRT 5 is looking to bring the arcade thrills back to DIRT.

Back in June, Codemasters revealed that DIRT 5‘s career mode contained nine racing types. Ice Breaker will be one of them, alongside Rally Cross, Rally Raid, and more. DIRT 5 arrives for PC on October 9, and for Stadia early next year.