Dirt 5 is coming on October 9 with a career mode starring Troy Baker and Nolan North

Codemasters rolled out a new trailer today to announce that the rally racing sim Dirt 5 will be out on October 9, but it doesn't feature the game's high-powered racing machine or white-knuckle courses. Instead, it takes a closer look at the game's story mode, which will feature voice actors Troy Baker and Nolan North.

Baker will play the role of Alex "AJ" Janicek, a rallying superstar who becomes the player's mentor in Dirt 5's career mode, while North will portray Bruno Durand, a cold, calculating dominator who will fill the role of nemesis. But he's not just a cartoon villain.

"Bruno was a fascinating character to play, because if you take him at face value, he's driven by the need to win," North says in the video. "They put together such together such a detailed and interesting background for Bruno."

The story will be told through a series of in-game podcasts hosted by real-world automotive podcasters Donut Media that will follow the player as an up-and-comer on the rally scene, with breaking news, interviews, and "big-time pot-stirring." The five-chapter career mode will be the biggest in the history of the series, Codemasters said in a recent career mode deep dive.

"Each chapter offers multiple paths for the player to take, meaning you can choose which events you want to participate in through the chapter. If you want, you can still race in everything there is to offer, which is over 130 events across nine different race types, featuring every location in DIRT 5," it explained.

"Complete races to open new events in the chapter; the higher you place, the more Stamps you will earn. A certain amount of Stamps are needed to unlock the Main Event of each chapter, so the better you perform, the quicker you can progress. Main Events are the conclusion of each chapter and a tougher test for the player. Finish third or above to move onto the next chapter. But that’s not all. Complete certain objectives throughout Career events to unlock secret Throwdowns, where you go one-on-one with a fierce challenger in epic events."

Dirt 5 will be available on PC via Steam and Stadia. To find out more, hit up dirtgame.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.