Gravel

kinda works on steam deck if anyone was curious.

I recently played The Crew 2, Dirt 5 and Forza 4 & 5, and I have to say that while Gravel is not a AAA title like those, I'm enjoy the game physics here a lot more.
It is still missing "something" to be on par with those titles, but overall I'm really enjoying the races; and for the price, is a great purchase.

Amazing game with UEVR injector streaming through Virtual Desktop on my Shadow PC Power tier (a cloud computer). Honestly having more fun with this than Gran Turismo 7 on PSVR2 (which is a great experience too for sure).

I was a little disappointed with Gravel. It's not a bad game by any means, and it has no glaring issues, it's just... unremarkable.
It starts pretty well for an arcade racer, with an engaging Solo mode introduced like the season of a show with real actors, each with their own specialty. But as you keep playing, unlocking new events and cars, the hype kind of fizzles out and you end up going into the next event with fewer and fewer expectations. It's a shame, as the game is quite varied. With lap races on real tracks, lap races in more open and wild environments, stadium races and checkpoint races, most people will find something they like. It's just that by doing a little bit of everything, none of it is fantastic and easily outdone by games that focus on that one thing you enjoy the most.
I personnaly liked the checkpoint races in Namibia the best, because they felt unique and new. Sadly there really isn't a lot of them, and you will feel the same way about your favorite type of races, which is unfortunate.
The game looks okay. It's not beautiful but it looks pretty good for something that came out in 2018 and the different environments are colorful. There's enough here to keep you entertained for 10 to 12 hours, and the AI offers a decent challenge with minimal rubberbanding.
A few things could however spoil your enjoyment of an otherwise decent game, starting with short but frequent lag spikes. Every now and then, the game will freeze for a full second for no apparent reason. That doesn't last long and it won't make you lose the race, but that's enough time to roll your eyes and feel annoyed.
The physics, even for an arcade racer, are pretty funky and sometimes unpredictable. I also thought most of the night races were a chore as you really can't see well enough, while that's obviously not a problem for the AI.
Finally and if you stuck with the game this far, you might want to try the multiplayer with a friend or two. Doing this, you would find yourself quite puzzled by how convoluted the interface is. You will usually end up on the starting line thinking "Oh, that's not the race I expected" and "Hum, so this is the car category I picked ? But I thought...". I doubt much testing went into this, and the result is once again, an unfulfilling experience.
Thinking about it, I don't know whom I would recommend Gravel to. Old arcade racers are better, recent Sim racers are way more advanced... Gravel is just one more "okay" racing game that doesn't fully commit to any genre. If you've played everything else, sure, the game is fine. But that's the problem, it's "just" fine. A disappointed 6.

With UEVR this game is really good!

Glad to see the review score for Gravel's changed over time from the Negative it was at for so long. Milestone's not known for great games but this one might just be their best. Provided you're not after a proper rally simulator Gravel has several hours of fun in the base game on a nice variety of real and fictitious tracks with a plethora of licensed vehicles. Times of day impact the ease of which some tracks can be completed, with rain entirely changing the surface alongside looking amazing at night.
Achievement hunters note this can be completed without any of the DLC...although I will admit some of the overpowered vehicles it includes can help you place better. Also there is one DLC with tank racing (fine, overpowered Ferret APC to be technical) so uhhh yeah get that. Time to beat is anywhere from 18 to 25 hours depending on skill.
Gravel is such an easy recommend, especially when on sale for as cheap as it goes nowadays.

I never leave reviews. Ignore the negative reviews. The core game is long enough to warrant 20 bucks, and you can snag it all for ridiculously cheap. The racing and physics are really run, I do not care about realism. If I cared about realism I'd play Gran Turismo or something. What's here is a nice balance between realistic racing and arcade racing. There is a very nice selection of cars, though the main variety comes in the different types of cars you drive (Truck, buggy, etc.). Most of the cars within each type struggle to find identity aside from varying speeds.Aside from that minor complaint, this is worth the buy.