Building comparison
head to head
Dirt 5vsNHL Hockey
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Dirt 5
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Arcade car control across loose surfaces, weather and door-to-door packs.
NHL Hockey
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Foundational ice hockey sim testing stick timing and exploiting goalie angles.
Dirt 5 leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); NHL Hockey leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Dirt 5NHL Hockey
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 6
Dirt 5 leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Dirt 5
Sliding off-road cars on mixed surfaces is the whole test
NHL Hockey
Skating angles, pass timing and shot placement decide goals
Reads2 vs 3
NHL Hockey leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Dirt 5
Pack racing adds light wheel-to-wheel jockeying
NHL Hockey
Against a human, baiting checks and goalie reads matter
Variance2 vs 2
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Dirt 5
Dynamic weather shifts grip unpredictably
NHL Hockey
Puck bounces add light physical randomness
Optimization4 vs 4
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Dirt 5
Car class knowledge and line choice reward study
NHL Hockey
Exploitable AI angles and line strategy are mappable
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.