Colin McRae: DIRT [Xbox 360]

"I must say that I have never been a fan of rally games. Point-to-point races against the clock just don't do it for me. Not being able to see your opponents makes the racing less exciting in my opinion. I also miss the fun or learning a track and the continuous optimizing of your racing line. A point-to-point race is more a game of quick reactions, I think.
But DiRT is the first Colin game that has other race-types too, so who knows...

The graphics
DiRT looks amazing, the environments, the tracks and the cars are very details. It looks almost as beautiful as MotorStorm on PS3. The damage model is impressive too. During a race the cars go from shining vehicles to dented and muddy wrecks in a very realistic way.
But it soon becomes clear that the level of details may be a bit beyond the capabilities of the Xbox 360 or the game's engine. The framerate isn't steady and sometimes drops dramatically. Sometimes it even displays "tearing" effects, horizontal disruptions in the display. Maybe the PS3 edition won't have these problems, but for some reason that one has been delayed.
The developers have gone wild on the game's menus. All menu bars, including the pyramid-shaped race selector, are floating on screen in 3D, like a slowly moving flag. Even the loading screens are cool, they display all kinds of stats on your progress so far, like average speed, longest jump, longest distance on two wheels, etc...

The controls
It took me a while to get used to the controls, especially after playing a lot of Forza 2. The steering is very sensitive, if you move your stick a little to the left or right, it seems like the car's front wheels to from ultimate left to ultimate right. One has to move the stick very subtly to performs nice turns.
After a few days of playing DiRT, I purchased an Xbox 360 Steering Wheel and that's what I used to continue playing. And I must say it makes a world of difference, it gives you a much more realistic racing experience and the force-feedback also gives you a better feeling of the car's interaction with the surface.

Speaking of which, the physics in this game are amazing. The way the car reacts to the surface is impressive, especially noticeable in the buggy's which bounce in the air on each bump you hit. Keeping the car on the track is a challenge in itself, it takes full concentration to win a race or even to complete. Which makes this a game you cannot just pick and play if you have time for say ten minutes.

The career mode
The DiRT career mode exists of more than 60 different race events. It has many standard point-to-point races against the clock, but I was happy to find other events too, like hill-climbs, circuit races (off-road circuits of course) and Crossover races (against one opponent, on separate lanes). Apart from standard rally cars you also get to drive other vehicles, like buggy's and big rigs. So there's a of variety here.

Each race can be done at multiple difficulty levels. The higher the level you choose, the more money you earn when you win the race. But even on Rookie level you'll win enough money to be able to buy the cars you need. The game gives you little reason to try higher levels. But for me, Rookie level was hard enough anyway, especially in the rally events.

The career mode is set up as a pyramid of 11 tiers, each tier having a set of race-events. You start on the bottom (and largest) tier and then slowly work your way up. If you loose a race you try again, if you win you go on to the next race. If you complete all races in a tier you go up a tier. Repeat until finished...
So it's all a pretty linear affair (ok, a pyramid-shaped affair in this case) and nothing more than dutifully completing the list of races. Not very exciting. I mean, the racing itself can be very cool, having great graphics and smooth controls, but if the game around it doesn't pull you in, it gets boring soon. I had the same feeling while playing PGR3, while the Forza and Gran Turismo games grabbed me immediately, up to the point of being addictive.

Multiplayer
DiRT doesn't have a splitscreen multiplayer option, just like MotorStorm. Apparently this is the way it is going be, us gamers being forced to go online to play against real human beings. But... in DiRT even that isn't possible. You can play online but only against the clock. Yes, you race against the times of other humans, but you never see them. Well, forget it then.

To buy or not to buy?
I certainly enjoyed myself, especially in the great truck and buggy races. But because of the somewhat boring career mode I missed the "just one more go" effect. For rally fans this probably is the ultimate racing game, but for me this was just a nice "in-between" game.
And now it's time to return to Forza 2..."