Dirt 3 Review!!

Dirt 3 is a rally car racing game with a number of cars and tracks. The menu system has an entertaining series of semi-translucent tetrahedrons that unfold into rally circuit choices. The single player campaign/circuit mode offers 4 seasons with 20 or so individual events within each one and within each event 1-3 seperate races. So, needless to say, there is a lot you can do. Tack onto that the challenge mode in the non-linear free world maps that allow you to crash and jump to your hearts content and the countless hours you will be spending online and you are likely to find yourself playing for extended periods of time as you explore the possibilities. Fortunately for those gaming-inept this is an easy-to-pick-up game.

When I said "easy-to-pick-up game" there should be an asterisk next to it, that is because the casual settings mode of the game (the mode that assists you in speed control, breaking, turning, and directions) is very easy to use and most players will never pull there finger or foot off the throttle. Unfortunately, as soon as you select intermediate or advanced settings, you will find yourself sliding off the maps doing crazy flips and wrecking your car until you get a better grasp on the controls. This can take awhile as the difference between casual and intermediate is vast. The one upside to all the crashing that you will be doing is just that, the crashing (the cars crumple and the game physics functions properly). Whether you are doing a barrel roll through the sky or plummeting down into a lake, it will look awesome.

The graphics in this game are spectacular, everything is crisp, the game never slows down during the races and it just looks awesome. It is the type of game that is sufficiently aesthetically pleasing to where I don't mind sitting on the side lines watching someone else play. However this comes at a price, the load times can be lengthy (30 seconds to a minute sometimes) but I say it is well worth the wait. Visuals aren't the only sense Dirt 3 aims to please. The audio from the game is amazing as well, the cars sound great and you can tell the developers of Dirt 3 really put some work into it. Changes as simple as those in direction or change in surface can be heard clearly but in a way that sounds like it should. It's not over the top, it is the sound I think of when I think of rally car racing and I think Dirt 3 hits it right on the money. Beyond great audio from the cars Dirt 3 has a great soundtrack. The tracks may not play to your preference if you are into country or jazz, but I'm guessing most people will enjoy it.

The gameplay! It's great. Dirt 3 offers several different modes of play on and offline outside of the campaign. Everything from regular rally, to rally cross, joyride, trailblazer, head2head, capture the flag, land rush and gymkhana. Unless you've already played the game, you don't know what most of those are (or unless there's a niche of people in the world that should know those names that I don't know about). Working backwards with gymkhana we get a sort of head to head with up to 4 players stunt round. The object being to do the most tricks like drifting, getting air, doing donuts, smashing objects and other various stunts, the player who did the most/most consecutive gets the most points and wins.

Capture the flag is exactly that, it's the game you played in boy scouts except with cars and high speed crashes. The first time you load in you won't have any clue what you are doing (and probably for the next 3 times you try it) but once you get a hang of it, it becomes great fun. Head2head maps use a very interesting track style. With 2 players on the same track starting at opposite ends of the track you race the map by yourself seeing your opponent driving the roads you were just on but right next to you, it creates a scenario where, at crossover points, players meet (if they are keeping pace with each other) to create a very exciting scenario for the audience whether it be in game or a real life one. Joyride is an open world map sort of, obviously it has its limits, but after 20 minutes in my first one, I was still finding new and arguably stupid things to be doing in it, I will say that it is best done with a partner because then you have someone to run into. The others are normal rally style races for the most part but with the wide variety of maps ranging from snow, gravel, dirt, concrete and wetness. Every map can take several forms creating a huge uncertainty in your driving even if you've been on the map before.

The online multiplayer in Dirt 3 is good, I won't say great because it isn't flawless but it can be good fun if you have a good connection. The biggest problem I had with the online multiplayer in Dirt 3 was that some of the other players' cars would jump around a bit which made it difficult to tell exactly where they were at any given time. However, because most of the online games I played used a staggered start, this rarely became an issue since it was more about independent driving then running your buddy or that 12 year old boy off a cliff.

If you can get past the load times and the somewhat jumpy cars in the online play, Dirt 3 will be one of your best friends (as far as racing games are concerned). Generally speaking, I am not a fan of racing games that involve me having to pull off the throttle, I like my lead foot, but even with Dirt 3 not letting me go 'balls to the wall' around every corner I thoroughly enjoyed it. I seriously doubt many people out there have done everything the game has to offer, that is because it offers so much. Not only that, but the game looks and sounds better than you can possibly hope for. If there was ever a racing game (outside of Mario Kart) that I would recommend, it would probably be Dirt 3. Dirt 3 is a win for Codemasters.

Dirt 3s rating: 86/100

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Just a note to those who it may concern, I tested this game on Xbox 360 (first gen and a new gen one), my comments about load times and online lag is only valid for that console and not for PC or PS3.