19.9.2007

DiRT is the latest in Codemaster's long-running series of rally racing games inspired by the late, great Colin McRae. This is undoubtedly the best in the series yet with over 40 vehicles to unlock with a selection of over 150 liveries (paint-jobs), several different types of races, and loads of tracks and events.Normally, a game's menu system isn't much to write home about. Not so with DiRT. This is probably the nicest menu system I have ever seen in a game. It looks beautiful and works excellently. On many of the menus, you can hit the triangle button (Y on the 360) to hear a description of the event, vehicle, stage or vehicle set-up which is very useful, especially when you first start playing.Finally, once you've selected your event and vehicle, you are entertained with some interesting (and sometimes worrying) statistics about your playing habits while the game loads. These include your total time spent driving, longest time on two wheels and longest distance without crashing.From the main menu, you have the choice to enter Career mode, Rally World, Rally Championship or Multiplayer mode.Career mode takes you to a pyramid of more than 60 events made up of Rally events (where you race a solo point-to-point course with a co-driver - fastest time wins), Hill Climb events (similar to rally events except you don't have a co-driver), Rallycross events (head-to-head races with multiple cars on half-dirt/half-tarmac circuits), Crossover events (where you race one other person on the same track but with two different start/finish lines and you cross-over at the mid-point in the track- the fastest person around the entire course wins) and Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) events (head-to-head races against multiple opponents on a dirt track in buggies and racing trucks) among others. Each tier is unlocked by collecting points with the ultimate goal being to get to the top of the pyramid and complete the final event. Each event is worth up to 10 points of which you are awarded a certain amount depending on how well you do in the event (10 points for 1st place). The very meticulous (or unemployed) among you will ultimately attempt to gain 10 points in every event, although (I am told) this isn't necessary to reach the top tier. You gain money for each event you gain a podium position on. How much money you win depends on your position (1st, 2nd or 3rd) and the difficulty you select. This money is used to buy vehicles required to take part in subsequent events.A nice feature of career mode is that you select the difficulty before each event, not at the beginning of the game. This helps avoid those hours spent with a pot of Polyfilla filling-in that hole that your SIXAXIS made in the wall. If you can't complete an event in Professional mode, just switch it down to the ProAm setting. You'll get the same amount of points, but earn less money.Rally World is your `pick-up and play' area. Here you can choose to play any type of event with the huge array of vehicles you have unlocked in Career mode. If you need a break from the pressure of life in the fast lane, here's the place to hone your skills and just have fun before continuing your journey to the top of the pyramid.Rally Championship is where you can return to your Collin McRae roots. There are a variety of rally events to choose from here and is the ideal place to work on your driving skills before going online to see how well you're doing against other players from around the world.The main area where DiRT isn't such a success is in multiplayer mode. The only online functionality the game has is the ability to compete with other players in a time-trial scenario, not head-to-head racing. Your time is uploaded to an online leader board where you can see how you stack-up against other players. The only other area of the game that I can think to mention in a not so positive tone is your sometimes irritating, always cheesy co-driver. "Smooth and steady. I'm Mr. Smooth and you're Mr. Steady." Shut up! If anything, I'M Mr. Smooth!The developers are very proud of the damage modeling system they've developed for DiRT. And rightly so! For the first time, vehicles are deformed AROUND objects that they plough into! Gone are the days where you'd hit a brick wall at 80, dent your bumper and bounce off in the other direction. Your car may actually end up considerably shorter by the end of the course. And the environment is just as deformable as the cars. Stone walls, fences and Armco react very convincingly and all under their own physics. All this results in collisions which are sometimes disturbing realistic when played back in the game's replay system.The replay controls in DiRT are simple but effective. You've got the standard toolkit (pause, rewind, fast forward, slow-motion, etc) and also the ability to select from a number of camera angles. Watching a replay of your car clipping the side of a rock and barrel-rolling seven times down the dusty track also provides the perfect opportunity to take in the stunning scenery that surrounds each stage. It also gives you the opportunity to admire the immersive, crisp 5.1 surround sound that both the replays and the game itself are presented in. The stunning surroundings and sometimes chilling realism his makes for replays that are just as satisfying and entertaining as the race it's self.Due to it's radical departure from previous games in the series, maybe this game will not be so popular with the Colin McRae purists. But DiRT is a brilliant start to the next generation of Colin McRae games. What's to come in future games in the series, we can only imagine. Codemasters are obviously proud of their latest McRae masterpiece which can now stand as a worthy tribute to the man himself.Gameplay: 8/10Graphics: 9/10Sound: 8/10Multiplayer: 5/10Longevity: 7/10Fun: 9/10

14.12.2007

I had the demo of DiRT as soon as it was available, because through my childhood I spent relentless hours at the hands of a PlayStation 2 controller playing my old favourite: Colin McRae Rally 2. I always preferred it to any of the sequels that followed. It seemed to have something the others didn't...Then when I heard that a sequel was coming to the Xbox 360 I was very excited. After I'd played the demo for about six hours, I was even more excited.The fantastic thing that DiRT has to offer is the variety of race-types. Pretty much every off-road/rally event you can think of is available to play in the game.Career mode is at the heart of Colin McRae DiRT. You are presented with eleven tiers,each one with a certain number of championships, each with a number of races/events. When you begin, championships usually consist of no more than a single race, but the tiers are stacked up like a 'pyramid,' so every time you advance a tier, there is one less championship to complete, but each championship will be harder and deeper.The various different race modes available include the traditional "Rally" where you have a co-driver providing you with stage-information; "Crossover" deriving from the 'Super Special Stages' found in Rally events, where you race head-to-head around a dual-lane circuit; "Rallycross" events are European-based races around circuits where you are up against many other drivers; "CORR" or "Championship Off-Road Racing" races have you racing in buggies around a short track against other competition; "Hill Climb" is similar to "Rally," but you race uphill in 850hp monsters."Championship" mode theoretically works similarly to the career. You race every Rally stage from every country. There are three different championships, "European" (Great Britain, Italy, Germany), "International" (Japan, Australia, Spain) and "Global" which combines all into one Championship. You've got access to most car classes, meaning you can take your pick from the many vehicles you can unlock in career mode.The different difficulties are good: the easiest three can be done by pretty much anyone. "Pro Am" is more difficult and requires more skill, and "Pro" can be very tricky to a novice.Other game modes include "Rally World" which is basically a 'free' stand-alone game mode where you can race any stage with any vehicle. And "Multiplayer" lets you play Xbox LIVE and System Link games against other racers. The Xbox LIVE feature is a good one if you have a poor internet connection - there's no lag. Ever. You race at the same time as all the other drivers, and it informs you of all the drivers' times. It is, however, quite limited, as you can only do Rally's and Hill Climbs in the Ranked mode.Overall, the game plays incredibly. The graphics are stunning, and so are the environments. You can take your pick out of many different camera angles: include an incredible 'first person' one that lets you see as the driver would. There's a lot of depth: it took me more than fifteen hours to just complete the career (about nine hours of actual driving time) and I completed the Championships in about five or so hours. It is a truly fantastic game. Though there are one or two things that would have made it a "10 out of 10":- there are not enough Rally stages: I want to see Sweden, Corsica, Argentina, etc...- a split-screen multiplayer would have been great.- Xbox LIVE is a bit limited too.Otherwise, the game is brilliant, and a must to any racing fan.And R.I.P. Colin McRae.

17.6.2007

I have played demos of all the previous Colin Mcrae titles over the years, on PC and then later on Xbox, and although I can appreciate why people liked them, I was never really a convert. I prefered the World Rally Championship series on PS2 or Rallisport Challenge and V Rally 3 on Xbox, I always found the colin Mcrae rally games too hard to beat the ai and not enough feel in driving the cars.After seeing screenshots and the new vast amount of off road vehicle types in Dirt, I downloaded the demo and I was very impressed, now after playing the full game I can say that for me, this is the best Colin Mcrae game so far and an incredible game to play on the 360The first thing you'll have noticed is the graphics,I'd say they are the best I've ever seen, the quality does seem to vary, but drive any of the Australian rally tracks and I swear you will be in awe, they are without question the most realistic looking visuals i've ever seen in a video game, as long as you are moving and not stationary, it looks just like real life, this is the ony time I've ever thought that when playing a video or pc game.But it's not just the graphics that look good, the games menu's are nice, and quite unique in their presentation, makes a change from the usual type.The game offers a career mode that in truth is not a career, and is just a pyramid of 11 tiers of races or tracks for you to unlock to open tracks, win cars and win prize money to buy more cars, although you can buy bonus code unlocks from codemasters to unlock the whole games contents if you wish.So if you don't consider that proper rallying which I don't, then there is a proper Championship mode to race in 6 countries; Uk, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan & Australia.What I really like about Dirt is that it gives you 5 difficutly levels to choose from, and unlike previous games that I found, from the demos at least; were too hard, in this the settings are varied enough for any level of driver, so if you are a 'pick up and play just once' kind of gamer, or someone who plays for weeks and needs a stiff challenge, the 5 difficulty levels here will suit just about everyone.The handling still isn't terribly realistic, but it does the job, after playing Forza 2 for the past week, playing this I could definitely tell the difference, Codemasters need to work on this part of the game, while I'm not saying it should be made so realistic it becomes difficult, you should at least get a little sliding and be able to feel the loss of traction and skidding through your steering the way you can with Forza 2.What I liked about Dirt was the variety of vehicles they have now, it reminded me of Motorstorm, you have big rigs, Buggies and the like, and all with the most detailed dashboard views I've seen in a console game.Multiplayer on Xbox live is great, it's quite unique in that you can race as many as 30 odd people at the same time, but of course you are the only vehicle on the track, so you are constantly looking at the leaderboard to see your place moving up and down against the other players, this is quite a lot of fun as you just can't see the other players like in regular racing.Well, after Dirt, I am a convert to Colin Mcrae titles in the future providing Codemasters keep making them just like this, and if you have never considered the Mcrae titles before maybe you should give it a go and see what you think, you might just love it.

15.6.2007

It was nice to get my hands on a game before a lot of people, especially with the way the leader boards work, as I was one of the first 200 people to play DiRT on Xbox Live, I was scoring high in the boards, I'm talking top 10. Now I'm back in the 300th range. Anyway I'm really enjoying this game so far, far better than the Forza demo.The one game mode you will be spending the most time with is the career mode. You work your way through 11 Different tiers with 14 completey different classes of vehicles ranging from normal 4WD, FWD, RWD Rally cars to Sand buggys to Big Rigs with fat-off wings on the back.You get to race with all the 46 cars in the game in a whole range of different modes each unique with some your going solo on a rally hill climb and then the next minute your racing wheel to wheel with 9 other buggy's flying over muddy sand banks.This mode will take you about 15-30 hours (depending on which one of the 5 difficultly modes you pick) to clear everything in this mode and then theirs the traditional style rally championship that followers of the series might already be acquainted to.Once you've gotten through all of that you've got the Xbox Live multi player section of the game, which isn't what you might expect. If you are expecting awesome racing wheel to wheel online but I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Saying that the online is a rally style mode where your time gets compared to up to 100 other players online, it's not perfect but it's still some good fun.The Graphics are gorgeous, not realistic so you can see the flaws, but its got its own style that really suits the game and you can get some stunning visuals on pretty much all of the tracks. Were talking `Gears Of War' graphics here.Sound wise the cars are spot on and theirs something werid about how satisfyingly great the crunching and the crashing when you send your car flying to a tree at 100mph. It's only a shame that theirs no soundtrack while your racing, only some random instrumental tracks that play over the replays and menus.Talking of menus, damn the ones in DiRT are just about the best I've seen in any game in years. They are hard to explain but they are all 3D and sometimes its fun just to move the menus around with the analog stick. The loading screens are even better, showing you some stats about your in-game exploits. It's only a shame you see them all too much.So if you like your racing more arcade-based over simulation then, DiRT is your pick for the summer, but with Forza out this has got some competition. but despite the mediocre online play and amount of time spent looking at the loading screen (despite they are sexy as hell) DiRT is so far the best arcade racing game on the 360 and in my opinion is worth a purchase, failing that it needs to be tryed, demo really gives you a good impression of it. Just be warned their is a 15-30 learning curve you have to get past.

26.9.2009

I haven't played a rally game since I had a Sega Megadrive so the immediate impact of the lush graphics on the 360 were an obvious surprise. The actual gameplay is fantastic with the many different types of terrain offering skill challenges to suit all styles of driving. Progression through the career mode draws you in and engages your attention to push you on to the next round. The physics are very good and you soon get the idea that you are actually driving on the surfaces presented to you on each stage. The different skill levels will please novice drivers up to the more competent pros but the car setup options can seem very daunting because there are a hell of a lot of them to get tangled up in.

27.7.2007

An Article that might be of some interest..........PlayStation 3 owners currently have to deal with some headaches when it comes to third party multiplatform titles. Games like Rainbow 6 and GRAW 2 come months and months after the 360/PC versions and games like The Darkness that arrive on time frequently are missing a couple of the graphical flourishes found on the other versions. It's frustrating though not entirely unexpected considering the complexity of the PS3 and it's shorter time on the market. Fortunately, as developers get more accustomed to developing for the PlayStation 3 they're getting better and better at making the PS3 version of multiplatform games.Codemaster's DiRT is a good example,

12.12.2008

It seems good driving games on the 360 are like buses. We wait ages for one and then we get two in quick succession. One week it was Forza 2 and a week later we get Colin McRae Dirt.Fans of the previous McRae games will not be disappointed. The game play is the usual face paced, driving on the edge your seat excitement that fans have come to expect. Graphically the game is jaw dropping. To say it is the best looking driving game on the 360 is a serious understatement. I believe it is one the best looking games of any genre available on the 360. The level of detail has to be seen to be believed. Even in the multi-car races there is not much of a drop in quality when compared to the single car rally stages.The biggest gripe with the game is the Americanisation of it.

19.9.2007

I am going to warn fans of the previous games right now, this game is very different, it has a very different feel and a very different look to what you'll be used to but, and this is a big but, it is very good.The game has become very american-ised, this is instantly noticeable, it feels much bigger and bolder, the voice of american driver Travis Pastrana also narrates the menus and features (if you know about rallying you'll find it a bit patronising, if not it will be helpful) and his pronunciation of words like Renault (Reean-auw-llt) and Peugeot(Peeu-jjowt) is cringeworthy but this is not my main gripe with this game. No, it is the fact that Nicky Grist is no longer your co-driver!

11.3.2008

Truly amazing ! by far the greatest rally experience you'll ever play .there's one or two things that the game lacks but that won't stop it from being the greatest rallying game you'll ever play !you gets some of the greast rally cars ever to be built ,from Colin McRae's very own mk2 escort upto his own designed R4 .there's some ot the most detailed enviroments you'll ever lay your eyes on .the characteristics of the cars are truly magnificent , no two cars handle the same , you can feel that right away .all stages are unique , australia has definitely got everything you want , fast narrow stages beetween the rows of tress , the lighting effects gorgeous ,it gets the adrenalin pumping flying down these narrow tracks flat out .

28.5.2009

I originally played this game on a mid range PC and thought it looked a bit disappointing in places. However now I have played it on my XBOX 360 in high definition, I take it all back. Some of the tracks are a little featureless but many look great. The cars also look terrific. It plays so much better, smoother and faster on the XBXO.There are loads of tracks and options and a good difficulty level, being able to play it on one of 5 levels. On the lowest level, damage is low and terminal damage is off so it is pretty easy. You really want to play on a higher one.There are also loads of race options, including the usual solo racing. However there are plenty of race types, where you are race other cars.

6.6.2007

The first thing you will notice on this game (as im sure youve already heard) is that the graphics realy do look amazing. This is one of the few games that when I play I have the feeling of 'Yes, we are finaly getting true next gen games'!After a few attempts it became apparent that this was not just a pick up and play game. Yes it is if you just want to hurl your car about and ooo and ahh at the impressive damage models, but if you actualy want to contend this is when the game comes into its own. Personaly I love to race with the drivers perspective, a little harder but more fun and authentic (and the graphics realy do shine in this 1st person view!), and on this game it is amazingly fun.

21.5.2009

I have always been a fan of Colin Mcrae rally games and this one is no exception. Plenty of cars, tracks and race options should keep you busy for quite some time. You don't just race solo in this game. There are many different kinds of races including multiple car races. Solo racing against the clock is fine but you do need variety in my book.Graphically it is pretty good with fairly detailed tracks, though, some are a little bland. The cars, options screens etc.. all look fine however. Audio is Ok. There has never been a lot of commentary in the previous games as you don't really need it. There is more in this game but it is repetetive and a bit naff in places.

27.6.2007

This game is by far the best Racing/Car game on the 360!Why??Because it is different! If you want the usual kinda standards of street or track racing buy Forza, PGR or Need for Speed. However this game is so much more.Lush environments and graphics to die for. A variety of realistic tracks and surfaces ranging from tarmac to plain old dirt! Realistic handling too with older cars tending to be very difficult to handle and newer cars being very good to handle which is an accurate reflection of real life.Also, DiRT encorporates many other branches of rallying. As a driver you get to drive in not only the usual Evo and Impreza but you get to play in buggies, trucks,

19.1.2010

I have played all of the Colin McRae games. I also played all of the WRC games which I much preferred. Until now. WRC may be no more but this game steps up to the mark. This is a bit improvement over previous titles.The career mode allows you to progress up a tier of events you unlock with pionts. These are a mix of courses and vehicles so there is plenty variety. Trucks, buggies, rally cars, and rally raids, you name it. You earn cash depending on your selected difficulty and this is used to buy vehicles to enter events. Its compelling stuff and great fun.The Rally mode is the traditional rally championships. There are four, unlocked sequentially with a podium finish.

26.10.2008

Well, I'm not all that far from completing this game in career mode and i must say that I've really enjoyed it. However, I wish they hadn't have used Colin McRae's name to sell it. Speaking as a fan of his previous games on the ps2 I had hoped that the WRC would feature in the career mode, hope the game wood feature his old imprezas or his WRC Focus but all you see is his name up on leaderboards throughout the game.Also, I wish the developers could've changed the voice over for the uk game from the cheesy yank tones and phrases of travis pastrana as they grate more than a grinding disc on the face.It would've been nice as another reviewer said to see stages in the country which has produced more rally heros than anywhere else,

Colin McRae: DiRT - Reviews

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