The game was named after the international rally driver Colin McRae very popular in Europe, who provided technical advice during development. As a result the game achieved massive popularity in Europe. In the latest episode, Travis Pastrana was brought to add comments in the game, so for the US version he appears also on the box of the game. Seems that this change increased the US selling, in conclusion the overall selling.

Big difference

Two years of development were involved in Dirt, and the results and radical changes can be seen. With the latest product of the Colin McRae rally racing series, Codemaster decided to introduce a wide variety of rally sports. Besides the classical rally, you can play CORR races, rallyraid races, hillclimb races, rallycross, and crossover races.

Of course every rally discipline with its own car models. You can drive CORR trucks and buggies, 4wd or 2wd rally cars, classic 4wd and rwd cars, hillclimb unlimited or big rigs class cars. As always every car has its own way of driving, differences being visible even between cars of the same class. So there are cars for everyone. The Colin McRae rally racing series has become more similar to Race Driver series where the accent is put more on the multitude of racing events of different styles. But it is far from the content huge size each Race Driver game brings.

Championship mode

Some of the old fans of Colin McRae rally racing series will probably be disappointing of Codemaster's decision of almost giving up the traditional rally racing. The Championship mode is the only one that features six different rally locations: Japan, Spain, UK, Germany, Australia, Italy. The mode offers you to start with the UK rally choosing between a short or a long rally implying 4 or six stages. In the most classical Colin McRae rally racing series manner, the service area is available only after you complete two stages in a row. Apparently the developers emphasized more on the setup part of the car instead of the damage managing system. The setup mode is very similar with Race Driver system. You can setup the wheels' camber and toe angle, the suspension stiffness or the ride height, the transmission final drive, gear ratios, the brakes, etc.

If you think about this it's a quite long list, but the problem is that if you are not a newbie you can complete the championship on the most difficult level without changing anything in the setup of the car. More than this the game automatically gives a default setup for every rally which is sufficient to compete in good parameters. A minus for the lack of freedom in choosing the type of wheels. In older Colin McRae games, the wheels could be changed depending of the ground surface. But in DiRT this option really disappeared from the setup of the car, the game alone choosing the type of the wheels. Codemaster gave up also the snow rallies. The rally of Sweden present from the beginning of the series was completely forgotten. Instead they introduce a new one: the Italy rally. Present in the WRC just for a couple of years, this rally is very similar to the one in reality, and brings diversity through ground surface and environment. In one rally there are only three or four unique tracks, other being reverse versions of the first ones.

Career mode

The career mode is the most challenging one and represents the core of the game. Based on a pyramid system, you have to make your way to the top winning different events and unlocking new cars.

Not only that you will unlock them but you also have to buy them. The paying system is balanced so if you will not try to play on harder levels you will not be able to earn enough money to buy the next cars. In conclusion you will stop competing. The career mode brings all the new rally disciplines in which you will compete. You will jump from rally events to CORR events or crossover ones. There is a minimal number of points that you have to earn in order to progress to the next tier. There are ten tiers to complete until the last one and believe me you will have some work to do till you reach the top. But the difficulty grows progressive. You will start competing in events that include only a single race and you have to drive quite slow cars in order to get the pace later. While the rally events take place in the same locations as in the championship, the new ones feature new tracks and locations. Tracks like: Circuit de Ducs (France), Canberra Park (Australia), Knockhill (UK) are world known for the rallycross championships held on them. I just want to add the presence of the legendary Pikes Peak divided into three parts so you can easily learn it and then master it.
{pagebreak}
Interface and Menu

I would like to comment upon the interface and the menu of the game. While other games have either a bad functional menu or a menu just there to make the links to the desired options, DIRT brings a brand new menu design with high functionality and originality. Some of you will consider myself crazy because I am writing about the menu of a racing game, but believe me this is something special. Every component from the menu is dynamic in a 3D environment. Even the loading screen is interesting by showing different personal stats like the total distance you have driven, the longest jump, the favorite car or track, number of won races, etc.

Simulation or Arcade?

Colin McRae rally racing series represented the compromise between simulation and arcade racing. And DIRT makes no exception. Along the years the series oscillated between a simulation approach and an arcade one, being difficult for everyone to declare if the series is a collection of simulation or arcade games. DIRT brings the balance to this debate having the best handling implementation from the whole series. Finally the cars have a smooth movement, though sometimes with a negative impact on the physics, (sometimes the car flows too much while in the air or when you have an accident), but the general impression is very good. The handling has the same digital feeling, while the cars in general seem to move much more realistic. I have to complain about the breaks physics. The cars break extremely fast, and have the tendency to drift while driving straight. At hairpins where you need to use the handbrake the car gets very hard into the drift, giving you the impression of rolling on a railway. Any car can be easily driven from the keyboard, gamepad or wheel. But I consider the gamepad being the best way to play the game. The control from the keyboard remains the same adding nothing new to the series, while the wheel control has the lack of precision like in the last three episodes. That's a pity because the two views from inside the car are really good and increase the realism.

Damage system and graphics

The damage system is one of the most important aspects of the Colin McRae series. From the first game, Codemasters realized one of the best and most realistic damage system, which was used and improved in Race Driver. But DIRT brings the next level of damage system introducing the foliage effect. Not only that you can lose different components of the car (bumpers, doors, wheels), break the glass, tear up the paint, but also see the waviness of the bodywork caused by the contact between the car and different objects.

The beauty of the damage system is also influenced by tracks design which is equally beautiful but most important, destructible. For the first time in the series every object, except walls, big trees, big rocks, can be tear apart or destroyed.

The game has a fantastic graphic specially created for a rally game. Dirt and mud will stick to your car or flow behind it. Special lighting reflections create an unique atmosphere for every track. Races that take place in desert mountains consist in powerful lighting effects to emphasize the heat effect, while races that take place in rainy locations have a cold and foggy lighting effect. But this amazing graphic has a price. You cannot taste it if you don't have a high-end system. Races with multiple cars have a low framerate and the same problem is present also in the XBOX 360 version.

Multiplayer yes or no?

The Colin McRae series never had a good multiplayer concept. Every game had some multiplayer attempts but none of them were extremely used by the players. Starting only with LAN support, the series had some success at LAN parties, but never gave the chance of the player to fight directly with the opponent only through a ghost car or live display of the time sectors. Unfortunately DIRT makes no exception. Even though they introduced an online mode, the multiplayer works almost in the same way as before. You have to create an account, and you will be thrown directly in a lobby from where you can vote from a list which track do you want to race. After every race, the list will refresh radomly with new tracks and cars. The problem is that you cannot choose what car you wish to drive. The cars are already chosen for the specific track, and every user will race the track with the same car. On a vertical bar, the live situation of the race will be displayed. Only two disciplines are available: rally and hillclimb. So no rallycross or CORR races in which you could challenge any gamer in a direct fight. The problem goes on also on the LAN support where you can race only on rally and hillclimb challenges.
{pagebreak}

Gameplay: 80

DIRT brings the widest diversity from the whole series. You are not limited anymore to play only the classical rally events. The handling and physics of the car meets the best compromise between simulation and arcade racing. The career mode definitely makes you go on and complete the game. A plus for giving you to opportunity to choose everytime the difficulty level before a race. The collection of cars is amazing full filing every gamer taste.

Graphics: 93

You have nothing to comment against the graphics. The new graphical engine is an example for every developer how to bring the racing games to the next level. You will not see here bombastic colors palette, or exaggerated lighting effects, but a doze of everything mixed with passion for sun, dust and dirt. Yes, everything is created around these three elements and every rally has its own atmosphere. About the physics is hard to say something. Everything looks and feels at the superlative. The screenshots shown here speak for themselves.

It exists but this doesn't mean that is good of anything. The multiplayer doesn't offer any direct chance to play against any opponent. Instead it offers you a bar display where you can view live your opponents status.

Sound: 78

A mediocre sound in general. The environmental sounds resume to whoosh effects, wheels of brakes squeak, and motor sound. The motor sound is different from car to car, but is far from the quality that the last NFS Carbon brought to us. The game has no licensed soundtrack, so the few vibes present in the menu screen are quite boring. But who cares when you actually want to race.

Hardware: 74

Some minor bugs in the physics of the car, but otherwise a clean game. Though the price to pay for the graphics is quite high. Even a GeForce 7900 GT and 2 Ghz RAM memory can't support the highest graphical options. In races with several cars on the track you will encounter big framerate problems.