Dirt 3 Review
Dirt 3 is the brand new title in the Codemasters rally series “DIRT”. The series originated in memory of the great rally driver Colin McRae, who had, then, only recently passed away. The first title was developed to be a realistic rally sim, with all the rally stages and cars that any normal person could digest. Elements of the original idea could be found in the next title. (Dirt 2) As well as new features, that unfortunately, for some, isolated the real rally racing a little. In hoping that the series would grow and appeal to a wider audience. We thought then, that the new title wouldn’t include any of the original ideas that made the series so special. We may however, be completely wrong. Read on to find out what we really thought of CM’s latest efforts and to see whether or not it’s a worthy product of the series. The title is available on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. As well as the recently released online game system Onlive.
Once you’ve installed and set up the game you are greeted with a colourful and well lain out Main Menu. On that menu there are several different gameplay options to choose from. The main choice being the career, this is where you’ll be spending most of your time. Completing challenges, levelling up and unlocking new cars/livery’s. Much like its predecessor, Dirt 3 seems to focus a lot more on the Gymkhana events, rather than the original idea of classic rally events. That said there still is a great mixture of smaller events that can be found when all the Gymkhana is completed. Freeride is one of the new features that can be found in the latest title. It allows players to drive around Battersea Power Station performing jumps and tricks, with no real time limit or goal. Something that could come in handy when practicing, or desiring a casual drive.
Along with the Career, there are the typical single and multi-player options. These each allow the player to perform an event with a friend or by themselves. Single player covers all events that can be found in the career. (Rally, Gymkhana, Trailblazer) Multi-player also has the typical events that can be found in single player and career, where you’re able to compete against real people instead of AI drivers. However it also has a feature that we like to call “Party Play”. This is an online feature that includes typical game modes such as Infected, Cat n Mouse and many more. All these are fantastic fun to play and will amuse any kind of player.
Split Screen and Lan can also be found in the Multi-Player tab.
All cars in all events are licensed, making the experience even more realistic.
DLC was also introduced into the title not that long ago. This brought new cars and tracks into the game. A year later a brand new edition of Dirt 3 was released that included all the DLC for free.
Now it’s time for the Pros and Cons.
We’ll start with the Cons
Pros
In conclusion we believe that the latest instalment of Dirt (Dirt 3) has a great mix of events that will appeal to almost everyone. If you are planning on getting this to start your sim-racing career or to try out rally racing we advise you try out the previous title or an all-round game such as Gran Turismo 5. Otherwise we highly we recommend this game, we had great fun playing it, and will continue to until the next one.
If you want to fulfil the experience you may want to get yourself a force feedback wheel. Such as the Logitech Driving Force GT/ G27/ G25. A Thrustmaster T500RS or even one of the Fanatic wheels, for those Xbox sim-racers.
Once you’ve installed and set up the game you are greeted with a colourful and well lain out Main Menu. On that menu there are several different gameplay options to choose from. The main choice being the career, this is where you’ll be spending most of your time. Completing challenges, levelling up and unlocking new cars/livery’s. Much like its predecessor, Dirt 3 seems to focus a lot more on the Gymkhana events, rather than the original idea of classic rally events. That said there still is a great mixture of smaller events that can be found when all the Gymkhana is completed. Freeride is one of the new features that can be found in the latest title. It allows players to drive around Battersea Power Station performing jumps and tricks, with no real time limit or goal. Something that could come in handy when practicing, or desiring a casual drive.
Along with the Career, there are the typical single and multi-player options. These each allow the player to perform an event with a friend or by themselves. Single player covers all events that can be found in the career. (Rally, Gymkhana, Trailblazer) Multi-player also has the typical events that can be found in single player and career, where you’re able to compete against real people instead of AI drivers. However it also has a feature that we like to call “Party Play”. This is an online feature that includes typical game modes such as Infected, Cat n Mouse and many more. All these are fantastic fun to play and will amuse any kind of player.
Split Screen and Lan can also be found in the Multi-Player tab.
All cars in all events are licensed, making the experience even more realistic.
DLC was also introduced into the title not that long ago. This brought new cars and tracks into the game. A year later a brand new edition of Dirt 3 was released that included all the DLC for free.
Now it’s time for the Pros and Cons.
We’ll start with the Cons
- Online Pass and DLC: If you've read any of our past reviews you'll know what we think about these two cases. If not here's an example extracted from our NFS The Run review. (Like we have said before we consider DLC to be a great thing, providing it's free. And NFS The Run doesn't have free DLC. It's rather expensive to buy all the DLC content, especially in one go. This is a shame as the DLC cars are rather nice. The Run also has the new "online pass" idea too. We don't like this at all. What happens if your to buy this second hand, and the previous owner has used the code for the online pass. You will have to buy a new one from either the PS store or the Xbox live store, providing you want to play online. And to buy this pass you have to pay £7.99.) We can relate NFS The Run to Dirt 3 as the online pass is around the same price, as is the DLC. The difference this time round is that there is more of it, and that of course means a bigger expense.
- Online Community and more issues: We're not saying that the online feature of this game is bad, we're talking about the people who are on it. We tried all kinds of online play reviewing this game, Outbreak, Joyride, Cat n Mouse. These are all really good events but some people do spoil the experience. Many will crash into you when you’re winning a race. Some will glitch their cars so that you cannot infect them. This is truly a shame, maybe were being a little harsh putting this as a con. But then it is related to the game so, we'll keep it here. It's just a minor con and does not affect you if you don't play online.
- Level of Ease: This is difficult to put this as a Con, because of course, different people work at different speeds, and some find it harder than others. But generally if you are passionate about racing games you will fly through this game in a flash. Of course there are other things that you can do once you’re finished. You can go back and play through the events you liked, you can play through the expansive online feature, but otherwise once you've completed it you're finished.
- Gymkhana and Stunt Events: There a lot of these events to get through to complete the game. They are fun, but there are just far too many of them. For the casual gamer these are great, but for those who are serious about racing they are just a pain.
Pros
- User interface and Menu's: Like many of the Codemasters games the menus are unbelievably easy to navigate through. We never got confused or lost once, and there was no silliness that meant when you left the menu the game would not save your settings. Along with the ease of navigation the menu's look great too. The graphics are as good as they are in the gameplay and the music really brightens it all up.
- Graphics: Overall the developers have done great in this area. The environments look great, as do the textures and most importantly the cars. All camera angles look fantastic too, we particularly liked the cockpit cam as it gave us a perspective of what the car is really like to drive.
- Cars: There a huge amount of rally cars to race in this game. As we've said before they all look brilliant as well. We liked the way you could change the livery of the car too. Some of them were custom made, others were the real racing colours that particular car raced in. It isn't just about looks though either. All of the cars feel fantastic to drive, with or without a steering wheel. You can really tell the difference between the original Mini and Ken Block's Gymkhana Fiesta.
- Expansive Career: There really is a lot to do in this game. Admittedly it doesn't take long to do it all, but there is a lot. You unlock more as you progress through the game as well. Eventually you unlock the whole of Battersea power station. And there are even things that will keep you occupied on that too. Extra tabs are unlocked specifically for different disciplines, Rally, Rally Cross, Raid and more. And once you completed the career you can head over to the online segment where you can join in on a number of challenges.
- Fun Factor and Immersion: When you’re playing this game you don't really notice the niggly little faults, unless you’re looking for them. This game will keep you coming back to it over time. It really draws you in and keeps you going. On the rally events you may be beaten by a tenth of a second overall. This'll make you keep doing the events until you win. And because of all these Pro's it makes it one of the best Codemasters game yet.
In conclusion we believe that the latest instalment of Dirt (Dirt 3) has a great mix of events that will appeal to almost everyone. If you are planning on getting this to start your sim-racing career or to try out rally racing we advise you try out the previous title or an all-round game such as Gran Turismo 5. Otherwise we highly we recommend this game, we had great fun playing it, and will continue to until the next one.
If you want to fulfil the experience you may want to get yourself a force feedback wheel. Such as the Logitech Driving Force GT/ G27/ G25. A Thrustmaster T500RS or even one of the Fanatic wheels, for those Xbox sim-racers.