Dirt (PS3 - 4) - Quick Review
Dirt is Codemasters first entry in the Colin McRae Rally game series on the PS3/Xbox 360 generation of consoles, and was the last game to be made before McRae's death. The earlier games in the series were a lot of fun, but how does this one stack up? Let's look at the good, the bad, and find out if it's worth it.
The Good
- Dedicated to rally. I've played racing games before that focus on on-road racing, and some that mix on- and off-road, but this series is one of the few that is focused just on rally racing, and it's amazing. I grew up loving watching rally racing on TV, seeing the cars whip completely sideways and defy all sorts of things speeding around a corner, and coming out in one piece on the other side. This game captures all of the thrill from it and puts you in the driver seat. It even includes your shotgun-riding spotter who calls out distances, grades of the turns, and notifying you of bumps and jumps in the road, giving you the real authentic feel without having to risk your life.
- Tier Tower. Your career mode in this game is in the form a challenge tower. You begin on Tier 1 with ten races available to you, and can unlock Tier 2 by earning the required amount of points from the first tier, and so on until you make it to the top tier and final race. Each successive tier has one less race than the previous one, building a pyramid of races for you to complete.
- All cars provided for you. When you enter each race, you can choose from a short list of cars that are able to compete in the event. Certain cars are available right off the bat, and others have to be earned. But the only thing standing in your way from them is money, which you earn from every race you compete in. There are no prerequisite levels you need to meet, you're not barred from purchasing a certain car until you reach Tier 5, nothing like that. If you have the money to purchase it, you can.
- Varying difficulty levels. You can choose from one of five different difficulties for each race. You're not locked in to racing on the Pro difficulty for the entire Tier Tower. And what's better is no matter which difficulty level you choose, if you win you still get the full ten points for the victory. So if one race in particular is giving you too much trouble, you can back out and drop it down a level to get the win.
- Different and new event types. The older games focused on the normal rally races and hill climbs. This game introduces some new events that are a lot of fun and make the game a lot less bland. There's Rallycross, where you and a handful of other cars race around on the same track together at the same time, there are Crossover events where you and one opponent go head-to-head, on a small track that crosses over itself one or more times, with what looks like two different courses that run in close proximity to each other but they're actually both part of the same, larger track. There's even some quirky events like one in particular where you get to race a semi-rig and another where you're racing a dump truck (if you follow my Instagram I posted a picture of this last one).
The Bad
- Uneven AI. I raced in the Tier on the top difficulty, Pro, for all the races. It seemed very inconsistent to me because there would be races, let's say a Rallycross event, where I'd get out in front before completing half of a lap, and others where I'd have to fight just to try and catch the leader before the race finished. Even in the regular rally races, I'd be ahead by five or six seconds through one section, and in a later event on the same course, no matter how flawlessly I ran, I'd be a few seconds behind.
- Car stats don't matter. I started off choosing the car for an event that had the highest rated horsepower, until I started having to fight to keep up with the cars that were supposed to be less powerful. It seemed that the car stats were just for show, and the only thing that affected your performance in the races was your performance.
Is It Worth It?
A thousand times yes, this game is worth it. It's a lot of fun and it's personally one of my all-time favorite racing games. It does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere of rally racing and is a great play through each and every race. Even the dump truck races. So if this one isn't already in your PS3 library, it definitely needs to be.
The Good
- Dedicated to rally. I've played racing games before that focus on on-road racing, and some that mix on- and off-road, but this series is one of the few that is focused just on rally racing, and it's amazing. I grew up loving watching rally racing on TV, seeing the cars whip completely sideways and defy all sorts of things speeding around a corner, and coming out in one piece on the other side. This game captures all of the thrill from it and puts you in the driver seat. It even includes your shotgun-riding spotter who calls out distances, grades of the turns, and notifying you of bumps and jumps in the road, giving you the real authentic feel without having to risk your life.
- Tier Tower. Your career mode in this game is in the form a challenge tower. You begin on Tier 1 with ten races available to you, and can unlock Tier 2 by earning the required amount of points from the first tier, and so on until you make it to the top tier and final race. Each successive tier has one less race than the previous one, building a pyramid of races for you to complete.
- All cars provided for you. When you enter each race, you can choose from a short list of cars that are able to compete in the event. Certain cars are available right off the bat, and others have to be earned. But the only thing standing in your way from them is money, which you earn from every race you compete in. There are no prerequisite levels you need to meet, you're not barred from purchasing a certain car until you reach Tier 5, nothing like that. If you have the money to purchase it, you can.
- Varying difficulty levels. You can choose from one of five different difficulties for each race. You're not locked in to racing on the Pro difficulty for the entire Tier Tower. And what's better is no matter which difficulty level you choose, if you win you still get the full ten points for the victory. So if one race in particular is giving you too much trouble, you can back out and drop it down a level to get the win.
- Different and new event types. The older games focused on the normal rally races and hill climbs. This game introduces some new events that are a lot of fun and make the game a lot less bland. There's Rallycross, where you and a handful of other cars race around on the same track together at the same time, there are Crossover events where you and one opponent go head-to-head, on a small track that crosses over itself one or more times, with what looks like two different courses that run in close proximity to each other but they're actually both part of the same, larger track. There's even some quirky events like one in particular where you get to race a semi-rig and another where you're racing a dump truck (if you follow my Instagram I posted a picture of this last one).
The Bad
- Uneven AI. I raced in the Tier on the top difficulty, Pro, for all the races. It seemed very inconsistent to me because there would be races, let's say a Rallycross event, where I'd get out in front before completing half of a lap, and others where I'd have to fight just to try and catch the leader before the race finished. Even in the regular rally races, I'd be ahead by five or six seconds through one section, and in a later event on the same course, no matter how flawlessly I ran, I'd be a few seconds behind.
- Car stats don't matter. I started off choosing the car for an event that had the highest rated horsepower, until I started having to fight to keep up with the cars that were supposed to be less powerful. It seemed that the car stats were just for show, and the only thing that affected your performance in the races was your performance.
Is It Worth It?
A thousand times yes, this game is worth it. It's a lot of fun and it's personally one of my all-time favorite racing games. It does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere of rally racing and is a great play through each and every race. Even the dump truck races. So if this one isn't already in your PS3 library, it definitely needs to be.
