25 Jun, 2011
Developer: Codemasters
Producer: Codemasters
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 [360 version used for review]
Release Date: Global: 24th May, 2011
In Ten Words Or Less: Quite simply, this is the finest off-road racer, ever. Period.
Family Friendly? In a word: yes. Read our explanation here to find out why.
To say Codemasters know how to make racing games would be one of the biggest understatements of the year. From the fantastic Colin McRae Rally games of generations long gone, through to the impressive reboot of the Formula 1 franchise late last year, the CV of their in-house studio now reads like a must buy list for the petrol heads amongst us. That’s not to say that they’re impervious to mistakes; from many a player’s perspective, DiRT 2 saw a studio at the top of its game take their eye off the ball. Thankfully this latest iteration of the series is closer to a reimagining of the off-road racing game than a refinement, attacking the task laid before it with renewed vigour and focus. To cut a long story short: no other game in the genre even comes close.
Aesthetically, the title sees DiRT streak ahead of the competition before a single race has been run. The redesigned career mode sees sleek tetrahedrons unfurl to reveal event layouts, punctuated by the titles love affair of both angular polygons and the Century Gothic typeface. This clean art house feel spills over into the user interface, but the whole presentation is constantly easy to understand and interpret. It’s a sign of great design.
The bulk of the game consists of a four-year arc, encompassing your grass root origins, the summer and winter X-Games and the road to the DC World Series. Each year consists of smaller championships, consisting of a variety of game modes. As a result of this, the game never feels repetitive or stagnant, and begs to be played long into the night. Between these, the game offers up more difficult, specialist events after you’ve proved yourself in particular disciplines. To sweeten the deal, the compound at the Battersea Power Station in London has been lovingly turned into nothing short of a playground, screaming for you to power slide, donut and thrash in the pursuit of personal improvement and mission aims. In this incarnation, the game brings back memories of the early Tony Hawk Pro Skater games, and that in itself is a complement.
In what has become the tradition of all recent Codemasters games [not to mention racing games in general] DiRT 3 straddles both arcade and simulation with equal prowess, allowing for the most hardcore fans to have just as much fun with the game as the average Joe or Joanne. The game remains very much a pick up and play title, with industry standard racing controls and rewind options. It remains the epitome of the phrase “easy to learn, difficult to master” however, and only those of you brave enough to turn all the driving assists off will gauge exactly how accurate that description is.
Perhaps the biggest addition, other than the slick presentation, is the implementation of Gymkhana. Essentially serving as a score attack mode, it sees you pit your car against every limitation you’ve come to understand as a virtual motorist. The incorporated aspects of the sport itself aren’t new at all – donuts and drifting have been in motoring longer than I’ve been in clothing – but the combination of style, control and skill required will get the better of many gamers. Whether the events come in the form of timed freestyle sessions, set sequences of required tricks or the destruction of cardboard alien invaders, Gymkhana brings a whole new level of depth to the driving game table, and Codemasters capitalise on this to the fullest extent.
Even to the veterans, Gymkhana will stand as the most difficult play mode to grace a driving game. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve overcooked a simple power slide, and although the perfect runs I’ve achieved are proud displays of inventive and stylish driving, I have to concede that they are few and far between. With the driving assists off, the game punishes anything less than mechanical precision and perfect car control with failure, and no doubt this will be the bane of many a controller. From a community perspective, however, YouTube will soon be alight with the clips of virtual maestros performing the most incredible strings of stunts [the inbuilt YouTube integration into replays is a welcome addition, especially considering the quality of driving possible.]
The precision required by the player is only possible thanks to the hard work and attention to detail on Codemasters’ part. Each car performs exactly how you’d imagine, as does each surface you stumble upon. It’s here that the developers really flaunt their heritage – whether it’s the dust trails of the Kenyan mountains, the forested mud baths that make up the Norwegian stages or the tarmac of the illustrious Monte Carlo, each track feels life like and alive when driven upon. The array of vehicles on offer is peerless amid the off-road genre, with vehicles spanning all eras of rally driving. Regardless of whether you’re throwing an original Mini Cooper into the walls of the Norwegian bobsleigh route, or firing a 1200 BHP Suzuki-badged monster through a Finnish forest at ridiculous speeds, the car handles exactly how you imagine it would.
Another word on the locations offered in DiRT 3 – they truly are spectacular. Sure, you’re often blasting past it at a zillion miles an hour, but what you do see of the landscapes is truly remarkable. Whether these are mapped from real places or drawn from scratch, each circuit captures the atmosphere and aesthetic of each country down to the architecture and types of vegetation. It’s truly a startling feat. Whilst some of its competitors may utilise more circuits, or offer more variation in terms of backdrops, nothing quite comes close to the photo-realism of DiRT 3, and as a result it’s arguably the best looking racing game to date. The screenshots on offer simply don’t do the game justice.
So, is this the definitive off-road gaming experience? Yes, undeniably so. For the time you are behind the wheel of any of the cars of DiRT, you are completely and utterly immersed. The slight edge blurring, the subtle variations in the vibration of the controller, the echo of the engine note – just about everything about this game grabs you and refuses to let go. Beyond that though, from the starting line to the chequered flag, the game has an undeniable knack of being ridiculously enjoyable. Whether it’s in the sarcasm of your co-driver as you go around a corner upside down, or in the tyre marks that litter the Battersea compound courtesy of your own efforts, the game can’t help but bring a smile to your face, newcomer or veteran. That alone is becoming a rarity in games of the current generation, and I cannot stress this enough: DiRT 3 truly stands apart because of it.
With a PEGI rating of 12+ and plenty of difficulty options and driving assists, this game may well be accessible for all, but isn’t quite suitable for all. During my time with the game, however, I didn’t note a single profanity or reason to give this game a teen rating. It shouldn’t stop those of the suitable age from playing and, more importantly, enjoying DiRT 3.
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