Colin McRae DiRT

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If I was to start a review by congratulating the developers on their menu design you'd think I'd either gone a little mad or there wasn't much else of note to be found within the game. I mean all games have menus, they're not new, they're not exciting and they're not even hugely important most of the time. But still, slip Colin McRae DiRT into your 360, spend a couple of minutes moving around the menus and you'll see why I bring it up at this early stage of proceedings. As a study in stylish efficiency they're almost as beautiful as they are hard to describe. Every page seemingly floats alone in a huge creamy coloured void, the camera sliding smoothly from page to page as you move around them with ease. It's not that they do anything your more traditional menus can't, its just that they do it with a sense of ultra slick style you didn't even realise you'd been missing out on before. Even the loading screens continue the same theme with the camera whooshing smoothly through a selection of real times stats about your performance. As first impressions go, DiRT is way out in front, things can only go downhill from here!

I've been really looking forward to playing Colin McRae DiRT, it's been a while since there's been a really good rally game and after the recent crazy thrills and spills of FlatOut Ultimate Carnage I had a hankering for something a tad more serious. Seemingly more than ready to fit the bill DiRT comes to the table with an impressive array of race types and modes at its disposal. The most obvious new addition to the series is the inclusion of CORR off-road races, unlike your normal rally stage these play out like a more traditional race with multiple vehicles on the track at the same time. It's not just cars you'll be racing in these events either; everything from small dirt buggies to hulking trucks gets the DiRT treatment. The other five event types are more traditional rally game fare and include normal rallies, rallycross, hill climb and crossover stages. All these different race types are fitted together to provide a mind boggling selection of events from single races and full championships to the impressive career mode which see's you work your way up through a pyramid of over sixty events earning points as you go. These points can then be spent on new cars (and paint jobs) which enable you to qualify for even more of the events in the pyramid. In what seems like an ill disguised attempt to tap into the American market the game is presented not by the titular Mr McRae but by his American equivalent Travis Pastrana. Not a huge problem in principle (although quite why it's still Colin's name on the front is beyond me) but the reality becomes quickly irritating as Travis along with your frankly irritating co-drivers manage to natter their way over both the game and the menus using a script that sounds like it was written by a room full of middle aged Daily Mail readers trying to sound 'street'.

Finally get behind the wheel however and any anti-American feelings soon evaporate as first impressions are quite simply stunning. DiRT is by far the nicest looking rally game so far, proving what can be done with next gen technology when you put the effort in. All this visual splendour does come at a cost however and it's disappointing to see the frame-rate suffer at times, especially on the CORR events where multiple cars on the track can slow things down noticeably. The huge number of tracks are spread across a wide selections of environments from around the world with a well balanced mix of pedal to the metal sprints and twistier corner filled delights. Both the tracks and the cars themselves are modelled in exquisite detail offering many oooh and ahhh moments especially in the suitably beautiful replay mode. Unlike other more stuffy racing games any mistakes you make can have a horribly realistic effect on both your car and the track side object it hits. In fact, the damage modelling is impressive enough at the highest difficulty settings to actually feel a little too accurate. One mistimed corner can see your rally over before it's really begun, it's always your own fault of course but the game can be very unforgiving when it wants to be. That's not to say it's a game only serious petrol heads will be able to enjoy. In fact DiRT takes a noticeably more arcade friendly approach to things than earlier Colin McRae games, more often than not managing to find the sweet spot between hardcore simulation and pick up and play racing perfectly. Its well pitched learning curve eases you into things gently without ever becoming boring and the sheer size of the challenge ahead means you're never bored.

Getting back to the driving itself, the cars all handle differently as you'd expect and learning how to best drive each one provides almost as much of a challenge as the courses themselves. Each car can be tweaked and tuned if you so desire and knowing how to get the most out of your vehicle becomes increasingly important as you move through the game. Thankfully, to start with at least, the default settings allow beginners to get in a car and feel competitive and it's this ability to provide true depth for those that want it alongside easy accessibility for those who don't that's one of the games true strengths.

Rallying has always been about the battle between the driver, the car and the course. You need to learn how to push each car to its limits all the while knowing the course like the back of your hand so you're prepared for whatever's round each corner as you aim to knock every possible split second off your time. Unlike other racing disciplines the purity of that trinity is never sullied by other cars on the track and that's how rally fans like it. As a game however such solitude can get a little dull at times, something DiRT seems to realise as the inclusion of the CORR events offer a welcome sidestep to more traditional racing. The only problem is, these events are so much fun they serve as a reminder why racing head to head against other cars is often more fun than going along stages solo with only the clock to battle against.

By far the biggest disappointment however is to be found hiding under the multiplayer option. In a game so polished and full of content Codemasters should be a little red faced about the minimal multiplayer options they've provided. Only rally and hill climb events feature and it doesn't take a genius to notice that both of these are strictly one car at a time stages. This means that multiplayer consists of nothing more than racing your own personal instance of the course then comparing times with other gamers in your lobby. This way of doing things may be considered realistic when it comes to how a real rally plays out, but it's nowhere near as much fun as having lots of cars on the track at once which is a shame as some online CORR events would have been great.

When it comes down to it DiRT is almost a victim of its own excess. While it should be congratulated on its near flawless presentation and the huge variety of racing it offers, it's that wealth of content that serves to highlight the games weaknesses. While DiRT certainly does offer the best traditional rally experience around at the moment, by including the chance to race directly against other vehicles in the CORR events it almost accidentally reminds you that racing that way is actually more fun. If you're a serious rally fan then this is easily the best game of its type, however, anyone just in the market for a decent racing game may want to stop and decide if this is really going to be their cup of tea before they part with their money.

80%

By Paul Newcombe