Review: DiRT 3 - Xbox 360, PS3, PC

by Steven Williamson on 26 May 2011, 10:00 4.5

Tags: Codemasters, Racing

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa5zx

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Perform stunts in Gymkhana role

Race across light gravel and then switch over to a tarmacked road and you'll feel a distinct difference under your wheels and therefore need to change your racing technique accordingly. At high speeds the more powerful cars are difficult to handle across mud or gravel, meaning you have to be even more accurate at pulling off power-slides or handbrake turns around hairpin bends. Across tarmac, however, you’ll feel a noticeable shift in speed and the smoothness of the surface becomes apparent. There are a number of tracks that blend two types of terrain into one course so you constantly need to be on your guard for these shifts in surfaces and give each race your full attention. Due to the variety of classes and courses on offer, the action is often unpredictable and exciting and the tweaks that you can make to the game engine give you further control over the cars.



The new game modes give the DiRT franchise a little something extra that shifts it to the next level. Gymkhana mode is incredibly addictive as you twist and turn around the iconic arena of Battersea Power Station performing some crazy tricks and free-styling around the course over ramps. The lure of points encourages you to be adventurous and pull off some crazy turns, even though the end rewards are not that great. Online, DiRT 3 offers its most robust online component yet, with all of the events and cars from the single player tour available and for the first time the option to play it in split-screen mode. While the mini game modes are unlikely to be where the majority of rally race fans will spend lots of time, they offer a fun diversion to the more intense rallying gameplay and zombie infection in particular is highly entertaining.

DiRT 3 is an impressive evolution of the series with a strong multiplayer component held up by the riveting tour mode that puts you behind the wheel of a vast range of cars and across a variety of exciting tracks. Once again it looks stunning, with the backdrops to the tracks providing some spectacular views, but it's really the high-speed action and the thrill of the race that provides the most entertainment. A.I. of your other opponents can be a little docile at times, but overall it doesn't hamper the fun. All in all, DiRT 3 is the finest rally game to have graced the planet and Colin McRae (R.I.P) would have been immensely proud of where the franchise has ended up.



HEXUS Forums :: 18 Comments

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Was looking at the car list - quite impressed. Chance to play through with an Audi Quattro got my interest, and then I saw that (according to the Codies forum) that Lancia S4, Stratos and especially
Delta HF Integrale :bowdown:
are also there. So the game'll definitely be on the “must buy” list for me. :D
(Spot the mad Lancia fan!)

Only thing about Dirt3 (and to a lesser extent Dirt2) that really put me off was the US focus. Okay, I wouldn't count myself as a dead-mental rally fan, but I had to go look up pretty much everyone in Dirt2. :undecided I'm assuming that the car selection in ‘3 will be even more US-slanted. In which case, I’ll be a bit sad, because I really thought that rallying was a European sport, (leaving the US with buggy and truck racing).

Here's a question - does anyone (other than a total anorak) go and play with all the suspension settings etc? (I wonder this not only about Dirt3 but also other racing games).

Pretty good review by the way. :hexlub:
crossy
Here's a question - does anyone (other than a total anorak) go and play with all the suspension settings etc? (I wonder this not only about Dirt3 but also other racing games).
If the game engine is such that you can do it and get a predictable and beneficial result, then definitely. It's only applicable for games that have a very good ‘feel’ for what the car is doing, which tends to be track based sim-racers, then you can use the settings to tailor the car handling to your liking and the particular track characteristics. On a rallycross type game I wouldn't change much apart from rather obvious big changes like ‘soft’ for off road, ‘hard’ for road, ride height etc. which should be something that's changed for you by default as it's so obvious.

How are the graphics Hexus? Any difference running DX11 verses DX9/console?
It's not particularly US slanted. All the classics and new rally cars are there. :)

The adjustment of the cars is very simple - 1 to 5 with 1 being soft, 5 being hard etc for about 6 or 7 parameters like suspension, diff, downforce etc.

Handling is good, but even with all assists off it's still very firmly in the half and half between sim and arcade.
The gymkhana sections are very arcadey, and actually feel more akin to Tony Hawk than a racing game in my opinion. For me that actually makes that section quite fun.

That said I would say the rally sections are very good control wise and much harder to control than Dirt 2. Driving smoothly rather than drifting around the corners seems to be the most effective I would also say that it is less US based than Dirt 2
Lowe
It's not particularly US slanted. All the classics and new rally cars are there. :)

Looking at some of the (p)reviews out there and there seemed to be a lot of the US-based variants of the cars - so there's Ken Block's Ford, and the other rides specific to the (all US) “experts”.

Don't want to sound like I'm coming across all Daily Torygraph “I hate all foreigners” but I'd kind of hoped that they might of got at least one of the European names in there.
GheeTsar
The gymkhana sections are very arcadey, and actually feel more akin to Tony Hawk than a racing game in my opinion. For me that actually makes that section quite fun.
Must admit to some minor guilt in liking the box-bash sections in '2. ;)
GheeTsar
That said I would say the rally sections are very good control wise and much harder to control than Dirt 2. Driving smoothly rather than drifting around the corners seems to be the most effective I would also say that it is less US based than Dirt 2
Ah great, that kind of sounds like it'd be a bit more to my liking, although the “harder to control than Dirt 2” doesn't sound like a recommendation. :o
Cutting down on the need to get pin-sharp with drifting sounds nice - NFS:HP gets my recommendation for that.

Not too keen on the Touareg and Bowler bits, but that's probably because I could never place higher than 3rd on the sections with those cars. :censored: