Colin McRae: DIRT (Xbox 360)

...of the racing game. Colin McRae rally games have been around for sometime and are often thought of as simulation games. Tricky to drive, lots of fiddling about with settings etc just to be able to reach the end of the course. One for the purist rally fanatic you might say but over the generations the realism has improved and the controls been ironed out to make the games more playable and now that Dirt has been offered as the first McRae game on ...
...most famous names in rallying, Colin McRae (rest in peace) it doesn't really feature him in the game which is a good thing in my honest opinion as celebrity endorsed games are often annoyingly bad. This isn't one of those games I hasten to add.

*First Impressions*

When the game first loads you get the usual adverts for the software houses, yeah yeah very nice and then you get a nice simple menu screen with a floating ... more

I am an avid gamer who has been playing games since the days of early Atari consoles and have always enjoyed the thrill of the racing game. Colin McRae rally games have been around for sometime and are often thought of as simulation games. Tricky to drive, lots of fiddling about with settings etc just to be able to reach the end of the course. One for the purist rally fanatic you might say but over the generations the realism has improved and the controls been ironed out to make the games more playable and now that Dirt has been offered as the first McRae game on the next gen consoles I thought it might be worth a play.

The first thing that hit me about Dirt was that even though it carrys one of the most famous names in rallying, Colin McRae (rest in peace) it doesn't really feature him in the game which is a good thing in my honest opinion as celebrity endorsed games are often annoyingly bad. This isn't one of those games I hasten to add.

*First Impressions*

When the game first loads you get the usual adverts for the software houses, yeah yeah very nice and then you get a nice simple menu screen with a floating menu that looks like its drifting in open space, nice touch. The worst thing as a first impression is that the voice over that to be fair does a good clear job of explaining the menus etc is very american. Now don't get me wrong, thats not a bad thing in itself but as its endorsed by a scot I just though the game my have more of a UK feel about it. Not a big issue I know but there you have it. As you navigate the menu you can drift nicely to other menus deeper into the screen to get more info about events etc which again has a nice feel about it. So all in all first impressions are good, if they have taken this much time over the menu then just imagine what the game must be like.

*Getting Started*

With your friendly American guide starting off in the world of Dirt is pretty simple. You have about 4 cars to start off with and you can choose from a selection of races and styles of racing. The events are laid out in a pyramid with you starting off at the bottom tier and by successfully completing the events here you can unlock new events on this level and once you have unlock enough at tier one you can move up to tier 2 etc and this can be done with or without completing the whole of tier 1 although you will gain a small achievement if you do all of a tier.

*Racing Styles*

There are several race styles in the Dirt game which offer plenty of variety.

Rally - The normal point to point rally stages on a mixture of surfaces including gravel, tarmac and dirt etc.

Rallycross - This involves racing curcuits which are usually dirt and tarmac tracks against 6 to 8 other competitors who don't hold back.

Rally Raid - This is usually bigger more pupose built off road vehicles and you race purely off road, like desert racing, some point to point and some long tracks. Other vehicles involved here like the rally cross.

Pro Truck Racing - US style big V8 truck racing on a motocross style track with other competitors, lots of bumping and bashing in this race class.

Crossover Racing - This is you against another car on a closed curcuit with a cross over point so you start half a track apart and both race around the same track and the quickest wins, think race of champions if you have seen that on TV?

So plenty of types of racing to keep you going in this game with each one linking to live if you have it and at the end of each race you get to know just how many thousands of people are quicker than you in the world from the online score boards. Replays are quite good also and are shown after each event but can be skipped.

*Controls and Views*

Driving games always have the same controls and there is nothing new here for Dirt, the progressive steering and breaks etc are good with the analogue features of the 360 controllers and would be better with a wheel set but I haven't got one of those. The views are good with the usual chase cameras and bonnet views but you also get a great in car camera angle that shows your arms driving etc which gives you an even better feel of what it might like to be in a real race car.

*Achievement etc*

Those familiar with 360 games will know how addictive collecting the useless gamer points is and Dirt dishes out quite a few small achievements early on and they keep coming the better you get and higher you climb up the tiers. Clean racing also rewards you with some points but this isn't so easy to achieve early on.

*Graphics and Sound*

Visually this game is great with dust and dirt flying, glass shatters and flys around the cabin when you crash and the cars crumple dramatically with body parts flying off all over the place if your careless. Sound effects are the usual affair with an absense of music in the races but I don't miss it. Some of the race styles have co drivers to guide you and if you are really concentrating they can really save your bacon although occasionally I have found myself shouting back when they don't give you a lot of warning about a sharp bend etc but you do have a little scrolling map of the track on the screen which can help you too.

*Deeper Game Play*

In the main Dirt is a game you can just pick up and play and get plenty to keep you going without delving deeper but for those who like to tinker there are decent levels of car settings to fiddle with to try and get that extra tenth of speed. A huge variety of vehicles which you can purchase with your generous winnings and each with a number of colour schemes to choose from which cost a few grand to collect. I believe you can also upgrade cetain elements although I haven't delved into this yet as I am only on tier 2 of the events. Crashes in races will also cost you and on the harder levels can even end the race, in multi stage events you will have to fork out hard earned credit to repair cars and the damage will also effect the performance so a nasty bang early on and your times will suffer badly. Drive with Care!

*Overall*

This is a good racing game, better than Forza 2 for variety and is now coming down in price making it better value than at release, I have the game on rental and I know it'll have to go back before I'm tired of it so thats a good sign.

Great graphics, pick up and , deeper gameplay for those that want it, recommended. If i have to pick on something as a negative load times between races are a little long although the nice 3D floaty menus fill the time showing you interesting stats about your time in the game like how far you have travelled on 2 wheels and you biggest jump etc. 

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