Colin McRae's DIRT Review

Colin McRae is now a household name due his amazing career, and for that reason it is no surprise that Codemasters decided to base their game on the famous rally racer.

The first thing you'll notice is the amazing menu system. It's extremely attractive and works well - a real joy to use.

However the first oddity you'll recognize is the fact that Colin McRae isn't in the game till you're actually on the track... racing against him. Rather, Travis Pastrana greets you, and walks you through the game as you play, cheering you on when you win, and consoling you when you lose. I'm going to be honest - it isn't that nice listening to a surfer dude talking you through the game.

The second and more major oddity you'll feel is the way the car reacts. Since the inception of the series the physics have been based on a central pivot mechanism for turning, rather than using the actual tires to turn the car. Or perhaps it's a combination of both tires and central pivot, but it's extremely evident at times that the physics are far from true to life. It's not as unrealistic as Sega Rally, or intended as an extremely arcadey game, but it could be considered a cross between arcade/simulation.

And the last major disappointment is the multiplayer. Yes, there are many races with up to 8 cars on the track at once, however for whatever reason, you can't do so in multiplayer. A seemingly perfect opportunity for multiplayer would be the Cross-over tracks where you race against one other person, but this is out as well. So how do you race multiplayer? By yourself. Everyone in the race is racing by themselves and it's timing you against each other - essentially the same thing as racing hot-seat.

Now that we're done with the negatives - on with the good: The game is FUN! If you want a rally simulation, play Richard Burns' Rally - it has amazing physics. But if you want to simply have fun and enjoy absolutely amazing tracks with jaw-dropping graphics, play Dirt simply for what it is.

Your racing career is essentially a giant triangle, consisting of 11 tiers, with the bottom tier having 11 events, the 2nd having 10, the 3rd having 9 and so on. There are 9 styles of racing, including such things as Big-Rig Hill Climbing. There's a good selection of cars, and they do handle quite different from one to the next.

As mentioned - the tracks look truly amazing at times. Driving through the forest in Australia with the sunlight breaking through trees, and casting shadows on every object perfectly looks more realistic than any racing game before. As well the detail to the road is extremely good - the cracks, and dips, and gouges in the road here and there add to the realism rather than just having the same patch of road copied over and over at different elevations.

The damage to cars is one area where the physics really shines though. You can adjust the realism before each race. If you select "Pro" though, expect a head on collision into a tree to disembowel your car as it would in real life. Chunks of parts fly, glass breaks, and body panels bend & hang if you drive recklessly. Collisions with the environment haven't been done this well before either. The way a wooden fence will crack and break is perfectly true to life, or the way a steel barrier will cave in a little bit on impact.

I'm not typically a huge fan of unrealistic racing games, but this game was too fun to stop playing even with some annoyances. It kept pulling me back to progress and finish the game. There are over 100 liveries to collect, and many more races to do even once you beat the game, so there is a decent amount of replay value as well.

Colin McRae: Dirt has set a new benchmark graphically, and is extremely fun to play. They don't need to change the series to cater to the sim crowd - it's accomplished exactly what it aimed to - provide the player with immense fun.