I never considered myself much of a racing game fan. Outside of spending a few bucks on Daytona USA during my weekly arcade visit, renting the early Ridge Racer games, and playing Burnout Paradise like my blood required it, I never found the act of fine-tuning my cars and easing around corners all that appealing to me. While I have a level of respect for how deep the Forzas and Gran Turismos of the world go, the barrier for entry was just inches above my grasp.
Then, one day, I picked up a copy of Dirt 2 from a bargain bin. Rally games were never my forte, but I heard good things. I had a lot of fun with the way the cars handled and how the overall feel of the game was right between simulation and the crazy arcade nonsense I loved. The only thing that fell flat for me on Dirt 2 was how “XTREME” it was. The main interface of the game took place in at trailer outside of the X-Games, while people like Dave Mirra called you on your branded T-Mobile phone and told you how rad your race was.
Dirt 2: Hey bro, want some branding?
The minute I saw the menu for Dirt 3, I rushed out and bought it. Gone is the buttrock and Bill and Ted sound-a-like mentors. In its place is a clean, abstract interface that feels more like something you would be controlling in a space station. The soundtrack is also wisely chosen for the most part, with some good Euro club hits and funk bands. Two of the voices that guide you through your tour (read: series of events chosen from a menu) have a nice British accent and give you compliments when you do well. Unfortunately, they’re joined by a guy that feels like every Mountain Dew ad combined.
Dirt 3. Sweet escape.
I don’t know where they found this guy, or if he’s even real, but he is easily the biggest flaw in Dirt 3, or perhaps even humanity. He pops up after random races and says “HEY AMIGO, WHY DON’T YOU UPLOAD THAT KILLER RAD BRO FOOTAGE WITH OUR INTEGRETED YOUTUBE UPLOADER, BROTHER DUDE?,” or “HEY BUDDY CON CARNE, YOU’LL BE A YOUTUBE SENSATION IF YOU SHOW THOSE BITCHIN TITS-UP TRICKS TO THE WORLD!”
"That was totes gnar-nar, dude!"
Sorry, you’re probably wondering how the actual game is. The good news is that in controls damn near perfectly; every nuance from Dirt 2 seems to have carried over, and you can go in and adjust different aspects of the difficulty as you see fit. All the assists your car may have are independent of the actual AI difficulty, so if you want to drive with a full racing line (a new addition to Dirt 3, similar to the one found in Forza) on an anti-lock braking system and turning assists on while still racing against hard AI opponents, it’s completely possible to do so. The bad news about all this is that it streamlines a lot of things for the casual player; it’s hard to tell exactly how the cars differ, and with the ability to do whatever you want with the difficulty with no penalty, I’m expecting a lot of backlash from the hardcore rally fans out there. It’s not a big deal for me, but I can’t speak for everyone.
As expected, the game has regular rally races (point to point, time based), rally cross (races) and different variants therein. My favorite is probably Land Rush, which is basically rally cross with big trucks and buggies. But then there’s something different altogether: gymkhana. I swear I didn’t make that word up, nor am I talking about the 1985 action movie Gymkata, which you probably shouldn’t watch if you don’t already know what it is. Gymkhana is probably what you know as “doing crazy shit in a car,” but now it’s a sport, and it just seems right for a video game. Doing donuts, spins, drifts, or smashing through things and getting air nets you points, and chaining them together gives you multipliers. Basically, it’s Tony Hawk for cars, and it’s really, really fun. I expect a lot of people might check this game out for this feature alone, though it doesn’t take up much of your actual tour. In a nice addition, however, Codemasters was smart enough to add your own little toybox area outside of the main game. Different sections (three in total) unlock as you progress through the main game, and they each have their own objectives and hidden packages to collect. To fit another Tony Hawk comparison in here, think of it as a freeskate mode challenging you to land all the gaps.
Hooning is not a crime! Also, what the hell is hooning?
I’m really happy with how Dirt 3 turned out. It looks fantastic, handles well, and at least cuts back on the “badditude” found in the last entry. There are some slight oversights in not giving the player more of an incentive to go back and try the races on a harder difficulty, but I’m sure if someone gets into the game enough, they would probably want to, anyway. Multiplayer with all the modes from the main game (including the gymkhana events) for both online and split-screen play give Dirt 3 a good deal of lasting appeal, too. Basically, even if you’re not a hardcore racing freak, you should at least keep an eye on the Dirt series and where its headed. It may end up being one of the most original series the genre has to offer.