Rally games have never appealed to me. Ever since I got one of my first games, Need for Speed 2 SE, I've leaned towards the arcade street racer games, so upon installing my first rally game, Colin McRae: DiRT, I was not expecting much.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised by what DiRT had to offer as it might actually be THE most fun and intense game I've purchased this year.
Yes, the game has Starforce which probably will scare a lot of people out of buying the game (I've never had any issues with SF) and yes installing the game on Vista 64bit was a bit of a hassle but boy was it worth that extra thirty minutes it took to get the game working. I wont go into the process of getting the game to work as I aim at keeping this quite brief. Anyhow, upon entering the game players are greeted by the most polished and fancy menus in any game I have ever played. Albeit those nice animated windows come with a catch because whenever something is selected there is a chance that the games narrator, famed freestyle motorcrosser Travis Pastrana, spews some annoying comment out but since those first comments he has actually grown a bit on me. The first thing that I thought when Travis' voice echoed in my headphones is that DiRT doesn't feel like the simulation that the previous Colin games seemed to be. All the animations and Travis seem to cater to the arcade crowd which got myself more interested in the game, but probably will disappoint hardcore Colin McRae fans.
Being the graphics freak that I am, the first thing I did was to enter the graphics options and see what could be changed and tweaked. To my surprise there were quite a lot of options for tweaking the game considering that the game is ported from the Xbox360 (I think) and after a few minutes I had found the options that suited my PC best. When I was finally done tweaking the graphics and setting the controls I started a new career. When new players start a career they get a short non-skipable tutorial where Travis explains the mechanics of the career mode. I was anxious to start playing so I just loaded the first race where I found myself racing customized Chevy trucks around some muddy track. The first thing players will notice upon loading the game is how unbelievably good everything looks. Shadows, car models, driver models, track design even the sky look next gen. If I didn't know better I would have thought that the game was DX10. Trees sway and dust kicks up as your car races at breakneck speeds through narrow crooks and crannies and if you happen to over shoot a turn you will be rewarded by some amazing crash physics as your wheels fly off, your windows smash and general mayhem ensues. Wet roads reflect light and the particle effects as your car hurls though the water drenched highways in Japan are very nice. Sadly there are no real time weather effects but that is probably the only thing the graphics are missing in my opinion. Those crashes mentioned previously can have serious consequences as each crash will negatively affect the cars performance, not to mention looks, and in the harder difficulties one crash is enough to end your joyride.
The sound in the game is,for lack of better words, flawed at the moment as the engine sounds tend to cut out and some annoying sound glitches are present but reading the official forums it seems those errors are soundcard related (X-fi) and should be addressed in a coming patch (1.2). Apart from the aforementioned glitches the engine sounds are genuine, although a bit generic, and the music that plays in the menus is pleasant. Travis' voice takes some getting used to but apart from that stuff the games sounds is ok.
Playing the game just as much a joy as looking at it, at least for the more arcade oriented gamers out there. I'm pretty positive those who like their simulations will not get the same kick out of DiRT as I do but it is a game that most people could enjoy I think. The handling of the cars is twitchy and takes some time to get used to but after a few races I'm confident most racers will up the difficulty a bit to make the game more challenging.
The career progression is quite straight forward and as you win races you win cash and cash buys you nicer cars. The more races you win the more races are unlocked as players ascend the tiers in the quest to become the greatest off road racer in the world. There are several different disciplines of off road racing which will let almost anyone with an interest in getting down and dirty in the mud find something suiting them. There really isn't much more else to the game, but the driving portion is just so intense and fun that I can easily recommend the game to most people looking for a new game to test out their system, even if they don't normally enjoy driving games.
Gameplay: 8/10. There are many disciplines that will cater most players but the handling will definitely not please hard core rally fans in search of the newest sim to test out their G25.
Graphics: 9.5/10. Wow, honestly the best looking game I've played this year. No game comes close to this at the moment, Oblivion, RB6 vegas were nice but this is just the most impressive game I've seen running on my screen.
Sound: 6/10. Sound glitches make the sound score low but it is decent enough to play the game without any distractions.
Performance: 8/10. My pc is in my sig and I run the game @ 1280x1024 with Ultra settings except for shadows which are at medium. The game is mostly smooth while racing but the frames can drop a bit when a lot of vehicles are on screen.
Lasting Appeal: 8/10. So far I've played around 5 hours and completed around 60% of the game, but I can see myself playing the game over and over again, I'm loving it!
Multiplayer: x/10. Haven't tried multiplayer yet but I will add a small comment when I do.
To sum it all up a great game: 8/10.
Wow, sorry the review turned out to be a bit longer than intended...hopefully someone will have found it interesting, and excuse me if there are any grammatical/spelling errors.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by FR0STY
sometimes higher..
