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DavieMarshall
188,918
TA Score for this game: 1,446
Posted on 28 January 10 at 10:06 |
This review has 18 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Colin McRae DiRT
Colin McRae DiRT is a no holds barred slice of racing action. The game encompasses a wide range of disciplines from your standard WRC style rallying, to 'point to point' races in trucks and everything in between.
Of course a racing game's key mechanic is that of the handling of the cars. Whilst the game is generally developed to host a more 'arcadey' feel of handling to the cars, it's by no means an over simplified approach that Codemasters have taken here.
The rally cars feel suitably light and responsive, whilst certain classes of rally car (such as RWD cars) have their own character and will take a different approach in order to master the art of speeding through a stage in a time respectable enough to take a high points finish.
In other events trucks have a decidedly heavier feel and will fight your efforts to guide them around the tracks, whilst the dune buggies fly around corners on two wheels.
All of this means that you'll have to spend time learning the curves of each class in order to remain competitive, and will also have to learn the art of proper accelerator/brake control (and appropriate gearing technique should you be the kind of gamer who, like me, opts for the manual gears setting).
The graphics look great indeed, but the age of the game perhaps shows though slightly more now against the likes of Forza 3 as the game can occasionally feature some anti-aliasing and slight 'roughness' to the picture. This is only noticeable if you're really looking for it though and the game still looks top notch.
The sounds are brilliant and really capture the atmosphere of high octane motor racing. The pace notes are well recorded and are varied enough to be able to sound smooth and not at all disjointed which is nothing less than you'd expect from a next generation game on a next generation console from a developer like Codemasters.
However, the pace notes are sometimes issued too sluggishly and you might find yourself driving 'blind' for a corner or two as your co-driver bands around advice for a corner you drove far too quickly (or slowly) through three turns back.
I also have a small issue with the Americanisation of the game. Gone are the days of Nicky Grist and now we have a extroverted American in his place. As an example of how insufferable he can sometimes be, if you win a rally he may be heard to say "First place. Me likey". That's right, that's not a typo, he actually will say "Me likey".
This in addition to suffering a voice over guy guide you through you career who will dish out endless rewards of "Good job dude", "You were smokin'" and other such dull, sterile and frankly annoying 'compliments'.
The career mode is structured in a tier system, or rather a giant pyramid with fewer and harder events as you move ever closer to the final event to prove your worth. Tracks become harder, cars faster and the difficulty greater as you progress. Completing a stage awards you points (depending on your finish position) which accumulate to unlocking the next tier after a set number of points have been won.
You may find as you progress through the game to the higher levels on the hardest difficulty that you will be thundering round tracks in times several dozen seconds quicker than your nearest rival which removes the element of tension as you build up a comfortable lead throughout a championship as you know you can afford to put several wheels wrong throughout the duration of a rally.
On the flip side, you may occasionally come across an event which, no matter how you drive, or how you set your car up, you will always be minutely off the pace. This is where you will need to drive the track again, again, again and again to learn the optimum route and gearings through corners to shave those seconds off. This appeals to the hardcore gamer, but may put off the more casual gamer.
All in all the game kept me coming back for more and more until I'd achieved my full 1000/1000 Gamerscore, so that has to count for something. As racing titles go on the Xbox 360, this is something of an Xbox Classic and well worth picking up on the cheap as is easily possible now.
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WWF ATTITUDE
Posted on 18 February 09 at 18:40, Edited on 18 February 09 at 18:41
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This review has 14 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
What a fantastic game! Way to go codemasters! Unfortunately it will probably be the last game we will see with the Colin McRae name attached to it. The game was release the summer before his untimely death towards the end of 2007. I'm gonna miss racing him. But as for the game goes it is by far the best off road rally style racing game out there. Screw Gran Turismo 4's piddly section of dirt tracks, this game is the real deal with all the real courses and any car or truck you can think of racing on them. Including Semi's, that's right, I said Semi Truck Off Road Racing, what could be more fun than that. The graphics and game control are top notch and no joke, you can easily mangle and destroy your car when the difficulty is on anything above rookie, but that's just the fun of the game. So driving skill and experience is a plus for playing this game and it's a ton of fun when you get the hang of it, I highly recommend this game to any racing fan. I myself just finished beating the career mode and am moving onto the championships and online play (hope there are still people playing  ). So my hat's off to Colin and to the game, I hope to see more like this from codemasters! |
URZAS EL RONIN
73,460
TA Score for this game: 1,446
Posted on 02 December 09 at 01:39 |
This review has 7 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This is what I have been waiting for in a racing game in a long time. Every other developer should take note of codemasters DiRT. It is what we as a gaming community want.
First and foremost you can set the difficulty level to your skill level. I Really liked that you could see how much damage your vehicle recieved so far in the race.
The rally races were great, I love how you have to race two legs before you get a chance to repair. It really forces you to make some decisions on what is important to you. (suggestion ALWAYS clean your car first, it lowers the time it takes to do other repairs and almost always lets you get one more thing in.)
Online was playable. I say this only because it would be very cool if you had 30 second start intervals on the races so that you could overtake opponents and be overtaken. This takes nothing away from the game as is. The format they use is very understanding as it really is a timed event.
Graphics were great. the races were memorable. Pikes peak hill climb full is STILL my favorite. The only reason i got rid of this game on Goozex (my tag is elronin) is becasue i requested the sequal and cannot wait to get it.
GET THIS GAME!! GET THIS GAME! GET THIS GAME!
To codemasters i give 
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The SFC Chris
36,939
TA Score for this game: 1,302
Posted on 18 July 11 at 13:23 |
This review has 5 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Colin McRae: DiRT is the first game in the DiRT series, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that this is a poorer game than the others.
The new series name shows that it has moved away from the classic McRae games on the last generation of consoles, and into other types of off-road motorsport. Of course, there is still a number of straight-up rallies, but now there are also hill climb races, rallycross, truck races and more.
Before I talk about the details though, I’ll go through the handling – surely the most important part of any racing game. The handling is more arcadey than realistic, but it feels perfect for the type of game it is aiming to be. It is easy to pick up and hard to master, like all good games should be and you can tell the difference between each car or truck.
When you load the game, you will notice the streamlined, easy to navigate menus, complete with voiceover. Thankfully, the use of the voiceover is limited and so it does not become annoying.
In terms of modes, there are four. There is the Career Mode, where you complete a variety of events to unlock more, working your way up from novice driver to the elite tracks and races, competing against the very best. Second is the Championship mode, which is where you’ll get most of your normal rallying. There are three championships to take part in, two of 3 rallies and one of 6 rallies. Each rally contains between 5 and 7 stages, including one rally stage, depending on the settings. The final offline mode is essentially a ‘free play’ mode, where you can set the race up as you wish and complete it. Finally, there is an average online mode. It can be quite hard now to find a game, but usually there are some lobbies set up for you to join.
The Career Mode is excellently designed. You compete in a number of events, ranging from level 1, the lowest to level 10, the highest. There are a smaller number of events in each level as you work your way up, although they do become more time consuming. You also have the freedom to choose which cars you buy and each car also has some liveries (paint jobs) for you to pay for and unlock.
Overall, this a great, well designed game and is a fantastic tribute to Colin McRae.
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