Trip's Review

Colin McRae is the long standing champion of the rally series in the computer game world, the first two games appearing on the PS1, the next 3 appearing on the PS2 and Xbox beating off contenders in the form of Sega Rally and World Championship Rally. Now comes the 6th game, and they've renamed it to DiRT.

I'll be honest, I'm not a big racing fan, but I do like to dabble, I played Gran Torismo 1 to death, but could never get into any of the others. I've played most of the Burnout games to Zombie status (beyond death), but no other racing game has really made me want to play it too much (discounting Mario Kart obviously). The being said, Colin McRae DiRT is a blast!

After trying out the demo on the Xbox 360 I was hesitant, but thought I'd give it a purchase anyway, now I'm glad I did. To start off this is one of the best looking racers out there, it's simply amazing, the level of detail is immense, and the speed it runs is breathtaking (check out the replay feature for example).

The amount of content in this game is pretty vast too, it'll keep you going for a while, lots of different tracks, cars and race types (although Hill Climb was a big disappointment), it seem easy until about halfway then it seems to get a lot harder to keep getting first in the races. When I say harder, I just mean finishing the track gets hard, excessive consecutive turn on some very technical course mean you're likely to crash your car out a lot, be warned!

In terms of controls, the game seems very twitchy, and if you're trying it with a steering wheel, you'll really want to play about with the sensitivity settings in the options, but when you get used to it you'll find it extremely satisfying to pull a 180 handbrake turn on a incredibly tight corner without taking your front wheel off hitting the side.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of split screen in DiRT, since it only supports System Link and Xbox live multiplay, but it does have an incredibly nice feature where it tells you what your time is compared to everybody else in the world after every race, making you feel like you're part of the bigger picture.

Digging into the games additional vehicle settings and option, you get an insane amount of things to fiddle about with, which I'm sure any good petrol head out there will love, myself? I just ignored them and kept on racing!

Speaking of digging into the options, I was particularly blown away by how cool the menu system was, it seems quite epic, but not confusing in the way it switched between different options and selections, which is complemented by the loading screen which tells you all of the stats you racked up since beginning the game. Stats like longest amount spent on 2 wheel, or number of rolls you done in your car, total number of miles you've driven in game, and many more; certainly makes loading more bareable.

Mikey's Review

Usually I am about as far away from racing car games as you can imagine but something drew me to Colin McRae: DiRT, could it be the slick interface, the wonderful graphics or the ease with which you can pick up and play the game? I don't know but let's find out!

Graphics

I would say definitely the best graphics I have seen on *any* car game, it's the first thing you notice about the game to be honest, it looks gorgeous, especially on a nice hi-def TV. We loaded up the Forza 2 Demo and wow... the game looked like it was from last decade compared to DiRT, the cars were bland and boxy and just yuck... we quickly slammed back in DiRT and drove into the sunset!

The tracks look like the real thing, the cars break apart in amazing detail and everything just seems so.. crisp I think is the word I am looking for. I think the whole game is helped and made to look even more impressive with the camera trickery employed throughout the game. When you start for example you get swishy rotational zooms around the car, going from fast panning to slow motion, it just makes me dribble thinking about it!

So yeah... it looks sweet, but how does it feel?

Interface

Possibly the less thought of bit about games, usually looks just bolted on at the end but, surprisingly, not with Colin Mcrae: DiRT. It looks fantastic, I can't honestly find a think wrong with it, at all... It's just a very slick interface, the buttons do what you would expect and the cleanliness and feel of all the menus is just so modern. It's like some new movie by a youthful energetic director, throwing off the shackles of "how it should be done". I like it!

As I said everything makes sense and is easy to get to, from tuning the car to altering the amount you have to push the pedal with the steering wheel set, its just great.

But enough about this, you want to know, how does the driving feel?

Gameplay

This part of the game made it for me, brought everything else together and kept my interest, which to be honest is lost at this point in nearly all driving games, perhaps with the exception of Burnout 3. From the swishy view when starting into the first corner Colin Mcrae: DiRT feels like a proper racing game, the controls are responsive and you get an immediate feel for how far you can push the car without going over the limit.

The feeling of speed is also incredible, I can't imagine what it would be like on a 60" screen in the zoomed into the floor driving mode... I think I would be sick! Honestly I can't tell you how good this game feels when driving, the only comparison I can personally make is remember playing Sega Rally in the arcades? How good and how in control did you feel? DiRT is the same, its the same feeling, the same excitement!

Incentives

I just came up with this section but I think I will make it standard... This is something I need in a game, I need persuading to play that little bit more, I need to have my concentration span lengthened by what the game offers me. Colin Mcrae: DiRT does this very well and to good effect. For a start you get the normal Xbox incentives for doing well, the achievements which are unlocked as the game progresses. They are always nice to have and though a little pointless at times, someone saying, well done chap, you have driven 200 miles! Or something like that...

The other thing I like about this game is the way stages are unlocked and the way in which you can buy other cars. I know this maybe like other racing games but I do like the way the DiRT one is put together. In career mode you start at the bottom of a pyramid with only a handful of races unlocked, as you finish in the top 1,2 or 3 various other stages will unlock and you earn money, which is sometimes required to purchase cars for the specific races, or upgrade cars for races you have already ran. It reminded me of the way Burnout 3 unlocked stages, I don't know, it just seemed very slick to me.

Who is the best in the world? Well usually you have no idea but with Colin Mcrae: DiRT, for every track, every car, every person who ever plays DiRT with a net connection gets added into the standings database. You can just pick a track, race it like hell unleashed only to find you are 46,423 best at that track in the world! It's kinda cool, you could spend ages trying to beat other people.

Conclusion for Colin Mcrae: DiRT

Sorry I can't mention the multiplayer aspects at the moment as I have not played online yet but I can say I was a little disappointed in the lack of split screen mode for playing locally against your mates. That would have been a good addition.

All in all this is an awesome game, not just awesome racing game but just awesome, period. The graphics are the best you are going to see, the sound makes you feel you are there, the AI is good, and well... its just a bloody FUN game to play!

I love it, go buy it!