Xbox 360 owners are blessed with a plethora of quality driving games that no other next gen system can boast. From the arcade racer Project Gotham Racing 3, to the ultra-realistic Forza Motorsport 2, to multi-platform hits such as Need For Speed, race fans should take note of the quality games available to owners of the off-white box. The newest racer is the semi-exclusive DiRT. I say “semi-exclusive” because DiRT is available for PC gamers, and will be available to PS3 owners later this year (it seems like the PS3 always lags behind in everything but price).
DiRT makes full use of the Xbox 360’s hardware to deliver one of the most beautiful titles to date. The cars are realistically emulated inside and out and feature the best damage modeling of any racer available. Sliding into a barrier can result in a lost door, while rear ending an opponent will often result in a crumpled hood and a smashed windshield that can be nearly impossible to look through. Layer upon layer of dirt will cover your car until the paint scheme (livery) will be unrecognizable. The environments are lush and gorgeous with fantastic draw distances. The gamer will truly get the sense of racing through a bright, sunny desert in one race, to motoring through the overcast UK countryside the next. This is accomplished with a great lighting system that ranges from blinding sun glare to hazy, filtered light wherever appropriate. The graphical tradeoff is some occasional mild framerate stutters when there are multiple cars on screen, but it is not enough to distract from what is otherwise a very stunning game.
The fantastic look of the game is not limited to the races, and extends to a very slick menu system. If I may exercise a bit of an artistic license here, a video game is a lot like a meal at a good restaurant; you only notice the presentation when it is very good, or very poor. DiRT shines in its presentation with a multi-layered menu system, and a pyramid of career mode challenges that is very pleasing to the eye. Help is available on nearly every aspect of the game, from car and track information, to a rundown of tuning options; and is easily accessed by pressing the Y button and listening to Travis Pastrana give you the complete 411 on any given topic. The load times are on par with Forza 2, but static screens and loading progress graphs are replaced with your lifetime statistics, including total time driven, lifetime average speed, longest jump, longest distance driven without a crash, and one of my favorites, longest distance driven on two wheels.
The damage modeling is not just for appearances. Nine separate critical systems are monitored for damage, including the wheels, cooling system and bodywork. Although this is a great touch, it’s not quite realistic. While racing on the third of five difficulty levels, I managed to reduce my driveshaft to 0%, yet was still able to drive at nearly full speed. I can understand this at the easy difficulty setting, but I would expect more from the medium setting (which happens to be one level above the default). Granted, the hardest difficulty setting features full mechanical damage, but I expected more from the mid-range difficulties.
Most rally race games try to mix simulation aspects with arcade aspects, with DiRT leaning toward the latter. Gamers are given a great deal of latitude in tuning their car and getting it dialed in just right. Most of the tuning options apply to the chassis and suspension, but gear ratios can be tweaked as well. By the time you reach the first turn of your first lap in DiRT, you’ll realize that the physics are very arcade like. Despite this (or perhaps because of), the game still delivers some great racing excitement. My only real complaint with the physics is that the game often does not feel like you are driving a vehicle on four wheels. The vehicles feel like they rotate around a central point on the Y axis, so instead of getting the sensation of the rear wheels sliding out, as you would in Forza 2 or PGR 3, it feels like the entire car is simply rotating. That being said, its not going to be noticeable to every gamer (just those of us that nit-pick), and doesn’t distract from the fun too much.
