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DiRT

Written by DM on Saturday, June 30 2007

The most evident way that DiRT caters to all level of gamer is the race difficulty setting which is available before every single race. You can choose up to six difficulty levels for the competing A.I., and the higher difficulty you choose, the more prize money you receive for a win. You also get a much bigger chance of inflicting terminal damage on your ride if you pick a higher difficulty level because the damage level for hits gets jacked way up. Levels like Amateur, Clubman, Pro-Am and Pro all seem daunting at first, but you will find your groove and if one race is too hard to accomplish, you can simply turn down the difficulty for that particular track.

The main part of DiRT is the single-player career mode. There are 8 race tiers, arranged in pyramid form. As you progress through the lower portions of the pyramid, the tiers above unlock themselves as you gain more points by winning. The types of races the game hits you with include Rally, Rallycross, Crossover, Rally Raid, CORR, and the ever-popular, Hill Climb. All these modes serve to make a well-rounded and enveloping rally experience, and it also helps DiRT lessen the frequency of the dull, time-trial only race. Most rally racing is judged by time, since having multiple cars on the narrow tracks at one time could be very dangerous. While the much of the racing in DiRT is still time-based, Codemasters does a fantastic job of breaking it up with the less traditional modes that the game includes.

The game has a very slick presentation setup that you will notice the minute you reach the main menu. Fully animated menus, complete with a bumpin’ techno soundtrack and futuristic sound effects make even menu surfing in DiRT fun for the eyes. This stands to reason, as the one thing that can be said about DiRT, if nothing else, is that the graphics for the entire game are some of the best to grace the Xbox360 to date. Lush environments, stunning car models, and realistic looking players combine to make a spectacular visual experience. Another great feature of DiRT is the damage physics. If you have played Motorstorm on the Playstation 3, you have an idea of what great-looking damage physics can be. DiRT is on par with Motorstorm, and may even surpass it at points. Breaking glass, hoods and doors scratching up and flying off, and car body panels getting crunched under-wheel are all a regular part of any race. As I mentioned earlier, these damage graphics are not just for show. DiRT has a complicated and effect damage system that will affect your vehicle’s performance and even get you disqualified from a race if something critical reaches the 0% usefulness mark.

Another great aspect of the graphical power of DiRT are the maps and tracks. The first thing you will notice is that the game has many maps and tracks. I cannot give you an exactly figure of the amount of locations in the game, but it was enough so that I did not even start seeing familiar places until about the fourth tier races, about 40% through. The kicker for all of this? Even the tracks themselves can have damage inflicted upon them. While most racing games have a sign here or a tree there that can be displaced, the tracks in DiRT are almost fully deformable. If you drive into a tire pile then those tires will literally go flying across the entire track and into any oncoming vehicles. If you take out a guard rail on a mountain curve, then yes, if you will fall off the cliff. It is very impressive, and adds a degree of realism to the game that pushes the title over the edge.

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