DiRT 3

in many ways, dirt 3 is a refinement of the formula introduced with dirt 2. having heard fan complaints about the direction taken in the previous game, codemasters here have brought dirt 3 into a sort of middle-ground between dirt 1 and 2, going back to a more subdued, euro-esque rally experience as opposed to the sensationalized festival vibes and general offroad mish-mash of two years prior, while still maintaining a certain level of x-games grandeur.

in line with its shift back towards a rally-centric approach, the presentation of dirt 3 is noticeably toned down compared to its predecessor. while codemasters' distinctive "3d menu" style of the era is still very much present, the menus are much slicker and cleaner compared to the flashiness of dirt 2. many welcomed this withdrawal from the very americanized skater-bro vibes of dirt 2, in exchange for uhh... pyramids. and some regular triangles but mostly pyramids. personally though, i miss the personality of that game. the immersion and atmosphere of that game were hardly matched in the racing genre, and though i understand why some would find it obnoxious and just want to drive, i found myself a bit less invested and more disconnected from the action.

on a technical level, this game isn't quite the leap dirt 2 was over 1, but it's still noticeably improved. the graphics here are quite pretty - all the rally locations look gorgeous and have some really nice lighting effects, with michigan being my personal fave. on top of that, variable time of day and weather are back, and their presence is greatly welcomed! it does slightly lack the vibrance of 2, as there seems to be a muted blue tone over everything, but i still appreciate this aesthetic choice and it still looks very nice. however some locations look a little "dead" in comparison to their preceding counterparts, most notably los angeles, but it's not a huge deal.

there's not really much to say in the physics department, because they play very similarly to how they did in dirt 2. jumping from that game to this, you'll feel perfectly at home - but they are a bit more fine-tuned and polished, making for some of the most enjoyable arcade rally physics i've experienced. i also like the ability to toggle assists for the first time in a dirt game, so i can finally have all of them off!

likewise, the sound design is basically on par with the last game. the soundtrack isn't quite as banger-after-banger as dirt 2 but there's a lot of good stuff from artists like danny byrd, everything everything, atmosphere, leftfield, manchester orchestra, 65daysofstatic, and more, bringing an eclectic mix of electronica, alt rock and metal, and hip hop. still wish there was an in-race music option though, at least for rallycross, landrush, and gymkhana. there's also a few "characters" in the form of voiceovers that guide you along and congratulate you for wins, which some people find annoying, but i don't mind. they're a bit generic but kind of wholesome when you get past the "DUDE YOU SHOULD TOTALLY UPLOAD THAT TO YOUTUBE AMIGO!!" and their speech after the final event was actually kind of heartwarming in a weird way.

while i do miss the atmosphere lost in the aforementioned stylistic turnaround towards more traditional rally, i do appreciate what this meant in terms of gameplay structure. the dirt tour in this game, rather than being organized by location, is split into four seasons each with four series that contain a number of events spread across the different disciplines. supplementing this is a series of "world tour" events that take you across each location in each discipline of the game - these include traditional rally, rallycross, and trailblazer returning en force, landrush (in a somewhat diminished capacity compared to 2), head2head (crossover races, returning from the original dirt) and the all new gymkhana mode.

let's talk about gymkhana. many HATED when this mode was introduced, as it "sours" what would've been a more rally-heavy package with the least rally thing the series has seen yet. but those people are lame because it's actually fun as hell. it's essentially a stunt-driving mode that has you stringing together drifts, spins, donuts, jumps, and smashes to rack up points within an arena, and it's shockingly addictive. in addition to standard gymkhana events, there are also numerous "challenges" peppered throughout the career that require you to do things such as earning enough points by drifting, completing certain tricks under a time limit, smashing objects in an area while avoiding penalties, and so on. they're a fun diversion and i appreciate their presence.

still, rally events take slight precedence for most of the dirt tour. there are four locations in the game for both rally and trailblazer - finland, kenya, michigan, and norway (with dlc adding monte carlo for rally only). all of them are highly visually distinct and beautiful to look at, with the stages themselves being quite fun to drive. and snow stages! how i missed thee in the past two dirt games. however, they are all still disappointingly short, with the longest stages taking around 3 minutes at the most. also, damage continues to play a minimal role despite the game attempting to hearken back to the "old days," - there's no need to repair, and i never even took enough damage to light up the damage indicators. also why the FUCK does it reset your setup to default after EVERY RACE??

although the number of locations is similar in number to dirt 2, there are many more stages in each one. the 8 stages per area do tend to re-use sections and just have different start- and endpoints, but any amount of variation here feels like a big step up from before. indeed, even in other modes like rallycross or landrush, the tracks tend to share a common area but with slight alterations to the layout to keep things from being stagnant. a lot of these variations are relatively minor, but it actually works wonders for decreasing the feeling of repetition - i was shocked to find out i spent nearly as much time completing this game as i did dirt 2, as this game feels like it flew by a lot quicker since the races were just that much less monotonous. as a final note, i do somewhat miss the raid discipline, although raid vehicles are still present and there are a couple events that have you using them on normal rally tracks.

speaking of vehicles, the car variety here is also noticeably better, especially with all the dlc included in the complete edition. the rally car class is huge and includes a good swath of iconic cars from different eras dating all the way back to the 70s. the trailblazer class also includes both classic and modern hillclimb cars, and the rallycross and gymkhana selections have a good amount of choice as well. however, even though i'm not the biggest fan of landrush, i do lament the lack of unique vehicles available in this game. there is simply a single unlicensed "stadium truck" and likewise a "stadium buggy" which are actually just re-used models of the toyota truck from dirt 2 and the scott schwalbe buggy from dirt 1.

with this very welcomed variety, it's unfortunate that the way the career mode is designed restricts you from being able to fully enjoy it. progression in this game drops cash and is done entirely via earning rep (experience) from events and ranking up. this is fine, but the problem is the amount of rep you earn is heavily dependent on bonus objectives which award variable rep depending on which team you drive for. instead of being able to simply own cars and pick the livery you like, each car and livery has a certain rep award attached to it depending on what level it was unlocked at. essentially, you are punished for wanting to use a certain car based on personal preference or even pick the color you like because you earn less xp if it's one you unlocked earlier. which sucks. also, a lot of the most iconic liveries are not usable in career because they're the "default" and not tied to one of the common teams that you unlock access to during the career!

the objectives themselves are usually alright but sometimes dumb. you might get "be in the lead at the halfway point" on a crossover race and then start on the side of the track that's definitively longer, or get "finish without taking damage" on a rallycross or landrush race, which are basically impossible to win without bumping at least a tiny bit. fortunately (i guess?), rep caps out at level 30, at which point you can feel free to ignore objectives and pick whatever you like.

i also want to mention the difficulty curve is still a bit off here. non time-based events are generally fine even on the highest difficulty, requiring a good amount of skill to take the win while not being unreasonable, and usually with only a little bit of cheese necessary. but for rally and trailblazer, things are all over the place. its sort of like dirt 2 where the hardest difficulty is too hard and one lower is too easy. i set it to the second highest because it's the safest, least-frustrating bet, but there are still some events where i put in a perfect run and just barely make first, and others where i barely have to try and finish over 10 seconds ahead.

dirt 3 feels like kind of a weird case for me, because on many levels it directly improves upon dirt 2, and yet... something just feels missing. i still like dirt 2 more. for most people i would probably recommend dirt 3 as the highlight of the original dirt trilogy for its superiority in technical aspects such as physics as well as in most parts of the gameplay design. but for me, personally, and for other weirdos maybe, there's just something about the charm and character of the second game that keeps it on top. still, if you're a casual racing fan who wants a good arcade rally game, you can hardly go wrong here.

The main Dirt Tour mode is arranged in seasons where a certain number of points need to be achieved before the next season unlocks. Like Dirt 2, there's the standard Rally, Rallycross, Landrush events alongside the new addition of Gymkhana and Drift challenges, although the race types that Dirt 2 introduced such as Domination, Elimination and Gatecrasher events are strangely amiss.

There are rally cars from various eras in addition to the buggies and trucks used in the Rallycross events. Each car is unlocked based based on your reputation level, which is increased by your race position, completed challenges, and unused rewind assists.

The courses have many twists and turns, and have plenty of bumps and elevation to rally through. There are various conditions such as rain, snow, day and night, and the tracks are either off-road, road or have small road sections interspersed within the long dirt tracks. I don't recall there being snow events in the previous instalments, but it's inclusion now seems to have a large representation, so much so that it almost seems a bit silly calling the game “Dirt”!

In some race types, your co-driver gives you assistance, stating the severity and the distance of the upcoming turn, so it's beneficial to listen. On events where you don't have the co-driver, you need to keep glancing at the mini-map and judge the corner yourself.

In the new Gymkhana events, you accrue points by doing tricks; usually within an arena. It is your aim to drift, gain airtime, smash signs, and performing doughnuts and spins, all without crashing. By chaining these moves together, you can gain a combo multiplier which is vital to placing on the podium.

The few game types feel like they are pretty much equally represented, so if you want rally rather than Gymkhana then you are gonna be disappointed, especially since some of the rally events feel rather on the short side.

The difficulty can be tweaked, although there is no direct reward for making the game harder. The reset system from Dirt 2 makes a return where you have a limited amount of resets, and you can rewind the replay to a point to restart from. Although still unrealistic, it means you don't have to restart the whole race if you made a mistake; so is a welcome feature. Basically, the difficulty and assist options cater to both new and experienced drivers, and it is up to you how difficult you want the game to be.

In terms of presentation, the menus are less pretentious than Dirt 2, but they are still a bit over-done. There are a few narrators to give you comments or introductions to the races, but they are almost instantly annoying. One guy speaks in a 'street' style, throwing in Mexican words like compadre and amigo, and constantly plugs YouTube. There is an option to send replays to YouTube, but to be constantly told “your fans will go nuts when they see that. Let's post it on YouTube”; is simply annoying. The main comments are almost good-cop, bad-cop style where one person will complement you, but the other will tell you not to get ahead of yourself. The majority of their comments sound like you are insecure and need the boost which is ill-fitting and just sounds ridiculous.

There's a variety of camera angles including an inside-cockpit view. This view is quite frustrating to use though since the driver seems too low down in his seat, meaning the steering wheel obscures a significant amount of your view. The over the bonnet view was my preferred angle, giving high visibility but retaining the in-car feel.

Dirt 3 has also made the transition of trying to sell you DLC. The main menu is constantly reminding you that content is available on the marketplace, and in each season, there is always one event that you have to purchase to play. There's plenty of content in the game to keep you busy without purchasing extras, but I would prefer not to see greyed out options in my game. If it's an expansion, then it shouldn't appear in my in game menu, and not make me feel like I can't complete the game without paying the extra money.

Sometimes when a sequel is made, you just want more of the same. If you do get more of the same, sometimes it just feels stale because it's lost its originality. I think my enjoyment of this game was partially hindered by playing the previous Dirt games, but I'm also fairly convinced that the actual content was better and more varied in the previous instalments. The game is still a great racing game, but if you have played the previous games, then it's most likely going to feel like a disappointment.