DiRT 3 PC Review

Chris Hadley / 13 years ago

For a few years now, motorsport based games have been the favourite of quite a few gamers. A few years ago CodeMasters released Colin McRae rally and the popularity of the game style quickly grew. CodeMasters relished from its success and ever since have been synonymously associated with a rally style experience.

As technology has progressed, so too have the asthetics of the game. Each time CodeMasters have released a new title in the older Colin McRae Rally series and now in the DiRT series, we have been wowed by the pure detail that has been layed on with the technology of the times.

DiRT 3 is no exception to the rule and after a lot of hype about its upcoming as with regards to features and intricate pictures, we can safely say that codemasters have done it again! This is why the top spot has been held by Codemasters for a while and shows no sign of changing hands

Before we get onto the gameplay itself, we do have to note that there are some known current difficulties in getting the game installed and able to run on the PC. After downloading it through the Steam platform, there are some issues with the game failing to load and freezing at the ‘Preparing the game to launch’ message. After a little bit of research, this seems to be down to Games For Windows Live (GFWL), rather than a bug in the Steam installation itself. Research and a bit of trial and error showed that downloading and reinstalling Games For Windows Live, rebooting and relaunching the game through Steam solved this issue and since then, I’ve had no problems in launching or running the game.

Minimum
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OS: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.8GHz, Intel Pentium® D 2.8Ghz
Memory: 2GB
Hard Disk Space: 15GB
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 2000 256MB, NVIDIA® GeForce® 8000 Series 256MB
DirectX®: DirectX® 9
Sound: DirectX® compatible soundcard

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Recommended Specifications: (Enhanced for DirectX 11)
[LIST]
OS: Windows Vista® or Windows® 7
Processor:AMD Phenom II or Intel® Core i7
Memory: 3GB
Hard Disk Space: 15GB
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
DirectX®: DirectX® 11
Sound: DirectX® compatible soundcard

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Single PlayerUnderneath the visual layers, the game uses the EGO graphics engine version 2.0 from CodeMasters and this first featured in the first of the Dirt line-up, Colin McRae Dirt. Apart from featuring in the entire series, this engine has also been utilised in a number of other games including the recent F1 2010. Throughout its years its has been further developed and refined to give more detailed effects through hardware tessellation and also for rendering more large scale environments in the likes of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising.

Similar to the predecessors of Dirt3, the game is scheduled to run over a ‘Tour’ period, where in a number of seasons you will be challenged in a variety of different disciplines including; Trailblazer, Rally and more importantly and new to Dirt 3 – Gymkhana. To progress through the seasons, you will need to earn points in order to unlock the next stage and at the end of each season there is one big final event before you move on to the next level. Along side the main season events, there are a selection of world tour events where you can hone in your skills on each discipline and gain extra points.

After you got to grips with the game format (If you’re new to the series that is), you soon see that rather than being fixated with a ‘modern’ lineup of cars, the collection is actually quite impressive. Naturally there are the modern rally cars and Trailblazers such as the Subara Impreza WRX, but there is also a large collection of ‘classic’ cars to acquire and utilise such as the Sierra Cosworth RS500, Audi Quattro Rallye and Renault 5 Turbo.

As soon as you see the start-up videos to the game and even the introduction videos to each race you soon start to awe at the amazing amount of detail that is involved, so much so that going back to Dirt 2 straight after a game on here makes it feel all lacking in depth and detail. Trees, grass and the surrounding environment all essentially more realistic (after all thats what we expect to see with newer games – more detail and sense of reality). Its not just the landscapes that have been given a makeover; with the updated EGO engine, reflections on the car and the way that the car reacts to its surroundings and vice versa are improved. Whilst rushing through the Kenyan outback, the way dust builds up on the body and the way rain reflects and refracts the light in London all add to the sense of realism.

Its not just what you see that has been re-worked. It would have been unwise not to look at the audio aspects as well. Personally I feel that in Dirt 2, the cars of a similar type all had the same soundtrack or close-to but slightly tweeked. Here each car sounds individual and refined, so each and every pop, spit and backfire sound just like you would expect to hear it whether you’re driving from a rear view aspect, inside or from the front bumper.

This now brings us onto the control and handling and i’m afraid to say that I feel a little let down here. Even though I’m very much used to using an Xbox controller for playing racing games, I do have mine setup to work on my pc as well for the analog sticks and finer touch. In comparison to Dirt 2, there seems to be a slight lack in the overall responsiveness and control that you have over the car – consequently it took me a little while to adjust my control method to suit the game which felt a little weird. Normally I can switch from once racing based gamed to another without having to really change the way I play the game, whereas as mentioned, I have to compensate for the lose response by over compensating my moves. After a while of consistent trail and error, I do seem to have mastered the optimum point of control, but perhaps CodeMasters could have seen and rectified this before release to give players a better feel for the game from the start rather than losing interest as they can’t control the car as they wish and easily crashing and flipping over on the smallest rock!

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Multi Player

The Dirt 3 multiplayer section of the game is as one would expect, predominantly head-to-head although there are areas where you can race and work as a team to achieve victory. Matchmaking and lobby races are very simple to get into and even custom matches are all self explanitory. (Remember that when running via Steam, you will need to enter your multiplayer key when requested in order to play online). For those of you that are logged into GFWL as well, pressing the home button to bring up the Live toolbar, will allow you to join other games with your friends like a breeze.

Similar to playing through the Dirt Tour, you can gain points that work towards increasing your online reputation level, this in its simplest form is denoted by your finishing position and during team events, the teams overall position and your input towards that.

Whilst playing online, even though you could be on the opposite side of the world to your opponents, I did find that there was very little to no lag noted in game compared to the experience I sometimes get in other games (ie cars skipping and jumping across the track). Whether this is down to the way that player data is sent out, and size of data chunks or server side handling I don’t know, but either way, the online experience is just as good as the Dirt Tour if not better as you’re driving against real people and not AI drivers.

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Final ThoughtsAs expected with CodeMasters background, the overall visual experience from the game is fantastic and with technology leaping for at a rate of knots, I can only begin to imagine what the next episode in the Dirt line-up will have to offer – naturally this won’t be for a little while but we’ll hopefully get a glimpse into that if/ when a demo is released.

Multiplayer is now also easier to get to grips with. GFWL makes party-play and matchmaking far more simple and quick to sort. You will need to have a VIP pass to access this though, but if bought through Steam, this will be included and likewise if you buy the game off the shelf, an access code will be included in the box. Don’t worry if you buy the game second hand though as you can purchase another one separately for your specific gaming platform.

All in all, if you’re new to the series or have played earlier episodes, then you will not look back on your purchase as the game delivers a far greater experience to what you see on the box or on a screenshot that you get online. All aspects of the game are great to play and once you get started, its easy to get stuck right in and enveloped into many continuous hours of play. Yes there are a couple of minor issues that could be addressed but whether these are addressed by means of a game patch we’ll have to watch this space and see. Don’t hold back any longer, Dirt 3 is a must have game and if its not in your collection, then I strongly recommend that you get it now.

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