Dirt 3

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I played the heck out of Dirt2. Currently I got into the genre due to owning a Logitech G27 Racing Wheel. All of the games I had played on it up to the point I got Dirt2 were, lets say too basic. I wanted a simulated driving game that was also great to look at and sounded real. I then rented Dirt2 from an online game rental place and decided to keep it for good. Where Dirt 2 left some holes in the game, Dirt3 fills. There are many new features to talk about, lets get to it.

Casual, Intermediate, Expert?:

First off this is a racing simulation with a casual mode that helps you out. Basically the 3 modes allow for you to turn on features that help you drive. Expert mode will allow you to do tail kick-out turns whereas casual helps you make the turns more efficiently. Casual mode is for the person that just wants to play and doesn't care about the "realness" of the game. Expert will allow you to tweak the cars feel to your exact requirements. So its basically up to you to pick one you can stick with. If a track requires drifting I will put it on intermediate, if not its pretty hard to compete that way and for some races I will go casual. This is after me nailing Expert on Dirt 2. So its a much more realistic game. Problem is Intermediate is a bit too hard and casual is almost a joke too easy so I have had to go into the sub menu and adjust the settings a bit to make my own level somewhere in-between.

Graphics:

Dirt2 had the most realistic graphics I had ever seen in a driving game to date. Dirt3 somehow improves this by even more details. The dust, the rocks, the scenery. It all pops on the screen. What really blows my mind is how blazingly fast it flys by and yet still has that detail. You really feel like you are driving down some narrow canyon road and having rock walls inches from your bumper.

Hey Joe:

Back is the cool feature that lets you pick your name from about 500 name database (guessing). This seems like a trite feature but it does let you feel more immersed into the game. Your mechanic and pep girl can get a tad annoying though.

Music:

Oh yea its back with a vengeance. Most of the bands on Dirt2 I had never heard of, and by the end of me playing it heavily I had fallen in love with about 2 bands and downloaded 6 of the songs to my iTunes. Same thing here with Dirt3, cool music that most I have not heard of and will most assuredly dig by the end of my time with this game.

Sound:

The engine sounds are spot on. They even have a faint whine from the radio that you hear when watching WRC rally races on HDTheater. The engines roar and scream as you fly passed whistling trees and branches. Hit a puddle and mud flys up on the car with a splat. Its all very realistic. You will hear fans yelling at you in their native languages as you fly by. In Africa they bang cow bells! Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!

Co-Driver:

I never checked Dirt2 but on Dirt3 you can now tell your co-driver to use appropriate lingo for the course. In Dirt 2 and even by default in Dirt3 you get the "medium left, hard right" whereas real rally co-drivers say "left 3, right 2" indicating the suggested gear. Its just another tip of the hat to Codemasters for adding more realism.

Career Mode:

I am just starting the game and will comment more on the career as I get farther in, but the game seems to have taken more of a rally turn which is perfect. If I wanted to drive around Daytona I would pick a different game than Dirt. I want rally racing and this game seems to be pushing more in that direction. You will visit actual WRC event locations ( which is very cool if you watch it on TV). You have to do well to unlock the new maps but its nothing new if your familiar with this genre.

Cars (& trucks):

This part I love. You of course can drive the new WRC cars but also you can go back and drive some of the old Lancias and early rally cars. I always wanted to own a Lancia and in this game I can at least simulate driving one down a narrow road in Norway. There are achievements that you can unlock by driving some cars such as "The Self Preservation Society" if you get that reference you will know which car unlocks that achievement. There are buggies and trucks also.

Controls:

Dont even bother playing this with anything other than a driving wheel. You can play it with a dualshock controller but its just about impossible to make a smooth turn with a joystick. It wants to jerk the nose of the car every time you push the stick even a bit. At high speed the rear end may jump out and youll be fishtailing down a straight.

Weather:

Wow...just amazing detail. The same track can be covered in rain or snow and change the whole race. The snow sticks to the cars like it does in real life. The rain pools in low spots and cause you to hydroplane. The sunset over the desert is just awesome. Matter of fact in some forest stages it can be a beautiful sunny day and the trees block enough sunlight to keep you in the dark in a corner. Its pretty realistic and very cool.

Gymkhana:

I started playing paintball back in the late 80s. Back then we played capture the flag in the woods. Eventually it started merging into a stadium sport. The reason it became more like that is people can watch it in a closed location. Gymkhana is to Rally as stadium ball is to paintball. Rally purists may not appreciate the Gymkhana portions of Dirt3. I do because it is a great way to build your drifting, jumping and turning skills on someplace other than a track. My only complaint is to complete a season you must perfect the gymkhana level. I wish it it was more a fun place to play when not racing and not tied into the game so much. In season 2 you do get a place to just goof off. It is the future of rally racing so might as well embrace it.

Overall:

This game is a must have in your PS3 arsenal. It shows off the power of the PS3 in a fantastic way. It is a must have if you love rally racing. It is a more improved simulation from Dirt2 and even is better in many ways than the venerable: Richard Burns Rally,(yes I just compared it to a game made in 2004, but that game is the gold standard for rally games IMHO). So if you love Rally games and want a kick butt one then by all means grab Dirt3!

Thank you for reading my review.

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Let me start by saying Dirt 3 is a good game. If you are looking for a solid off-road racing game, look no further. The game looks fantastic, controls are spot on, and there is variety in vehicle selection to keep things lively. Having been a huge fan of Dirt 2, I was pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of Dirt 3. Their claim that they are returning to their rally roots only heightened this excitement. I was confused by the game cover, but I also realize they need to turn a profit and get as many people to buy their game as possible, so in my mind they were just trying to reach out to people who do not find WRC style-racing their cup of tea. In my mind, a rally oriented game should have you spending most of your time pretty much raising against the clock and occasionally seeing other racers on the track. I didn't care much for the X-games feel of Dirt2, but Dirt 3 doesn't feel all that different to me. A lot of time and effort was put into the Gymkhana events and X-Game events are still there.

There are six main race modes:

rallypoint to point racing where you have a co-driver helping you navigate to the finish line.

trailblazerpoint to point racing where no co-driver assists you and faster vehicles are available.

head2headYou are on a track and you race another driver (with no contact possible).

LandrushYou race around a track in either trucks or buggies (full contact).

RallyCrossYou race around a track in cars (full contact).

GymkhanaYou perform "tricks" to gain points to beat the competition.

To me, only the first two count as rally but a fair amount of time is given to each racing mode. Head2head, Landrush, and rallycross offer a nice variety to the mix and keep things fresh. And Gymkhana....well I'm not sure how that fits in there. Many people are thrilled to have it, but I saw it as a nuisance. You perform the same tricks over and over and over again. Basically you need to master drifting and driving around in a circle without falling asleep (think NASCAR, but a MUCH tighter circle).

But my biggest gripe about the game have to do with DLC. At the time of this review the game has been out for less than a month and content was just released that you need to pay for. This is no secret, one glance at the trophy list reveals that at this point there will be additional content to come. This does not bother me. What DOES bother me as that when you play the game you are constantly reminded that you do not have access to all the vehicles. I will need to go the PSN store to download what ends up being five cars for six dollars. This has left me with the impression that I do not have a complete game. I bought the game at full price, but I did not get the full product. I understand having additional content, as well as the VIP Pass, but do I need to be reminded of it every single time I want to race? This has left me with a sour taste in my mouth for this game. I am sure many people have no problems with this, but consider what your garage will look like when all DLC content is out (and especially if you ended up buying the game used and do not want to buy the VIP Pass). As of now I have no plans of buying the DLC.

I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but I have seen only positive reviews, and the 1-star reviews for this game on Amazon are pretty much non-reviews. I just feel like a few things should be highlighted to give a broader picture of what the game has in store for those who buy it. For many, these issues will not apply.

Dirt 3 (despite all of this complaining) is still a great game, and in terms of off-road racing I have not played anything that compares to it with the exception of Dirt 2. But put simply, if you are looking for an off-road racer this is the game you are looking for.

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I have played a lot of racing games this gen NFS Hot Pursuit, Burnout, Grid, Dirt 2, Split Second, Blur, Forza 3, and Motorstorm Apocalypse. I can say that Dirt 3 is the best racing game I have ever played.

The graphics are top notch and up there with any racing games including Forza and GT5 which are known for there graphics. Damage model in this game cannot be beat, cars take damage and it can either be cosmetic or cause effects to your car based on your settings.

Fun factor is off the chart for me. Besides the regular awesome events which have tons of variations like snow rain time of day surface your racing on type of vehicle car, truck, or buggy. There are Gymkhana events which are extemely challenging and fun. When you pull off the moves perfectly and get a platinum medal you def feel like you have acomplished something. These events seem to be love or hate. They are required to complete your career mode but are very easy to get a bronze or silver medal and move on if they are not your cup of tea. But if you like or love the events such as myself you can challenge yourself to get platinum.

Controls are the perfect mesh of a sim and an arcade racer fun and responsive but weighty and technical. This game controls like a dream.

The menu's and user interface are slick and classy.

The sound is top notch there is no music when racing and no custom soundtrack on PS3 which is a conscious decision I beleive by the developers because they want you to apprecieate the sound of the engine and the gravel kick up as your tires spin out. The music that plays while in the menus and during loading is nice and add to the slick cool feeling you get when navigating the menus.

Customization of the look of your car is somewhat limited to liveries for sponsors but gameplay options have numerous options driver assists and three main difficulty levels which can be tweaked even further for the amount of challenge you want. Choose if damage is purely cosmetic or if it will effect how your car handles. You can do some basic car tuning nothing as deep at GT5/Forza but still a very nice option.

Multiplayer looks great and fun in the vids online I have seen but with the PSN store still down I havent been able to check it out yet hopefully the store is up by the end of May, but there is enough single player content to keep me busy for a while.

This is the best most fun and complete racer I have ever played everything is top notch and the attention to detail is incredible. Codemasters have done an incredible job with this game and you can tell a lot of love and time went into this game I hope it goes on to sell millions of copies it deserves to be a major hit. If you like racing games at all you should love this game there is so much content and it is all amazing.

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I own Dirt 2 and I loved every minute of it. That's why I was ecstatic when I bought 3. After a week of play my opinion was "eh" but I figured I'd let it grow on me. After owning now for quite sometime (I can't remember when the release was) and I still find it to be average. Perhaps if I had not played the epic Dirt 2 I would not have felt this way, but...I did. That's probably why I compare them quite a bit. At first I could not see why I was not getting into the game nearly as much as I thought I would but after closer examination I found a few reasons.

First and almost foremost, the soundtrack this time around is not up to scratch. I could maybe count only two tracks that I bothered to look up whereas D2 had music that I filled my ipod with and used for running, driving, anything where I needed some motivation effectively.

Secondly, Dirt3 is not as dirty as I would like. The layout of the menu screens are clean, music is clean (think lounge music at times),...It's pretty sterile. Nobody expects them to come up with the same format twice, but the trailer thing in dirt 2 was genius in retrospect. I think it just connected us to the game more.

Thirdly, the tracks in D3 all look very similar except for Norway which is snow. Mostly forest tracks. You could never mistake China for Croatia or any other track for that matter in D2.

Fourthly, The D3 Dirt tour is heavily laden with Gymkhana tracks. I personally find gymkhana to be boring and on the online pro races, gymkhana is almost always vetoed by the players.

Finally, Codemasters got really greedy all of a sudden and some of the better cars are no longer earned, but must be purchased online. Problem with that is not all countries have access to the online PS3 store (I think if you have credit cards from certain countries you can make purchases, but alot...no). So yeah, no purchasing of cars like the classic rally M3 for us. In fact, there is alot of "Must purchase" throughout the game.

It's not all bad of course, the cars look very good and the online gaming is solid. There are more types of racing that can be had (I like the cat n' mouse races) and trailblazer is still strong with some powerful cars. I believe that one has to really give it a chance before jumping to conclusions. Borrow it first to see if it's for you.

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Dirt 3 is THE best racing game I have ever played. I'm not a huge racing game fan, but this one is well balanced and manages to be fun and realistic at the same time. Other racers can't maintain the balance between fun and realism. More often than not the game feels either cheesy, over the top, extreme, Mountain Dewish, or it's ultra realistic to the point that it's just a dull romp of going through the motions over and over to win a race.

The physics are incredible in this game. The sound is unbelievable. When you combine the two it makes for a heart pounding, adrenaline filled, edge of your seat race. There are many little nuances that also make this game great. You can tell that they actually spent time and effort in producing this game. You can also adjust the physics and difficulty of Dirt 3 to custom tailor your racing experience. I highly recommend buying this one asap. Oh, by the way, don't listen to Termina. He has extra genetic material on his 21st chromosome most likely cause by his mother's excessive drinking while he was in the womb. In terms of pure, spontaneous fun, this is the best game I've played all year. Get it.