Colin McRae: DiRT review (PC)

Colin McRae, a Scotsman renowned as much for rolling his R's as his
cars, has lent his name to the latest entry in a rally series that has traditionally sat somewhere between simulation and full blown arcade racer. Until now, the franchise has arguably improved incrementally with each successive release, so is there really anything significantly different to warrant splashing the cash this time around?

Well the first clue to the answer lies in the series' name change, with the titular DiRT referring to a shift away from the tarmac-following, cleaner areas of rallying to the grittier, dust enshrouded environs of off-roading. Apparently, this move was taken in an attempt to give the game more street credibility, and that's something you'll see reflected in the game's presentation, which is zippier than a tank full of nitrous oxide. You see, rather than the boring, near-static game menus you can expect in other games, DiRT makes use of a careening, speeding arrow that leads you from one three-dimensional menu option to the next. It's a minor feature, but it certainly gives a favourable impression, indicative of what's to follow.

Roll Cages and multiple stages

First of all, though, the McRae purists out there shouldn't worry too much; the
standard rally mode of previous games makes a more or less unaltered
return here, replete with the frantic checkpoint-to-checkpoint gameplay that has become the series' mainstay. Four championships are up for grabs, namely the National, International, European and Global, during which you'll get the chance to get behind the wheel of an assortment of different cars ranging from classics such as the Mark II Escort to more modern, jazzed up jalopies like the Grande Punto. The kicker, though, is that you don't have access to all these different cars from the get go, as you need to earn the right to drive them through your performances in the various championship modes.

As you might expect, the standard rally mode consists of a number of
stages (you can opt for either a short or long championship, determining the number of stages) that have you racing against the clock, and by extension, each of the other competitors in the rally. At no point will you actually see any of your opponents, but this doesn't detract from the sense of competition, as regular checkpoint updates inform you of your position relative to the rest of the pack.

Needless to say, there will be times when you will take a spin off the road. At these times you get a chance to marvel at the game's detailed damage modelling system, which smashes windscreens, throw off bits of bodywork and even the odd wheel if you're driving carelessly enough. Happily though, you do get a chance to repair the carnage in-between stages, as you are allocated an hour to decide which repairs your mechanic should carry out in order to give you a chance of winning.

More of the same? Well, no actually

In addition to the 'standard' rally mode, the other driving modes
include Hill Climb, Championship Off-Road racing and Rallycross. As you might guess, these help to add a healthy dose of variety to the game as they pop up at different stages during the career mode, with each of the vehicles handling differently and the tracks presenting different challenges from what you can expect of the default rally style.

As you progress through the game you unlock a number of other vehicles which you can then use in future races, ranging from trucks to flyaway buggies. Further unlocks for the Rally Classics, Corr class 1 Buggies and Hill Climb Big Rigs classifications are available simply by registering your game, a nice touch that other developers and publishers would do well to follow.

Visually, DiRT is certainly there at the front of the field, making good use of bloom, blur effects and weather to convey the speed and al fresco nature of the sport. A huge amount of detail has been lavished on the cars themselves, with gleaming paint work becoming mud spattered once you get underway, while the aforementioned damage system is realized in a way that almost has you crashing deliberately just to see what will fall off your car next. The environments are equally impressive, with much of what you crash into destructible or moveable to a small degree.

It's not all good news on the graphical front though, as the driver and co-driver models don't have a great level of detail to them, giving them more of an angular look than the cars in which they sit. Additionally, the game certainly needs some hefty hardware to get the best out of it, with my admittedly modest AMD Athlon 64 3000-based machine struggling to get a decent frame rate above a resolution of 800x600.

Control freak

Another hardware related issue is that you will probably want to make
use of a steering wheel peripheral to get the most out of the game. I
played it only using the keyboard, and while it was passable, there were a lot of moments where my input wasn't interpreted as precisely as I wanted it to be, resulting in a few off-track interfaces with the surrounding vegetation. Still, it could be argued that this 'sponginess' was an approximation of the difficult handling inherent to the sport, but it's not something I recall from previous releases.

With respect to multiplayer, the back of the game box makes a bold
claim, namely that you can play with 99 other players online. Strictly speaking this is true, but you only find yourself racing against the times they're posting, and not their actual cars. It's an understandable compromise, as rendering a huge amount of cars onscreen would no doubt have a huge impact on frame rates. Yet in the sessions I played, I found myself racing against an average of about three other competitors.

Still, one nice multiplayer feature is a leaderboard where you can compare your own best times against those of people around the world, while a ticker tape news flash in the lobby informs you in real time of other player's achievements, such as completion of the career mode.

Over the line

Once again, Colin McRae manages to encapsulate the high octane thrills and foliage bothering spills of its muse, doing so while bringing a few other vehicular treats to the table. There are, however, times when the game betrays it's cross-platform development (such as telling you not to switch off your computer while it saves your career progress), yet there's a lot here to make the game worthy of purchase if you're even remotely interested, while snapping this one up should be a no-brainer for established fans of the series. Just make sure you have a decent joypad or steering wheel attached (don't worry, the rollcage is optional).