DiRT

[Dazzyman]

To add you can do championship races ie British rally, euro rally then full (you have to beat em to do unlocks) as well as a career mode and a buggy mode in main options.

I didnt like it at first until I sorted the settings out for the wheel, it felt very arcadey and twitchy, basically it just wasnt given a proper default for a steering wheel as the linear settings are way off and all the deadzones where stupidly set to 0% (Ive started to use the full linerity 0.50 since posting the above settings). It does grow on you though and its a nice rally game. I still prefer Forza by a long way but this will come in nicely for my TT sesssions. Game also has loads of difficulty settings so you will be challenged.

They really need to use an official co-driver again though those Americanisms get boring very quickly and it needs defaults to be arrows instead of maps like the old series but at least with a quick look you reliase you can swap em over. I can see me muting the co driver VERY VERY quickly.

[Concept]

I dont mind the american voice ,hes not to bad.Lets face it Colins voice was a bit monotone to say the least.

Balls.

[merf]

its what 40 year old marketing executives think gamers want.

the same people asking themselves how on earth 12 million dog simulators and some simple brain puzzles got sold when there was no rappers, bling or any urban elements in them.

[andy]

its what 40 year old marketing executives think gamers want.

the same people asking themselves how on earth 12 million dog simulators and some simple brain puzzles got sold when there was no rappers, bling or any urban elements in them.

No its not. Having Travis Pastrana do the voice work in the game makes perfect sense after the rally event they both competed in at the X Games.
Loads of Americans probably think of that event & Pastrana if you mention Colin Mcrae.

Now that Pastrana is involved in rallying getting him in the game is an obvious thing to do to get more people interested in the US.

[jimtendo]

Starting with the bad:
- annoying american-isms at the beggining of the rally/ end of rally.
- very twitchy steering, at least for joypad.
- framerate could be better... since coming from Forza 2, this makes my eyes bleeeeed :/
- in a way it can be considered a 'bad' point, but it seems you have to complete the 'career' mode 'pyramid challenges' to unlock new cars and liveries, even if you have no interest in Rally Cross/ Crossover races etc.

and the good:
- graphically very sound, with some nice damage deformation compared to that of Forza 2
- the presentation and front end is very pleasing. Kudos to codemasters for that.
- when pressing the 'super slo-mo' button on the replay, the music then kinda fades out quite a bit, and then all you hear is the bassline, which i thought was a nice touch.

Y'see, i'm in the old style of Rally gaming where it should be strictly pure rallying, where you have a championship mode where you just go through the whole rallying calender season in championship mode against the clock.
None of this rallycross etc...
I've never been a fan of the 'jack of all trades - TOCA Race Driver elements' in that you have a whole load of race variants an not really focuing on one discipline of racing.
Okay, some people may appreciate the variety, but it's not really for me.

Don't get me wrong, i do like DiRT, it just needs time to grow on me; since i need to get cracking on career mode to unlock cars to use in Championship mode. So then, at least i can properly rally.

[Concept]

No its not. Having Travis Pastrana do the voice work in the game makes perfect sense after the rally event they both competed in at the X Games.
Loads of Americans probably think of that event & Pastrana if you mention Colin Mcrae.

Now that Pastrana is involved in rallying getting him in the game is an obvious thing to do to get more people interested in the US.

That's fair enough. You could equally say though that no one in Europe knows who he is, and the localisation should have taken that into account. I'd say it's probably 10-1 that people are going to find his voiceover annoying here.

[Number45]

They've stated that they're really keen to go for the US market this time out, which is why the dropped CMs name from the main title and just called it Dirt.

I agree though, doesn't seem right without Nicky Grist (I think that's his name) barking out the orders.

[nonny]

Im passing on this due to lack of multiplayer. Call me old fashion but while I love rallying I wanted to actually rub dirt into other players toe to toe.

Thank god thats two games now with "proper" support for the wheel. PGR3 was lacking options but good to see both Forza and DiRT giving it the config. options it deserves.

[cavalcade]

Does it not have a sort of multi-player mode - where multiple people rally and times are shared in realtime? I thought it did.... oh bugger.

[Swallow]

Does this have JWRC cars, please?

[PeteJ]

Does it not have a sort of multi-player mode - where multiple people rally and times are shared in realtime? I thought it did.... oh bugger.

You enter a huge (100 person) lobby and race solo, the times are then posted at the end. It's a timetrial basically.

Would be interested to know how well it works, however I've bought the game for the single player anyway.

[VR46]

Spent 90 minutes on this last night and had a cracking time, handling is quite twitchy compared to Forza. Apart from that no complaints, as been said before front end presentation, in game menu's etc are superbly done. Flying through the tree's as fast as possible really does have you on the edge of your seat.

Completed a rally, tried time trial and made a start on career mode, lots to do and the difficulty levels seem spot on. Another neat touch is in career mode if you complete a race on one difficulty (out of the five) the prize money is reduced by about 75% if you attempt to do it at the same difficulty again, meaning no finding a easy race and whoring it for cash - nice touch.

The American giving the notes is a bit annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

'bout time we had a rally game on the 360. Between this and Forza most bases are covered and racing game fans should be in their element right now.

Swallow, I have a link somewhere listing all cars in the game, will dig it out in a second.

Not tried online as without broadband at home for the second night running. Thanks Virgin.

And I'm only using a pad, just don't get on with gaming wheels.

[VR46]

Swallow

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179682

mackemansj1

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2724134

[Bleeders]

Yeah, I like it... bit twitchy and far-less forgiving than Forza I've found though.

[Swallow]

Thanks for that David, Suzuki Swift for me!