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Before games like Grans Turismo and Forza and many other licensed racing sims took centre stage on various gaming platforms that were not even heard of in India back then, virtual rallying in licensed cars like the Toyota Corolla and Lancia Stratos was still known to us. It was thanks to games like the Sega Rally Championship which brought licensed cars to rallying games at those boxy ol’ arcade machines. A lot has changed since then, including the way rallying sims are built today – it’s not just about Time Trials anymore.
One of the biggest names that brought about this change is the DiRT franchise from Codemasters. This game studio has been little known in India. Apart from the Brian Lara Cricket that they launched almost a decade back, none of their games really took off in our market – even the first DiRT instalment for that matter, for it lacked the element fun that DiRT2 later introduced. DiRT2 did, however, manage to establish itself well among the Indian gamers. From the consoles to the desktops, DiRT2 had everyone hooked. So when the news of DiRT3 started floating early last year, we were already rubbing our hands with in glee. Forget the snow and new choice of cars that DiRT3 was going to introduce – there was something more important that the first trailer revealed – a word called ‘Gymkhana’…
First Impressions
Thanks to our friends at Zapak, the distributors of this game, we got our hands on the game quite early. It is not that the game had us hooked all this while. To be frank, DiRT3 disappointed me on day one. Friends on my Facebook and Twitter must have read about my frustration with DiRT3 early on.
The game requires you enter some key codes right at the beginning to get the multiplayer and replay-upload features enabled, which felt vague. And while the menu and UI system of DiRT2 had completely blown me away, making me feel like a real-life racer with the lively environment around, DiRT3’s menu felt like a half-hearted job. This system uses an array of prisms that unfold to reveal the progress of the DiRT Tour (career mode) and therefore ends up feeling too basic as compared to its earlier counterpart.
You don’t feel like a real life racer anymore because you can’t see the pits or even your garage – for there isn’t one at all. You are now a celebrated racer and therefore every new step you uncover in the career mode, will present you with invitations from various virtual teams. So instead of having your own collection of cars, you choose cars as per the team-offers. The first set of options presented to me were a Fiat-Abarth Punto and a Peugeot 307. I chose the Italian car and was taken to narrow back-roads of Finland for my first race.
Right from the word go, the race was a disappointment. I kept crashing into every corner and barricade. The Punto had a lot of understeer and every attempt to drift the car as you would in DiRT2, ended up spinning the car out. And that is where the frustration started building up. I did manage to win that race after a few attempts though and also a few more races that followed. But it lacked the satisfaction that DiRT2 provided when I played it for the first time. That is precisely why this review took so long, for it was hard for me to believe that DiRT3 would be disappointing. Thankfully, the race wins unlocked the much awaited Gymkhana mode – which comes quite early in the game, given DiRT3’s long career mode – and that changed everything…
The fabled ‘Gymkhana’
If you haven’t been travelling to the moon lately then there is fair chance that you have heard of a certain Ken Block who kicks serious dirt back here on earth. Ken Block introduced the concept of ‘Gymkhana’ to rally and motorsport fans. The American uses his rallying skills to drift a car through and around the most unimaginative obstacles in the most unimaginative locales. Look him up on YouTube if you want proof. From safety cones and mannequins to bulldozers and rotting aircrafts – Block performs his moves in his favourite cars around all these contraptions. The Gymkhana mode in DiRT3 needs you to do the same!
The mode begins with teaching you how to drift in a Ford Fiesta in the backyard of London’s Battersea Powerstation. As you progress through this training process, a virtual Ken Block guides you on stunts like doughnuts, spins, connected drifts, jumps etc. Frankly, it sounds like fun but is intimidating in the beginning. Once you get the hang of it and you’ll find nothing better than this!
While doing all of these stunts in individual training sessions is an easy affair, combining them and performing against the stop watch is the real challenge. In the Gymkhana championships, you are introduced to more cars like Block’s current Ford Fiesta, a Mitsubishi Lancer, a Nissan Silvia and even Ken Block’s old lady love – the Subaru Impreza. Pulling off controlled drifts under parked trucks, spinning and doughnutting around safety cones and blasting through destructible boxes is timeless fun.
If you think you can pull off a better show than Ken Block, then DiRT3 is a very good place to start. Codemasters have implemented YouTube functionality within DiRT3. This allows you to upload a thirty second replay of your feats to your YouTube channel and flaunt it to the world. Here’s a video of my first Gymkhana attempt:
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Other Game Modes
While the Gymkhana mode is the highlight of DiRT3, the game hasn’t forgotten its roots. The game features a time trial mode that takes you across locales ranging from the dirt tracks of Finland and Kenya to the streets of Monaco and the snowy tracks of Aspen. Then there are the Drift challenges that need you to drift your way up to a pole, go around it and return to the starting point. Set against a stopwatch, it is immense fun and is a test of skill that you’ve developed at the Gymkhana events.
There are other modes like head-to-head races which have high speed action against a single opponent and gets very challenging as the game progresses through the career mode. The Trailblazer and Rallycross events are here to stay, but in a way, are more exciting, thanks to DiRT3’s mix of cars ranging from rally icons like the Lancia Stratos and even the Mini Cooper from the 80s to the Ford Escort of the 90s and the Lancers and Imprezas of our era. Then there are the buggy cars and the trucks, though I’m not a big fan of them.
The Multiplayer mode is another highlight of DiRT3. This mode introduces you to the kind of game modes that you know of but have seldom seen in a racing game. ‘Transporter’ for example, is DiRT3’s take on capture-the-flag. Another mode called Outbreak is a tag-based game where your car gets infected and turns green when another infected player tags (hits) you. Invasion mode puts you in a Gymkhana-esque environment where you find large cut-outs of alien robots and buildings. Destroy the aliens and you score points, crash into a building and the game’s over. While these modes demand a decent level of precision driving, they are absolute fun.
In case you are not a Xbox Live / Playstation Network member though, DiRT3 lets you play multiplayer on a split-screen setup too, which is a good addition. The split-screen mode however, doesn’t allow you to play with the dashboard view nor is it available for Gymkhana events. But the bright liveries are equally good to look at on the cars that range from the ‘80s all the way to 2011. All these vehicles may not be modelled as well as they are in a Forza or a Gran Turismo title, but the way they gather dirt through the race and deform and fall apart after a crash, is simply superb to watch. What is even better is the sound coming from those virtual engines. Hook this game up with a good surround sound system and the girl next door will give you the same amount of love that she would to a real racer.
Conclusion
Speaking of a real racer, I had discounted that feeling right at the start of my review when I was frustrated with DiRT3. Then why did I praise the game in the end? Well, unlike DiRT2, DiRT3 isn’t fun out-of-the-box. To get the cars to handle the way you like, you not only need to put more time into the game, you also need to tune them up to suit your driving style. Setting up a car in DiRT3 isn’t an uphill task as is the case with Forza or GT. Your friendly mechanic (whose British accent I hate) will guide you through the process of tuning every car before the race and with a few clicks, the car is all setup as per your driving style.
Getting the perfect amount of steering feel and drift ability becomes a child play from there on. Add to it the skills you pick up in Gymkhana, listen carefully to your navigator and even the toughest races in DiRT3 can become the most exciting ones ever. Would I buy the game? Of course, yes, even though I’m not a big rally-fan. The amount of variation the game offers in its race modes, the sheer excitement that Gymkhana holds, the beauty of the graphics and the ability to drive iconic rally cars that range across three decades are enough reasons for any gamer to pick up DiRT3.
Our pick is the Xbox360 version as its controller feel is better suited for the game than the PS3 version. But if you have a Logitech G18 Wheel at your disposal and if you have had fun with it on the DiRT2 or Grid titles, then the PS3 version of DiRT3 is the game to go for. For PC users, the keyboard doesn’t really cut the cake, so we suggest you also get a decent steering-pedal set or at least an Xbox-like controller with progressive triggers to enjoy DiRT3 to the fullest.
If you have already picked up a copy of DiRT3 and have uploaded your gameplay videos on YouTube, post the links in the comments box below for others to watch and compliment.
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