Dirt
DiRT blends death-defying offroad action, precision control, and the tricked out intensity of street racing into one visually stunning motorsports masterpiece. Choose from a wealth of officially licensed cars and real-world locations, then go careening through gravel, dirt and mud, doing whatever it takes to bring the trophy home.
Dirt Accessories
 Need for Speed: Prostreet
Race 07: Official WTCC Game
GTR 2: Realism Redefined
GRID
Logitech MOMO Force Feedback Racing Wheel
Logitech G25 Racing Wheel
Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 with Vibration Feedback (963326-0403)
Need for Speed Carbon Collector's Edition
Richard Burns Rally
Sega Rally Revo
Dirt Reviews
The damage is quite masterfully rendered and looks very cool. Which bring me into my next point that shows up nicely in replays -. 24 sound and WinXP - I specifically don't run windows Vista). One of my favorite traits of any racing game (be it TDU, NFS:U2, or any that came before) is replays. It's tons of fun and very difficult.
The interior is beautifully modeled with the steering wheel, the drivers hands, and even the visual gear shifting. The game's fun factor (especially with a steering wheel) is off the charts. The graphics are amazing and the sound is pretty good too. Very cool game. This game contains all the favorites like Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO racing, and my personal favorite - the KamAZ truck. (And I don't think I own next-years computer as it's only a 2.4GHz core 2 duo with 2GB RAM, SoundBlaster Live.
It contains a slew of drivable cars AND trucks both on- and off-road. It is a little pricey however. This game has them very nicely covered and it shows. Damage.
The menu does seem a bit like a console port with Travis Pastrana constantly nagging/congratulating you.but the racing action itself is a blast. If you enjoy the Colin Mcrae series this is right up your alley, made by Codemasters as well.the main difference being that DIRT includes many more types of racing than just rally. As for system demands, the game runs great on my Dual-core X2 1.8Mhz, 2GB, Geforce 7900 GTO. Trophy trucks, buggies, huge Baja-type trucks, semis, classic rally cars.
Word to the wise, pay attention to the specs needed to run this game. My nephew loves it. It may take more than your computer has in order to run it. Once they got some upgrades for the computer, it apparently runs ok. Once they were able to get the software running.
This game is extremely fun (great sense of speed)., but unfortunately, the game has performance issues, even on a "monster" system like mine: eVGA 780i, Q6600 @3.6 GHz, 2x Nvidia 8800 Ultra's, 2GB Kingston Hyper-X RAM @ 800 MHz clk 3-3-3-10-2T, Creative Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer, Win XP Pro, etc. The frame-rate is extremely jumpy, and at times will just pause for a few micro-seconds when more than one car is on-screen, no matter what resolution/graphics settingssuch a shame, as this heavily detracts from otherwise awesome presentation. Get the Xbox 360 or PS3 version instead.
Tire squeels, gravel roads, mud roads, etc. The hardware requirements are very serious if you desire all of the bells and whistles. Not many gamers are used to GTR2 and Race 07. There's no way an Evo IX or STI could "stop on a dime" like it does in DiRT. Granted, the WRC cars have outstanding brakes, but this amount of sensitivity just screams poor modeling. It screams "console port" because it appears to be designed for players with short attention spans. The steering is so linear that it felt like I was driving a slot car.
The lack of "free play" is a major drawback. I mainly wanted to find a racing simulator that accurately models AWD cars. A simple menu system would have sufficed, but nonetheless the system in DiRT works flawlessly albeit clustered. The sound effects are rather lackluster. GTR2 does a fantastic job with RWD GT-spec cars, while Race 07 WTCC includes an updated suite of graphics, cars, tracks, and physics and includes Front-wheel drive cars. With Race 07 and GTR2, you CAN stray off the course (well off the course) to do some limited exploring. I had to look at the tachometer or shift lights each time because the engine sound was too vague. did not sound like the real thing.
Again, the automatic reset makes DiRT feel like a cheap console port. The steering and brakes seem to be designed for a console controller. The WRC cars are supposed to be streetable cars that drive on loose mud. The Impreza did not feel like it was modeled after a Subaru WRX STI with the Boxer H4. In Race 07 WTCC, the Formula 3000 / GP2 cars have very grabby brakes and that is expected due to the intense grip from the tires and the light chassis.
The engine revs sounded weak and numb. Overall, I feel that DiRT is a fun "arcade" racing game that falls flat in realism and that is probably expected from some players. As soon as you leave a designated zone of a course, it rests and plops your car back into the course. Race 07 WTCC was made in 2007 and I can run that with full details at 1024x768 and still maintain 40-55 fps thanks to the automatic frame rate maintainer. Launching the STI is usually the coolest part in real life but in DiRT, I'm greeted with a vague squeel and the engine just sort of hums at the redline. There wasn't any body roll. My P4 3.0 GHz / ATI x1950 GT rig was literally crawling at 1024x768 Ultra (under 1 fps).
The menu interface in DiRT is cumbersome and annoying. My reference to Race 07 WTCC is a hint that I will be making further comparisons between DiRT and Race 07 / GTR2. The brakes are also too sensitive. In both GTR2 and Race 07, I can get a good sensation of speed in certain cars and the engines SCREAM when you get near redline. DiRT is great to look at, fun to play, but ultimately it falls short of being a racing simulator. There's a real clutch in those games, and the cars handle more realistically. If you read my reviews of GTR2 and Race 07, you will find me criticizing the realism because it still lacks that certain "feel" to make it cross over into a true simulation.
I give this game 3/5 stars overall, but it deserves a 4/5 for fun factor because lets face it, it's an enjoyable game.
|
