Brought to you by developer Codemasters, and distributed by THQ we have the third in the Colin McRae Rally series called Dirt 3! Easily without shadow of a doubt this is one of the best PC games of the year, and easily makes it into our Top 10 PC games.
Dirt 3 is built on the EGO 2.0 engine, and is available for the PC Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms, and was released in late May 2011. Dirt 3 received overwhelming applause from fans, critics and newbies alike, and for good reason considering the list of credits and gameplay, design, and overall fun. That’s what this game does, provides amazing fun with some car racing mayhem and creative application of all gaming parameters, great graphics, AI, strategy, options, and more. It’s no wonder people can’t get away from playing Dirt for hours on end.
The fans love it because the developers have kept the good stuff that makes the series fun and enhanced on it a ton more. Dirt 2 was always going to be hard to live up to, but damn Codemasters never let us avid fans down!
You have to give props to game developers who listen to their fans and do what their fans want and build on that even more. One of the best parts of the new game is the Gymkhana events mode. It adds obstacles courses that the player has to rock in order to get extra points. Anyone who has seen the Ken Block videos on YouTube will know exactly what this section of the game is about. After all its based around good old Ken, and you even get to drive his 2011 Fiesta.
There are also party modes and other stuff like sending out a zombie infection. You can even quickly upload your gameplay clips to YouTube instead of using extra software to do so though sadly this is limited to 30 second videos and only allows 480p uploads. We would have expected to at least be able to save a whole replay, those the addition is still welcomed by most.
Lets go back and talk about the design and gameplay. The photo realistic graphics will totally blow you away. Dirt 3 is DX11 based, and assuming you have some serious hardware to run it at full specs, you will literally be astonished to the level of detail!
At first glimpse of the gameplay you might think you’re watching real stunt racing footage from a television show. It looks that real, its more than impressive! And when the cars fishtail and head toward the camera you might find yourself flinching a bit to make sure you don’t get run over.
There are multiple landscapes and environments to try out your gonzo driving skills, and you may wonder how in the world did they get all this environment detail into one game. Various locations, Various weathers, Various situations, that’s what its all about. The developers worked closely with real drivers and car manufacturers to get the level of detail of action and physics required to bring the most realistic stunt car racing experience possible, and judging from fan and professional response they did not fall short in this category. From graphics to gameplay, the Dirt franchise has always been a winner, and is easily one of the best PC driving games of all time.
It’s like the developers dedicated so much time and resources to the project of these rally cars that it had no choice but to pay off in the end. What is an extra boost is that friends and family can enjoy the game too using arcade mode which makes the game a bit easier for newbies to get to grips with. It’s realistic enough to sit younger people down and have them train on it as there are different surfaces to drive on adding more challenge to the mix.
The community around the game has spread as well. The multiplayer mode looks like a block party on wheels as players are pitted against one another in exciting and often hilarious challenges. Nothing like driving rally cars at high speed, smashing into your pals and earning points!
With various environments to race through, various types of vehicles to use, a realistic damage system, re-built from the ground up, Gymkhana events, free download content and much much more, Dirt 3 is easily the best driving game for the PC.
