Colin McRae: DIRT Hands-on

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/776/776484p2.html

Colin McRae: DIRT Hands-on
We go hands-on with Codemasters's rally racer for a fresh spin around
the track, plus brand new screens.

by Rob Burman, IGN UK

UK, March 28, 2007 - Codemaster's upcoming instalment in the long-
running and exceedingly popular Colin McRae series isn't just the best-
looking rally game we've seen, it's one of the best-looking next
generation titles, period. This week we've been lucky enough to go
hands-on with Colin McRae: DIRT and were immediately blown away by the
impressive visuals, superb handling and high-speed rally racing.
Clearly Codemasters has had its best development team locked up in a
garage for several years with only programming tools for company, if
the impressive results we've seen so far are anything to go by.


For those that haven't been following the progress of DIRT - more fool
you - it's the latest rally game featuring Scotland's favourite off-
road racer. After successful appearances on previous generation
consoles, Codemasters has invested plenty of time and effort into this
latest iteration, even building its own game engine (called Neon)
especially for DIRT. It's also the first Colin McRae to feature Hill
Climb events and Rally Raid competitions. So far, so good... but we were
interested to see if DIRT could live up to our high expectations.

Luckily, from the moment we fired up the preview build of the game, we
were amazed by how slick everything felt. Even the menus have a level
of polish we weren't expecting. As you select the race you want to
take part in, options fly around like someone's been watching that bit
with the futuristic computer in Minority Report too much. The
impressive menus continue as you're waiting for a track to load.
Rather than a simple loading bar, stats flash up on the screen showing
how many miles you've covered, how many times you've travelled on just
two wheels and other fascinating, if superfluous, information. For
once we were quite happy for the game to take its time loading up.



Truthfully, we would have settled for a kitten in a bucket during
loading, given how good the actual game is. Our first challenge was a
Hill Race on Pikes Peak - a location immediately recognisable to
American rally fans - and we were instantly impressed by the
astounding level of detail Codemasters has packed into the course.
Everything from mountains to houses, or even port-a-loos, are in
exactly the right place compared to their real-life counterparts.
Other nice touches include crowds lining the edge of the track that,
unlike Gran Turismo HD Concept, actually respond when your car slams
into the barrier in front of them.

Unfortunately our car slammed into the barriers a little more often
than we would like. That's because - compared to most modern racers -
McRae pulls no punches when it comes to difficulty. Part of the game's
charm is pushing your driving skills to the limit by braking at the
last moment and hopefully skidding round the corner ready to fly
straight towards the next one. Those worried that Codemasters may have
tweaked the difficulty to sit more comfortably alongside the likes of
Need for Speed fret not - DIRT is still a tough but enjoyable
challenge demanding you find the perfect racing line to succeed, just
like previous McRae ventures.



Ridge Racer fans expecting to drift round bends at 180mph are in for a
rude awakening. Instead, decent lap times require that you hone your
driving skills and learn when best to brake hard before slamming down
the accelerator and powering out of a bend. Thankfully, tight controls
mean that easing off the gas slightly when braking round a bend or
squeezing pedal to metal on open ground feels extremely natural.

Although crashes were a regular occurence for us initially, there was
a silver lining in so far as each smash helped demonstrate DIRT's
incredible damage engine. Slight knocks against objects dint and
scratch the paintwork of each car, whereas a full head-on collision
with a tree can crumple the bonnet like an accordion. Icons on the
right-hand side of the screen show how much damage each section of
your car has endured - with red indicating your car is basically about
to fall to bits.

That said, cars can take quite a lot of damage to peripheral elements,
like the bodywork. At one point we even managed to stay road-bound on
three wheels briefly before tumbling off the track and smacking into a
tree. However, damage affects the performance of your car, so it's
inadvisable to keep whacking into things at 100mph. Still, it's great
fun watching race replays, trying to pinpoint when you lost your wing
mirror or your gearbox started crumbling after one too many
collisions.


There've been a few complaints across internet forums about the fact
that DIRT only runs in 30 frames per second. To be honest, it's hardly
noticeable when you're hurtling round a hairpin bend trying
desperately to beat your best time. DIRT isn't choppy at 30FPS it
certainly didn't ruin our experience of the game. Of course, the pay-
off is that the game looks so damn awesome. After reaching the heavens
with some of our favourite ever videogame clouds in Heatseeker,
Codemasters has brought things back down to earth with the most
realistic road surfaces we've seen in a game. Thundering along in
first-person view - where you're hanging perilously close to the
tarmac - is an intensely thrilling experience and the sense of speed
is almost unparalleled.

DIRT is definitely shaping up to be a truly next generation racing
game, which looks great and plays brilliantly too. Its June release
for Xbox 360 and PC - with a PS3 version following soon after - can't
come quick enough for us.