Game Overview
Everyone knows Colin McRae now, if you don't then were have you been for the last 9 years, wow, 9 years since we were graced with the first title in this franchise on the PS2. Since then Rally games have come and gone but Colin McRae has always come out on top and sold millions of copies world wide, surely making it one of the best Rally sims EVER!

DiRT is the first installment on next gen consoles and it doesn't disappoint. You are immediately thrown straight in to the action, no pussy footing about and plodding around a training circuit for DiRT. Career mode has you racing in one of the new additions to the game straight away Corr Buggies! And boy are they fun!!

You'll find straight away that DiRT isn't your normal point to point, stage after stage rally game, oh no, this time round you'll be racing not only FWD, RWD and 4WD cars but Classic rally cars, buggies and even trucks. All fully licensed and stickered up to the hilt! The variety is quite astonishing in truth, lots of vehicles and with each one comes different liveries which are basically a variety of sponsors which in turn give you a different paint job for your car!

In terms of actual racing you'll be racing crossover circuits where you take on one driver over a two lap race, half way through each lap you cross tracks, and race on the other side, first one to the finish line wins. Then you have rallying in the UK, Australia, Spain and all the usual venues, Rally Raid races will see you racing over desert terrain for a couple of laps, fast paced and very taxing on the vehicle there is so much replay value to DiRT that it should have you entertained for hours on end, which is a good thing as well because although the 360 achievements are fairly easy to get they do take time however this time will be well spent.

Online is a bit of a let down in all honesty, there is so much scope for some proper off road racing against your mates with the rally raid and crossover races but all these have been missed out. The only options for online are Hill Climb and Rally. It's almost exactly the same as playing a career mode race but against humans instead of the computer. No one else on the track, not even voice chat, all you have is a time pop up as you pass through a time check telling you how many seconds behind or ahead you are. The race finishes, you go back to a lobby, vote on which track to do next and go through it all over again.

Our Conclusions
First impressions of the game were that the cars felt like they were on rails, as you get deeper into the game this completely changes and the real rally experience starts to shine through. Graphically you'll struggle to find better games out there and as for gameplay, well, simply superb. The lack of a decent online experience is a big downer and we would love to see this rectified in the future but for that we may have to wait for the next installment.

Overall Score: 8/10

Massive thanks to Codemasters!