The only problem I have with Dirt 3 is a problem I have with the industry.
THE GOOD STUFF:
Atmosphere-
When you begin the game, you are greeted by your manager, your mechanic, and your popularity guy, for lack of a better term. Those who played Dirt 2 will recognise you popularity guy as Christian, and along with his X Games enthusiasm, he is apparently a messenger for DC Shoes in this game. Those who played Dirt 1 and GRID will feel at home navigating the standard menus, as there isn't a lot of difference, and yet it feels new. Also note that your staff will interact with each other from time to time in an attempt to break up any tension during the course of your career.
Career Mode-
Single Player and Time Trial modes are the same as in every other game. The real teeth in the game is it's career mode. You start off at Level 1 with only select opportunities at hand, but as you progress, you unlock more championships, cars, race teams, and eventually, Battersea Power Station and the World Tours. Here is the jist of the career. You have a primary path consisting of four seasons, represented by tumbling triangular pyramids. Each season is made up of four championships, and each championship is represented by one of the panels on the pyramids. In order to win the championships, you must compete in selected events. As you progress, you will earn reputation points for your final position, like you would in GRID, as well as for unused rewinds and completeing sponsor objectives. Rewinds are for those "Oh Noes" moments where you lose sight of the turn ahead or lose control of the car, you get five but you get 50 rep points for each one not used. Sponsor objectives are new to the Dirt series, and are usually fairly easy to achieve, being anything from reach a certain speed to finish without damage. Once you reach the next level, you are usually given a new team livery that will give you more points for completed objectives. When you complete season 1, you are rewarded with free access to part of the "newly rennovated" Battersea Power Station, which feels new and yet familiar somehow. Completing seasons 2 and three will open up more of the station, which I'll cover later. Once you've won enough events, you will be invited to take part in the world tours, of which there are five; Rally, Rally Cross, Land Rush, Trailblazer, and Gymkhana.
Physics, enviroments, and damage-
They're great. The vehicular physics seem to be unique to each vehicle, as they should be, and the enviromental and damage physics are not only very nice to look at, but equally affect all the vehicles and tracks. The enviroments you race in are gorgeous and unique, the desert of Kenya drives very differently to the snow and ice of Sweden, and it's all enhanced by the weather changes, as the Smelter circuit is a different beast when it's raining or dark. Damage is much improved in Dirt 3 and is affected by almost everything. The biggest difference is the re-introduction of the blown tire for the player, something I hadn't seen outside a NASCAR game since Colin McRae 3.
Racing Disiplines and Car Selection-
>Rally: The soul of the entire series, it feels like a mix between the Colin McRae Rally games and Dirt 1. The rapid-fire staggered start gives it a more authentic feel, as you're not just racing the track and the clock, but you have to watch for you're opponents too. Nine separate classes; Pro, Open, S2000 (from Dirt 1), Class B, 90's, 80's, 70's, 60's, and Raid.
>Rally Cross: Essentially the same as Dirt 2, with more lenghtened races. One Class, Rally Cross, with select Class B option races.
>Land Rush: Scaled back a bit, but still enough to be fun. Not much choice here, you get a truck and a buggy, but both are fun to drive.
>Trailblazer: Most of these cars were meant only for hill climbs, and I miss the hill climbs from Dirt 1, but that doesn't mean they can't blast across rally stages. Two classes; Modern and Classic. The Z4 from Dirt 2 returns as a modern, and most of the the classics are the hill climb cars from Dirt 1.
>Gymkhana: The new boy. In all actuality, it is what you wanted to do with your car when you got your license. You could probably do this behind the local grocery store in reality, but I wouldn't advise it. I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as I did in the Gymkhana events. Gymkhana class cars are the only ones used.
DC Challenges and Battersea-
The DC challenges all use a Gymkhana base, and consist of smashing stuff, clearing checkpoints, and performing tricks either in order or freestyle. All challenges take place at the Battersea Power Station, which was used in Dirt 2 as a race location. Battersea has been redesigned since then, and DC Shoes has taken it over. But this is a video game, and as such you don't get access to the entire station fo a while. After season 1 you earn the parking lot season 2 grants you the depot, and season 3 gives you access to the entire property. Now don't get me wrong, just having the massive playground is enough to keep me going, but some need to have a reason to do anything. Fear not, because there is a set of missions for all three areas as well as accumulation missions for just screwing around. It's great fun, especially when you just want to do something but don't want to race the circuits again for the 15th time.
Online-
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RANT TIME!
Up to now this has been mostly sunshine and rainbows and happy flowers and whatnot, but this is the point where I start raking up the muck. I blame the penny-pinching bastards at EA for this. As someone who buys used games on a fairly regular basis, I can see where it makes sense to charge people who buy used games to play online. I don't like it, but I can understand why they would do it. What I think is the biggest cop out since this "Project $10" idiocy started was the fact that the developers will put content in a game, and then lock it from the player if they don't buy a special code.
It's retarded, it's idiotic, and Dirt 3 does it. If you do not have the code, you can't play online. Fine, I could live with that. 'You also get five "exclusive" cars by using the code.' This is where blood pressures spike. If those five cars had of been a free download, kinda like a small reward for buying new over used, then I'd be all for it. But I'm not because what they did was but five cars in the game (the Hummer H3, McRae R4, '95 Impreza, 405 Pikes Peak, and Sierra Cosworth), then they decided,"let's lock these out so the morons have to buy the code to use what's already been programmed into the game." So they did, and I got ticked.
I did cool down as, honestly, you arent missing them much other than getting to look at them. I then proceeded to unlock a trophy while in Battersea. So I did what most people would do, pause the game, open up the home menu, and went to look at the trophies. While I must admit, getting all the trophies in Dirt 3 will be harder than in Dirt 2, I did get a bit irritated when I saw the sheer number of trophies in which online matches were nessisary. But then something caught my eye, I scrolled down furter and noticed that some of the empty trophy slots had little plus signs. Listen to me, idiot game producers. When the public buys a game, we want to believe in full faith that you have given your all and produced a complete and total product. If you release DAY ONE DLC, YOU HAVE OFFICIALLY GIVEN EVERY ONE OF YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS BOTH BIRDS AND KICKED THEM IN THE BALLS.
I haven't played since the night I found that out, and while I will play it again, I will not buy another game with online codes or day one DLC again until the price drops to the lowest it can get. It's a fun game, but I have been screwed for the last time in this manner. If you liked Dirt 1 and 2, you'll like this. Otherwise, rent it first, then wait two years to buy it. Give them a bird right back.
Screw you, Codemasters.