I knew something was wrong the second I realized that there's no manual transmission option.
Let's start off with the good: graphics. Although I'm actually starting to tire of the Ego engine, I can't complain too much because it packs a lot of details on the screen and runs well even on modest hardware. I can run benchmark mode and see over 50 FPS minimum (75+ average) with details on low and no MSAA on a C2D with a Radeon 6850. Or, I can turn up the detail to the max and put MSAA to 2x and benchmark with a minimum of over 35 FPS. Looks great and is plenty smooth enough for me, so that's how I play it. (Speaking of benchmarking, the benchmarking feature of this engine is convenient and easy to use. I greatly appreciate it.) One particularly awesome graphical effect is the heavy snowfall, which looks great.
The tracks are pretty good, graphically packed, and laid out well. There isn't a whole lot of variety, but there's enough to keep you busy for a bit. The variety of gameplay modes extends the value of various tracks and adds a few twists to more common modes; for instance, beyond the normal "smash into cars for points" demolition, there's also a demolition-on-a-platform-style knock out competition where the goal is to run your opponents off of the platform.
It's weird to see such polished graphics in a game that feels so average. Dirt Showdown lacks an identity. There's the name association, but other than that it doesn't feel anything at all like a real Dirt game. Yeah, I get that the game is meant to be a demolition derby-style game, but it still doesn't fit the Dirt mold. With Dirt, I expect a bit more realism, a bit more depth, and a bit more character. I can't believe that Codemasters would make a game that doesn't even give you the option of using a manual transmission, especially because the gymkhana portions could definitely benefit from it.
Speaking of which, the inclusion of gymkhana and destruction derby events feels random, disjointed, and forced. It's almost like some higher-up at Codemasters said "just take a couple of the coolest parts of the older games and throw them into this game so it sells." None of the cars used in gymkhana are used in destruction derby, and none of the cars used in destruction derby are used in gymkhana. The gymkhana cars are all real cars; the destruction derby cars are all knock-offs. It just exacerbates the disparity between the two kinds of events.
Gymkhana needs work. Yes, it's fun to drive around things and slide and all that, but it feels like the developers couldn't really find a good balance between making it easy enough to pull off and making the cars act in a semi-realistic way. It can be hard to come flying around a pole and pull into a perfect, circular drift, yet once you do, there's a huge margin for steering error, and half the time, you can keep spinning in circles without steering at all, just by holding the gas down.
Gatecrasher is replaced by something similar, but there's no obvious track layout; you just drive around a freestyle course and smash whichever color signs they tell you to smash. It's a bit more annoying and a bit less fun than gatecrasher, although it's not as bad as I initially thought once you get used to it. There's also a freestyle trick mode, in which you can crash signs and do 360s, drifts, and jumps, but you're going to want to smash as many signs as you can in the process of doing tricks to keep your multiplier up. Somewhat annoying is the fact that you have to actually do the tricks at certain spots: you can't just drift and get points for drifting, you have to do it near the icon.
The offroad racing gets old pretty quickly. Even in the "race" races, there's still a lot of emphasis on smashing other cars, because if you don't, you'll run out of boost and it'll take a while to build back up. The damage modeling is noticeably simpler than previous games and has absolutely no effect on the handling of the cars. The AI is stupid... after you've raced for a while, even on different tracks it feels like the same old race. Being forced to progress through events to unlock other events and cars doesn't help, and after a while it feels like a chore. The lack of any kind of narrative works to compound the feeling, and since the game is so limited, there's only one path to progression, unlike previous Dirt games that at least offered you some options that could quickly allow you to focus on the events that you like the best. The unlocking system in this game is puzzlingly random; the cars start out really cheap, and seem to ramp up quickly in price as you unlock them, even though the unlockable cars aren't usually better than what you already have, and you have to spend money to upgrade them... so while you'll unlock cars as you progress, chances are you won't even drive them because you'll be spending money on the cars you already have which are better than those cars anyway.
The presentation sucks. Previous Codemasters games would allow you to select a name or a nickname that would audibly reference you, but in this game, your nickname is only used in menus. Throughout the races, the annoying announcer only refers to you, confusingly, as "they." Really? Worsening the arcade feeling is the fact that often the cars look and feel like they're driving on a surface as smooth as glass. This is supposed to be dirt racing! Even the replays are missing something compared to the previous games. It's like they took various bits from the old games and threw them into this one without polishing it at all.
I could forgive a lot of these issues if it weren't for the fact that I've already played quite a few games like this one before, and some of them were actually better. This game could have been released as a budget bin title without the Codemasters logo on it, and it'd be a good title for $20, but not the $50 that they want for it on Steam (and boy do I feel bad for you if you spent $60 on a console disc). If you want to play good arcade demolition-style racing, the Flatout series does it much better (and has a lot more depth). If you want more realistic dirt racing, then go for any of the previous titles (my personal favorite is the first one). If you like rally, I still recommend CMR 2005 if you can find it. This game doesn't offer anything new and the limited scope means the fun doesn't last very long. Because of that, I can't recommend it as a purchase. By the time I got halfway through the game, I was bored with it. Rent it if you so desire, but don't bother buying it.
I was hoping Dirt Showdown might be a serious game: a Codemasters take on figure 8 racing, demolition derby, and the kind of low-budget win-by-any-means-necessary racing that you see on dirt tracks. That means realistic damage modeling, realistic events, realistic handling, and attention to detail. None of that is present in this game, unfortunately. It honestly feels more like a half-hearted attempt to cash in on the brand. Bottom line: it's entertaining for a short while, but you'll probably get bored before you even finish it.