It's actually as fun as it looks.
Some say that DiRT has too much racing and that the game takes so long to load you could down a pint and smoke three packs of cigarettes before it launches. All I know is that it's one extremely fun game and I have perhaps made the worst Top Gear presenter spoof of all time.
But just like Top Gear, DiRT is something you can enjoy immensely. It has the looks and feel of a well formed game and leads to endless segments of fun. The graphics aren't stunning, but they are damn good and when you think that all you are really doing is driving a vehicle as quickly as you possibly can you don't have time to stop and smell the shaders, or count the polygons on the blur of passing foliage; you have to ask yourself one very simple question.. "Am I having fun?" and the simple answer with DiRT is "YES!". There will always be someone who will nay-say DiRT, but that same person is probably riding a bicycle to save the earth as oppose to roaring down the roads at terrifying speeds and placing countless lives in jeopardy. Do you want a Schwinn or a rally car?
DiRT is not one of those racing games that places you in the doldrums of a circular track on perfectly smooth tarmac where all you have to do is point the car in one general direction and 'mash the gas'.. Though if you can't gather any of that by the name of the game then perhaps you should waddle back to primary school. In DiRT you will find yourself racing in rally cars, buggies, souped up semis and other tracks of nearly every type you can fathom. There are all types of racing modes and track locations that circle the globe. Now, I actually read one review where a hapless player mentioned that DiRT is just one race after another and that player is absolutely correct. DiRT is unapologetically about racing, it's about customizing your car, buying new ones and then conquering each new track as you see fit. I would almost call DiRT an sort of non-commitment game.. You can run a single race before a meal and turn it off anytime you wish. You don't have to worry about inane story telling, or spending hours picking up 'lightseeds' scattered about endlessly. There are no guns strapped to your car, you are not blowing up traffic, you are not staring at women and 'huge tracts of land'. In DiRT you race.
One of the most interesting and at the same time frustrating thing about DiRT is that it shows you how you placed against other players all over the world (assuming your 360 is connected to the web) and the first thing you will discover is that the top player is almost always a Scandinavian in a Lancia Delta.. But their fall from the top is swiftly approaching!
Sure I could go into agonizing detail over every minuscule nuance of the game, but anyone who is thinking of buying this aging, but wonderful game has already read plenty of mind numbing reviews that rate the game on every nebulous aspect , but I am not going to! No, I am going to slap a rating of 5 stars on this game because it's a damn joy to play.
