Giant Bomb DiRT 3 Race Night in America

Where we play lots of Dirt 3 once a week.

When

Every Sunday Night, 8:00 PM ET (5:00 PM ET) on Xbox Live (and maybe PC, too? Details forthcoming on that for you GFWL users.)

Runs until people get tired, whenever that is.

Click here for an idea of when Race Night might be in your time zone.

How to Join

Send the gamertag Giant Bomb Dirt a friend request on Xbox Live before Race Night begins.

I'll accept all pending friend requests shortly before Race Night kicks off.

When Race Night begins:

1. Be on Xbox Live in Dirt 3. I'll send a party invite to anyone playing Dirt 3 until we're full.
2. Watch for a joinable party on the Giant Bomb Dirt friends list, and join it! The main party will be hosted by me, Laz PsEG. If that's full, look for other people on the friends list who are playing Dirt 3 in a party, and try to join them.
3. If you can't find any parties with room, take the initiative! Create a party and game lobby of your own, and invite anyone on Giant Bomb Dirt's friends list into the party/game. There's a good chance there will be more than eight people looking to play in at least the first few weeks, so a second lobby will be likely. Don't be afraid to start up a party when we're full, and more importantly, don't be afraid to accept game invites from other people.

What We Do

Expect a bunch of random racing mixed in with gymkhana. We're also almost certainly going to play modes like Transporter and Infection, since they're really fun (especially Transporter free-for-all). As long as you've got an open mind to play anything Dirt 3 has to offer, you should have fun with us.

Note: We might occasionally turn on collision ratings for races, which might affect your ability to earn the Honorable Driver achievement. If you have an issue with this, please let us know in the party as soon as possible, and we'll keep the collision ratings turned off.

Other Things You Should Know

We welcome anyone, American or otherwise.

Don't let the name fool you - Dirt 3 Race Night in America is open to anyone. It's just most convenient for people in American time zones, as Europeans would have to stay awake until 1 AM to partake. Also don't mind the US flag in the header, as we're going to have our share of Canadians. Why did I use the United States flag knowing this? Because AMERICA.

Don't worry about being a little late.

You might not make it into the main party if you're late, but don't lose heart! Any time there's open space, we're always looking for someone to fill it.

You should try not to be a jerk when racing.

Collisions are inevitable in Dirt 3. You should have heard me yelling at a bunch of the Forza Race Night people the night this game launched because they kept taking each other out. Regardless, be as respectful as you can -- don't intentionally turn other cars in races, apologize when necessary, and try to warn other players if you've spun or crashed on track so that they might be able to avoid crashing into your vehicle.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the Battersea Compound before Race Night.

This isn't required, but it's pretty frustrating in Transporter when a flag spawns and you have no clue how to reach it.

Remember: We're here to have fun.

Dirt 3's a pretty awesome game. Playing with Giant Bomb users is even more awesome. Try to enjoy yourself, no matter what happens!

That's 2 am for me, probably a little too late, and I wonder if there's enough people to set up a Euro only night. Two of my gaming buddies got this, so I'm fairly set, could be awesome to race with Bombers though.

Can we include a PC event the same date and time into this topic too?

Had a pretty good time on Tuesday when everyone was online. 
 
Though Laz it really was funny when you got mad at... slowbird I think, for hitting you all the time.  I had to turn off my mic because I didn't expect you to react in that way, lol.  Regardless good it was a good time and I am looking forward to Sunday. 
 
Also hopefully I will be better by then.

I'm going to attempt to attend this thing (assuming the family complies) and I have 35gig FIOS so I can possibly assist in hosting.

If it was on PS3 and not sunday I would totally do it. 

@Ethan_Raiden said:

Can we include a PC event the same date and time into this topic too?

Sorry for being incredibly slow to respond to this. I'd be glad to list the PC as a platform we're running on if the PC gamers wanted to play amongst themselves at the same time. However, since Dirt 3 PC runs on GFWL, the whole "friends of friends" feature isn't usable, which means friending Giant Bomb Dirt would have no purpose for PC users.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that the PC Dirt 3 owners might want their own race night thread eventually. They might also want to designate a lobby host who will be at every race night and can handle the friend requests and inviting.

All right, everyone. At 8:00 PM EDT, we'll be starting the very first DiRT 3 Race Night. Consider this your three hour warning! If you want in but haven't sent an invite to Giant Bomb Dirt, you might consider doing so.

I'm hoping that everyone gets a chance to race, but be aware that there's a possibility we'll fill the first lobby that I'll be hosting, and we'll end up needing a second lobby. In this case, do be aware that I might inform a few of you that you're overflow. Whether you decide to create a second lobby or not is up to you.

Regardless, in just under three hours we'll get a lobby full of rally, gymkhana, racing, rally, and some party games going. I hope you'll join us.

just sent my friend request. see you on the track guys!

I'm glad to see that Sunday remains "hot new game that's not Forza" race night. I'll see you fellas on the track.

I want to thank everyone that joined us for DiRT 3 last night. We had about four solid hours of rally, rallycross, and the occasional party game, and most of it was utterly entertaining. I think team battles for transporter aren't quite as fun as they should be, as the flag passing doesn't end up being as frantic as it is in a free-for-all. Outbreak is gold, though. There's an evil part of me tempted to remove the rewinds from some rallies with full damage on, but that's an experiment for next week.

Regardless, I hope you all had fun, as I sure as heck did. We'll do this again next week at the same time, and I hope you'll join us.

I want to thank everyone that joined us for DiRT 3 last night. We had about four solid hours of rally, rallycross, and the occasional party game, and most of it was utterly entertaining. I think team battles for transporter aren't quite as fun as they should be, as the flag passing doesn't end up being as frantic as it is in a free-for-all. Outbreak is gold, though. There's an evil part of me tempted to remove the rewinds from some rallies with full damage on, but that's an experiment for next week.

Regardless, I hope you all had fun, as I sure as heck did. We'll do this again next week at the same time, and I hope you'll join us.

There any other Europeans around that would consider creating a similar sort of event? I'd absolutely love to join in the fun with you Americans but I'm afraid I tend to be sleeping!

@The_Grindilow said:

There any other Europeans around that would consider creating a similar sort of event? I'd absolutely love to join in the fun with you Americans but I'm afraid I tend to be sleeping!

I was hoping the Europeans would organize their own race night, given that there seemed to be interest in such a thing for them. Heck, that's specifically why I'm calling this Race Night in America, rather than as a joke.

Per mracoon in a thread about a week back:

"Consensus seems to be that Euro Race Night starts at around 5:00 pm GMT (ie 6:00 pm UK/Western Europe, 7:00 pm Central Europe) and then if anyone wants to continue playing afterwards they can join the NA Race Night. Concrete timings still need to be worked out but I think starting around 7:00 pm is a good time for most people."

So if somebody wanted to set a Euro Race Night up, that might be an agreeable time for Sundays.

@The_Grindilow said:

There any other Europeans around that would consider creating a similar sort of event? I'd absolutely love to join in the fun with you Americans but I'm afraid I tend to be sleeping!

I was hoping the Europeans would organize their own race night, given that there seemed to be interest in such a thing for them. Heck, that's specifically why I'm calling this Race Night in America, rather than as a joke.

Per mracoon in a thread about a week back:

"Consensus seems to be that Euro Race Night starts at around 5:00 pm GMT (ie 6:00 pm UK/Western Europe, 7:00 pm Central Europe) and then if anyone wants to continue playing afterwards they can join the NA Race Night. Concrete timings still need to be worked out but I think starting around 7:00 pm is a good time for most people."

So if somebody wanted to set a Euro Race Night up, that might be an agreeable time for Sundays.

There any other Europeans around that would consider creating a similar sort of event? I'd absolutely love to join in the fun with you Americans but I'm afraid I tend to be sleeping!

@mracoon said:

I'll be back home this weekend so I don't mind organising a EU Race Night, I actually wanted to start it last week but I was away from my Xbox. I've never run one of these things so don't expect to go as smoothly as PsEG's but we'll see how it goes. I'll post more details later and see what kind of interest there is.

Sounds excellent! I'll fire some hosting advice your way later tonight provided I don't forget after class. It's more daunting than hard, usually.

Gentlemen! We're live! If you maybe thought we weren't doing this due to a late arrival because of podcasting, you thought wrong. No warnings this week, just saying we're live.

Join us for some DiRT 3 action tonight, if you will!

Despite a slow start, Race Night eventually turned out pretty good. Also, driving a buggy with 3 tires is sorta fun on its own, and would have been a good mini-game within the career mode. "Finish in 1:20.00 for a Platinum medal with this tire blown out!"

Heads up, everyone! This will be starting in ten minutes or so.

I know it's short notice, but I may take an early leave from tonight's festivities so that I can work on some real-life stuff. School and all. This is the last bit of serious stuff for a short while, at least.

Other than that, here's hoping you can join us!

If you want an invite, slowb1rd is the gamertag for right now.

I am hoping to pick the game up this week, so I can join you guys next Sunday. I have never played a Dirt game before, so I hope you guys don't mind me sucking.

@mj504b: I think it was a combination of you being really fast, and us not actually being mad but just being sarcastic sons of bitches.

@mj504b: Most of it was just in jest over you being completely silent and utterly dominant. The only point I could say I was truly frustrated was during the outbreak game, but I would have done the same kind of hiding in your position (and did in the next round).

As for everyone, we're running right now! Space is still available, if you have DiRT 3 and enjoy playing it.

Is this still going on? I'm getting dirt 3 in a few days and would love to play with the community

Just saw this, when Dirt 3 arrives id be up for it. Its actually at a decent time for GMT aswell 

I just got the game and will be on tonight at 8 ET if anyone wants to play
 
GT: Wacred

My apologies for not speaking up sooner on this, but due to a lack of attendance along with some scheduling conflicts on my part, I haven't been running this for the last five weeks or so. For that reason, DiRT 3 Race Night in America's on an indefinite hiatus. We might bring back the idea in the near future with a more open approach, but that's probably something that would happen in November at the earliest.

That's not to say you couldn't gather up people to race in DiRT 3 at any time. It's still a great game.