DIRT

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on April 20, 2007

First Impressions: This dirt is looking mighty pretty.

Tweet

Comments

It's been a couple of years since Colin McRae tracked mud through our living rooms, but don't worry Ц you can't keep the legendary Scottish rally driver and former WRC champion away from the wheel for long. From the looks of it so far, it will be well worth the wait when DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road hits the store shelves this summer.

Fans know the series has always been about realism but DIRT will really crank things up to the next level. The game will feature over 45 officially licensed cars spanning 12 car classes, over 180 authentic liveries and 55 tracks that are a mix of real licensed circuits and fictional ones based on real locations. The official events you can participate in will include Circuit de Ducs in France, Croft Circuit in England, Chula Vista Raceway in California and the ultimate North American event, the famous 12-mile long International Hill Climb at Colorado's Pikes Peak.

But realism isn't just about recreating authentic cars and tracks Ц it's about recreating the true rally racing experience. It's not an easy task but developer Codemasters has something very special up their sleeve: the brand new proprietary Neon engine. No, we're not talking about the wheezy Chrysler four-banger; rather, Codemasters' Neon engine is a powerful piece of game software that creates stunningly realistic graphics and environmental effects unlike anything you've seen in a racing game so far.

As you might expect, the highly detailed cars look beautiful. However, it's the environments that really stand out with incredibly detailed tracks that look photo-realistic Ц you can see individual blades of grass waving in the breeze and pick out pebbles in the dirt Ц and feature huge draw distances. Official tracks have been accurately recreated, right down to the port-a-potties. The truly stunning dust, exhaust, rain and particle effects not only look real but react realistically and dynamically to wind generated by both Mother Nature and speeding cars. Your car will even get grimier throughout the race as it collects all that dirt and mud you kick up. Oh yes, folks, dirt never looked so damn good.

The Neon engine isn't just about pretty graphics, however. It also enables realistic real-time soft-body car and environment damage Ц which in plain English means you will see realistic deformations of sheet metal, splintering wood and if you're really careful, can even wrap your car around a tree. Really. The incredible damage effects will range from scratched paint to shattered windows to crumpled body panels. Heck, you can even damage the interior of your car Ц very cool.

As fun as smashing into trees and opponents might be, you should know that all damage will realistically affect your car's performance, so a dented body panel will adversely affect your car's aerodynamics, fish-tailing into a tree could mess up your alignment and bottoming out could smash your transmission.

The type of track you are driving on will also realistically affect your car's handling, so mud will be much more slippery than tarmac. However, the developers added a nice authentic twist by creating variations within each surface; so instead of just one type of asphalt, for example, there will be six different versions ranging from old race-worn tarmac to grippy brand new black top. While the game will feature nasty weather like high wind and rain storms, the track conditions will not change as you progress through a race. This decision was made based on the fact that rally races are usually quite short and so realistically, weather is typically not a variable factor that affects a single driver.

However, since most rally tracks feature different types of surface, your driving and drifting skills won't be enough to succeed; you will also have to pick the right type of tire. The game will suggest the best choice but ultimately, it will be up to you to pick a tire that balances the benefits of more traction on, say, the dirt portions versus less grip on tarmac.

Not only that, but you will have to deal with the realistic driving physics. This is not an arcade racer; strategic drifting, drafting, counter-steering and a whole bag of off-road driving tricks will be needed to win. The true gear-head will be happy to know that you will be able to tune 30 different attributes of your car to tweak out the best performance. But you don't have to be a hardcore rally racer to get into this game as it will make concessions for more casual players like suggested tuning setups and five difficulty settings.

The game engine also enabled more realistic sound effects so when you crash, you can take comfort in knowing that all of that crunching metal and glass is accurately recreated. It should be noted that the sound effects are unique and streamed in real-time, and are not canned sound bites; in other words, the difference between 2000 RPM and 7000 RPM on your Subaru is exactly what the real things sounds like, and is not just a louder variation of a single generic audio file.

Even the crowds will get into the act by reacting when you smash into the barrier protecting them Ц a nice touch.

The single player Career Mode will feature 66 events with up to seven races per event. It sounds daunting but it will be set up in a pyramid structure that will let you choose which events you want to race as you make your way towards the championship. The traditional point-to-point rally will naturally be included but this time around, more North American-friendly events like hill climb, 4x4, rally raid, rally cross and CORR (Championship Off-Road Racing) events will be added. Several of these events will involve racing against about a dozen opponents, a first for the series. Purists might decry these changes but one can't dispute that they will add some nice variety along with being more appealing to those of us on this side of the pond. One interesting change that directly appeals to the North American market is that our version will be hosted by X Games star Travis Pastrana while the European version will get Colin McRae himself.

Other modes include single races, time trials, and long and short versions of championship events. The game will also feature online multiplayer but it will unfortunately not support head-to-head races. Instead, there you will be able to enter competitions with up to 100 players as you all attempt to top the leaderboards with the best times in rally and hill climb races.