Getting down and dirty with Mr McRae.

It's time to get down and dirty the Xbox 360 and PC as Codemasters, the UK developer that has been keeping us off-road with its Colin McRae titles for about the past decade brings us the latest installment: Colin McRae: DIRT. 

The demos are nearly identical, save for the inclusion of a multiplayer event in the PC demo (PC gamers have to give up the Arizona hill climb race in exchange for getting their multiplayer on), and offer three vehicle to test drive on three different tracks.  For the purposes of this review we sampled the Xbox 360 version of the game and are happy to report that DIRT looks like its going to be a solid racer coming this summer.

The vehicles and tracks go together in this demo.  If you want to get behind the wheel of a Subaru Impreza WRX STI spec Cs - the wheels that McRae himself drives - you'll have to do it in a crossover race against the man on Germany's Avelsbachring tarmac track.  Next you can hop into a Mitsubishi Evo IX for a hill climb event which represents the last 1000 feet of a track called Windy Point set in Arizona. 

The final and, in my opinion, most enjoyable, event in the demo is a ten car C.O.R.R. race in V8 650hp buggies Michigan's Bark River Off Road Raceway.  Each event can be played in any order (or ignored completely) and as many times as you like - there is no time limit on the demo.  Two difficulty settings are offered: rookie and amateur and I strongly suggest that anyone new to the Colin McRae series or racing sims in general start out on rookie.  Keeping your car on the track takes a little practice - especially during that hill climb in Arizona where a single mistaken turn translates into a plunge off the side of the mountain.

Of course in this day of Forza and Gran Turismo, the real key in any racer that aims for realism is how the cars "feel."  As fun as DIRT is, this is one area where I found it lacking.  The Mitsubishi, Subaru, and the buggies don't seem to have a lot of difference in terms of handling and general driving experience. 

Once you've tooled around in each for a couple of laps you get the feeling that they might as well be interchangeable.  Handling itself is sublime as it has always been in Codemasters' racing games, but the cars (at least the three in the demo) all handle in the same sublime way.  This could be different in the final game (the demo includes a disclaimer that it is not fully representative of the completed game), but at this point it is the major (and really the only) complaint I have about the demo.  And, let's face it, not every game is Forza or GT; nor should it be.  DIRT is tons of fun as is.