While not exactly a fan of racing games on Playstation 3 or otherwise, I do play one or two from time to time, usually with my daughter I picked up DiRT 3 for it’s positive feedback and have not been disappointed.

Haven’t ever played any of the Dirt games before it’s been quite a debate on whether I should get this one, but due to the desperate need to get away from my usual FPS adventures I just thought I’d give it a go. And I did. And spent many many hours defeating AI and being beaten up by my girl

This game, probably, has everything you’d want to have in a racing game.

Great visuals create an unforgettable racing experience. You get a wide variety of environments to race through: snowy fields of Norway, hot sands of Kenya and many others you WILL take a liking to. Overall this game is looking to be one step above the visual standard that is set in the racing genre of today.

Sound is very modern and realistic. Engines sound like those of the real cars, sometime so much your neighbors might come over and ask to stop the engine if you play this too loud. Music introduces is very good and would probably be especially liked by a younger generation of gamers. Myself, I took a liking to Chase & Status after playing Dirt 3 on my Playstation 3:)

Both of the above mentions are definetely reflected on the cars introduced to the game. You must agree, cars are an important factor in any racing game;) Otherwise, what would we race on? Anyway, what you get to drive will greatly vary and come from the different eras, from early sixties to the modern days, while there also being trucks and buggies for the certain tracks and events.

On a racing track cars behave somewhat realistically, although not as much as some of the more monstrous racing sims like Gran Turismo. Gaming magazines praise improvements to the physics since the previous game of Dirt series, but I didn’t play it and can’t really talk about it much. This game, after all, isn’t that much of a sim, but rather half-arcade racing game aimed for you to have lots of fun. Still, it doesn’t mean cars go from 0 to 100 in one second and make perfect turn at 300mph. You get enough realism for the game not to get ridiculous. That also applies to damage. Yes, there is actually damage in this game and as I understand that’s one of the bigger thing alongside great visuals that make Dirt games so popular on PS3 and other gaming platforms. You can choose one of the two Damage settings: visual and and full. Visual, of course, doesn’t really do anything to the cars’ performance while on a track, while full introduces changes to performance and steering, depending on the force of your collisions with trees and other obstacles. There is a maximum amount of damage that can be taken, after which a race either ends or your can choose to flash your way back up to five seconds before the last crash and resume from that point. Using this in a main tour mode reduces your reputation, however. And we all know that reputation is always important to keep

DiRT Tour is the career mode of the game and requires you to complete a set of events of the different game modes and the difficulty of it in particular and all of what game has to offer in general is just about right. Beginners can have steering and throttling assists, as well as some others, activated. Computer opponents’ difficulty can be flexibly customised with a sliding scale ranging from 1 (easiest) to 6 (hardest). AI racers’ behavior on a track varies which is pretty important for the realism and atmosphere, they also make mistakes like you, depending on the chosen difficulty.

Multiplayer in this playstation 3 game is the main reason I got it, and must I say it is alot of fun. You can play in split screen, or over PSN. Computer opponents can be used to fill any missing drivers’ seats

To sum it all up I have to say just one thing: lots of fun, especially when you’re up to playing with friends or family. Graphics are very good and the racing process itself draws you to return to the game again and again. Definetely a worthy purchase.