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The beauty of this system is that completionists and all-round fans of off-road can spend their time coming first or competing in every single discipline of an event, be it dirt buggies, rally cross, gymkhana modes or more but anyone who only likes certain modes only need to make up enough points to unlock the next event. This means that if you are really only in the game for the fantastic rally, then you can mostly get by sticking to rally for the majority of the time and still earn enough to progress to the next event.

That’s not to say that you are going to want to skip on the other modes though, because they are all rather splendid. Sure, you may not be a fan of Rally Cross or think of Gymkhana as an abomination, you will most probably find yourself becoming quite fond of all of the different vehicles, tracks and modes available.

An added bonus is also that different disciplines sometimes give you the choice of different eras of cars to choose from. So if you, for example, choose to do a rally event, you may be given the choice to pick from cars from the 60s, 70s and 80s right up to the latest, fastest beasts available out there. As you level up, you are also given more teams to race for with bonus objectives for extra points, not to mention some nice new liveries to dress your car up in.

YouTubular, Bro

One of the new features added to DiRT 3 is the built-in YouTube functionality. Anyone playing the game can connect their gaming account to their YouTube account, which means that awesome maneuvers, crazy crashes and hilarious moments can all be shared with the power of the internet.

For those of you with slower internet lines, you may not find yourself using the functions often, as it takes a little while to render the video on the console itself and then it still has to upload the footage online. Of all the times I tried to use it, I was successful with one basic video (embedded below) but unfortunately suffered many cases of uploads failing half-way after waiting longer than 15 minutes already. Not only that, but you are also put into upload queues and have to wait your turn.

The function is still a nice addition, but will be useful to you depending on your connection speed. One gripe though, is that I want to punch the game in the face every time Mr.Random mechanic/engineer/whatever-he-is guy sounds off after a race saying “Hey dude, your rad fans will like totally love that sick footage. You should like, totally post that on YouTube… like, bro, homie, rad, sick, tubular, cowabanga bro. Dude. Totally.

Hit the gym

While you may be familiar with the other modes, Gymkhana comes in as a new addition and, as mentioned earlier, is inspired by the awesomely insane YouTube infomercial videos released by DC Shoes and Ken Block, that show him doing things in a rally car that you thought were only possible in arcade games. It looks like more fun than anyone can handle… and now we finally get the chance to try it out for ourselves.

The Gymkhana events range from performing runs for high scores all the way to other fun mini-modes such as knocking over all the block on the level, or performing a load of preset challenges (drifting through an area, doing donuts around a poll, hitting a ramp) before a timer runs out.

To top it all off, you get access to Gymkhana areas that come with a myriad of challenges, making it feel like some sort of strange mash-up between a rally and a skateboarding game. You will be able to keep yourself busy for hours as you hone your skills while completing missions in the Gymkhana lots by performing certain amounts of tricks, finding hidden logos and performing stunts around certain landmarks.

The Gymkhana really is something new and special and marks itself as one of those things that no one saw coming until Ken Block wowed us with this crazy new way to play with cars.

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Sightseeing in the countryside

The DiRT games have always been known for being a good looking bunch, and while the first and second games were pretty, DiRT 3 really pushes it to a new level that has the graphics engine firing on all cylinders. The Kenyan tracks have an eerie realism to them, anything that happens in the rain or at night looks absolutely stunning and everything else from gorgeous forests, to the rally cars, impressive crash damage and snowy levels will make you want to take a step back for moment, just to appreciate how very impressive the visuals actually are.

Last Updated: June 6, 2011

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