Codemasters are breaking boundaries to bring us something truly special with DiRT 3... but can they pull it off?

The first Dirt title from Codemasters was met with mixed reactions from gamers. While the graphics, presentation and even career layout was very well put together, the driving mechanics were most peoples main issue. Codemasters have actually been getting on quite a couple of old time fans nerves recently due to their attempt to make their games more accessible, achieved …

While the original DiRT from Codemasters barely mentioned Colin McRae's name that much and even had extreme sports athlete and rally driver, Travis Pastrana doing all the in-game voice, Codemasters have decided to keep his name a part of the franchise despite his tragic death in a helicopter crash last year. This was made known when Codemasters announced the upcoming release of Colin McRae: DiRT 2. Gavin Raeburn, producer of DiRT 2 had the following to say: "The decision was made jointly between Codemasters and the McRae family. His ventures into events such as the X-Games, Dakar Rally and the Race of Champions have inspired us to look at events covering the extremes of off-road motorsport. This is where we're taking the series with DiRT 2 and Colin will play a part in that. DiRT 2 will be a great tribute, and we'll be revealing more about this over the coming months."" While they are referring to the game as a tribute, I can't say that I don't feel as if they are abusing his name a little here. I'm not saying that they are purposefully using his death as a major selling point, however they are obviously aware of the extra attention it will receive if the game is marketed as a "tribute". The first DiRT was received fairly well from gamers, although many (including myself) did not like the non-sensical magical driving physics that allowed rally cars to take hairpins at 180km/h as long as you let off of the accelerator. Gavin Raeburn also comments that DiRT 2 will concentrate on "the extremes of off-road motorsport". I hope that they spend enough time polishing the physics before trying to add in some sort of 4x4 lawnmower racing series to the mix, although that would kinda rock.