Dirt 3 First Impressions

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
For those who have been waiting for the next great racer either on a console or the PC, Dirt 3's release last week was a welcomed one. Even more so after the reviews started pouring in with ratings averaging 90%. I was a little slow on the uptake to take the game for a test drive, but did this past weekend, and have just one word to sum it up so far:

"Wow."

dirt_3_053011_thumb.jpg

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
As much as I hate to admit it, I never got too far into Hot Pursuit due to other games coming up. I hope to get into it as soon as I complete the current fleet of games I have going.

Neither game is quite like the other though. Dirt 3 is excellent for off-road racing in the same way Hot Pursuit is great for on-road arcade-like racing. Dirt 3 is no doubt a lot more realistic, and more challenging, but it's oh-so rewarding.
 
Tharic-Nar

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
I'm having a hard time getting into DiRT2, even with a joypad - though it's a rather poorly configured PS3 controller, not a 360. I'm more into Motorstorm on the PS3... that was fun, though hard as hell in places. Time trial with a Big-rig, lost count how many times I restarted that. I'll probably have to get a 360 controller for compatibility sake before taking up racing on the PC again, then maybe give DiRT3 a go.
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
I loved Dirt it was fun to play on the PC. There was car customization to your hearts content. The GFX were excellent for the time. The sound was awesome and to top all off if you had 5.1 it didn't disappoint there either. Okay sometimes the realism was a major pain in the ass to get through some of the events but that's real racing and if you don't like it don't like it go back to Burnout or something! The game used my 360 conn and my G27 without a fuss when I got it, this is what you expect from a AAA racing game. I worshiped this rally game because it was a cut above the rest and it showed what could be done with a game if you cared about it enough.

Then came along Dirt 2, did some one in the design studio have their 6 year old kid have them design the menu layout? I hate the menu! Seriously that was enough to make me exit the game and not go back a few days, the main reason cause it was a pain to navigate with my wheel. I then went back to it and tried a few races but with out the customization it really didn't feel like the Dirt game it should have been, it felt dumbed down for those who didn't understand cars that much. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but we should have the option in SP to customize like in the original Dirt or in MP to make it so we only run stock only, nuff said. I lost interest in the whole game after that mainly because of the loss of that one feature that is what made Dirt so special.

I did pick up Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and this is pretty fun but I got side tracked with other games and have been meaning to go back but have not been back to it yet.

Now tell me honestly is it worth the purchase does it let you customize or is it just another rally game now?

Tharic-Nar - Yeah a game pad or wheel of some sort is required anymore for racing games, this defiantly isn't the good old days of Need for Speed in good old DOS. At least the 360 give the option of going wireless on the PC where the majority of others are still usb.
 
OriginalJoeCool

OriginalJoeCool

Tech Monkey
I got locked out of this game - sort of. I can't sign into Windows Live, and you have to in order to save your progress, stats, etc. I can sign into Windows Live just fine outside the game. I tried changing the password. I entered my old to see what it'd say and it told me the new password must be different from the old one. Yet Games for Windows Live tells me that password is incorrect! :confused:
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
OriginalJoeCool said:
I got locked out of this game - sort of. I can't sign into Windows Live, and you have to in order to save your progress, stats, etc. I can sign into Windows Live just fine outside the game. I tried changing the password. I entered my old to see what it'd say and it told me the new password must be different from the old one. Yet Games for Windows Live tells me that password is incorrect! :confused:
Click to expand...

Are you SURE that you're not just overlooking something? Games for Windows Live, in my honest experience, has been nothing but super-stable and ultra-reliable.

;)

Of course, I kid. Because of GFWLose, I need to spend 15 minutes getting Dirt 2 to work on the GPU benchmarking rig each time I restore the Acronis image. It's too bad that the Dirt series is definitive for benchmarking, else I'd not even consider using it.

I don't get the reliance on GFWL at all... there's no reason to make it a win/lose thing like that. In Test Drive Unlimited 2, it requires you to be online for the most part, but if the server is down, or you lose Internet, you can still play offline on the "online" account. Dirt 3 should have been designed the same way.

You may want to re-install GFWL with the installer inside of the Dirt 3 folder, and see if that helps. It's super strange that you can log into the client fine but not the game, though. Did you install a new firewall or anything like that?
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
OriginalJoeCool said:
I got locked out of this game - sort of. I can't sign into Windows Live, and you have to in order to save your progress, stats, etc. I can sign into Windows Live just fine outside the game. I tried changing the password. I entered my old to see what it'd say and it told me the new password must be different from the old one. Yet Games for Windows Live tells me that password is incorrect! :confused:
Click to expand...

I too have had my fair share of problems with GFWL and my password, try going to Start > Games and loading up Games for Windows Marketplace and resting your pass through there. I have it linked to my Hotmail, if you have done the same it might be easier to just go that route. Hope that helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top