Colin McRae: Dirt

Colin McRae: Dirt
Developer(s)	Codemasters
Publisher(s)	Codemasters
Engine	Neon Engine
Version	1.22 (6 November 2008)[1]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows Xbox 360 PlayStation 3
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 EU 15 June 2007 NA 19 June 2007 PlayStation 3 AUS 27 September 2007[2] EU 14 September 2007 NA 11 September 2007
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E PEGI: 12
Media/distribution	Optical disc, Download
System requirements Minimum: Windows XP Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHz or Athlon 64 3000+ 1 GB RAM, Graphics Card: GeForce 6800 / Radeon X1300 or above DirectX Compatible Sound Card Recommended: Windows XP/Vista Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHz/Core 2 Duo @ 2.66 GHz or Athlon X2 3800+ 2 GB RAM Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 or Radeon X1950 Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card

Colin McRae: Dirt (shortened to Dirt in North America, and stylised, DiRT) is the sixth racing game in the Colin McRae Rally series, developed by Codemasters, and the last of the series to be published before Colin McRae's death. It features new graphics, audio, physics engine, new vehicles and a new game engine which was co-developed between Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment. The game features a variety of off-road racing categories as well as World Rally Championship style events. The sequel, Colin McRae: Dirt 2, was released in September 2009.^[3]

Gameplay

A player driving in a rally.

The single player game plays out through 3 modes. Career, Championship, and Rally World, which is a single race set up.

The Career mode is set up in a stylized pyramid that has 11 "tiers", with the bottom tier having 11 different events. Each event consists of one or more race events of a single type requiring a specific type of car. The player earns up to 10 points for their placing in all the races within the event. Most events require a specific number of points within a specific tier to unlock, and thus as the player earns points, more of the pyramid becomes unlocked, moving up to the "Champion of Champions" event at the very top. By winning races and earning money the player is able to purchase cars and liveries (skins) for the cars. In total there are 46 different cars and 186 liveries. The amount of money earned is based on the difficulty level picked by the player when selecting the event; higher difficulty levels have more challenging AI opponents and more realistic damage effects. Completed events can be repeated at any time, although unless challenged at a higher difficulty level, the player will earn significantly less money than when they first raced it. In Rally events with multiple races, the player has the opportunity to repair damage between races, but is only allotted 60 minutes of damage repair at each point based on time estimates to fix each component of the car.

Championship mode offers up a series of races in which the player's combined time throughout each stage is cumulative.

Multiplayer allows the player to race up to 100 other players in rally races through solo competition, as there are no other cars, ghosts or players present on the track. Fastest time determines who wins.

Release

Colin McRae: Dirt was released on 15 June 2007 in Europe and on 19 June 2007 in North America for the Xbox 360 and PC. The PS3 version was released on 1 September 2007 in North America and on 14 September ^[4] in Europe, the day before a helicopter crash claimed the life of McRae, his son Johnny, and two other people who were family friends of the McRae's.^[5] In response to the death and after an agreement was made with the McRae family, Codemasters withdrew a major advertising campaign for the PlayStation 3 version of Colin McRae: Dirt.^[6]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Game Informer	8/10
IGN	9.0/10
Official Xbox Magazine	9.0/10

Colin McRae: Dirt has received largely positive reviews, IGN UK and U.S. awarding it a 9.0 ^[7] and a 8.4,^[8] respectively. It has also received 9.0 from Official Xbox Magazine, 8.3 from GameSpot for the Xbox 360 and PC versions and 8.5 for the PlayStation 3 version, and 8 from Edge. 500,000 copies were sold worldwide in the first week of release.^[9]

The game was selected as part of Gaming Target's year-end "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2007" list.^[10]

Demo

A playable game demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace on 24 May 2007.^[11] The demo for PC was released on the same date.^[12] The demo contains 3 tracks and 3 race types to try out.

The PC demo also included an online multiplayer mode. The Xbox demo was also included in the August 2007 demo disc from Official Xbox Magazine.

A demo was also released for the PlayStation 3 on 16 August 2007 on the PlayStation Store,^[13] it features three tracks; rally, raceway and dirt.

See also

• Ambisonics, the audio technology used in the PS3 version

References

1. ^ Codemasters : Downloads : Download details
2. ^ http://au.playstation.com/games_media/release_schedule.jhtml: Games Release Schedule, 04/09/07
3. ^ Robinson, Martin (November 19, 2008). "Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Announced". IGN. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/931/931804p1.html. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
4. ^ "DiRT UK Release Date". GameSpot. 14 September 2007. http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/cmr07/similar.html?mode=versions&om_act=convert&om_clk=tabs&tag=headerimage;more. Retrieved 2007-09-16. 
5. ^ "Colin McRae feared dead in helicopter crash - police". Yahoo! News/AFP. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070915/tuk-auto-rally-gbr-mcrae-b5b5cc4_1.html. Retrieved 2007-09-16. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Codemasters pulls Colin McRae ad campaign". gamesindustry.biz. 20 September 2007. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28847. Retrieved 2007-09-22. 
7. ^ http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/794/794774p1.html
8. ^ http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/795/795150p1.html
9. ^ "DIRT sells 500k copies in first week". GameIndustry.biz. 2007-06-28. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26182. Retrieved 2007-09-14. 
10. ^ "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2007". Gaming Target. 2007-12-31. http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=8069. 
11. ^ "Demo: Colin McRae: DIRT". Major Nelson. 2007-05-24. http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/05/24/demo-colin-mcrae-dirt.aspx. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
12. ^ Goldstein, Maarten. "DiRT: Colin McRae Off-Road Demo Released". Shacknews. http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/47109. Retrieved 2007-05-24. 
13. ^ "DUS PlayStation Network updates for August 16th". Jem Alexander. 2007-08-16. http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/08/16/us-playstation-network-updates-for-august-16th/. Retrieved 2007-08-16. 

External links

• Colin McRae: Dirt official site
• Colin McRae official site
• Interview with Simon Goodwin of Codemasters, who developed the audio engine