I got into Dirt 2 and 3 beacuse I really liked the rally in Dirt 1 and was hoping these would improve on that. What turned me off from Dirt 2 was the testosterone-fuled X-games garbage which had swallowed the game and rally-racing was given a backseat. I heard Dirt 3 was more rally oriented and had less X-game involvement. For the most part, these predictions were correct. There is more rally stages now and the X-games stuff has been toned down. Unfortunately, these pros come with some cons. For starters, the majority of the rally stages barely last longer than a minute and a half and the tracks themselves are very wide and the only challenge comes from annoyingly placed obstacles such as logs or tractors. Secondly, the X-games malarkey has been replaced by by Ken Block's Gymkhana stunt-driving rubbish. To be perfectly honest, this is actually worse than the X-games. Not only does it have nothing to do with rally or off-road racing, it's absolutely tedious and frustrating. I also wish they would bring back the car-tuning options of Dirt 1 as the options in Dirt 3 have little affect on how the car handles and drives. For a joke, I set all the tuning options to the silliest settings I could think of and the car was still perfectly drivable. Overall, the impression I get from this game is that they made it more rally oriented while cutting back on rally content, which makes it fall on its face a little bit. Most of the rally stages are just variations of the same stage and the tracks can get very easy in places. They also need to start focusing on real racing instead of smearing Ken Block and testosterone everywhere. Rally is a European dominated race, it's sad seeing it so Americanized.… Expand

This is not enhance of DiRT2. This is just a hybrid between GRID and DiRT1 with boring BGM, voices, menu and any other boring waiting time. I can't feel exciting.
Developers need to learn why people loved DiRT2.

I caught myself laughing joyfully while racing an old Toyota down a sandy road into a kenyan sunset. Not many games can do that. This one let's me know again why I play games. Yes, it is a bit sad they abandoned the festival style menus and neutralized the atmosphere from Dirt 2 , but it's not all bad because the menus are now much quicker to navigate through. All the trolls are crying about it... and the graphics... and the controls but honestly, it's still the same engine as in grit and dirt 2! it handles exactly as you're used to from codemasters race games, which is formidable. if you can't handle it, try another car or turn on some of the various help functions. And it looks brilliant: the raceway with tessellation textures, the spectacular lighting, the water looks better and the new weather effects fit in perfectly. This is the Crysis of Race Games: untouchable. On the downside are the usual too easy and monotonous career mode and the high rate of course recycling (night/day, weather, backwards).
But all in all: the best race game since Dirt 2. If you're a NfS Driver or GT5 and annoyed, stick to the engine you know and don't come here flaming. It's in the end always a matter of taste and preference. But Codemasters made my summer for sure :)… Expand

Verdict: Beautiful but shallow. I really struggled with rating this game. If I had never played another codemasters racer it would have easily rated a 7 or 8. Unfortunately, I've seen what a spectacular job they did with Dirt2 and this game just doesn't measure up. It's not so much a single massive problem as it is lots of little things that add up to spoil what would otherwise be a great game. For starters, The interface has been completely overhauled. Rather than placing the various menus in a track side 'Trailer', Dirt3 uses a plain old text menu laced with strange triangle motiffs.More staright-forward certainly, nut it completely kills the sense of immersion the previous UI generated.
Which brings me to perhaps my next major gripe, removal of the in race voices for the AIs. It sounds like such a minor thing, but having the AI drivers actually talking back and forth and reacting to what was happening in the race gave Dirt2 a completely different feel in single player. It felt more like racing with a bunch of friends rather than just grinding against some oblivious robot. It even had an affect on how I drove. In Dirt3 I can run another driver off a cliff with absolutely no consequences. In Dirt2, cut off an opponent or pull some other dangerous maneuver and the other drivers would tell you about it in no uncertain terms. Nothing like having Tanner Foust or Ken Block call you an a--hole (sort of) to make you think twice about being hyper-aggressive.

Another major issue for me is the heavy emphasis on Rally. Don't get me wrong I love rally, be it a traditional point-to-point or scraping paint in Rally-X. There is however such a thing as to much of a good thing. Dirt2 did a great job of balancing out the formality of rally with plenty of truck/buggy based events that allowed you to let loose a little bit without having to worry about hitting a perfect apex to shave 0.002 seconds off your time. The trucks are still there, but they've been relegated to a single event type (landrush) with just a single available vehicle ( the 'landrush event truck'). You can choose your livery (sort off) by choosing a team but other than that no real choice. It's as if they grudgingly let you race them, but there's a nagging feeling that the game is telling you "Trucks? yeah we have those but wouldn't you much rather be over here perfecting your rally skills? See, look shiny classic rally cars from the 70's. That's right, forget about those dirty, smelly buggies and come over this way....".

The final gripe I have is the way you progress through the single player career. You still get experience, but rather than the leveling system that gradually opens up more and more opportunities as you progress, this is pretty much a straight point-A to point-B. Also rather than earning cash as a reward for completeing a race has been removed. Instead, you simply get handed cars and liveries at certain set points. There's no real feeling of having accomplished anything; the car isn't really yours, some random corporate just lets you use it and expects to get it back in one piece when you're done. Even worse though is the way rep (the equivanent to exp in this game) is tied to the car you drive. You get more rep from completing the 'bonus' missions in a car that just unlocked than in your vehicle you've been racing from the beginning. Sometimes it can be a gap of several hundred points. In essence they are constantly trying to force you to drive a different vehicle rather that spending the time to master a single car you really like.

To sum up. If you are a rally nut and the mountian dew fueled, Americanized X-sport theme of Dirt 2 set your teeth on edge, then Dirt 3 is probably a must buy. If you are like me however, and enjoyed Dirt2s blend crazy antics and challenging events then Dirt3 is going to feel somewhat unfullfilling.… Expand

This is not Colin Mcrae anymore. I know in the game must be new something, but in this Dirt 3 is like 10% rally. And more funny stuff is, that the maps is all the same. I am disappointed. I want true rally with lots of maps and rally. If you have more then 50% rally in the game, and more maps, that it is a true rally.

Once again Codemasters makes a great Driving game and then totally destroys it by adding something that is absolutely ridiculous! Yes I am referring to the Gymkhana or however you spell it stunt driving crap! Where it not for this crap I would have rated Dirt 3 above Dirt 2 But it has totally ruined my enjoyment of the game because it has stopped my progress dead in Dirt Tour. I have a sim driving **** with a Logitech g25 wheel and have the hand break mapped to the clutch peddle and Dirt3 setting on hardest and I can tell you even with these highly sensitive analog controls this gymkhana nonsense is impossible to control! I don't mind coming 4th of 5th in a rally at top difficulty setting but this Gymkhana stuff is crap. Codemasters please remove it form the game. Here's how you make dirt 4. 1. Improve graphics for realism.
2. Improve physics like rFactor. Stick to Rally Cross world championship! There! you have a winner. The only thing that is improving about Codemasters driving games is the graphics. Everything else is going backwards. If you haven't already bought this game take the advise of a long time sim racing enthusiast and get rFactor 2 instead. Alternatively if you are a console user drop dead!… Expand

A waste of money for me. Not a simulation but too arcade, too easy, not that fun. Very little rally competitions, the game seems to be everything except for rally. Laoding times are excessive and they occur too frequently. Menus are a chaotic-melting-salad. Youtube sending option is a broken feature. Graphics are not that miracle, certainly a step backward in comparison with dirt 2 (they added weather conditions as a consolation prize). A really disappointing game. If you want to buy a good and challenging racing game this year i would suggest you to grab Shift 2 Unleashed.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. People giving this game a bad review based on options that they can change, should go away.

The game is a step forward from dirt 2 in terms of graphics, sound, physics, and handling. The cars have weight shift unlike dirt 2 where you just drift to the side. The cars will react to different surface and weather types(in snow you have to step on it on turns or you'll just get stuck in the snow mid-turn). The motion-blur is a nice add-in when driving fast, games just look goofy without it now, in my opinion. The new modes are a hoot. Gymkhana takes a ton of practice and getting used to, WITHOUT the assists, obviously. Transporter, also capture the flag, is a blast in the whole DC compound. Cat n Mouse is where up to 8 people, and depending on teams(lets say 4v4), you'll have 2 mini coopers, and 6 Audi quatro's or high bhp cars to try and spin out the enemies', or protect your mini cooper all the way to the finish line of a long trailblazer course. I won't get into the other modes now because they are self explanatory, but this game is a definite buy for PC.… Expand

Great Game! Finally the controls behave almost realistic and are very responsive. I almost feel like I'm in a real car. This is a major improvement over DiRT2 and makes DiRT3 the best rally game at this time for my taste!
Also I like the streamlined menus which make navigation and continuing races much quicker than in DiRT2.
And the music is pretty good too and together with the voice acting makes for a relaxed atmosphere, much different from the macho touch in DiRT2.… Expand

A little disappointing so far. I was hoping for an 'all bells and whistles' graphical upgrade from the stunning Dirt2 but it almost seems like this one is using lower resolution textures on the environments and vehicles. Certainly doesn't feel like a DX11 PC game - More like a DX9 console port (Smells of Crysis2) The new menu system has been overdone - seems to take a hundred steps to get into the actual race (Bring back the Dirt2 trailer!) - The new voices are a little annoying too. Fingers crossed for a high res texture pack DLC!… Expand

Disaapointing. :/ The graphics are indeed better, but there's just something off about it. It feels rushed. Like they didnt put much SOUL into it. Unlike Dirt 2, that whole game just wanted you to step out of the trailer and hang out. Then there's the issue of controls. The car's too responsive! One tap on the analog stick will send you spinning out. It's really sad. Was expecting a game that was either on par or better than Dirt 2, got something that feels like it was made in 2001 instead.… Expand

I am a hearing impaired gamer. I had pre-ordered Dirt 3 on Steam with the expectation that it would have subtitles/captions. I've sent them an email back when I bought Dirt 2. I am very disappointed that it was not heeded meaning that this game's storyline is omited for deaf players. there are millions of deaf people in this world more like hundred million or more! Your potential customers! By omiting captions or other accessibility features, you show a complete disregard for disabled players.

Gameplay wise, this is nothing more than a redressed version of Dirt 2. Excatly same racing styles.

but graphics looks improved. So I give you a 8 for great graphics, fun gameplay but 0 for ingoring deaf players so I balanced it to 3. Sorry I rate any games that way if they don't include subtites for deaf people.… Expand

If you actually read these comments, you'll find these players are complaining about very strange things. Not enough graphical upgrades? It's beautiful, don't kid yourself. Not enough simulation? Turn off the assists- it handles brilliantly. Too easy? There are 5 levels of difficulty, crank it up and tell me it's still too easy (I doubt it). This game is a lot of fun. The multiplayer portion is fantastic and provides hours of enjoyment beyond the single player portion. The car models are fantastic, the music is fitting, the sound and graphics are excellent. If you're a fan of the previous Codemasters titles, you'll enjoy this game.… Expand

This is not a race, it's sliding, rotation, and all garbage.
1. Single-game stupid and not interesting.
2. Multiplayer game saves the game a little bit.
Dirt 3 is not a complete game, this add-on to Dirt 2. Expensive add-on.

An arcade game for noob people. This is my opinion about Dirt 3.
Gymkhana is an enervating discipline and the driving style in general remembers me "Sega Rally"..
The textures are a little better than previous titles but the particles are very very atrocious. Few smoke effects and nothing else...no stones are moved, no snow "dirty" the cars, water is horrible (where are the fantastic water effects of Dirt 2???). Anything else? yes...the game is so simple that could be played by a baby....
I was very disappointed about Dirt 3. Codemaster, you can do better for PC players. We are losing you..… Expand

Great game so far. love it. well worth the wait! Make sure your TV is set to game mode so the handling response is at its best. I noticed a big difference after changing this.

Good Graphics, but that's about it. Poor handling ( even with a driving force GT wheel ).
Unfortunately even the pure rally stages are just that, single stages not a complete rally.
Lots of gimmicky races ( trucks on ice ) no real depth to the game.

I started playing this game, and I was not really enjoying it, it has a nasty arcade style to it, the cars handle like something you would expect from a need for speed game, the tracks are very artificial and straightforward, no hidden surprises and very plain scenery and are incredibly short about 1:30 to finish a race(compaired to dirt 1 the rally s lasted around 5-6 mins.) , played the game for about 2 hours and was getting very bored of it, I then came across the drifting discipline which annoyed me because it is utterly pointless, after that I discovered the car gymnasium thing, that was the final straw, I un-installed the game after that. I thought this game was about rallying? instead I find some crappy american sport.
I never played dirt 2 because I knew it was everything I didn't want in a racing game, but I did play dirt 1 and it is the best motor sport game I have ever played, that's why I bought dirt 3 because they said that they bought rallying back, but all I can see is something in between.
Ever since Collin Mcrae passed away Codemasters rallying games have gone downhill.
So if your looking for a good rallying game/sim Collin Mcrae Dirt is the way to go.… Expand

The Good stuff first ... Graphically the best racing game I've played. The cars also handle well and the game has lots of variety. I'm a fan of the new menu system and the soundtrack matches the game perfectly. Difficulty wise I found it spot on.

The BAD ... I'm sick to death of companies releasing half finished/full of bugs games! I bought Dirt 3 as I LOVED Dirt 2, and Dirt 3 looks amazing ... when it's not CRASHING!!!! Jesus how many times does this game have to crash mid race before I scream 'enough is enough'. Shame on you Codemasters. Also, the voice overs ... why does it have to be so street? and Gymkhana what a pile of steaming TURD! Gymkhana alone makes me hate and not want to play Dirt 3 again ... should have been left out completely ~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE Crashing issue was fixed with this GOOGLE find ... Delete the hardware_settings_config (From My Documents / My Games / Dirt 3 / Hardware Settings) and restarted the computer.… Expand

Rally tracks are very short and not challenging in the slightest - and theres only a hand full of locations repeated and mirrored. This is pandering to console games another great franchise ruined to accommodate for idiots. All that gymkana stuff is silly. Waste of money. Stick to dirt 1.

"If you want to buy a good and challenging racing game this year i would suggest you to grab Shift 2 Unleashed." - If you're writing that at the end of a review, you should probably realise that racing games aren't for you. I agree with most of the other reviewers that it's a little easy; turning everything but ABS off and setting opponent skill to 5/6 still enables me to win most races without much of a fight, but it's still a fun game. The physics make handling a little twitchier than DiRT 2, but for an 'arcade' game they're very well rounded, unlike those in the aforementioned Shift 2 which are appalling (if you want 'simulation', go play Gran Turismo 5, not Shift 2). The one thing i don't understand is why they've narrowed down the locales so much. I really miss the old, true rally games that had events in around ten different countries. The main thing that impresses me about this game is how well optimised it is; i get a steady 40~50fps at 1080p, max settings, max AA + supersampling on my Q6600 and GTX260 which are getting a little long in the tooth by all accounts. Whilst it's not running in DX11 mode, it gives you an idea of how well new cards will breeze through this game.… Expand

Really disappointing followup to a great game, unfortunately Dirt 3 lost its magic and feels simple and rushed. The graphics are great but why the hell did they have to change the way the menu worked in Dirt 2 and the race variety is quite boring with preselected cars for each race and the aweful Gymkhana mode which is where I left the game on the third season and came here for my review. The only improvement from Dirt 2 is the graphics everything else is a step backwards and as of now I am shelving the game.… Expand

Best racing game since Mario Kart Wii! PROS - The physics feel great, although it's probably a bit easier then DiRT 2. But I really think that it feels very realistic and I personally like it better then DiRT 2. - Singleplayer is awesome and you have a lot of nice cars and different game types - Multiplayer is also awesome as far as I can tell for now. They even have some kind of ranking system, but I didn't play that much online so far. - Menu is easier and more practical then in DiRT2 - IT HAS SPLIT SCREEN! YAY! - Graphic looks pretty good, but I'm not a specialist there - I like the sound too, but it has maybe not that many songs CONS - takes a bit long to load a map - windows live (it's not that bad, but well....it's windows live) - no map editor so far? Cmon I need to tell something negative too I would give it a 9 because a 10 is impossible. But since some smartasses are giving disproportionate low ratings because they are buthurt, I give it a 10 :p… Expand

TL;DR: I'm completely baffled by anyone holding up Dirt2 as superior, either in graphics or gameplay. Dirt3 isn't dramatically better on either point but it is a step forward for both. If you enjoyed Dirt2 you should get your money's worth from Dirt3--though there do appear to be a few who manage to disagree.

Graphics--the Good: It's the Dirt2 engine with environmental effects on top. There's a bit of polish all around--the cars look appreciably nicer, and the water is better--but nothing dramatic. Kudos to Codemasters on optimizations though--while everything looks nicer, I get the same frame rate I did in Dirt2.
--The Bad: The overall color palette and set pieces are more subdued--compared to Shibuya or London in Dirt2, Finland's forests look bland and repetitive. Given that there are fewer locations there's less variety in the atmosphere that the added environmental effects don't entirely make up for--they lost a bit of the spice from the previous game.

Content--the Good: All the racing types from Dirt2 are here, though Rally and Gymkhana have a bit more prominence than the other modes. Between driving in rain/snow having more cars to choose there's a goodly bit more variety in driving conditions.
--the Bad: sure there's more spice in the driving options, but less areas to drive in.I don't mean the tracks--there's definitely more road to drive on--but they've been crammed into fewer locations. The menu navigation isn't nearly as neat as the trailer from Dirt2 but that's not a dealbreaker. Gameplay--the Good: with the difficulty set to advanced, the handling is almost identical to Dirt2. The myriad of driver assists they added made this game way more accessible--for kicks I had my grandpa play it on casual, and to my surprise he enjoyed it. The new weather conditions are a blast to drive in. Gymkhana plays out like Tony Hawk with cars and is a fun addition to the franchise. The flashback system no longer has a delay when activated which makes it much more fluid to use.
--the Bad: I'm struggling to think of things they've made worse. Load times are as frequent and as long as in Dirt2--anyone making claims to the contrary has their rose-colored glasses on. Difficulty occasionally too random--I've seen the fastest CPU time fluctuate as much as 7s between playthroughs of the same track. If you're getting this expecting a simulation you might be disappointed, but as a fan of the Dirt series they've raised the bar in nearly every category.

Dirt3 isn't a big upgrade, but they took kept the fun from the previous game and added some new modes, content, and weather twists. It doesn't have the wow factor for a perfect 10, but it's certainly got enough improvements to be worth my money.… Expand

Having been a fan of Dirt 1, I hoped this was as good. Alas, no. Yet another crappy port from console to PC. The manifests itself primarily in very average graphics. Dirt 1 was fantastic. The graphics were great, and therefore this should have had excellent graphics. Instead, they're quite weak by comparison. I'm sure the kiddies will think it looks great on a PS3, but for real PC based graphics, it's average. Much like Crysis 2 was.

The next thing that sucks is the terrible "ello guv'nor" British voices that waste my time and interrupt the game. They're boring and useless. They ramble on and bloody on and I can't skip them. I don't want to hear from some faceless boring voice actor trying to create excitement about rallying and telling me how "sick" it is. All I want to do is race the cars. It's a huge black mark against the game, in my opinion, and the one thing that routinely pisses me off when playing it.

The racing itself is okay. Nothing particularly special. They've claimed it's got more rallying than other games in the series, but I wouldn't know after playing it. Actual rallying is in short supply here. There's not much of it, and the stages are incredibly short as well.

The next thing that sucks are the Smelter levels. Well, they're okay, but *every* final is at the Smelter. It gets very dull. The track changes about, but it's the same location. Very poor.

However, there is a reasonable variety in the races on offer. There's dune buggys, trucks, hill climbs, gymkhana and so on. If only they hadn't made a crap looking console game and ported it to the PC.

Overall, it's a very shallow game. Not much rallying, average graphics, short races, annoying voice talking at you and wasting your time. You can further tell how crap it is because they've spent an inordinate amount of time making little documentaries about how good it is. It's not worth $50. A $30 game at best, Poor form Codemasters.… Expand

having played Dirt 2 to 100% completion on hardest settings (except for the long croatia track), i was very excited about this game's release. it feels a lot like Dragon Age 2 compared to DAO... rushed, boring, and trying too hard to appeal to a broader demographic w/ a limited attention span. the obnoxious "awesome driving amigo! post that footage for your compadres amigo" x-games dude-banter is back in spades and totally destroys the experience. there is little variety in the environments and the almost immediate offering of DLC reaks of cashgrab. plenty of cars and the graphics engine looks and runs pretty good on my aging xeon E3110 and GTS 450... but the game lacks soul. its almost as if the publisher was telling codemasters how to "improve" their game as EA was telling bioware how to "improve on" dragon age.

don't get me wrong, its still a good game... but VERY shallow. too ken block, DC product placement... less colin mcrae, and much less rally. still its better than GT5's rally in many ways which felt more like an afterthought for marketing purposes.

anyways, im halfway done the dirt tour (on advanced, which is ridiculously easy btw) and don't think i'll bother going back to finish it. i expected more out of the genius that is/was codemasters.… Expand

This is a very good game but if you have played dirt 2 it just doent feel as "high octane", there is a lot a new and different cars, the tracks are dirrerent and varied the game looks a lot better than dirt 2 but theres no more fireworks exploding when you jump or music in the menus which made the game feel a little more exiting, that being said i would say this game is much better for racing than dirt 2, most of the recing styles are present from dirt 2 such as rally cross, truch races and land rush but the rallying seems a lot better, i also like the new assistance, eventhough at first it looks a bit annoying it helps a lot, its a line in the track which shows the suggested line and also glows orange or red when you need to brake, if you have played forza 3 or f1 2011 its the same as those assistance methods, the only annoyance i have is that in multiplayyer people tend to bash you out of the way in corners to get in front but i suppose thats the whole point of the game,crashing and bashing each other, an xbox controller is a necessety aswell as youl find this difficult with keys on the keyboard… Expand

After playing Dirt 2 for over 70 hours both online and off, I was very excited for Dirt 3. I must say, I am not disappointed. Dirt 3's visuals are a step above its predecessor and its physics are also a great improvement. I played this game with a Logitech Drive Force GT with 540 degrees of rotation. Though the game just game out, it runs great and is very stable. There are still plenty of annoying bugs which Codemasters will probably address (though they usually stop fixing things after a while like F1 2010's 7 month old pit issues). I do not like the new menu styling. The old walking around menus like that of Dirt 2 and F1 2010 were far more immersive. There is also less interaction between you and your AI couterparts apart from your boring teammates. It was fun talking to real American rally drivers in Dirt 2, but in Dirt 3, you really only talk to Ken Block (haters gonna hate).

Criticisms aside, Dirt 3 is a step in the right direction. The tracks are not real ones, but Codemasters did a great job with the custom tracks they did make. Although, the tracks are quite wide which may be great for less skilled players, but hardcore WRC sim fans want slimmer and longer tracks (longer tracks run around 3:00). The physics are much better than Dirt 2. You can actually spin out and lock your brakes. However, it seems like the cars brake and grip the road too much compared to their realistic counterparts.

Verdict: You liked Dirt 2, get Dirt 3. If you like rally, get Dirt 3. Do not expect it to be a sim, but it does have great physics and a lot of fun.… Expand

Who the hell decided that it ought to be impossible to make the tutors stfu inbetween races.., I came here for driving, not wasting my time on worthless hints and bad jokes.

Besides that, it seems fair enough. But come on, ABS brakes and speed control on by default? Makes as much sense as playing CoD with a paintball gun. (You can turn it off obviously though).

Honestly - If anyone says this game is less realistic/uglier/shorter than Dirt 1 or Dirt 2, he never played that game. Dirt 3 gave me a lot in the matter of car racing. 1) Rallies which are awesome and there is much more emphasis on them in this part. Off course, some of them are short, but that just encourages me to make videos from them and brag. Graphics - outstanding! This is the best looking PC racing game in the matter of environment effects and lightning. Some people say that graphics are not that good - well, I play this game at 1920x1080, DX 11, 8xCSAA, everything set to ultra or high (if it can't be set to ultra) -> game looks purely great. Handling: set your wheel how it should be set! Not only in game, but in profiler too. I did that and now it is much more realistic than Dirt 1/Dirt 2, You just have to know what You're doing with your hardware. Forget about pads and keyboards if You expect realism - don't be a hypocrite! Sounds of the engines could be a bit better, but for me that's the only flaw of the game. The variety of cars, tracks and locations is just about right for having months of fun. You can't tweak your car too much (there are only five settings) but they have huge impact on how the car is driven (that's the second thing people who demand realism should set right, you won't get a proper handling out of the box and that's actually good, cause it forces you to tweak). All in all this game is really amazing, I had no problems installing it, I don't see any bugs, I have 45 (constant and stable!) FPS when playing on settings which I already mentioned and value which is comfortable to play here is around 33-35 FPS. All of this make this game best optimized game ever plus a great and beautiful racer for all WRC fans, but also for people who love too see crazy drifting and barrell jumps. Everyone can find something for themselves here - I did too. You just have to keep looking and know how to set certain things. 9,5 out of 10 with hopes for 10/10 after some sound mod is made :)… Expand

since i first started playing racing games, no game was ever more enjoyable than any of the colin mcrae rally games, they consistently got better... and dirt 1 was the pinnacle. so naturally after clocking more hours than i can count on it. i got dirt 2, and was very let down.

dirt 3, i don't have anything nice to say about it.. except for maybe the graphics.

there is hardly any rally in this game, hardly any rally stages at all.. and the rally stages that are in this game last for about 2 minutes, which you can zip through, without crashing because theyre not challenging at all. the tracks are wide, hairpins and sharp turns are seemingly non existant. but worst of all is the gymkhana events. they are frustrating, and pointless. and you are forced to do them to progress through a season.

if there is a dirt 4, i wont be buying it. i regret purchasing this.… Expand

Once set up properly everything about this game is incredibly excited, Dirt 1 and 2 did not give me that much excitement, but this one is just crazy. With a proper wheel and setup then you are ready to rock, or be rocked, either way is fun in Dirt 3. The flashback feature is entertaining as well, especially when you are driving with your friend. I have to stop here now and go back to get some DiRT!!… Expand

Great graphics, sound, interface design, game play solo and multiplayer, and last but not least, the price is right. What's not to like? It's not a sim. Translation equals NOT BORING. It's fun!

Addictive fun game! Beautiful graphics, awesome sound and music, multiplayer modes, customizable difficulty settings. Many cars and tracks you can choose from. There is no option to turn of tutorial voice messages (which is very annoying) and triangle theme menus are little strange but rest of the game is truly excellent. Great arcade racing game which every casual player will appreciate.

Massive amount of variety in terms of car choice, tracks, locations and events, so much available for anybody to practice their skills on. The graphics are incredible, even though I play the game on a 800x600 resolution. Gameplay, top class, very highly engaging, although I do find car control tricky at best at some moments. Despite this, i find so much fun in hurtling down narrow passes and drifting round tight bends. An excellent game and well worth the time and money.… Expand

The cars steer fine to my taste even though I do not know how it should be in real life. The graphics are on the same level with DiRT 2 and surpass aforementioned when viewing the new weather effects. Textures also seem sharper. The new menu system disappointed a bit in the beginning but after all, it's sleek yet simple and very easy to navigate. The voice acting, for that matter, is good enough. But there's nothing as annoying as Ken Block's voice.

The game modes look fine to me, a nice great number of cars and tracks. Rally, rallycross, trailblazer and raid, they all play nice and easy. Gymkhana feels too arcade-ish, though.

Luckily, the hipster soundtrack from DiRT 2 was replaced by a more mild electronic track list mixed with a nice compromise of the former sort of music. Nice enough to listen to.… Expand

Those which are saying that this game has realistic controls, i think that they have never played a racing game.I liked dirt 2 very much.But this game is a setback for the codemasters.Poor graphics,poor performance,poor controls.It is totaly a piece of ****

Graphically, this game is extremely inefficient. DiRT 2 on Ultra is equivalent to this on High without Ambient Occlusion. The Medium preset in DiRT 3 is what the Xbox 360 version looks like. My PC crashed within 2 minutes of track time on Ultra, which doesn't happen after 2 hours on BF3 on High! Anyway, the only graphical difference between the 360 version and PC is the more consistent environmental textures. Cars look no different really, apart from more reflections. The green tint can be annoying as well. However, that's the only downside to this game. Achievements are good, career is of perfect length and variety and multiplayer is even more rewarding than DiRT 2, and more balanced and polished. This really is an ultimate package. I'm glad that there is now full controller support for PC. You can navigate menus easily and most controllers will work with the game. This is a racing game for everyone. There is rally, rallycross, gymkhana, hillclimb, one-on-one crossovers and landrush. You really can't go wrong. There are now assists so you can cater the experience to suit you. Vehicle set-ups are simplified like in DiRT 2 but now the game will automatically choose the optimal even if you don't change anything. Only gear ratios are constant, but they're more personal preference. Anyway, apart from the inefficient and taxing EGO 2.0 game engine, which quite evidently isn't very good given how demanding games like this, F1 2011 and F1 2012 are for very little eye candy gain, it's still just as good on PC as it is on 360. The lack of improved graphics is dissapointing, but that shouldn't be enough to stop you buying this amazing game. You can read my 360 review of why this is the case if you want to know more. In short, it's the variety of game modes, variety of cars, complete and near-perfect multiplayer and a well-paced DiRT tour along with polished time trial leaderboards. What more could you want?!… Expand

this game it took 12GB to download of my internet and did not work and it finished my internet limit what and it filled MY PC with JUNK what a waste of time and asked support for help and did not get reply :(

They butchered this game in my opinion. DiRt 2 was awesome, it felt like its own game. Then they bring out DiRt 3 with GRID's menu system which killed the nice interactive menus. The main thing that kept me playing DiRt 2 non-stop was the excitement, the pure enjoyment I got from it. DiRt 3 failed to keep me interested for longer than a few hours. It feels cold, and dull in comparison to Dirt 2. Very disappointed, I was really looking forward to a new DiRt game but this just reminded me that you can't trust a game just because of its title. Bring back the old DiRt 2 style! 3/10.… Expand

Quite fun game but i personaly got dissapointed by rather small number of cars (especially in 60s-2000s ) class gamepaly is fun,multiplayer is fun but i also have to agree that dirt 2 seems better

Great graphics, abysmal handling and control scheme on a keyboard. DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME WITH KEYBOARD ONLY. You'll be super frustrated and won't beat a single rally. With a special controller or on a console, I can see this being a great game to invest in. But I grade it based off of what I played with, and I don't want to have to purchase special controllers just to play the game with more efficiency. I'll buy it for Xbox if I want to play with a controller. Fortunately, I got this game with my AMD graphics card for free, otherwise I would have been a bit more dissapointed.… Expand

Great racing sim. Plenty of different environments and different tracks to race on. Gymkhana is a bit over-emphasized in my opinion. I prefer DiRT 2 better.

Same half-@$$ coding as all of CodeMasters' recent games. Major glitches that frequently cause the program to stop responding, and even more frequently stops interfacing correctly with my Logitech G27. Furthermore, it doesn't save my control configuration, so every time I launch the program I have to select the G27 as my controller. It seems that the stability of every codemasters release is worse than the last, while the graphics are slightly better. I said I would stop purchasing codemasters games after losing 20+ hours of my time after a Dirt 2 save file corruption, and then another 20+ hours after an F1 2010 save corruption. I've had it up to here, and will no longer be supporting this crap-fest company that doesn't know how to do their job. Just another milked franchise by a sold-out development team.… Expand

This game is a better version from Dirt2 indeed, tracks are very detail, conduction is great and the game is not heavy for most PC configurations, if you liked Dirt2 this game definitively is your kind of game, it is a fun game.

Great Game, one of the best rally games available.

I love cars and racing games. The Colin McRae series of games were a long standing franchise that went from strength to strength. Codemasters did not kill off the rally game entirely when Colin McRae passed away, and now the game is focused towards the Gymkhana legend Ken Block.

Now in its 3Rd instalment, I'm happy to report that Dirt3 is now my favourite rally game of all time.

First of all, let me tell you about the graphics. I've played the PC version of the game, and I have to stay that its absolutely stunning. Whilst it isn't exactly a step up from Dirt 2 in this department, its not exactly ugly either. The game has beautiful lighting, the cars are well modelled and very good textures throughout. Just to show the attention to detail, on the Battersea DC Compound, even the buildings surround it are accurate to its real life counterpart. Only on rare circumstance did I notice a couple of poor textures here and there but unless you are standing still next to it, you won't notice.

Sound is very good too. Engine sounds are varied and there is a wide variety of music on the soundtrack. The guy and girl that help you throughout the tour can get a bit annoying at times but the positives outweigh the negatives.

Game play wise there isn't much to complain about. There's a wider choice of events than ever and a wide variety of vehicles to drive. Everything from a 60's Mini Cooper to an insane Pikes Peak car and pretty much everything in between. The handling is decidedly arcade for what the developers claim to be finely tuned by Mr Ken from the Block himself, but heck at least the cars don't handle terribly. If you are after a simulation rally game, this isn't for you and you should stick to Richard Burns Rally for that.

I am happy to report that I've played this game several times, sometimes up to 3 hours at a time and it hasn't crashed once. This is in Direct X11 mode, not using the Rapture3D audio and using the Steam version of the game. It also runs consistently above 60 frames per second and this is with all settings on their highest. So far theres little reason to buy the DLC unless you love your cars. Often the cars available for DLC aren't the best ones to race with.

I haven't played any on-line features yet so I cannot tell you from my own experience what its like. However this game offers the usual race modes as well as game modes associated with First Person Shooters such as Capture the Flag and Infection.

Hope you've enjoyed this review and I give this a 9 out of 10.

Postives: Less use of the 'X' Games Career mode is at least half rally based Good graphics, Good sound

Negatives: Handling is not for people who like simulators Graphics are pretty but not a step up from Dirt 2 The guy and girl that talk in career can get quite annoying

Test system:
Intel Core i5 2500k 4.0ghz, 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz, Nvidia Geforce GTX 470, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit… Expand

Es el primer juego de rally que juego y me parece exelente, con una jugabilidad muy parecida a la de Grid lo que lo hace muy atractivo para personas que jueguen con controles analogos. Tambien es de destacar la gran mejora grafica con respecto al Dirt 2

Lo recomiendo

Ah, Dirt. What better way to pay homage to the now-deceased legend known as Colin McRae than to continue with a stellar line of games in his homage? Such was my reaction upon first playing Dirt. Then once more, but with a little less fervor with Dirt 2. And now the third installment comes along...

Right from the get go, when I am treated to the visage of a (shamefully, on my part) unidentifiable vehicle powersliding across the screen, kicking up basic geometry shapes as the menu fades into life, I am brought to an understanding: this is going to be a unique experience. And that it was. For better or for worse, though, we'll find out now.

On a visual basis, even on my junker of a PC, this game is extraordinary. Droplets of rain cover my car as the pre-race cam gives me a splendid view of snow covered hills and trees. Powersliding leaves a trail of dust in my wake that resembled the one I kicked up at a dirt track near Worcester, and smashing through foam blocks in gymkhana sends a spray of green shards, shreds and pieces cascading across the car. Truly, there is truth in saying that the Dirt series has some of the best visuals in the racing genre today.

The sounds are also something to drool at. Ken Block's gymkhana-tuned Ford Fiesta is something that nearly rivals that of my dream vessel, the M3, even more so seeing as South Africa once held a twin-engine Golf that sounded strikingly similar. The trucks and buggies are on an almost identical note to those that rip up the local dirt track, and the iconic CMR poster car, the Subaru, is probably the best - and most real-sounding - rendition I have heard so far. Gameplay-wise it also has its golden moments. Even now, I am fighting myself not to go spend another three hours fooling about in the Gymkhana "Tracks" or piloting the RS2000 across kilometers of ready-to-be-shredded dirt and snow. There's also something very satisfying about scoring a Platinum medal on your third try of a Gymkhana race - something easily done, in this game.

But sadly, it's not all sunshine and roses. The aforementioned Gymkhana, while fun, defies every point of the CMR series, every point of a rally game, really. I see Gymkhana races, I see Gymkhana Showdowns, I see drifting (Drifting??!), all in all I see a lot of Japan and America in a game that focuses on a sport largely Europe-based. Novice drivers are in for a rough ride - of all the Dirt games, this one takes to dirt and snow the most realistically. That means loads of sliding, handfuls of grip, and (for a novice) lots and lots of crashing and restarting. For those playing without assists, this counts doubly - for some reason a car's tires get coated in butter if the player has little experience of rally in general.

The tracks are also very poorly set up. Most are about as wide as my mother-in-law, and others are just ridiculously set up - there are even stray logs and tractors laying about in some; undoubtedly the only challenge this game poses to you.

That is my main irritation with this game. Even with the unfriendliness of the driving toward new players, this game is almost shamefully forgiving - even going as far as to allow me a 7 second margin ahead of the 2nd place driver... On the highest difficulty. Even the gymkhana becomes tediously repetitive later - once you've thrown about 2 hours into it you're dead set for a straight Gold (or even Platinum) run right till the end. Even beasts like the RS2000 become as tame as an A-Class Mercedes after a few half-hours of play.

All in all, DiRT 3 boasts a rather enjoyable experience. It won't leave you with the same satisfaction and hunger and excitement you'd find with Forza, and it certainly hasn't done anything to surpass Codemasters' other race (Race Driver: Grid), but overall it is a solid experience offering a good few hours' worth in enjoyment.… Expand

This game is actually semi-fun WHEN IT WORKS. The Live Login system is completely hindering this game from being enjoyed. Much of the content in the game is MISSING because they expect you to pay for it after BUYING the game. THIS GAME IS A PAIN TO TRY TO PLAY AND OFTEN WILL NOT LET YOU PLAY YOUR SAVED GAMES. VERY LIMITED GAMEPLAY LEAVES YOU WANTING MORE WHEN YOU CAN PLAY IT.

Quite short really but I really enjoyed it. Not a game for playing to complete but the perfect game to dip in and out of casually. Driving genuinly enjoyable. I find few games that are enjoyable as a casual player and this is definitly one of them. , nothing quite beates drifting through norway in a mini :)

Really fun driver to get in a have a blast. Dirt 3 does not take itself too seriously and is a little more arcade than simulator - this means more fun, less frustration. Driver assist means less competent drivers can still enjoy it. Visuals are great and sounds are good. I played with a 360 controller which worked well. Gymkhana can be a little frustrating but turns out fun when you get the hang of it. Maybe would be better if it wasn't required to progress though. Highly recommended… Expand

The Gymkhana is ridiculous. And the game-play is so poor comparing to Dirt 2. We expected a game better than Dirt 2, and what we see is very far from this. Dirt 2 is so much better in all matters. Very disappointing!!

This is an amazing looking game. You can't be failed to be impressed with the graphics on the PS3, and I'm guessing that stays true across all platforms.
Not only are the environments totally interactive and destructible, but the vehicles also take a serious and detailed beating.
Looking forward to the lauch of Dirt Showdown. I've been participating in the contests over at AMD Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/AMD/app_370166086361523 and on http://www.facebook.com/RelianceHVG . You guys should check it out, they've got some cool giveaways.… Expand

The only problem with this incredible racing game is the the gymkhana part which disrupts the career mode......but my gosh what beautiful graphics....maybe the best i have experienced. especially the kenya and snowy regions

Alright, where do I start? Overall I'm glad they somewhat got away from the Ken Block style gimmick make up in Dirt 2. This feels more like a grown up racing game again, not like some 12 year old's kiddy game. The graphics are simply stunning, making Dirt 3 what might be the best looking racing game of all time. The controls are fine on keyboards and gamepads and allow for a wide range of difficulties by disabling driving aids. The car line up is just brilliant and I don't know what else I'd add. The tracks are super pretty and super fun to drive. The thrown in Gymkhana games are a real hassle though and just feel completely out of place. The career in general is okay, might become a bit boring at some point though (but what racing game career doesn't?). Multiplayer wasn't played yet, the infection and capture the flag modes sound like proper fun though. All in all a really solid game and experience, and probably the best of racing games this year. Great variety of cars, tracks and modes. Handling feels good. The Dirt series still needs to find its identity (again) though. This mix of old school Group B rallying and gimmicky new age Ken Block style drifting stuff don't go well together, and this is kind of a bummer regarding the atmosphere. One point off for that, and one point off for those animated menus (why not simply some good old static ones instead of drifting cars and rotating pyramids?) and unskippable instructional videos.… Expand

3 words : a fun game. It tries to flirt with the real WRC rally fans but falls short in the end. Again, there are too few cars compared to old Colin Mcrae Rally games - few classics and that`s that. Graphics are very good (DIRT2 has it better, seriously), sound is okay (nothing special) , the driving gives some serious satisfaction. The Gymkhana events are surely the core of this game as they are great fun. The others - trailblazer and rally events are far worse than in DIRT2. Shorter, modest tracks with little variety. The Dirt Tour mode is also fun but not as much as online driving which is very addicting. Something I always praise about the Codies is that their games are 99% bugfree and can run with good graphics on a friggin old hardware. This game should be recognised not as what the devs presented it to be (real rally game) but as a fun title to play when you don`t really have much time for gaming in general.
Solid and worth the price, but a backstep to the Dirt2.… Expand

From a not so car racing oriented PC gamer point of view, I really can't say precisely how much this really succeeds as a rally racing game, since I've never played a lot myself and this is my FIRST try at C.M. series, but I do acknowledge it's quite arcade-ish since I've so happened to play a rally session in GT4...and the feel on that game was a tad more realistic. Other than that the graphics on maxed out settings look GREAT, the single player campaign (Tour) could be better if Ken Block's stunts&gimmicks would take a hike once in a while and the multiplayer modes are quite challenging and fun, especially if you have some friends to join in the race. Too bad though some maps could use some patching and the game is generally not yet 100% bug free. Audio and soundtrack is not bad, unfortunately the soundtrack is forced off during gameplay, so no music while you're racing!...why so serious Codemasters? Why not let me decide? I paid the damn thing didn't I? :/ To be short the looks are gorgeous but the substance is IMHO shamefully lacking...and if this comes from a newbie (in this genre) like myself, than some of you rally fans out there might just get seriously offended trying to play Dirt 3. #valid8#… Expand

Dirt3 has many improvements to the series such as better weather fx, improved handling and models, however there's still a few major issues.... firstly the rally events are far too short, codemasters need to roll back the clock to the vintage rally games where stages were 25mins long not a maximum of 5mins. Rallycross is pretty much fine, but again codemasters lack of tracks for most of the event types (and using way too many trimmed and mirrored routes) is dissapointing. To throw fuel on the fire, it's quite cheeky to release half a game then have to double the price of the purchase to get all the DLCs to make for a fully game, so depite loving this game there no way I'd give it top scores unless you find it acceptable to fork out £20 on DLCs less than a month or so after release… Expand

the way they shove dlc down my throat in this game is total I don't mind dlc but if I knew they would be advertising dlc everywhere in game i don't think i would buy it. You start the game there's dlc advert. When picking car available for race, there're dlc cars you have to scroll threw Same thing with tracks... and who the hell would pay 7£ for monte carlo also gfwl is really annoyingg and unneeded drm specially since i already bought game on steam.… Expand

I exprected a little more from graphics, but i know they have to limit the improvements because of the compatibility with console's hardware. Gimkhana is funny though

Replay music with small sound especially. I wanted you to make only a similar course either Michigan with Finland. Because gymkhana is changeless, it gets tired.

I've been waiting to weight in here, Dirt 3 is a fun rally game with awesome graphics it feels so real but it has its downsides like menu navigation which is just plain annoying. multiplayer is alright though i rather just play the campaign, One last downside that i should should add is the bugs this game is fun if you can play it most the time i get kicked to windows and my task manager states Not responding and im computer savvy so its not a firewall, antivirus, or anything other than bad support from codemasters.… Expand

A pretty damn good racing game, and a little more polished than Dirt 2. I love all the locations and the numerous cars available, although I wish there was more of both. Overall, the game has stunning, optimized PC performance, meaning that it runs smooth as butter, and it looks great. There are A LOT of races in the Dirt Tour series, and some of the events get tiring, as you strive to repeat them over and over again, to get the highest finish or to complete the bonus objectives, for more driver rep points. I play it on a keyboard though, and although it's very drivable, a wheel would offer a great advantage in precision and game immersion. The events are fun, and I like all the extra goals and quirks that the developers added, as well as what they left out, from Dirt 2. Everything is more streamlined and more pretty, while still keeping the great rally car racing genre intact. I'd say this arcade-like racing game trumps all others in shear fun and playability. If you're looking for a driving sim, look elsewhere, get Di3ty !… Expand

This is the first DiRT game I've managed to play, as I got a voucher for it with my AMD GPU. It's very unlike the old Colin McRae games (the last one I played was 2005 on the PS2), however that said it really isn't his game anymore. But Regardless, I've really enjoyed the experiences I've had with this game, the new game modes added are a lot of fun, particularly the head to head races, and even the standard rally phases are a blast. The visuals of this game are also fantastic when ran at maximum which gives a super sharp picture. However the only problem with the PC version is the awkwardness of the keyboard controlls, but luckily I have a game pad which does the trick. Another downside to this game is the mass amounts of paid DLC required to unlock cars and rally stages which I feel should have been included into the game in the first place.

Overall, A good game with nice visuals.… Expand

Obligatory 0 for using Games for Windows Live AND SecuROM! Twice the DRM for twice the fail. GfWL is Microsoft's attempt to kill PC gaming in favor of the Xbox. And SecuROM limits the number of times the game can be installed. Clearly, this publisher is incompetent. I'm not letting this malware bomb near my PC. There might be something worth playing under the DRM, but I'd have to pirate it to find out.… Expand

I've put over 200 hours into this game. It never gets old. The graphics are amazing. The car models look great, and my favorite: The landscape is gorgeous. The damage engine works fine, it just doesn't go "Deep" with damage. The physics are pretty close to realistic. It's pretty fun. The tracks feel a little dull, too much dark color and there isn't many variety of colors. The sound is very good, the engines sound realistic, you hear the crowd, you hear the tires, you basicly hear everything that is going on. The Dirt Tour was great, but although a tiny bit short but wasn't bad. If you finish the Dirt Tour, you can all ways play the multiplayer which will take a long time to reach max level. Another bad thing is the tracks are very short. 1-3 minutes for every track, there is only one that is 4 minutes. Some textures, especially the engine and inside car parts are a bit blurry. The rest of the textures are very clear and look nice. Another thing about the damage engine, you can pop your tires, and the engine can take damage and start smoking, which slows down your acceleration and top speed. There are over 50 cars and each car has a few designs. Although landrush is only 2 vehicles, buggy and truck. There is a variety of things to do in Dirt 3, Rallycross, Rally, Trailblazer, landrush, etc. You can drive classic cars all the way to new cars and trucks and raid vehicles. One of my favorites things about this game is watching the car build up mud, dirt, and snow. The interior of the cars is beautiful. The rain (Especially the interior) is very pretty and looks realistic. There is also a variety of weather options. In night your car has lights and it looks really cool. Overall I give the game a 8/10. A few cons and a lot of pros. Not perfect, but decent. If you like racing, and offroad, give it a try. If you have a friend, splitscreen will be very fun.… Expand

Far from being a great rally game like Richard Burns but was pretty ok until you hit the Gymkhana crap. I hate when game sell a type of game and then suddenly adds crap that you can't even avoid... Tried it, got annoyed with it and never played it again. a 3 matches perfectly with Dirt 3. It's an arcade game for young kids who like to show off just like in real life with there ridiculous tuning, great for the little ones who just know a game pad, real sim drivers have g25 and g27 wheels and like precision. it get's undrivable at the state you have to do gymkhana kids stuff.… Expand