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Street racing games are all the rage recently, ever since the start of the ‘The Fast And The Furious’ franchise till the climax of the Tokyo Drift episode. Sending heavily modified cars screaming down a busy city street while avoiding police - this seems an all-too-familiar scene in racing games like ‘Need For Speed’. The latest racer that I got my hands upon cuts a much different scene. Colin McRae: DiRT is one of the better racers that I have played in recent times.

While many might not agree to playing racing games on a computer keyboard, DiRT has provided me endless hours of fun on the virtual outdoor tracks. The most remarkable feature is the breathtaking display of graphics. Overall, scenery, car designs, tracks and weather elements are modeled to near perfection. Watch the tires kick up dirt and burn smoke as a car navigates a sharp turn, blaze through sheets of rain on the tracks in chilly Japan; each individual detail is taken care of. My favourite aspect of detail is the vehicular damage. Taking a slight rub against rails will leave scratches on the paintjob, knocking an opponent racer dislodges his bumper and crashing your car into a barricade turns it into a flattened wreck.

Racing dynamics are standard, although cars feel lighter than they look. It is easy to pick up even for racing novices. Basically the difference between DiRT and games like Need For Speed is that there are no objectives to clear other than clocking the best timing on the track against other racers. In this sense, DiRT focuses more on the racing aspect, whereas games like NFS focus more on developing the plot through racing. With this said, DiRT sacrifices storyline for more race quality. This may be good for hardcore racing fans, but the whole process does get repetitive after some time, especially for the uninitiated. DiRT tries to alleviate this problem by offering us a wide variety of race vehicles of different classes. Each handles different and the range of the vehicles present are quite impressive.

The downside of Colin McRae: DiRT is that the superior graphics and model engine comes at a cost to performance. You will need a relatively high-end machine to run everything smoothly. Solo races will hardly pose any problems, but once you are squaring off beside three or more cars, gameplay gets choppy and frame rates drop to unsatisfactory levels. Although these can be occasional, it is a true annoyance. Furthermore, the multiplayer system on DiRT is largely deplorable. Only two types of races are supported - hillclimb and rally. Basically you can race against 20 or so racers online simultaneously. That sums up the entire online gaming experience on DiRT.

While DiRT will not please many fans of the Colin McRae series, this is sure to ‘wow’ the crowd with the awesome graphics and will appeal to most racer novices. This game’s depth is unparalleled, with the multitude of races and championships. Just make sure your computer has the capability to support the high demands of this graphic-intense racer.

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