Colin McRae: DiRT
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ESRB:
Alcohol Reference,Language - Mild,Mild Violence
Publisher: Codemasters® Genre(s): Sports / Racing Home Page: http://www.codemasters.com/dirt/
 This guy doesn't look very excited about the new graphics engine. Perhaps he's a bit preoccupied. For the better part of a decade, gamers have turned to Codemasters' Colin McRae Rally titles to satiate their hunger for point-to-point auto racing. The venerable series has seen four sequels since its 1998 introduction, with ports on the PC, consoles and various handheld systems. It's safe to say that many U.S. gamers were introduced to rally racing and to the games' namesake driver, Colin McRae, by the video game itself. Despite cornering the rally racing market, Codemasters never rested on their laurels. Previous releases in the series have been well-received by fans and critics alike. The latest incarnation of the series, Colin McRae: DiRT (or just DiRT in the U.S.), seeks to expand the audience beyond fans of rally racing. With new damage and driving models, a brand new graphics engine and new racing modes, Codemasters is positioning the series to mainstream in a big way. Can DiRT reinvigorate the series and bring in a new audience without alienating dedicated fans who've supported the series since it's inception? 
Crossover rally is full of gratuitous airtime.
Video game publishers are rarely satisfied. In a never-ending quest to improve sales and satisfy investors, a publisher will often take a tried-and-true series and make an effort to "improve" a game by modifying the very formula that made it successful in the first place. In aiming DiRT for a more mainstream audience, Codemasters are banking on expanding the popularity that past Colin McRae Rally games enjoyed. Nowhere is this more evident than in the U.S. branding of the game, which omits the Colin McRae license altogether. And in a somewhat dubious nod toward Gen Y-types, freestyle motocrosser-turned-rallyer Travis Pastrana was tapped to provide voice-over material for the game. Pastrana's voice is the first thing you notice when you fire up DiRT, and you'll either deal with it or wish he'd shut up. And what's with the lower-case 'i' in the name, anyway? Is Codemasters aiming to tap that elusive 11-to-14-year-old MySpace demographic? 
CORR racing in the great outdoors. Mickey Thompson would be proud.
It's clear from the associated marketing campaign that Codemasters is targeting a more casual market with DiRT. With television spots highlighting wild drifts and paint-trading group racing, long time fans of the series' rally component have reason to be apprehensive. Not to worry: the rally aspect hasn't been truncated, but the scope of the game has expanded. In all, DiRT offers six disciplines of racing: Rally, CORR (Championship Off-Road Racing, complete with truck and buggy classes), Rallycross, Crossover, Hillclimb and Rally Raid. New racing modes mean additional vehicle classes and more variety in tracks, and that's rarely a bad thing. After all, who hasn't wanted to race a big rig over the dirt?
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