The first DiRT title was released just before McRae's horribly premature passing, and saw Codemasters essentially rip everything up and start again, giving the franchise a face-lift fit for the next-generation. It highlighted the tone of a series moving increasingly further from the realistic, 'pure' brand of rallying in the earlier games to a more arcade-orientated, thrill-seeking approach. Whether seduced by the bright-lights of, for example, Project Gotham Racing, or whether Codemasters were just seeking change for the sake of change lest creative stagnation take hold, DiRT 2 (yes the strange lower case 'I' is intentional) represents the consolidation of this new approach.
What were the genre’s greatest entries ever?
A whole host of Codemasters games are on sale until the 26th of this month on Steam. DiRT Rally is on sale with a generous 33% off mark up, which makes it a bargain! You can also get your hands on DiRT 3 Complete Edition at 50% off, DiRT Showdown at 80% off and even the original Colin McRae Rally at 80% off if you fancy going “old skool”.
Other sale items include the F1 series, Grid series, Overlord and Operation Flashpoint, along with a few other titles. If you have missed the opportunity to play any of these games in the past then now might be the time to give them a go.
A breakdown of the best PS3 racing games according to Rantgaming.com. Games are rated based on replay value, graphics, gameplay, and controls
I'm not impressed with much in terms of racing this gen. Graphics have been really raised racently, and it wasn't by the "two kings" (GT and Forza) in racing. Shift 2 and the upcoming Project Cars are now DOMINATING racing games graphically, GT5 and Forza 4/H do not even compare. But physics and gameplay-wise, most everything's been "off" aside from a select few. My short list would be.
#1 GT5. It's still rocking everybody in terms of gameplay and variety. It's got every kind of 4 wheeled racing almost from Karts to F1 and everything in between. GT needs to step it up graphically now though. Forza is the LEAST of their worries there.
#2 Motorstorm Pacific Rift. Just the #1 most fun and intense arcade/off-road racer ever made or ever will be made. SOOOOOO much variety compared to the bare bones (but great) first game, and a way better racing game than the 3rd game which was more like Split-Second than MotorStorm in THIS Motorstorm Fan's opinion.
#3 F1 Championship Edition. This PS3 exclusive launch game is imho still the best F1 game this gen in terms of the racing.
#4 FerrariChallenge/SuperCar Challenge. Alot of people havn't heard about these, they got VERY little attention. They sucked because not alot of cars, but it's a fact that System 3 put into these PS3 exclusives (they were on Wii too, but they weren't as advanced) the most advanced, realistic physics to ever be in a console racer. The same physics they put into their PC sim. Good graphics for the time too. Very under-rated.
#5 Shift 2. This is only here because I think graphically, it's a sneak peek at the next level in racing sim graphics. Project Cars is improving on that. But Shift 2 has HORRIBLE physics and I disliked playing it. If Project Cars can get the physics more in line than Shift 2, and have enough of a garage to have the variety in the racing while keeping the online field fairly even like GT5 does, it will truly be the next level of racing sims, and something may actually pull me away from GT5, which nothing has based on gameplay.
Also: WipeOut HD- awesome game, awesome value, it's expansion makes it an even better value, top notch quality.
