DiRT Showdown Review

Race Off would be a good mode if it wasn’t for the shameless reuse of its predecessor’s tracks. Tokyo, Michigan, Colorado and Baja all have their tracks recycled with few changes. Tracks get jump ramps, lots of barrels and more pyrotechnics than a New Year’s Eave party. Some barrels, placed only to create more physics collisions, reset after each lap. I never did see the crew that replaces the barrel configurations but I will never stop searching. The flashback (rewind) feature is also sorely missing from this infrequent mode. Race Off is passable but there are very few new tracks to race on.

The Colorado track from DiRT 3 is largely unchanged.

8 Ball is the merger of Rampage and cyclic racing. The tracks lack visual appeal with samey loops and crossroads. When you take the lead in 8 ball races you are never safe from collisions. You’ll need collision recovery and avoidance skills but you are still at the mercy of uncontrollable factors. Strong vehicles, which can be upgraded to improve handling or power, are not easily destroyed or spun off course. There is limited excitement when a vehicle slams directly into a competitor but 8 ball races are too much of a grind.

Even on intermediate difficulty, AI drivers catch up unrealistically during races. This is a common problem in racing games but here you are harassed by drivers until the very last lap. This is most noticeable after crashing. As you approach the crawling leading pack, AI drivers will speed up to match your pace. Later in the game, a slow vehicle accelerated nonsensically because it was so far behind the leaders. The auto catch-up is far more obvious than it was in the previous DiRT games and makes winning less satisfying.

The free form Gymkhana mode returns but has lost some of its appeal. Head 2 Head has drivers performing tricks in sequence instead of pure racing. There is a much higher tolerance for poor quality drifting and donuts than in DiRT 3. You can complete tricks with your eyes closed and will breeze through all the events. Yokohama Docks is a new area that behaves the same as the reused Battersea. Areas unlock as you perform some gratifying tricks hidden around containers and warehouses. The Gymkhana element hasn’t really been improved and the result is slightly underwhelming.

Crashes can result in some surprise wins during multiplayer

Multiplayer is a big focus for Showdown but the net code compounds existing problems and, as with the single player, it relies too much on luck. The DiRT series never had flawless netcode, but it survived by using ghost cars or making avoidance desirable. Much of Showdown’s action revolves around crashing opponents so that buffer is lost. You’ll hit drivers and receive paltry points or seemingly miss them only to be spun off course. You might be awarded points when stationary or receive nothing when you clearly make contact. Cars may vanish into thin air only to reappear seconds later. What initially sounds like fun, crashing your friends into walls, turns out to be full of needless frustration.