Codemasters create a good mix and offer a wonderful, actionfilled and intense racing experience and of course Petter Hegevall offers his opinions on the game:

I really have a hard time deciding what I like and don't like. Looks like that difficulty just grows with age. After playing a preview version of the game, I was convinced. "The complete game is going to rock", I told an excited Jesper Karlsson.

But after five hours with the review version I developed a certain scepticism; the cars felt too much like being on a railway, the physics of friction felt a little too exaggerated and the game mechanisms generally a little too superficial. Now I have spent another five hours with the game - kicked butt online, crushed Jesper in the multi-player mode (as usual) [I think he means splitscreen here but since he doesn't say so I'll keep that door open - staphan] and finished the championship, rewarded with a fat golden trophy. And no matter how uncertain I ever was before, I'm now confident about my feelings toward Dirt. I love it. Deeply.

Because Codemasters have put all of their effort into this game. Seven well made racing disciplines, loads of cool vehicles, countless tracks, extremely pretty graphics, superb layout of the career mode and a wonderful presentation. Perhaps you understand why I love Dirt?

I have throttled my extremely powerful WRC-Celica along bushy Australian forest roads, thrown the rear end sideways in my Ford RS 2000 and cut trees with my Audi S1. I've been flying like a fighter plane through the bumpy terrain in my beach buggy, climbed to the top of Pikes Peak with my Evo 9 and licked the asphalt streets in Spain clean with my Renault 1600. I have done all that, and am already longing to do it again (that's why I'll try to write this review real quick [what did you expect from a website reviewer? - staphan]).

Codemasters' ambitions seem clear after only a few minutes playing Dirt. Instead of trying to attract the most hardcore rallyfans with heavy gravel-physics and realistically built rally stages (like they've done with the previous 5 games), in Dirt Codemasters have chosen a completely different path. Think Toca: Race Driver mixed with Rallisport Challenge 2 and Motorstorm. An arcadeish, intense, explosive and crazy mix where daring, risktaking and pure instinct is more important than front suspension settings, pre-curve powerslide setups and planning. Dirt is exactly what it sounds like - fast, pretty, wild and very, very dirty.

Among the best things with Colin McRae: Dirt are without doubt the layout, the graphics and the huge variation. As always, Codemasters give us an almost criminally good-looking menu system that isn't only different but also easy to navigate. When the game starts, you're welcomed by the silk-smooth voice of Travis Pastrana (the MotoX-genius) that tells you about the different parts of the game and how to get behind the wheel as fast as possible [another sign of Codemasters' belief in totally oblivious Xbox 360 players? - staphan]. After that, you get to play a couple of easy races before being thrown into the rock-hard career mode.

Travis Pastrana have lately ditched his crossbike for rally racing and has competed in a whole bunch of rally events both within and outside of USA. In fact, Travis has played a bigger role in the development of Dirt than Colin McRae himself, partly because Codemasters have been looking a lot more at the american rally circus instead of the dust-dry [I disagree! - staphan] WRC circus. And Travis Pastrana has been given the task of commenting in the entire game. Why they didn't just name it "Travis Pastrana: Dirt" has to do with the fact that Colin McRae is a well-known name, and an invaluable trademark, in Europe that simply screams "quality!".

As mentioned, there's a variety of different racing classes in Colin McRae: Dirt that you'll have to be good at in order to get succesful in the career mode. However, they don't require especially long learning periods. After all, every car class in Dirt is controlled in basically the same way and roughly put, the same motto apply to all racing disciplines - "pedal to the metal"!

As opposed to what we've written in Gamereactor before, any Touring Car-discipline does not exist. Only gravel based madman racing in the following classes: rallycross, FWD rally cars, AWD rally cars, hill climb, truck rally, raid rally racing and buggy racing [wait, I think I saw tarmac somewhere in the Dirt demo? - staphan]. As you can see, it's hard not to think about the large variety that this game offers.

Being able to make progress in the nicely looking ladder that the career mode is based on, unlock new competitions, buy new cars, and to freely choose between a number of different disciplines contributes to the fact that you never get too tired of any one racing class. After each completed race, the players is handed a bag of money (how much money depends on how good you are, of course) that you can use to buy other cars. Prior to each new race there is already one (or two) unlocked cars to choose from, but almost always a third car with more power than the other two. This one you'll have to purchase to get to race with, and that's where the bag of money comes in handy.

But this is also the only thing you can use your prize money for - buying new cars. There's no option to modify or style your car in any way, which Codemasters should think of in the mandatory sequel.

My favourite part of Colin Mcrae: Dirt (if I really have to pick one) is the AWD rally events and the old-school competitions featuring the Group B monsters from the 80's [Hey, that's two! - staphan]. The worst is the hill climb competitions.

The physics are generally stiffer and more focused on tight high-speed madness than in the previous Colin Mcrae Rally titles and in some, although quite few, disciplines (especially hill climb) it feels a little too much like Codemasters have centered the game camera [not sure what he means with that - staphan] and put the car on rails. Other than that, the driving experience can best be described as a something inbetween those in Colin McRae Rally 3 and Rallisport Challenge 2.

Perhaps what's most distinguishable when comparing Dirt with previous CMR games, concerning car physics, is that the cars in Dirt go quite a lot faster. Driving an Impreza along the rainy forest roads of England is more like time-travelling than giving your own @$$ a ride in a rally car.

And now we get to the point of discussing graphics, where Colin McRae: Dirt easily outshines competitors like Test Drive Unlimited, Forza Motorsport 2 and Flatout: Ultimate Carnage. Dirt has got quite a unique, widespread sense of design that other racing games in general don't offer to that extent, and contains lots of wonderful eye-candy. The stages all have an absolute amazing light setting, the cars are brutally well done and the amount of effects that fill the screen aren't anything less than astoundingly [is that how you spell it? - staphan] pretty.

The picture in Dirt is covered by a unique filter that gives it the impression of being slightly under-exponated, talking in photo-terms. It's a little yellow, scratchy and with a matte finish to the colours. At first I was annoyed by this feature but I've learned to love it. It thoroughly gives Dirt a dirtier feel and makes it graphically stand out from all other racing games ever created so far.

The damage that your car sustains look extremely realistic and finally you can crash so bad that you have to retire from the stage right away [umm that's not very new... - staphan]. Car parts shatter like confetti across the road if you happen to drive into a rock or a tree, and you're then asked to restart the stage by, the always very pedagogic, Travis Pastrana [again, what do we need brains for anymore? - staphan].

To sum it up, Colin McRae: Dirt is very easy to approach; it's highly intense, varying, adrenalin-filled, fast to the extreme, and looks totally awesome. It suits anyone looking for a quick trip to the rally djungle.

"A 2nd opinion" by Jesper Karlsson:
I like arcade-ish half-crazy racing experiences. For example, here at work I'm the biggest fan of the Burnout games and the Rallisport Challenge games, hands down.

Thus I suppose the fact that I love CMR: Dirt, with the fast insanity that Codemasters' new jewel offers, doesn't come as a surprise. I like the variation, the speed, the graphics, the physics and that every object alongside the track is affected when you hit it with the car. For example, I've spent the last hour destroying trees, branches and bushes. A slightly different approach than the one that "Petter the boring" and his eveluations of driving games tend to take.

Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 8
Sound: 9
Longevity: 9

9/10