Time to lose some weight
The most important part of a racing game is by far the car handling. The Dirt series has never been known as simulations, and this new episode isn’t really an exception. But it doesn’t mean Codemasters didn’t do some heavy (literally) changes to how the cars handle. The very obvious change is that the cars now feel like they actually weigh something. The first few minutes of the game are a very good demonstration of how mass shifting during breaking and cornering affects how the game should be played. DiRT 2 fans will without a doubt say Hi to a few trees, houses or holes when approaching their first corners. Cars also tend to easily oversteer, and breaking too late can have some surprising results. It’s a bit destabilizing (quite literally again) in the beginning, but then everything just clicks and feels in fact more natural.
Dirt 3 also welcomes back weather conditions, which had been missing since the good old Colin Mc Rae 5 on previous consoles. You can now race on wet tracks, under the rain, on ice, on snow, and even in the middle of a snow storm. This of course affects the cars handling greatly, and help rediscover stages that would get tedious after a few times with normal conditions. Add to that night races and you will understand that Codemasters certainly tried hard to make sure their game would not get too repetitive after a while.
Chandoo:
