olin McRae is already less than a household name in most homes in America, so the fact that Codemasters dropped the driver’s name from this franchise signals a new direction for the series formerly known as a hardcore rally racing sim. Dirt hasn’t sacrificed any of the nail-biting, hair-raising racing action – nor the requirement that you have the driving chops to pull some of it off – but the game’s lack of identity leaves me wondering why they made the change in the first place.

Dirt’s career mode resembles another Codemasters title – Pro Race Driver – as it lets you pick from different racing types. This gives you the freedom to choose how you want to build up enough points to proceed to the next tier of the mode’s pyramid. Unlike Pro Race Driver, however, the racing is restricted to various off-road forms. Apart from the rally racing and rallycross you’ve seen before, sometimes you’ll race semis, trucks, or buggies on dirt tracks. Unfortunately, a lot of these races are on fairly short, contained tracks, and aren’t as fun as the long, diverse, and crazy-ass rally courses. Which then begs the question: Why did Codemasters turn a perfectly fine rally game into a sort-of-rally game?

The answer, of course, is to broaden the series’ horizons, but it’s hard to tell if this game has been broadened too much or too little. For instance, I wished there were more traditional, hardcore multi-stage rally races, which would make fixing the damage on your car actually important in this game. However, because it lacks a lot of multi-stage rally races, for most of the game the damage feature doesn’t even matter. On the other hand, Dirt, unlike Gran Turismo or Forza, doesn’t offer what most people want – a reason to collect a lot of cool cars. Although I did have to buy cars to compete in certain races, buying rides and liveries (no upgrading at all) just isn’t that important.

Another example where the game gets caught in the middle is with online. True to rally racing, you don’t race against others, only their times. I can’t imagine most online players want to play this way.

Codemasters knows how to deliver solid racing games, and Dirt has what you need if you are looking for intense racing. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to garner this series a new audience, but hopefully it’s a case of taking one step sideways to jump forward one big step in the future.