Colin McRae: DiRT

Colin McRae: DiRT marked a fundamental shift for the series, away from pure rally simulation toward a broader spectacle encompassing rallycross, buggies, hillclimb, and American off-road disciplines like Trailblazer, wrapped in the new Neon graphics engine. The career mode was built around gradually unlocking individual disciplines and cars by winning cups, setting the game apart from earlier entries in the series with their more linear season-by-season progression.

On PlayStation 3, the game launched later than the PC and Xbox 360 versions, which reached the market already in June 2007 - Sony console owners had to wait until the following spring. The delay was due to the PS3 port being created as an additional version after the game was completed for the other platforms, which is also apparent in the slightly different performance tuning and the smaller amount of promotion this version received compared to the PC and Xbox launch.

Content-wise, it's the same game - the same tracks, disciplines ranging from classic rally through rallycross, hillclimb, and buggies to American off-road racing, and the same emphasis on muddy surfaces, changeable weather, and visible vehicle damage that set DiRT apart from rival rally games in 2007. Career progression and car unlocking stayed identical to the other versions. The PlayStation 3 version additionally made use of the Sixaxis controller and offered a tilt-based control option the player could choose instead of classic analog stick steering - this option was logically unavailable in rival versions without a motion controller and became one of the few genuinely new elements of this edition.

What it lacked, on the other hand, was the Xbox Live connectivity that the Xbox 360 version offered, with time leaderboards and the ability to download additional tracks. Multiplayer on PS3 ran over the PlayStation Network, which was then still considerably less developed and had a smaller player base, so the online community around this version remained noticeably smaller than on its sibling platforms, which had almost a year's head start.

Why play it: Without Xbox Live connectivity and with a smaller online community via PlayStation Network, it was a somewhat lonelier experience than on Xbox 360, even though the actual racing and tracks stayed the same.