DiRT 3 was a seriously good rally game. Monte Carlo is a seriously good rally. What happens when the two of them meet?
Sadly, life isn’t that simple- this downloadable content pack just doesn’t spark the kind of experience one might expect of it.
The tracks, set of course in the mountains of Monte Carlo, look fantastic. There’s so much detail in the road surfaces and backgrounds- it really is a fantastic place to drive. In fact, it’s by far the best environment in the entire game to drive in. The weather effects here are similarly brilliant, and genuinely affect the way you play. Snow on the track forces you to change driving style dramatically on the fly as you go in and out of mountain towns along the route.
The track layouts are similarly superb, and it gives a real sense of speed to shoot through the mountain courses’ tight and twisty routes. Rally fans will revel in the heritage of rallying here in classic Mini Coopers and Renault 5s- which incidentally appear to offer the best handling here, too. Again, I would be tempted to say that using the Mini Cooper on the Monte Carlo tracks from this DLC was the most fun drive I’ve had in DiRT 3.
The tracks are all available to play in online time trial modes, meaning there’s always a ghost set by a human player to fight against when setting stage times. Of course, they are far too good for any normal player to beat, but it can be fun to push yourself to beat these ghosts. Unfortunately most of the top times are set in cars that are part of another DLC pack. Some of these cars seem like they are just plain faster (Lancia Delta S4 comes to mind) and it can be frustrating if you don’t have the cash to spend on these cars. Still, that’s more of a gripe with the game than the DLC specifically.
At this point one might think it odd that this review began on such a negative note. All should come clear when I note the pure details of the DLC pack: Your $10 buys you just eight tracks, and no other content whatsoever.
It’s a complete joke. These tracks might be good, but they are just not worth $10. It boggles the mind. Just look at Steam this week- you can buy games that are way better than the whole of DiRT 3, let alone the DLC, for less than $10. Eight tracks? It’s like buying a book with ten words in it. They’re good words, of course, probably stuff like “Effervescent” and “Schadenfreude”, but would you spend $10 on that?
Such is life, I suppose- a good spot of fun spoiled by a price tag bigger than the content it provides.
+ Excellent track design
+ Great visuals
+ Great fun for classic rally fans
- How much?
DiRT 3′s Monte Carlo DLC was Published and Developed by Codemasters for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and was released on Jun 29th 2011. The PC version (reviewed) was played for about an hour because that’s all there is. For ten dollars.
