Gymkhana: The best reason to not waste your gaming dollars on DiRT 3.

Codemasters did a spectacular job with DiRT 3 - the menus are all nicely done, drivability through most game modes rival that of console-exclusive titles (and in some cases outdoes them), accessibility options are present and accounted for, and there are a few minor snags the game runs into here and there, but all of that goes away possibly within the first eight races of the DiRT 3’s DiRT TOUR.

The main menu, and most of it’s submenus, follow the same pattern - a large, block-lettered type of font atop a pretty well contrasted background. (I can‘t tell what color the font is; It might be shades of gray or shades of green. Not sure, but I can read it pretty easily from over a foot away from the screen.) Main menu items: “DiRT TOUR”, “MULTIPLAYER”, “SINGLEPLAYER”, “MY DiRT”, “OPTIONS”, and “___”.

OPTIONS menu items include: “CONTROLS”, “HUD”, “AUDIO”, “RACING STYLE”, “PROFILE”, “VIBRATION”. Most of theses can be skipped as they offer no accessibility options. In the

“CONTROLS” - Players are able to choose their default transmission type (automatic/manual sequential), choose from four preset control configurations, and if the player wants, they’re able to fully remap their own control scheme.
“HUD” - Players are able to turn on/off the entire HUD, change units of measurement (speed) (KM/H or MPH), and turn on/off any parts of the HUD they want (dial, mini-map, split times, lap counter, position info).
“VIBRATION” - Players can choose the percentage of feedback from the controller they feel (ranging from 0% to 100% in increments of 10).

Once players have all their options in order, it’s off to start the DiRT TOUR, and this is where Codemasters hits their first stumbling block with DiRT 3 - there are no subtitles to go along with the videos that include voice-overs. The videos are somewhat self-explanatory, but others aren’t which makes trial-and-error a bigger part of gameplay than it should be. Plus, if you’re going to reach out to celebrities with the Rally Racing world, why wouldn’t you want to subtitle someone that you paid to have in your game? Big miss.

Players will have already noticed that DiRT 3 follows a triangular theme which unfolds nicely within the DiRT TOUR menu season menu; Each triangle representative of a season unfolds into smaller triangles which upon selection unfold in a horizontal fashion. While highlighted, triangles (and later parallelograms) are highlighted in a nicely contrasting color (another one that I can‘t see).

The insides of individual events’ parallelograms are also highly visible thanks to contrast; The best-finishing position marker appears in a hexagon in the upper right corner, and the points-awarder marker appears in the lower right.

Once players have selected an event and gone through the cinematics sometimes leading up to the event, they’ll land in the TEAM OFFERS menu which is where they’ll be able to choose the vehicle they want to race with. In DiRT 3, players don’t have the option to buy vehicles, but they unlock new TEAM OFFERS based on their driver experience level.

With car selected, it’s off to the races, and before racing players will land on the standard pre-race menu which is made up of : “RACE”, “ENTRANTS”, :”DIFFICULTY AND ASSISTS”, AND “VEHICLE SETUP”. All menus accessed from this point follow a high-contrast theme of light font on a darker background which is inverted when highlighted.

The “DIFFULTY AND ASSISTS” menu is going to be a worthwhile stop for those players with mobility impairments as Codemasters nailed the assists in DiRT 3; Players can either choose one of three experience levels (casual, intermediate, advanced), or they can choose “ADVANCED SETTINGS” which will allow for far more personalization.

Advanced settings include the ability to choose from one of six difficulty settings, change how the vehicle is damaged (full/visual only), and choose to turn on/off ABS, stability control, auto-steer, corner braking and throttle management, and finally dynamic racing line can be turned to full, braking, or off. Codemasters really needs to be commended for letting players choose to race on difficulty level “6” while still allowing players to use driving assists - thank you, Codemasters for giving AbleGamers an option other than “EASY”.

It should be known that not always can assists be turned on, so reliance upon them may not be beneficial. For the most part, they’re there when need, but some game modes limit players to only ABS.

Also, worthy of mention on the pre-race screen are bonus challenges which can land players more driver experience points which can aide in gaining more TEAM OFFERS sooner. These are frequently dependant upon the challenge being timed, or distance spent drifting. Players who use assists will miss out on quite a few of these depending on some assists that are used. Not completing these bonus tasks won’t keep players from completing the game.

Finally, it’s time to race, and the biggest thing to consider in Rally Racing is that race conditions are not meant to be perfect - often times, the opposite is true. Visibility is meant to be low when it is low. Mobility is meant to be tested. The driving assists will make things easier in many cases, but if players are hoping to hold down the throttle and do nothing else, they won’t make it far. On the negative side of this is that the dynamic race line does not contrast well with some conditions - particularly icy and snowy conditions. Courses are very much linear, but in events like Rally and Trail Blazer the possibility of running off the course does present itself, and if it should happen that a player gets too far away from the course, the car will reset itself in the center of the path while the in-game clock continues to run, and is a large part of Rally Racing, time plays a large roll in gameplay.

Finally Gymkhana-type events see the rules of the game basically turned upside-down as there aren’t any driving assists that will help if accommodations are needed. Visibility is there, but isn’t, as a lot of tricks that can be performed aren’t known until players are practically on-top of them. Precision is a large part of this type of gameplay. Time factors in hugely. If any of this sounds unappealing to interested persons, my suggestion would be to just accept missing out on DiRT 3 as the furthest that can be achieved in the DiRT TOUR is partial completion of Season one.

In closing, DiRT 3 hit’s a lot of marks for it’s accessibility, but it misses a lot, too - menus and other aspects of the game which are outside of gameplay can be as good as good can be, but without gameplay, it doesn’t really have legs to stand on, and the addition of Gymkhana-type events is nice, it’s an addition that could take the legs out from under DiRT 3. There’s not a demo for the game available at the moment, and without a playable demo, think twice, or even thrice, before buying the game - new, used, or otherwise.

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Hearing:

There are no subtitles throughout the entire game leaving somewhat self-explanatory videos being better explained orally than visually. (-1point)
All other on-screen activity is just as well seen as it is heard.
Recommended score of 9 out of 10

Visual:

Menus are very easily seen; All follow high-contrast themes which make use of fonts that can be easily read.
In-game visuals vary greatly with all weather and course conditions being represented. (No points withheld due to this being something that makes Rally Racing Rally Racing)
Dynamic racing lines appear better on some courses than they do on others - not high enough contrast in some cases. (-0.5 point)
Gymkhana-type events don’t do enough to let players know what’s expected of them next making them more trail-and-error than other game modes. (-0.5 point)
Recommended score of 9 out of 10

Mobility:

Game features four preset controller maps as well as the option to fully customize.
Driving assists where allowed are on-par with those included in console-exclusive racing sims.
Gymkhana-type events don’t allow driving assists. (-1 point)
Game does not have a failure-limiter, so the potential to play only a partial game exists. (-2 point)
Recommended score of 7 out of 10