Colin McRae DiRT

Like the sublime Forza 2, DiRT is able to strike an incredible balance between realism and playability. Again, gearheads can tune their car and set it up for each stage to absolutely wreck course records while beginners can knock the difficulty down and race with the default set-up and still attain victory. Career mode eases you in wonderfully, starting off with the slower FWD cars while still giving you an impressive sense of speed and showing off the wide spread of racing disciplines that DiRT covers. Rally events are your traditional time trial challenges, Rallycross races the same only with your rivals on the course at the same time and Crossover courses are your usual rally finale, pitting two racers against one another on an intertwined track. On top of these basic three, you've got complex Hill Climb courses to navigate as well as the slightly less enjoyable Rally Raid events and inconsistent CORR competitions. Things start off pretty basic in the lower tiers of career but as you work your way up, the single-stage events and basic courses of the introductory period give way to fearsome and gruelling multi-stage challenges that will mean looking after your car for more than just the usual quartet of checkpoints.

Modelled on actual roads and, in some cases, total real world circuits, the tracks of DiRT are on the whole pretty spectacular. Emerging from dense forest to career through a quaint little village is a hell of a thrill while the Crossover courses encourage a kind of competitive nature that one mightn't usually associate with rallying. From muddy English country roads to the Australian outback, settings and course design are equally resplendent and while one track might not require you to visit Mr Brake Pedal all that often, the next may have four or five tricky hairpin corners in succession. You really never know what's coming next with DiRT, and given just how much of the game is so very, very good, this element of surprise is more than welcome.