14 DAY TRIAL // After proving its dominance in terms of rally racing simulation with its Dirt series, Codemasters has now tasked its Racing label with taking the franchise into a whole new direction, with Dirt Showdown.
Promising to deliver a racing experience that’s more focused on action-filled competitions, including full-contact races, demolition derbies, and stunt-heavy Hoonigan events, Showdown stands out among other racing games that have appeared in the last few years.
Is this new direction a good one for the Dirt series or should Codemasters return to rally simulation? Let’s have a quick look at its demo , which appeared on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms yesterday.
Codemasters Racing started departing from the classic Dirt recipe with the third game in the series last year, but with Showdown, it’s really going into a new direction.
The game still retains a great presentation, with the interface evolving from the one seen in Dirt 3 and impressing right from the menu screen.
Once you actually start a race, you’ll feel right at home, even if the race from the demo tasks players with completing race on a figure-8 track in San Francisco bay, instead of completing rally stages in environments like Kenya or Scandinavia.
The difference between Showdown and previous Dirt titles doesn’t stop here, as you no longer choose from various licensed vehicles. Instead, you can only control fictional ones modeled after older cars and modified for full-contact racing.
During the actual event there are no restrictions, as players can ram into each other, push adversaries from the racing line, and even engage in full-on collisions at the intersection of the circuit.
Cars handle pretty good and, once you start coming to grips with the AI opponents, you’ll soon be crashing into others and boosting across the finish line.
Check out the first race in the Dirt Showdown demo on the Xbox 360 in the video above.