Hands on Preview.

Narrated throughout by the legendary Motocross Racer and Freestyle legend turned off Road Racer Travis Pastrana, DIRT delivers a mud, sweat, tears and a heart pumping DIRTY experience like never before. This is without a doubt due to Codemasters new NEON engine which incorporates an amazing physics engine with the physics calculations running at 760 fps whilst the graphics run at a smooth 30 fps.

Strap on your helmets and buckle your harness's as DIRT's career mode takes you on a journey through a whopping 66 events which includes all of the dirty racing disciplines such as traditional Rally events, Hill Climb, Buggy, Rallycross, Crossover, Rally Raid and utilises all of the vehicle classes such as FWD, 4WD, Classic, RWD, CORR Super Buggy, CORR Pro 4 or Hill Climb Big Rig's.

You commence your career with a limited range of events and vehicles; each event offers players the chance to select the difficulty in which they compete ranging from Rookie to Pro. Each difficulty not only offers the player varying levels of prize money but also adjusts the opponents skill level and the vehicle mechanical and terminal damage levels, as an example if a player chooses Pro 1st place may offer ?150,000 whilst the opponent skill is very hard, terminal damage is on and mechanical damage would be very high whereas in Rookie the prize for 1st place would drop to a mere ?12,500, the opponents skill would be very easy whilst mechanical damage would be very low and terminal damage would be off.

As you progress through the career you will unlock further events and vehicles which you will need to purchase to enable you to compete in the various event types. Prior to each event you are able to fine tune your vehicles setup and tweak and change the settings for Wheels, Suspension Springs, Suspension Damping, Transmission, Brakes, Differentials, Downforce & Anti-Roll to enable you to get the perfect setup for the event.

In addition to career mode DIRT also offers racers a Championship mode which allows players to compete in a range of more traditional rally events ranging from National to Global events. National events allow players to compete in any of the 6 available (UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, Australia or Spain) countries national championships and Global allows players to compete globally with races taking place in all 6 of countries. Further to National and global events you are also able to compete in either a European championship which visits 3 Countries or an International championship which also visits 3 countries. Within each championship players are able to select if they would like to compete in either Long or Short events, this simply increases the stages competed in per event so for example if you choose long within the global championship you will compete in a total of 36 Stages where as if you select short you will only compete in 24.

Further to career and championship modes there is also a Rally World mode which essentially is a free run and enables players to compete and perfect their skills in any of the unlocked events or vehicles in either Single Races, Events or Time Trials.

For online play gamers do not compete directly and enter virtual lobbies where voting on which race type and track determines what is raced next. Once the race begins then it is a solitary affair; yet the names and positions of your opponents are on screen which certainly adds tension as you try and shave seconds off your split times to either hold a lead or catch the leader. It works well and although it isn't the same as racing together on screen it is a worthwhile substitute.

Gameplay wise, DIRT feels eerily familiar yet by the same token completely new and revived, the two-year gap since the last McRae title has certainly paid dividends for Codemasters and has allowed the developers the necessary time in which to not only develop the new NEON engine but also start from scratch and make the leap to the next-gen consoles with next-gen quality and style.

It's actually almost unimaginable but I've almost enjoyed totalling the cars (as seen in exclusive videos available here) as I have enjoyed playing the game. Almost everything you hit reacts; collide with a tire wall, barrier or fence and they react accordingly, no longer can you simply rail your car like a bumper car from the local fair around the barriers to keep you on track.

With every collision there is a consequence, grind along a wall, clip a barrier and you can lose a body panel, door, smash your windscreen or even watch on as your bonnet fly off from a heavy landing, these are all largely just cosmetic and have little or no effect on the performance or handling of the vehicle although hit a wall hard, collide with a rock, tree or boulder at speed and you'll wince as your car loses a wheel, snaps a steering rack, drive shaft or any number of vital engine, transmission, suspension, steering or running gear components are damaged. This can lead to all manor of problems ranging from the car simply unable to select a specific gear or two, being underpowered, intensely steering to one side, or ultimately and in the worse case scenario complete failure and a dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish).

Graphically DIRT has also gone under the technicians wrench and come out shining with all the next-gen gloss expected. Not only have all of the featured vehicles been meticulously created and polished with an extraordinarily high level of detail maybe even unnecessarily so, the damage model is possibly the best I have ever seen with no two crashes seemingly causing the same damage or after effect. Every rally stage, circuit, hill or stadium is also lovingly created, the wind flows, the trees sway, leaves fall to the ground, grass and small trees flatten and your car kicks up clouds of dirt and dust in your wake.

However as good as DIRT is I still have a few slight reservations, the handling of the cars is at times a little unrealistically twitchy, it doesn't feel like either an arcade or simulation and is something more in the middle of the two of how the car would or should react. The brakes also seem unrealistically powerful and the rumble feedback through the controller seems all too often very weak considering the humps, bumps, pot holes and general terrain or various hazards encountered. There seems to be a limited amount of feedback or feeling for the undulation or surface conditions although this said there is still plenty of time for Codemasters to polish and fine tune the handling, brakes and feedback of the final game from the preview build we received.

Overall DIRT is fast paced, fun and addictive and a very welcome addition to the Xbox 360 games catalogue and racing genre, in the past Xbox McRae players such as myself may have felt short changed with the previous Xbox versions of the franchise delivering more of a PS2 port than true Xbox experience although those days are now gone and Codemasters are set to deliver a true next-gen and dirty off road experience to the Xbox 360.