October 8, 2009 - Sony's Gran Turismo may still sit in the pole position among racing sims for many, but Microsoft is making a hard charge with Forza Motorsport 3. Developer Turn 10 has adopted a new philosophy for Forza 3: Make it accessible. The result is a hardcore simulation racing title that can also be enjoyed by the most casual of fans. The career mode is easy to get into but offers an immense challenge; you can auto-tune every car or dive into a rich set of tuning options; and driving can be toggled between a simple point-and-go system and the most physics-driven sim every created.

Simply put, Forza 3 is one of the best racers ever made.

It starts with the cars, of course. Forza 3 has more than 400 vehicles you can take for a spin and the crazy part is, they're all unlocked from the outset. That's right, with the exception of a few cars available only to those who pre-order Forza 3, every car on the disc can be driven from the get-go. Sure, you'll need to earn some credits to make your purchases, but if you can drum up a million creds, you can take the Bugatti Veyron for a spin. If you've played racing games your entire life, this fact alone may just blow your stack. It goes against everything we've ever thought about racing games. You're supposed to start with crappy cars, suffer through a few hours of slow-paced driving, then graduate to a sleeker class of vehicle. Well, Forza 3 is throwing racing conventions out the window.

September 3, 2009 - The Colin McRae series has long been considered king of rally racers. With Dirt 2, Codemasters pays fitting homage to the late McRae while trying to appeal to a larger audience. The result is a gorgeous racing game with some satisfying rally sections and a whole lot of wheel-to-wheel racing. While hardcore rally fans may be a bit bummed to find pure rally racing makes up only a fifth of the Career Mode, those who just want a good racing game will be happy.

The original Dirt, released in 2007, has one of the best menu designs of all time. It's truly a stunning piece of art, just on the frontend alone. Dirt 2 has an equally impressive interface that puts you into a RV that you (somehow) drive across the world. Everything you could want is in and around this trailer -- from a world map used to select from 100 different racing events to the multiplayer board on the wall to a TV that shows off instructional videos. Step outside your trailer and you get a look at the festival-like surroundings for each locale and can buy and customize new cars or see the latest tournament results. It's an immersive experience and is in many ways better than the first Dirt.

The core of Dirt 2 is the Career Mode, which starts you as an up-and-coming racer and builds you into a champion. Each race earns you experience points, which in turn increases your driver's level. Through Level 30 you gain new liveries, unlock new races and earn some lovely parting gifts. These include dashboard items such as a hula girl and fuzzy dice to hang from your rearview mirror. Rewards are always welcome and Dirt 2 makes certain to spoil you early and often.

Though you can choose from six different difficulties, they don't affect your progression (though you earn a little less cash and experience at lower levels). No matter your skill level, you can make it up the ranks, starting with Amateur events, moving up through the Pro offerings and finishing off with some challenging All-Star races. The 100 events are locked based on experience level, cars owned, or specific races you need to win. Along the way, you'll unlock a series of special races. First, there are a trio of X-Games (Asia, Europe, and North America) to open up and then five World Cup tournaments, each in a different discipline. There's also a special Colin McRae tribute event, which is a very loving touch from a team that had worked with McRae for years.

One of the best aspects of Dirt 2 is the variety of locales. Rally racing games can start to feel a little redundant with endless desert terrain. Okay, so Dirt 2 has a lot of off-road tracks, but the unique locales are really brought to life -- the small villages of Morocco with their narrow streets, the marshes of Malaysia, the serene hillsides of China.

The rally cars have weight to them and give that sense that you're driving along the edge of losing control. Rookies will struggle as they fail to understand the benefits of braking and pros will be tested at the higher levels by near-flawless AI competitors. The trucks and buggies don't measure up in the same way. They're easy to lose control of, especially with the generous bump of a competitor. This creates a curious dichotomy as any events featuring rally cars (including wheel-to-wheel Rally Cross races) seems to have an element of technical finesse while the bigger vehicles offer more of an arcade style.

For the most part, Career Mode is well-executed, offering the right balance of challenge and a good variety in locations and tracks. But I must admit that I am one of the previously mentioned rally fans who expects a rally game to have, well, rally racing. Sadly, only about 20% of the events in Dirt 2 are pure time-trial rally races. There are a few other time-based races including Trailblazer (rally races without a co-driver) and Gate Crasher (hit gates to add time to your run) that use elements of rally, but if you just want pure rally racing, it's in short supply. There are no hill climb events either, though there is a track in China called "Hill Climb" that amounts to a half-minute of speeding up a twisting hillside. I'd like my rally games to be two-thirds rally racing and other stuff thrown in for fun, not the other way around.

Over All Review

Dirt 2 is prettier than its predecessor, has more varied tracks and a functional multiplayer offering. What it doesn’t have is a focus on pure time-trial rally races, which is really what I expect from a rally game. The other disciplines are fun to dabble in, but I’m old school and want a bit more tradition from a racing game. Dirt 2 is a solid racing game with some really fun events and a slick menu system, but it could use a little less of the arcade action and a bit more of the sim. I think the vast majority of racing fans are going to love what Dirt 2 has to offer, but there will be a few who long for the days when a hill climb was considered the ultimate racing experience.