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Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Codemasters

Release Date: 5/23/2012

Available On

The fourth DiRT game to come from Codemasters was out of the left field. A rally racing simulator turned arcade demolition derby? The truth of the matter is that the game is solid and is a lot of fun with friends. The single-player AI is frustrating and annoying, but after you finish these events for achievements, you won’t come back to it. Some people seem to be pretty harsh on the game, so let me stamp out a few fires here. It’s the AI that makes it feel like you have low top speed. The game has a very fast sense of speed, but Codemasters chose to use the much-hated “rubber-band AI.”.

There are several events you can play, such as 8-Ball, which reminded me of Hot Wheels’ Criss-Cross-Crash track set from when I was a kid. There are good ol’ demolition derbies and regular race-offs. There are no real-world cars available for these events, only in Gymkhana. I’m kind of torn with this event because I found it too difficult in DiRT 3, even with all the assists. I found it much easier this time around, but the only event I really liked was one where you had to smash down colored blocks in a certain order.

Other than that, the game is a standard DiRT affair. Beat the main event, play online, rinse, and repeat until you race yourself to boredom. I found playing online a ton of fun, but after a while, the novelty wears off, and you get sick of the game after a while. If Codemasters put some other gameplay elements in here to deter that, it wouldn’t be this way. From what we have, DiRT: Showdown is an extremely fun arcade racer with gorgeous visuals, but don’t expect to stay for too long.