If there is one thing the Xbox 360 is good at, it is racing games, so far there does not seem to be a duff one amongst them, with the release of Forza 2 and the rumour mill for Project Gotham 4 ever churning it seems DiRT is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Can Codemasters return to this classic title and rise above the already high standards?

Racing games tend to follow a similar pattern in single player, you race 3 laps around a road course against a bunch of other racers, earn some money, get a new car then race the same people in different cars. DiRT shakes his up and offers you a variety of different types of tracks and cars, tarmac, dirt, mud, up mountains, rally cars, buggy’s, big rigs, there is a lot to choose from. Race around the track using the walls to buffer you around the course and nice soft walls to cushion the crash, not DiRT, flimsy plastic walls that do nothing to stop you hurtling off the side of a hill, trees lining the track, urging you to just smash into them.

Rather then churn out another Colin McRae Rally (which I’m sure would have been great), Codemasters have taken the risk and revamped the whole franchise. You still have the classic point to point rally, where you race against the clock with your co-pilot shouting course details to you and the fun crossover challenges against another racer, but you now also have rally cross where you have other opponents racing across a mix of on and off road elements. To appeal to the more extreme sports fans there are more race styles, Rally Raid, another head to head race, Championship Off-Rod Racing (CORR) where you race in short off road courses in a buggy or truck, and the Hill Climb, which is just as it says on the tin, you have to get to the peak of the mountain in a variety of vehicles, my favourite of which is the big rig.

Courses span across Europe, Japan and USA, each one a real-world track, and they look amazing, the draw distance is spectacular and no pop up or slowdown whatsoever. Each of the 45+ cars available are well rendered and for a change, allow damage to be caused to them. As you race around the course and take knocks from other cars or clip a verge your car will get dirtier, and eventually start to lose parts if you are too rough, windows smash, doors fly off, hit a jump and on the way down your bonnet lifts from the engine, obscuring your view, not only does this look great but it gives you a real feel for the car. But it’s not just the externals that get damaged; too many crashes and clips will cause internal damage to parts like the cooling, gearbox, engine and turbo.

As with all racing games you will have a few views to play with, chase cam is the default view which gives a better overview and lets you see the damage to our car, bumper cam and bonnet cam for that real sense of speed but the most challenging are dashboard and helmet cam, watching your drivers hands steer and change gear, smash your screen and it will impair your vision. Also worth a mention is the AI, at the higher level settings you will notice that, as expected you will get nudged and out raced, but it is also nice to see the computer make mistakes, taking a corner wrong and going off course.

Career mode has you work through the many different races, earning money and points from each track, the money will go towards new cars and liveries, the points towards career progression. The presenter will follow your progress and give you encouragement throughout the career, telling you when you should move up a difficulty setting, he will also give you advice on the courses if requested.

Career is the main bulk of the game as the more you unlock here the more will be available for the rally championship mode. You are able to enter European, International or Global Championships and, choose your preferred vehicle and race to become the ultimate champion.

No racing game nowadays would be without an online function, and again DiRT has taken a different approach from the norm. In this mode you will join a room where up to 100 people can vote to race on either rally or hill climb modes, but rather than all on one course, you race alone, your position constantly updated as it would in real rally driving. I enjoy this different approach to online racing as it is only really you to blame for any errors, on more than one occasion I found myself flying around a course in first and make one small error to have your position drop like a stone and then having to race my guts out to gain seconds back.

If you are into the tuning of cars then DiRT will fulfil your dreams, there are 30 different tuning points like down force and gear ratios, don’t worry if you don’t understand this tough as again, you can ask for advice from the presenter who will go through the pro’s and con’s each tuning preference will produce.

This is by far the best off road racing title on the current generation of consoles at the moment, forget Motorstorm’s mix of vehicles on a handful of tracks, Colin McRae is back and is playing for first place only.