DiRT 3 PC Review

Multi Player

The Dirt 3 multiplayer section of the game is as one would expect, predominantly head-to-head although there are areas where you can race and work as a team to achieve victory. Matchmaking and lobby races are very simple to get into and even custom matches are all self explanitory. (Remember that when running via Steam, you will need to enter your multiplayer key when requested in order to play online). For those of you that are logged into GFWL as well, pressing the home button to bring up the Live toolbar, will allow you to join other games with your friends like a breeze.

Similar to playing through the Dirt Tour, you can gain points that work towards increasing your online reputation level, this in its simplest form is denoted by your finishing position and during team events, the teams overall position and your input towards that.

Whilst playing online, even though you could be on the opposite side of the world to your opponents, I did find that there was very little to no lag noted in game compared to the experience I sometimes get in other games (ie cars skipping and jumping across the track). Whether this is down to the way that player data is sent out, and size of data chunks or server side handling I don’t know, but either way, the online experience is just as good as the Dirt Tour if not better as you’re driving against real people and not AI drivers.