The Colin McRae name may be gone, but DiRT 3, the last in the DiRT trilogy, was recently revealed and looks to be the biggest and best in the series yet. Alongside a jaw-dropping trailer, a few other details have been revealed and it is clear that Codemasters Racing Studio are bringing the series back to its roots.

Whether you are an American or European, DiRT 3 will certainly offer something for both. Taking away the Americanisation from DiRT 2, 3 will offer commentary from both, and gameplay for both. This means America’s Ken Block will return alongside the X-Games, but the focus has been turned to include more of what is best: point-to-point rallying. You will still be able to play Rally-Cross, Trailblazer and more, alongside two other new modes which I’ll get to later

.Of course, to play these modes you’ll need a car, and there are plenty. This time around, Codemasters really wanted to impress on a major scale. So you’ll see the very Mini that won the Monte Carlo Rally, amongst many other classics including the Lancia Delta and Audi Quattro, but also many modern cars: WRC, Spec 2000 and Open Class cars are all on offer. Add to that the crazy RAID trucks and superbuggies. That’s not to mention there won’t be a few others thrown in as well. You’ll be able to see the likes of Colin McRae’s Subaru Impreza and Ken Block’s new Ford.

Not only wanting more cars, the fans wanted more tracks. Codemasters listened. Again. Finland, Kenya, Monte Carlo, Norway and Aspen are a few of the 100 routes on offer (opposed to the 41 routes in DiRT 2) and weather returns. Big time.

Sharing the technology with F1 2010, the weather is proving to be an essential part of the experience. Snow, rain and fog are a few of many natural hazards, the former being the biggest of them all: this even comes down to tyre choice and the snow is deformable. The weather is dynamic, and so is the new night-day cycle. Both are there to avoid repetition in the Career mode, so (even if it is on the same track) you won’t have the same race twice and it will be different time of day and different weather.

Now, to those two new game modes. Head-to-head racing (made even more exciting  when bundled together with the knowledge that split-screen will be making a return) is there, but most exciting of all is the Gymkhana mode. Yep, that’s right. Gymkhana is the sport that came into life by Ken Block himself performing crazy stunts in a dockyard in Los Angeles in his Subaru Impreza, which included drifting under exploding lorries and very nearly falling into a river. You’ll be able to do this, sometimes using his new Ford, in various arenas built for the sport. Combos are created by performing stunts, and well. This might involve getting close to cones, holding a long drift or something really crazy overall. Then, you can really be like Block and upload your Gymkhana video straight to YouTube thanks to the new, YouTube compatible replay system. This really isn’t a cheap way of making the game more popular: Gymkhana looks to be an essential part of the overall DiRT 3 experience.

To practice Gymkhana, you’ll get (optionally with up to seven other friends) the Compound, based on DiRT 2’s Battersea Powerstation but two to three times bigger. This will also host many mini-games and challenges set by Ken Block. If you want to do Cat and Mouse, you can.

The graphics look mightily impressive as always, and with all of the new features and the direction Codemasters are taking make DiRT 3 look set to be the perfect finale to an amazing series. A new menu, more realistic implementation of oversteer and understeer (along with better force feedback) and the fact that F1 2010’s ‘Live the Life’ mode is also being used (details yet unknown) in DiRT 3 makes you want the game now. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait until 2011 for that. Not a problem though, because we’ll already be enjoying the likes of F1 2010, Test Drive Unlimited 2, World Rally Championship 2010 and Gran Turismo 5 by then.

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