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[mr stroke]

This game is a blast, might be the best racer this gen. Graphics are fantastic(PC), online is smooth as a babies ass, menus are slick, and over all the game is just really fun. Not a fan of the Gymkhana stuff but its manageable because the rest of the races are so good.



This game really makes me want to pull the trigger on one of these-

an Eyefinity set up on this game would be hot as shit

 

[SneakyStephan]

In game benchmark. Everything maxed, 8x MSAA.


Specs:-

i7 920 @ 4.2
2x460 SLI
6GB

SLI does not seem to work while in cockpit view but all other views works fine

Feh, shows what could have been, graphically. (not that it doesn't look good now)
Waiting for some more gameplay impressions (Loved dirt 2 initially but it got stale so fast) , before I pick it up.

 

[AcridMeat]

First impression is fantastic. I love the new menus, they're extremely snappy. I love the music, though I liked 2's as well. The tone of this is great.

I also love the fact that the first thing you do is straight up classic rally. I haven't touched the multiplayer yet but this is going to keep me busy for a long long time, very happy with this game!

 

[ashbash159]

Can't access the store to get my free cars in the PC version.

I have a upsets.

 

[Shaneus]

Well, turns out my Crossfire wasn't running AT ALL. Ultra everything with v-sync and my average was 61fps, minimum of 55 (which I assume is microstutter, fairly noticable in-game but otherwise does run at a flat 60).

Fucking hell, this game looks amazing.

Surprised to hear an Aussie as the mechanic, too... anyone know who it is? Seems like an unusual choice.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Gamespot Review - 9.0

 

[Kyaw]

Will user created rally stages ever happen for Dirt games? Impossible without a SDK kit of the EGO engine, right?

 

[Diablohead]

Will user created rally stages ever happen for Dirt games? Impossible without a SDK kit of the EGO engine, right?

Some master mind could work out a way by reserve engineering and cracking stuff but I doubt anyone will go into so much trouble, a shame

Rumor has it that there will be 3 dlc packs, one of them being a new set of tracks.

 

[Sanjay]

Feh, shows what could have been, graphically. (not that it doesn't look good now)
Waiting for some more gameplay impressions (Loved dirt 2 initially but it got stale so fast) , before I pick it up.

I have :| but I posted them in the high-res screenshot thread.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=28015553&postcount=4662
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=28015620&postcount=4664

Here's some more, I seem to always finish my races with dipping my car over...

 

[Kyaw]

Some master mind could work out a way by reserve engineering and cracking stuff but I doubt anyone will go into so much trouble, a shame

Rumor has it that there will be 3 dlc packs, one of them being a new set of tracks.

I *really* want some more longer and narrower tracks...

Also, guys, please turn off the driving line in rally games... you gotta listen to your co-driver.

 

[Diablohead]

I wonder if modding can turn on the DoF while racing, it's active in the opening moments of a race while the camera pans and makes the distant trees look much more real.

 

[Sanjay]

Also, guys, please turn off the driving line in rally games... you gotta listen to your co-driver.

lol for the life of me I could not figure out how to turn it off, I checked the HUD options, and about every option I could find and could not find the place where to turn off the driving line assistance off.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Is there a Steam GAF group for this?

 

[Sanjay]

I think you should make one so I can ram you off the track.

 

[Shaneus]

Driving line? I completely forgot that I'd seen screenshots with them in it. Just jumped straight into advanced difficulty and enabled stability control (because that's always fucked with me in GT5 and Forza). Perfect difficulty level with a 360 controller (on PC).

 

[AEREC]

Im a little dissapointed with the performance Im getting

Windows 7 x64
i7 @ 2.93 GHz
GTX 460 1GB
8GB RAM

All settings on High

On the Finland Rally course the game feels like the framerate slows down and then speeds back up randomly...very annoying.

Though on a course like Kenya, the framerate is perfectly fine.

I dont really want to have to go below high settings.

 

[Audioboxer]

This looks great I'll pickup the PS3 version later in the year.

 

[SneakyStephan]

enabled stability control (because that's always fucked with me in GT5 and Forza). .

Panzy half the fun of gt5 is having to mind weight shifting when driving.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I think you should make one so I can ram you off the track.

If you can catch me, have a go, chum.

 

[Shaneus]

Panzy half the fun of gt5 is having to mind weight shifting when driving.

Admittedly, I could probably turn it off in Dirt 3 and still drive alright. As it is so far I've managed to gold the first part of the first triangle, but not without a few retries.

 

[mxgt]

This game is a blast, so much fun. Especially online. We need to get some GAF games going.

Only thing I don't like is Gymkhana, maybe because I'm terrible at it.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Im a little dissapointed with the performance Im getting

Windows 7 x64
i7 @ 2.93 GHz
GTX 460 1GB
8GB RAM

All settings on High

On the Finland Rally course the game feels like the framerate slows down and then speeds back up randomly...very annoying.

Though on a course like Kenya, the framerate is perfectly fine.

I dont really want to have to go below high settings.

Do you use any monitor tools to see what the bottleneck is? I've got a similiar setup and am curious where the bottleneck is. MSI Afterburner will show you what the GPU utilization is and ALL CPU Meter desktop gadget will show you what your 4 CPUs are doing. I'd be interesting to see if there's a bottleneck somewhere (or if it's just like F12010 when it launched and both were running well below capacity.)

 

[Diablohead]

Im a little dissapointed with the performance Im getting

Windows 7 x64
i7 @ 2.93 GHz
GTX 460 1GB
8GB RAM

All settings on High

On the Finland Rally course the game feels like the framerate slows down and then speeds back up randomly...very annoying.

Though on a course like Kenya, the framerate is perfectly fine.

I dont really want to have to go below high settings.

put shadows on medium, it's hardly noticeable as all it does it drop the shadow resolution a bit, yet the extra performance is huge (for me at least)

 

[epmode]

Im a little dissapointed with the performance Im getting

Your setup is almost the same as mine and I was having similar trouble. I found something that could be affecting performance, even posted about it on the last page. But I just rewrote it for the Steam forums so I'll just post that here:

GFWL causing framerate drop?

I've always heard that it's relatively easy to get the Dirt games running at 60 FPS so I was surprised to see that I couldn't hit it without lowering the detail preset to Low.

On High without antialiasing, I'd get an average of about 35-45 FPS on the first track in career mode (Finland) using the hood cam.

Playing around, I launched the game while using my firewall to block the connection to Games For Windows Live. My profile loaded in offline mode and I naturally got a warning about how Dirt 3 couldn't connect to Dirtnet and that ghosts would not be saved unless I was online.

The strange thing is that I can now hit 55-60 FPS on the same track at the same exact detail settings, but only if GFWL is in offline mode. As soon as I relaunch the game while online, the framerate drops.

I figured it might have something to do with ghost recording or the Youtube feature but disabling both didn't do anything..

Has anyone else noticed this?

2.9 GHz Core2Duo
Nvidia GTX 570 at 2560x1600 in DX11 mode
Windows 7 64
8GB RAM

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I thought Dirt 3 was supposed to run better than Dirt 2. I used to get 60FPS @1920x1080 with most settings nearly maxed with either my GTX 260 or 560 Ti, i5 750, and 4GB RAM. I haven't had a chance to fire up Dirt 3 yet but it sounds like people with similar or better setups than mine are getting 40FPS.

 

[AEREC]

Really disappointed in the performance I'm getting.

i7 920 @ 2.6ghz
6gb DDR
GTX570

Only managing 30fps maxxed :/

Edit: Realised nVidia manager was overriding 3D application, let 3D application decide and pulled 58fps.

I was having some weird performance issues on certain tracks...I went into the nvidia manager and the only override setting was the global setting to force vsync on...after changing it to let application manage (as well as turning vsync on in the game) it seems to have cleared up my performance issue.

Just ran a benchmark with all settings on High @ 1920 x 1080, 4x MSAA, Vsync On and got:

Min FPS: 54
Avg FPS: 62


Here are my specs again so anyone who is curious doesnt have to refer to my earlier post:

Windows 7 x64
i7 @ 2.93 GHz
GTX 460 1GB
8GB RAM


Id loved to play on Ultra but it really kills performance...Im talking 15fps, I wonder how much different it looks.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Your setup is almost the same as mine and I was having similar trouble. I found something that could be affecting performance, even posted about it on the last page. But I just rewrote it for the Steam forums so I'll just post that here:

GFWL causing framerate drop?

I've always heard that it's relatively easy to get the Dirt games running at 60 FPS so I was surprised to see that I couldn't hit it without lowering the detail preset to Low.

On High without antialiasing, I'd get an average of about 35-45 FPS on the first track in career mode using the hood cam.

Playing around, I launched the game while using my firewall to block the connection to Games For Windows Live. My profile loaded in offline mode and I naturally got a warning about how Dirt 3 couldn't connect to Dirtnet and that ghosts would not be saved unless I was online.

The strange thing is that I can now hit 55-60 FPS on the same track at the same exact detail settings, but only if GFWL is in offline mode. As soon as I relaunch the game while online, the framerate drops.

I figured it might have something to do with ghost recording or the Youtube feature but disabling both didn't do anything..

Has anyone else noticed this?

2.9 GHz Core2Duo
Nvidia GTX 570 at 2560x1600 in DX11 mode
Windows 7 64
8GB RAM

I'm not exactly sure DX11 is even adding anything in Dirt 3. You might try setting DX9=true in the config just for the heck of it. See if it makes a difference.

It definitely sucks about your GFWL finding though. It's such a shitty program and Codemasters would get such a standing ovation if they ever ditched it for Steamworks.

Unfortunately, even though Helios_CM posts on gaf, he only does so for publicity reasons. He won't answer the most basic questions, let alone engage in tech issues.

I thought Dirt 3 was supposed to run better than Dirt 2. I used to get 60FPS @1920x1080 with most settings nearly maxed with either my GTX 260 or 560 Ti, i5 750, and 4GB RAM. I haven't had a chance to fire up Dirt 3 yet but it sounds like people with similar or better setups than mine are getting 40FPS.

Hopefully it's just earlier release issues. From what I can see, Dirt 2 is the graphical high water for Codemasters this gen. I'm not sure they're going DX11 crazy like they did for the PC version and 2. Very disappointing it's a step back in graphics and performance.

 

[Label]

I thought Dirt 3 was supposed to run better than Dirt 2. I used to get 60FPS @1920x1080 with most settings nearly maxed with either my GTX 260 or 560 Ti, i5 750, and 4GB RAM. I haven't had a chance to fire up Dirt 3 yet but it sounds like people with similar or better setups than mine are getting 40FPS.

I have near enough the same set-up as you:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz
GTX 260
DDR2 6GB RAM

And I get around 30FPS..

Maybe it is time to Upgrade, not sure what to upgrade first my graphics card or Processor/RAM

 

[InertiaXr]

Maybe it is time to Upgrade, not sure what to upgrade first my graphics card or Processor/RAM

Video card, quad core is fine and 6GB is more than enough.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I have near enough the same set-up as you:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz
GTX 260
DDR2 6GB RAM

And I get around 30FPS..

Maybe it is time to Upgrade, not sure what to upgrade first my graphics card or Processor/RAM

I would say going to a 560 GTX or similar ATI card will give you a nice boost. I have seen great improvements since going from the GTX 260 to a 560 in several games. I am not worried about Dirt 3. I may find it works amazing later today on High settings which should be more than enough for me and still better than ps3 or x360.

 

[Label]

Video card, quad core is fine and 6GB is more than enough.

That is exactly what I was thinking, maybe I should try formatting to see if my performance increases...

I would say going to a 560 GTX or similar ATI card will give you a nice boost. I have seen great improvements since going from the GTX 260 to a 560 in several games. I am not worried about Dirt 3. I may find it works amazing later today on High settings which should be more than enough for me and still better than ps3 or x360.

I was thinking of splashing out for a nice 570.. It has been a couple of years since I have upgraded I guess!

 

[Dice]

Does this game have an incredibly annoying menu system like DiRT 2? Is the campaign still in dudebro mode?

 

[DenogginizerOS]

That is exactly what I was thinking, maybe I should try formatting to see if my performance increases...



I was thinking of splashing out for a nice 570.. It has been a couple of years since I have upgraded I guess!

Even better.

 

[Jordan]

Really enjoyed what I have played of the game so far, loving the fact it is definitely more difficult than DiRT2.

One thing that I loved doing in DiRT2 was when there was a hairpin turning that was pretty much a straight turn around, I could do this so simply, but on DiRT3 I'm having real difficulty doing so. The first example I can think of is

Spoiler

the first drift contest where you have to go around the black pole

and I'm just having great difficulty doing so.

Any tips on doing a near 180 turn?

Thanks!

 

[epmode]

I'm not exactly sure DX11 is even adding anything in Dirt 3. You might try setting DX9=true in the config just for the heck of it. See if it makes a difference.

I'll try that tonight. I like DX11 because of how easy it is to switch to windowed mode.

The GFWL performance thing confounds me. I can't even imagine how being online can affect framerate like that. It couldn't be the ghost recording since recording controller input is trivial. I suppose it could be the Youtube thing but I thought that doesn't go into effect until you manually turn it on in the replay menu. Not to mention that removing my youtube account details doesn't change anything.

In other news, you're right about how Dirt 3 looks a little worse than 2 but I could never go back. The new rally focus is infinitely better.

 

[Diablohead]

Does this game have an incredibly annoying menu system like DiRT 2? Is the campaign still in dudebro mode?

Menu is quicker but still styled, nothing like the caravan in the 2nd game, x-games is still in with a little talk from your manager but it's there by brand only really, a few races but that's all so far. It's all toned down from 2.

 

[darkwing]

anybody get the RC car bundle?

 

[Corky]

Menu is quicker but still styled, nothing like the caravan in the 2nd game, x-games is still in with a little talk from your manager but it's there by brand only really, a few races but that's all so far. It's all toned down from 2.

Thank god, having to go to the fucking ingame bathroom everything I wanted to quit the game or w/e the fuck was going on was really infuriating.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

So is there actually rally racing in this game again? I don't care about gymkhana, super buggies, smash-em-up derby trucks or RV racing.... I want my 12 minute Pikes Peak runs back. Dirt 2 left me wanting.

 

[Diablohead]

So is there actually rally racing in this game again? I don't care about gymkhana, super buggies, smash-em-up derby trucks or RV racing.... I want my 12 minute Pikes Peak runs back. Dirt 2 left me wanting.

Rally is more often then it was in dirt 2, once you get close to beating season 3 you unlock a special rally championship which is nothing but rally, so it's there in full force but you have to play for a bit first.

So far from my play time this game is 10% gymkhana, 20% buggy and truck, 40% trailblazer & rally with other things inbetween, with the rally champ stuff that easily takes it to the 60% mark codemasters spoke about often.

 

[Corky]

So is there actually rally racing in this game again? I don't care about gymkhana, super buggies, smash-em-up derby trucks or RV racing.... I want my 12 minute Pikes Peak runs back. Dirt 2 left me wanting.

From the little I know of the game it seems people are saying that the rallystages are very short

 

[darkwing]

why is this isn't on Steam

 

[AEREC]

Im digging the game now, however my few gripes are:

-everything is letterboxed except for the racing
-While the UI is toned down it is still a bit overdone, but still much better than Dirt 2
-too many damn voice overs and still way too much use of "Dude," "Awesome," and "Nice."

I really miss the presentation of games like Rallisport Challenge 2...at this point the only things dragging this game down for me are the presenation aspects which isnt a terrible thing...but damn, I just hate the Dude-bro vibe the dirt series puts out.

Maybe CM can patch in a Dude-bro "off" setting =)

 

[flyinpiranha]

Gamefly mailed this out to me today, bring on wednesday!

Same, was hoping to get LA Noire but I'm down with this. Going to see if it's really worth the PC purchase (or maybe just keep for the PS3).

Time to pull out the wheel!

 

[Sent]

why is this isn't on Steam

Whut?

 

[Orgun]

why is this isn't on Steam

Huh? I preordered this on steam.

 

[derFeef]

why is this isn't on Steam

It is?

 

[Dizzy-4U]

why is this isn't on Steam

'cause we live in shitty countries. Someone will have to gift it to you.

 

[Frawdder]

Im digging the game now, however my few gripes are:

-everything is letterboxed except for the racing

-too many damn voice overs and still way too much use of "Dude," "Awesome," and "Nice."

Agreed on these two. The voice overs are just terrible, and the way they interact with each other is awkward and not really necessary. Add to that you can't skip half of them and, ugh, 2 hours in and I hate them already.

The black bars seem to be laziness to me. It doesn't add anything to the presentation but really takes your focus away from, specifically, the replays, I just drove in full screen, why can't the replay be the same?

 

[U2NUMB]

Gonna be a long day at work.. copy is payed off in full just gotta pick it up later. Hard reading this thread with all the positive impressions.. Might double dip.. getting 360 version but might have to grab the PS3 version also. (Wish I had a beast PC)