TrueAchievements, a website that tracks your stats for Xbox, recently put a sort of wrap-up together for everyone’s stats on Xbox One. It had all sorts of interesting data for achievements, play time, and all sorts of things about my usage of my Xbox One. I was surprised to see that my most played genre this generation was racing games. I mean, I do love racing games, but it constituted about 40% of my play time. I thought this was crazy! I play a lot of games, but apparently I play a TON of racing games. Not that I’m complaining.

So, I decided that it was time to start reviewing a long-running racing series. I decided to start with my personal favorite series: Dirt.

Dirt (technically Colin McRae:Dirt) came out in 2007. It’s a rally racing game by Codemasters. At the time, Codemasters was not really known for racing games, but rather, shooters. There was not really many rally exclusive racing games out there at the time. I picked it up in pure excitement for a rally car game, knowing nothing about it.

I was blown away. The game has perfect controls, all the cars have perfect weight, and all the tracks were a perfect mix of difficulty. The game was balanced so well and performs beautifully on the 360 (where I played it). But how does it live up today? Honestly great! The game still holds up and is incredibly fun to this day. But, it is extremely stripped down when comparing it to later entries in the series. It has three modes and a handful of tracks, but that’s about it. The game sort of drags on because it is essentially the same races over and over again. Just in different cars. But it does do these races perfectly. The game does not become dull though. Shaving seconds off your personal best on each track becomes such a fun challenge that the game actually has some re-playability. But it does leave a lot to be desired. Which is fine because the series adds a lot of these as we get in to later entries.

But Colin McRae: Dirt ends up being a gateway game to the rest of the series. It is really fun, but it does drag on a bit near the end. There are a lot of races that end up being the exact same thing. At least it has perfect gameplay to make these races not boring. I love Dirt and I love the rest of the games. This game does end up being forgettable in the long run. But it is still an amazing game. I give Colin McRae: Dirt a 3 out of 4. It may not be the perfect game, but it is insanely good. I love this game and think it’s the perfect gateway game to the series. Which is great because there is seven other games in this series. Lots of racing left to do!