You know that stuck-up prick who thinks that your enjoyment of the Need For Speed series makes you an uncultured asshole? The one who tries to convince you that you should play Gran Turismo, even though you don’t consider Gran Turismo a game because in your definition of game the word “fun” appears somewhere?

I’m that prick.

However! Before you go back to playing Rayman or Sonic or Metroid or whatever the hell you think passes as a legitimate video game, consider this: DiRT is the kind of game that hardcore racing-sim enthusiasts and casual gamers will both love.

DiRT is a rally racing game. For those unfamiliar with rallying, it is off-road or partial off-road racing. In DiRT you drive cars, trucks, and buggies around on dirt and gravel in what is the most hectic-feeling yet realistic racing game I’ve seen in years.

DiRT is the only racing game I know of* that has hit the sweet spot of what I call artistic realism.** The game is realistic enough to make you feel like you’re actually rallying, but simple enough to play that anybody can pick it up and have a blast. Wanna tune the hell out of your suspension, gear ratios, and change the density of your brake pads? Sure. Wanna just jump in a car and fly through Japan’s mountain slopes or Australian forest trails without any fuss? Great. You’ll break your windshield, have only three tires left, flip over a few times, lose a door and keep on driving. The first hour of gameplay will leave your head spinning with excitement.

Favorite Car: Peugeot 205 T16

Favorite Event: Hill Climb

Favorite Track: Pikes Peak Full with the Celica

The single player in DiRT is largely centered around a “Career Mode,” where you will engage in all types of Rallying, with famous 2-wheel and all-wheel-drive cars, dirt buggies and even big rigs. For being a game that’s largely off-road racing, there are quite a few types of vehicles to choose from.

Normal circuits aren’t the only type of event, either. The circuits range from small sections of track to Rally Raids, where an assortment of vehicles cover a large area, and other events such as Hill Climbs, where cars and trucks are heavily modified to ascend grueling mountain trails. 300 Horsepower in such an event is considered weak.

Multiplayer in DiRT is a little different. There is no actual multiplayer. The competition comes from you and your friends competing for the best lap times with each other, as well as the online world - since your times are uploaded to the internet. In this way DiRT isn’t exactly Unreal Tournament. It’s a goal-setting competitive single player game.

Because it’s a goal-setting game, the replay value will differ depending on what kind of person you are. If you want to get the best record for a track and have your name at the top of the online leaderboard, you could play this game forever. However, if you’re looking to be refreshed by new and ever-changing content, you’re going to have to look elsewhere. DiRT will certainly appeal to a wider audience than other racing games, but it’s still a game for the goal-setting, practice-makes-perfect type of person.

All in all, if you’re a casual gamer perusing the early PS3 games for a cheap buy, or a just wanting to kill some time before Gran Turismo 5 comes out, DiRT is worthing picking up and giving a try.

*Actually, a 1995 MS-DOS game comes to mind: Destruction Derby. While you may not have heard of this incredible game, you’ve probably heard of Driver, a generally well-received Playstation game released in 1998. A UK-based studio known as Reflections made both of these.

**Article on artistic realism forthcoming. Link will be here once it’s complete.