Dirt 5

If you're the type of person who plays racing games for hundreds of hours, Dirt 5 might let you down and I completely understand why. But for everyone else, it's a very accessible and personality-filled game that should keep you busy for a while.

DIRT 5 should have a different name or should have been branched off to its own series, considering it takes design cues from Forza Horizon in an attempt to lure players over for an off-road experience that feels similar. Codemasters at least has stuck to circuit racing, but surely an open-world DIRT is on its way sooner than later.

Dirt 5 doesn't quite stick the landing due to its simplistic handling model, but there's still plenty of fun to be had when racing door to door in an excessive snowstorm or throwing a Porsche 911 R-GT down the side of a mountain in a frenetic race to the bottom. It doesn't reach the heights of Dirt 2, but that game's influence is keenly felt in Dirt 5. If the series continues along this path, it won't be long until it's soaring high again.

I’m a big fan of Dirt 5. It’s not going to garner the praise of a Gran Turismo or a Forza, but it’s exactly the kind of game I was after. It’s fun, easy to get into, full of variety, looks pretty, and features cars that slide beautifully around corners. Dirt 5 is a feel-good game at feel-bad time, which is about the best time for it to exist.

Dirt 5 is an excellent rally racer offering plenty of race modes and car classes to choose from. The Career mode is engaging, and the presentation is gorgeous.

A series of playsets to Forza Horizon's big open toybox. A fun and flashy arcade racer that's easy to pick up and play, but much, much harder to put down again.

But whereas Slightly Mad’s game seems to be jutting out its chin and actively daring you to find something of the franchise’s prior identity which you liked among its new mess of utterly characterless racing, Dirt 5 is guilty of the opposite. Instead of jettisoning its identity it’s playing too safe, holding onto it too closely in search of the apocryphal casual racing gamer who’s scared of brake pedals.

Dirt 5 is the perfect racing game to launch the new generation of consoles: a thrilling arcade off-road racer that doesn’t skimp on visual flair.

Dirt 5 is that one friend you love to go out drinking with. It’s brash, bold, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s got a bunch of awesome tracks and a dynamic weather system that works really well, and then the playgrounds mode injects much-needed longevity into a game that might become stale after 20-30 hours or so.

While Dirt 5’s graphics and effects are impressive, it does have technical issues like pop-ins and weird audio bugs. A day-one patch and GPU driver optimization should address these issues. All in all, Dirt 5 continues the trend of Codemaster’s already impressive racing pedigree.