Pre: Our princes are coming due to the dust and the dirt!

When, after getting acquainted with a game, you have nothing to say about it—it’s a very strange feeling. It seems everything is there: beautiful graphics and good sound, design and drive, but the words still don’t come. Well, let’s start from the beginning.

And the essence of the game is almost immediately clear to everyone.

An Honest Exchange of Dirt Opinions

How the prompt translates the title of the game—that’s how it will drift? It is known that DIRT Showdown was not planned as DIRT 4, but rather as a spin-off for fans of arcade joyrides from [DIRT 3](/games?search=DIRT 3), who complained about too high a difficulty. Now they can expect pleasant races where the game begins to pamper the player’s senses from the get-go. Almost no adaptation—literally from the second turn, the player realizes he is cool and can do everything, especially since the not-so-clever opponent contributes to this.

Such angles can be obtained even without staging.

There is no fine tuning or realistic car behaviors present at all; in their place are lightweight boxes with wheels that seize every opportunity to embark on thrilling journeys with flips in the air. Tuning is represented by four car characteristics that can be upgraded for money, just like in FlatOut, which once again takes the game away from its rally roots and brings it into the camp of [Need for Speed](/games?search=Need for Speed) and other arcade racers. Yes, literally from the second race, the spirit of that FlatOut (ignoring the last installment) is felt everywhere, starting from rusty and not-so-rusty beater cars and ending with a riot of colors, fireworks, crashes, wildly cheering spectators, and the overwhelming dynamics of everything happening.

Well, this one just needs no comments.

But the differences are almost immediately visible—while the well-known race from the Finnish studio offered the transformation of everything and everyone into heaps of smoking trash as the primary activity, Showdown emphasizes races where dirty tricks can be used, like directly ramming an opponent from the side or gradually pushing them against the wall, with the subsequent smashing of that same opponent into the most liked corner of the track.

The game modes do not shine with variety, but due to the well-crafted tracks, they do not get tiresome. Here you have regular ring races, among which are figure-eight tracks, guaranteeing chaos at intersections and constant leader changes due to frequent ramming of the laggards. There’s also a derby mode, straight from you-know-which game, in which you need to perform as many destructive actions as possible, as well as a more subtle variant that requires us to precisely push opponents out of the arena. And there is a hoonigan mode as well, where you compete with Ken Block in creative runs on specially arranged tracks. An adrenaline and burned rubber festival is guaranteed.

Smash, break, overtake, cyber-degrade!

Brazilian Carnival: The Beginning?

Will the new offspring of Codemasters, who have already made a name for themselves in producing racing games, shoot off with the force expected from [FlatOut 3](/games?search=FlatOut 3)? Yes, damn it! The game has everything to be a worthy contender for the title of