Dirt Showdown

Summary

Showdown was primarily designed to be played online, a point it makes abundantly clear when it incessantly nags you to connect every time you start its engine. It’s all a ploy to get you to sign up to Racenet, Codemasters’ new stat-tracking system currently in beta form that’s essentially their answer to Need for Speed’s successful Autolog system. Every event found in Showdown Tour can be played online, and it’s predictably more enjoyable to play against human opponents. The primal thrill of bashing into a human opponent is ever present, but the physics don’t always appear up to the task as I sometimes experienced some dodgy collision detection. Completing events also invite you to challenge a friend to beat your record, which at least offers more incentive to keep playing unlike in the offline portion.