You know, for all the Gran Turismos and Forzas and Need For Speeds of the past couple of years, my favourite racing game over that time has actually been Dirt 2. So, yeah, Dirt 3 is of interest.

OK, it's eXtrEme sPOrts angle can get a little tiresome at times, but few racing games look as good as Dirt 2, even fewer are as fun or as raw to drive, and none sound as good. Seriously, if you have a surround system, you owe it to yourself to play Dirt 2, where you'll swear you can hear each individual piece of dirt pinging off your car door.

Dirt 3 will be focusing a little less on the strange street races of the second game and a little more on "traditional" dirt rallies. Which you wouldn't get from this trailer, as a car skids under trucks and around flagpoles all in the name of hoots and hollers.

It'll be out next year on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Gymkhana, the "car rodeo" YouTube video phenomenon, will join the redoubtable Rally in DiRT 3 next year. Loosely described, gymkhana features a start and finish line and some obstacle to negotiate. Codemasters dropped several screenshots illustrating both modes today.

A news release from Codemasters says that DiRT 3's rally will feature "more than double the amount of content," with tracks ranging from Scandinavia to Kenya and the United States. Gymkhana will be "set in specifically created arenas packed with props." Chaining together moves is said to be a gameplay feature.

Alright, I take back what I said about trashcan luge and moped biathlon. The X-Games are a strangely watchable sports spectacle, and a good platform for Codemasters to launch its official DiRT 3 trailer last night.

The trailer obviously showcases the changing environmental conditions you race under when the game releases next year. That last bit with the exploding tractor-trailer seems a bit overdone, but it seems to reference gymkhana, an extreme rally sport where course memorization is key and there's usually a major obstacle to navigate somehow.

[via VG247]

Codemasters, the studio behind racing games like Dirt and the upcoming F1 2010, is taking another developer to court, accusing it of "poaching staff".

Late last year, Trevor Williams and Nick Wheelwright - former Codemasters executives - broke away from the British studio and formed their own new team, called Playground Games.

Codemasters now alleges, though, that Playground "poached" around a dozen Codemasters employees, who "had access to trade secrets and confidential information to give it a head start of about 12 months in developing and marketing games."

In total, 17 former Codemasters employees have been named in the suit, which also alleges that Playground "disrupted Codemasters' development of its own racing games".

Juicy.

Rival didn't play fair, claims games giant [Daily Mail]

Codemasters, the studio behind racing games like Dirt and the upcoming F1 2010, is taking another developer to court, accusing it of "poaching staff".

Late last year, Trevor Williams and Nick Wheelwright - former Codemasters executives - broke away from the British studio and formed their own new team, called Playground Games.

Codemasters now alleges, though, that Playground "poached" around a dozen Codemasters employees, who "had access to trade secrets and confidential information to give it a head start of about 12 months in developing and marketing games."

In total, 17 former Codemasters employees have been named in the suit, which also alleges that Playground "disrupted Codemasters' development of its own racing games".

Juicy.

Rival didn't play fair, claims games giant [Daily Mail]