Introduction

I could never really get into racing games. One of my first experiences with any kind of car game was Spy Hunter on Nintendo, but that could hardly be called a racing game. It was more of a top down rail shooter, kind of like all of those space fighter games. I think the term for those was Shoot'em up games or Top/Side scrollers. It really wasn't until the original Carmageddon came out for the PC that I played any car type game. That game shifted my tastes to more of the arcade like racing games, such as Twisted Metal and Need for Speed. Those had more of a fun factor to them, rather than the mundane circular driving.

As I got older, I did end up getting more into cars. This peaked my interest in certain games that allowed for more realistic customization and real world scenarios with car racing. Before Need For Speed Underground or Midnight Club came out, there was a game on the Dreamcast named Tokyo Xtreme Racer that really introduced me to cars and modifications. The gameplay also mimicked underground racing, as you would modify your car and challenge people on the highways in more of a "free roaming" setting. As an enthusiast, I ended up buying an Evolution VIII which I still drive today. It's Mitsubishi's prized rally car, which is also featured in the Dirt series.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Dirt 3 1GB Dual Fan Video Card could be seen as their modded import. The HD 6870 Dirt 3 Edition features an overclocked core set at 920MHz. The HD6870 is also super cooled with Sapphire's Dual Fan GPU cooler reserved for higher end cards. This fan features 90mm fans that cool more efficient and with much less noise. Features familiar to the 6870 are the 40nm chip, 1120 Stream processors, and 1GB of 256-bit GDDR5 memory (4200MHz effective). This is the Dirt 3 edition, therefore, a free key to Dirt 3 is also included. Sapphire's TriXX utility is also bundled with the card for monitoring and further overclocking.