If you read Citizen Game regularly then you’ll know that I’m something of a petrolhead. DiRT 3 (which I reviewed recently) is one of the most satisfying and demanding racing games you could ever hope to play and it just got even better thanks to the Monte Carlo Rally DLC, which is now available for 800MSP on Xbox Live or £6.29 on PlayStation Network.

Based on routes from the real Monte Carlo Rally, which returns to the World Rally Championship next year, the DLC features some of the most dangerous and difficult courses you can imagine. The eight stages are all incredibly narrow, often little wider than your car, with a sheer mountain drop on one side. You’ll start up in the snowy mountain roads, working your way down through twisting hairpins towards smoother tarmac without the slushy stuff. Sections vary from very tight switchbacks, requiring deft handbrake control, to terrifying flat-out curves where small mistakes will send you sailing over the cliff edge.

The level of difficulty in these tracks is substantially higher than during the main DiRT Tour mode, making this DLC perfectly suited to rally fans who have been demanding more challenging stages since DiRT 3′s release. Less seasoned players will find the Monte Carlo stages to be quite tough and unforgiving, so you will either need to put in plenty of practice, or make liberal use of your Flashbacks. I consider myself to be pretty good at driving games and I have had to use plenty of Flashbacks myself during the course of these rallies. Just a small miscalculation can lead to incidents like the one below!

As well as adding these stages to the Single Race mode, the DLC also adds several new events to the DiRT Tour using the new tracks. In total these take around an hour to complete. However, if you’ve been playing DiRT 3 since launch then you’ll probably find that they don’t add much to your Tour progression, as the Driver Level cap of 30 has not been increased. What isn’t yet certain is how the DLC will be handled during online multiplayer. It is unclear as to how Codemasters plans to separate those with the DLC and those without it when searching for Ranked races.

For die-hard rally and DiRT fans, this DLC is a great addition to the game and represents reasonably good value for the price. It would have been nice to have a car or two thrown in as well, but if you’re hungry for more places to hoon then this is an absolute must. The level of challenge makes this one of the most meaningful pieces of DLC available for any racing game.

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