What you see above is the latest trailer for Codemasters' upcoming rally race sequel DiRT 3. In it you'll find driver Ken Block behind the wheel of the new darling of the rally race world, the four-wheel drive Ford Fiesta, as it drives through various environments and weather types. The press release that accompanied the trailer identifies those areas as (in order from first to last): a sundried Kenyan area, a rainy Finnish lakeside course, a snowy Norwegian stage, and then Block finally encounters some competition as he races against a Mitsubishi Evo X in the hills above Monaco. After that, well, things get a little weird.

You see, a minute into the trailer, Block pulls his Fiesta into London's Battersea Power Station and drives in front of a parked tractor trailer. At this point, the action goes into slow motion, and for some reason, the tractor trailer blows up. I guess you can't really have a video game, no matter the genre, without unnecessary explosions. Block then pulls a fairly impressive 180 turn, and drives underneath the flaming truck. The press release explains that it is an example of "what the very best drivers can do with a rally car in a Gymkhana-style performance", but to me, it's just a cheap excuse to make something blow up. Of course since most games and movies with explosions tend to do better in the marketplace than those without them, maybe I'm in the wrong. The game is due out at some point in 2011, so you can look forward to many more months of explosions between now and then.