Colin McRae:DiRT 2, A Codemasters Game

garymason72 Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:50 pm

Colin McRae:DiRT 2

A Codemasters Game.

When i heard there was a new Dirt game coming out i thought it would be the usual sequel, Same basic game with a few extra tweaks to the game play and maybe some newer vehicles. After a night of playing Dirt 2, I couldn’t have been more wrong,

Let’s start with the basics, Dirt 2 is made up 5 different race categories, these are Rally, a fast point to point race much like the real thing with each of the racers starting at 15 second intervals, this is a cool feature it allows you to catch the racer in front but also to be caught, if your driving is anything like mine the latter will happen a few times too often.

Trailblazer, which is similar to the rally events only the tracks are alot more open and less technical, these are all about speed, so when picking your car keep that in mind vehicle handling isn’t as important, again these are staggered starts allowing you to catch or be caught.

Raid, consists of 8 trucks on a point to point stage, a good feature of this race is the tracks have multiple routes allowing you to get a slight advantage over your competitors, but beware pick wisely, what looks like a faster route on the mini map may hold a surprise tight bend before rejoining the main track.

Landrush, is a Buggy race held on dirt circuits with all 8 racers starting side by side, the first corner is vital here as it often ends in a massive pile up with 1 driver slipping through unscathed, your choice here is, do you try and be the 1 or hold back a bit and let them take each other out, i will leave it to you to decide.

Rally-X, tight, technical rally courses over multiple terrain, be careful here as the transition between terrain can cause your car to either slide or grip so can cause you to crash as it did to me on many occasions, this is my favourite type of race with its fast corners and big jumps it really tests your driving skill.

The rally events have a sub-category called Gatecrasher, the aim here is to hit as many of the 'gates' as possible with each gate adding 2 seconds to the clock, so the more gates you hit the longer you race. As well as the gatecrasher there is 2 other special race modes, Domination and Last Man Standing. Domination is a circuit race which is broken up into sectors, the aim is to amass the most points by completing each sector in the fastest time, its quite possible to win these without being in first place which gives us all a chance to win at least 1 race. The Last Man Standing is an Elimination race with the driver in last place being eliminated every 20 seconds, because the time is so short between eliminations it really makes it a frantic race for survival.

In each of the 9 areas of the map there’s a good selection of races with no race type being overused, the career mode really is one you want to play not like in some other racers where it feels like a bit of a grind to get to the end. And to keep things a bit more competitive each area has a 'boss battle' in the form of a Showdown, basically a one on one or timed race against one of the many racing stars featured in the game. these showdowns can be any type of vehicle or course depending on the challenging stars specialist race.

That’s enough of the technical stuff lets get to the nitty gritty, Is it any good?..... In short yes, with the large selection of races, vehicles (35 in total) and the 9 different areas to race there is no lack of variety and even the lower level difficulties provide a good challenge. The Courses are very well designed and really show a good level of detail, all the backgrounds and environments are nothing less than brilliant. There is also some really nice touches 'in race' one of my favourites being huge firework explosions whenever you complete one of the games huge jumps, it really adds a bit of drama to the jumps, as if launching your vehicle 30 feet in the air isn’t enough drama.

Now for the little extras Dirt 2 uses the Replay feature first seen in Grid, a feature which is rapidly becoming the norm for racing games, another nice touch is the banter between racers when racing, whenever you crash into or overtake someone you get a bit of an earful from the other drivers this really helps to build the atmosphere it really feels like you are playing online even when you’re on your own. There are also loads of unlockable liveries, dashboard toys and windscreen toys for you vehicles, all for fun but allow you to customise your car a bit. My favourite being the ability to have your avatar hanging from you rear view mirror, nice touch. and the addition of in race missions allow you to level up your driver even if you aren’t winning the race, you are always adding to you mission count, these range from long jumping, high jumping, spinning, flipping, two wheel driving and loads more. so it’s possible to get more xp from losing a race than the winner gets for winning it, these are available both on and offline.

Online this game is just as good if not better than offline, all of the tracks and game modes are available as are the wide range of cars, trucks and buggies. Codemasters has also included a really handy party system which means you can join and leave games as a party so you don’t have to keep trying to find your mates. My personal favourite online mode is the team race mode, which using the party system allows you to race as a team with you friends, you against the world ok maybe not the world but against another team of up to 4 racers.

Now for the bad and to be honest there isn’t much wrong with this game its pretty much the perfect off-road arcade racer. maybe the lack of more single player time attack style events but i am just being picky. with the 100 career races and the online in which you can race all the offline races there is plenty to keep you racing for hours.

Now for the achievements and after a weekend of playing this game i have gained 715 of the 1000 available, that may sound a lot for one weekend but i assure you there has been plenty of hours gone into the game so far and i still have the more long winded points to get which should keep me racing for a while yet. I also have to give a special nod to one of the achievement names, it’s the one for winning 2 events with the same female team mate, the name is Two cups One Girl, which some of you may recognise it as a play on a title of an internet video of a slightly unsavoury nature. but it made me laugh.

As well as the many unlockable cars and liveries is a very fitting Colin McRae tribute video which reminds us all of what a brilliant talent he was in racing and reminds me how much of an impact he had on my love of racing at the time, and also why this game still carries his name after 12 years, they are still the benchmark for rallying games.

So in conclusion Dirt 2 is a brilliant off-road racer with loads of tracks, loads of races and loads of cars, awesome graphics and a soundtrack that will blow your socks off, not to mention a very challenging but achievable 1000 gs. I think this game deserves no less than an awesome 9/10,a score I don’t think many will disagree with.

**KENT HAMMER** Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:08 am

Awesome review for an Awesome game mate.

But I am bias as I own it and love it and have played loads of multiplayer with you too.

Great fun that never lets up.
Its such a fresh change and takes the grind out of driving games cheers

palindromic BOB Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:41 am

grrr to many good games coming out and I have to prioritise! This looks sweet though.

Guest Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:45 am

nice review gary matey

when my to be played pile shrinks I will add this game now

Guest Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:13 pm

Great review Gaz well done, as good as the review is though it's still not tempting me to go out and get it. I only have eyes for Forza 3 when it comes to upcoming or current racers. Wink

garymason72 Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:18 pm

i too am really looking forward to Forza 3 and although it will be a better game in terms of graphics, car physics and in depth i dont think it will compare, fun-wise.

Thommo Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:34 am

Spot on with the review Gary mate! I agree there should have been more traditional rally stages and less X games type stuff. The most important thing is that games should be enjoyable and Dirt is. You don't feel like you're slogging through it to get to the end, like many other games. I'm looking forward to playing it online, haven't tried that yet.

garymason72 Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:36 am

its wicked online, me and Kent have been playing it all week, you are welcome to join us next time we are on

Thommo Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:43 am

Will do, only got the game yesterday so thought I'd get some practice in on the single player before I took my non existent driving skills online!!

**KENT HAMMER** Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:19 am

Racing GOTY????

palindromic BOB Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:33 pm

Woohoo paid this month! may be getting this sooner rather than later!

Guest Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:07 am

well I have relented

Because of your glowing review Gary I have gone and bought this game today

Mind you its on sale at shopto today for 24.99 which is a little more than my normal limit for a title but still a good deal

thanks again for the testing matey

**Tricky34** Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:06 pm

Well i was impatiently waiting for for Forza 3 to be released...

However after reading your review and then playing it on a friends Wii, i've bought this today (£29.99 in Game).

And so far i think its a cracking game, the cars handle well, the graphics are good, and the tracks i've managed to unlock in the last couple of hours are good too.

I think this will be great for those days when i can't be bothered trying to race seriously with Forza.

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