As I said before, Codies’ mantra with DiRT 2 is ‘accessibility’, and that is also made clearly apparent in the controls. For the first time, you can now refer to a Colin McRae game as pick-up-and-play. It’s not as effortless as Burnout or Pure, but it certainly doesn’t come with a steep learning curve like the MotorStorm games either, and anyone, regardless of their history with racing games, should have no issues coming to grips with the vehicle controls. Performance damage has also been drastically reduced this time around, and you’ll now need to bang the car up pretty good to even inflict minor damage (although a high speed crash will still total your car in one blow). So accessible it is, but thankfully, it hasn’t come at the expense of fun, and tearing through canyons and rainforests is just as thrilling as it’s ever been.
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The 100 events in the DiRT Tour span across four continents. From the urban locations in LA, Tokyo and London, to the arid environs of Utah and Morocco, to the lush settings of Malaysia, China, and Croatia, DiRT 2 has every track type you could possibly hope for in an off-road racing game. To add to that, most courses are riddled with alternate paths, varying track surfaces, jumps, dips, and water trenches to keep you on your toes. The nine locations may seem less on paper, but there is enough track here to not feel repetitive. Throw in course variations and reverse layouts and there’s enough to hold anyone’s attention.
DiRT 2 also features extensive online multiplayer options. You can either join the Pro Tour and partake in ranked races in various event types, or head into Jam Session and create your own custom races. There’s even an option to team up with up to three friends and enter races together. The leveling system is also present in multilayer, but it’s independent from your DiRT Tour level. So you could have conquered the career mode, but once you head online, you start at Level 1. It would have been nice to have a common leveling system across the single and multiplayer modes, and it would definitely have encouraged players to play both simultaneously. As has sadly become the norm with racing games of late, DiRT 2 doesn’t support split-screen multi-player racing, so the only way to test your skills against human opposition is to head online (or, if you’re playing on the Xbox 360, via system link).
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It comes as no surprise that DiRT 2 is one of the prettiest racing games around. It’s almost a given with Codemasters racing games, thanks to their magical Ego engine. There are some disappointments though. Damage effects were a highlight in the first DiRT game, but they don’t seem all that impressive this time around. Not as many parts seem to fall off the car now, and your car can end up looking rather strange once banged up; deformed, but not in a believable way. Technically, the game handles near flawlessly, although as with the previous game, the bloom effects are overdone. But take one trip through the lush green Malaysian rainforest, and watch as the sunlight creeps through the dense vegetation, and all these issues will be forgotten.
It seems like all racing game developers are forced to pick from a fixed collection of music for their game’s soundtrack, because they seem to have way too many tracks in common. The same is the case with DiRT 2. The soundtrack isn’t bad at all, but it just doesn’t feel fresh when five other recent games have had so many of the same tracks. Elsewhere in the audio department, engine sounds are great, but one aspect that will divide people is the in-race banter between the AI racers. Personally, I didn’t mind it, but I can see how it could annoy others who just want to get on with their race rather than listen to what the opponents have to say.
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Conclusion
Colin McRae: Dirt 2 has had me up at 4 am telling myself to carry on for just one more race, or just one more level up, and that’s more than I can say for most games. The tight controls, brilliant track design, and engrossing career structure will keep you hooked, with numerous online multi-player options as an added bonus. Sure, it hurts that rally is being sidelined, and yes, the bigger vehicles aren’t quite as fun to drive as the rally cars, but as an off-road racing game, it does most things right.
(+) Accessible without diluting the experience
(+) Addictive career mode
(+) Brilliant track design
(+) Visually stunning
(-) No real rally events
(-) Larger vehicles not much fun to drive
Title: Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Developer/Publisher: Codemasters
Genre: Racing
Rating: 12+
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (Rs 2,499), Xbox 360 (Rs 2,499), PC (delayed)
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