User Review : Colin McRae: Dirt 2

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Review

Pop the disc into the PS3, and the first thing you will notice is how stunningly well the game is presented. The menu designs are a cut above anything I have ever seen. It not only looks great, it's simple and easy to use. But to it’s on the track where DiRT 2's excellence really shows itself. The game balances challenge, reward and diversity impeccably well. Right from the opening cinematic I knew that this game was a cut above the rest.

It won't take you as long to complete DiRT 2 as it does to finish games like Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo, but it is still a fairly lengthy game by any standard. But there is always reason to keep playing right on through to the end.

You will revisit most of the tracks multiple times, but there are 10 or so different locations each with several different track types to keep things happening and offer up some variety. Adding to this, most countries have their own tournaments and other major tours. Tracks range from the muddy forested tracks of Malaysia to the tight courses of Japan and dusty courses of China.

There is also a good range of vehicles, which are divided into 7 classes (1 class generally represents the vehicles available for each type of event, but there are some exceptions). Each class of vehicle handle differently and require you to drive differently if you hope to win. This also encourages you to experiment with different vehicles and own a wide range of them. However, for most events there is one vehicle that stands above the rest, although they might not be available until towards the middle of the game.

Sticking with the cars for a bit longer, it’s really great to see that cars handle differently on different surfaces. For example, the Pontiac Solstice, for me at least, was excellent on dirt and wet surfaces, but prone to uncontrollable oversteer on bitumen. But this doesn't mean that you can't use the car for bitumen tracks. For two reasons actually, the first being that your competitors are likely having to compromise in the same way, or by using a car that handles alright on all surfaces but excellent on none. The second being that you can always tune your car to the tracks needs.

The tunning is very simple and comes with some explanation as to what each tweak will do to your ride. There aren't enough hints though, and unless you know what you’re doing, it’s best to leave it alone and go with default settings. This is a real shame, as the whole idea of simplifying it is to make it accessible to more people, but it turns out that complexity isn't the limiting factor.

To driving now, and the most prominent feature apart from the throttle and brakes is the rewind feature from the developers previous game Race Driver: GRID. It's obviously popular, as Turn 10, the studio behind the Forza series just ripped it off and put it in their game. I get the feeling that it is probably more suited to games with long individual races, as it really is a pain to get to the end of a race and crash out on the last corner loosing you the race and 20+ minutes of your life. Nevertheless, it is implemented perfectly, and as you only get limited uses (the amount of flashbacks is dependent on the difficulty setting) you are forced to use them wisely.

The opponent AI is pretty smart. Give them a shove or two and they won't be afraid to give you one back. They also will work to cut you off and block you from overtaking on higher difficulty levels, but tend to attempt to avoid collision on the lower settings. The fact that they talk to you after and during a race though really pissed me off. The majority of what they have to say is lame anyway like "The people here really know how to party". Who gives a toss? It's a crying shame that blemishes an otherwise near perfect game.

As you complete races you earn experience, which unlocks more races. At times though it can feel like it getting all too much as you can have 20 or 30 un-played races, not to mention the tournaments and X-Games events which are like the best-of-the-best competition, where you must compete in qualifying finals in order to get into the main final against the top 8 racers.

The graphics are pretty impressive. There is a fair amount of extra detail over the original's car models. The environments are impressively strong as well. On the PS3 at least, I did have some fairly frequent frame rate issues though. The frame rate issue is never enough to ruin a race, but certainly a nuisance. The damage modelling is also a step above all other racing games. You can choose between visual only and full damage, which includes panel deformation, component damage which generally makes the car harder to control and/or decreases performance. Crash too hard though, and you're out of the race (unless you have some flashbacks left). However, getting terminal damage doesn't happen that often, in fact it only happened to me once, but perhaps that’s just because I'm excellent :), and you aren't forced to pay for repairs, it is all free and automatic.

The online component deserves to be played; the tactics and hard fought battles translate completely from the single player. You can play in the full range of race modes, and have all the cars unlocked (apart from some of the special models). Completing races will gain you fame points which act basically as an online ranking scheme. The better you do, the more points you get.

There is a danger rating system, which decides how dangerously someone drives, and puts them into races with other likeminded racers. Unfortunately it is too lenient, and even when competing against apparently cool headed drivers there is a fair amount of push and shove that takes some of the fun out of it if you are trying to drive carefully.

For those inclined to smash some metal, there is a special online mode for you, in Jam Session. Its basically meant for people who don't care about winning, and just want to have some fun. Lag is not a major issue online, although as with all other races there are no dedicated servers. The occasional driver will have appalling lag, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.

One thing I forgot to mention was the missions, which are present in both the single player and multiplayer modes. There are heaps of them to complete, with objectives like spin 100 times or jump for so many metres in total. Completing missions nets you XP for single player and FP (fame points) for multiplayer.

The music definitely needs a mention for its uniqueness. Sure, this means that some of the songs are pretty rubbish, but it is a racing game after all, a genre that goes hand in hand with bad music. In any case, the majority of the 45 songs in the games soundtrack are at least bearable.

In conclusion, DiRT 2 is without doubt the most impressively presented game in a long time. The racing is fun, the graphics beautiful, and the damage modelling and physics are exceptional. The fun goes online too, but try to avoid collisions which can see you out of contention as there is no rewind online! Whether you are new to racers or a seasoned pro, you will definitely have fun with DiRT 2; there really is something for everyone, in terms of vehicles, music, tracks and features. An exceptional game that deserves to be more popular than it is.