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Colin McRae: Dirt 2

Published By: Dene Benham On: 29/06/2009 10:00

AT A GLANCE

"Buckle in, time to get dirty."

The Good: More down and dirty racing.

The Bad: Not a rally sim anymore.

The Ugly: A right four over crest into a left hairpin.

By Dene Benham

Get ready for a high intensity, down and dirty driving experience that not only looks spectacular, but is packed full of extreme attitude. But how can something so dirty be so good? Colin McRae: Dirt 2 answers the question.

In Dirt 2 you are more then just a rally driver. You’re a rally driver with attitude, with tattoos and, most importantly, with two hot girls in your trailer. Although the naked girl in your shower may be your chief mechanic and the one making breakfast in the eyeliner and singlet may be your business manager, they probably aren’t. But even if they were, you get the feeling that this is not your traditional Colin McRae Rally game.

Your trailer is the basis for all the game’s racing options. Here you’ll have access to your collection of licensed cars and can launch into the game’s World Tour. While there is still the single car time trials on the back roads of Asia, Europe and Africa there will also be a number multi car races and stadium events. More importantly there will be a far more feature laden online component, making up for the only failing of the original game.

Colin McRae and UK developer Codemasters were kicking up mud around the world for ten years until McRae's unfortunate demise. Featuring an updated version of the EGO engine, the same engine that powered their highly regarded racer GRID, Dirt 2's graphics and gameplay will hope to do a Sebastien Loeb on the rest of the world’s racing sims.

Online, Dirt 2 promises a far smoother experience. Finding friends and events will be easier with plenty of race options, leader boards, live updates as well as an automatic tracking feature that notifies you when your friends beat your best times.

Also improving on the original will be Dirt 2's graphics. In Dirt 2 the cars will have an unprecedented level of accuracy and detail. Lighting and particle effects, environments and damage modelling will to combine for a spectacular and unprecedented gaming experience.

Colin McRae: Dirt made a great impression with its release in 2007. Before Dirt the Colin McRae games had concentrated on traditional rallying, placing the emphasis on driving technique and accuracy. However the reboot, as the name suggested, incorporated a lots of off road elements and also began to feel much more like an arcade racer. From crossovers to hill climbs, the game embraced fast and furious off road action.

Colin McRae was killed in a helicopter accident immediately after Dirt’s release in 2007, and though his rallying career, which took off with a win in the rally of New Zealand in 1993 and a world driver's title in 1995, was winding down, he was finding a place in the US market. Most notably at the ’06 X games where despite rolling his car he still managed to finish only a fraction of a second behind winner Travis Pastrana.

The inclusion of Colin McRae’s name in the title comes after plenty of consideration and discussion between the team at Codemasters, many who worked with him since 1998, and the McRae family. The game will also include a Colin McRae memorial trophy. However, nobody involved has lost sight of the game’s ultimate purpose to deliver a great looking, thrilling arcade style racing sim. In a couple of short months, it’ll be time to get dirty.

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NZGamer.com - Colin McRae: Dirt 2

COMMENTS (10)

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On 29 June 2009, 10:11AM Posted by Ninja-15

I didn't really like the first DiRT. The handling was awful...turned too easy, way to arcady... The WRC series was the best...

On 29 June 2009, 10:12AM Posted by Xenojay

Wow, that's really awesome to see Colin McRae's name still attached. I thought it was a bit ill-thought for a second, but if they have spoken with his family, had it condoned and there's a special trophy, well that's just cool.

On 29 June 2009, 10:29AM Posted by thejuror84

Dirt 2 was good despite being more on the arcade side, which is fine for a non-racing expert like me, but had plenty of areas to improve on, and after reading this I don't think they are focusing their effort on the right areas.

PLUS NO SPLIT SCREEN = EPIC FAIL for god's sake not every one plays online all the time for their multiplayer fix, which in most genres of gaming is more frustrating than supporting the warriors with NZ's internet speed. Most of the time being in the same room as your mates is far more satisfying, apart from maybe 1st person shooters

On 29 June 2009, 01:19PM Posted by Oliver

Reply to Ninja-1529 June 2009, 10:11AM
I didn't really like the first DiRT. The handling was awful...turned too easy, way to arcady... The WRC series was the best...

Yeah I agree about the WRC series, but I haven't seen a new WRC game in ages. :(

I'll probably be picking this up for a quick go to see what it's like.

On 29 June 2009, 01:21PM Posted by Oliver

Reply to thejuror8429 June 2009, 10:29AM
Dirt 2 was good despite being more on the arcade side, which is fine for a non-racing expert like me, but had plenty of areas to improve on, and after reading this I don't think they are focusing their effort on the right areas. PLUS NO SPLIT SCREEN = EPIC FAIL for god's sake not every one plays online all the time for their multiplayer fix, which in most genres of gaming is more frustrating than supporting the warriors with NZ's internet speed. Most of the time being in the same room as your mates is far more satisfying, apart from maybe 1st person shooters

Yeah split-screen racing games are awesome, and I wish more developers would implement them. MotorStorm 2 is awesome playing with friends and GT5 Prologue wasn't bad either. This could have been awesome and I'm surprised it's not in there.

On 29 June 2009, 01:24PM Posted by Ninja-15

Yeah, No Split Screen is FAIL! That's what caused me to sell my copy of DiRT so quickly... Luckily they bought out a update patch for Unreal Tournament 3 for 2 player split screen... I wish it were 4 player split screen though...But I guess 2 player split screen is better than nothing...

On 29 June 2009, 02:34PM Posted by Gazza22

Oh man, imagine split screen with that figure 8 track at the x-games that was featured in the first.

On 29 June 2009, 06:24PM Posted by Oliver

You guys need to try out MotorStorm Pacific Rift for some good 4 player split screen. Real good.

On 30 June 2009, 09:39PM Posted by The Host of Chaos

Reply to Oliver29 June 2009, 06:24PM
You guys need to try out MotorStorm Pacific Rift for some good 4 player split screen. Real good.

It's going cheap at the moment at DSE $50 or there abouts. Weird... it's not listed on the website at all.

On 20 July 2009, 05:56PM Posted by Oliver

Reply to The Host of Chaos30 June 2009, 09:39PM
It's going cheap at the moment at DSE $50 or there abouts. Weird... it's not listed on the website at all.

Yeah I've seen it around that price at a few places now. Be warned there's some rather large update patches for it if you want to play online. But definitely worth it in my opinion!