[Archived] Dirt 2

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Looking superb!

[Shabani]

i could never get dust 1 to work on my laptop

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Taking it to the next level

Grid was good but this looks stunning from Codemasters.

[Hughesy]

Played the demo the other day - looks good.

Hopefully it wont be too expensive when it comes out.

[snatchymcsnatch]

Got the full version - it was a toss up between that and batman but as Grid 2 ahem... - sorry DIRT 2 has a bit more longevity I went with it.

First and foremost lets not beat around the bush - Dirt 2 is good. In fact it's damn good. Secondly, it's essentially GRID but driving on dirt. Therefore if you liked Grid (personally it's my favourite racer) you'll like Dirt just as much but for slightly different reasons I suspect.

As we won at the weekend I'll start with the positives:

There are more race modes and tracks than you can shake a stick at so when you're playing on line there's plenty of variety. The demo doesn't really do the full game justice as you can only race the trucks and drive a point to point. In the full version you can race accross roughly 10 regions - from memory these include places like London (Battersea Power Station), Malaysia (Jungle), UTAH (Mountains and dust), China (A bit of everything), Croatia (Forest and Mountains) - all of these I'm pleased to say are quite unique.

The career mode is relatively straight forward (win races, get xp, get cash, buy cars, win bigger races, better cars etc etc.). The career mode isn't as good as GRID as your not part of a racing team which brings me to the first negative - you just feel like your winning races and once you've made your first £mil it becomes more of a mission to buy all the vehicles so you can compete online. Also you don't get to name your own team or customise your own liveries, although you can choose from a selection of preset ones which you can change every race. I thought the paint jobs and liveries you could add in grid were excellent and they are strangely lacking here. You can collect dashboard toys along they way which are quirky, but ultimately pointless.

Anyhow, screw the career mode - it's passable but ultimately a little shallow but i can forgive it as online is where it's at.

Online is, as we'd expect nowadays, lag free and easy to jump in. It's also great fun though. Straightforward racing is excellent - the game mechanics are great and it's immensely satisfying when you nail some good drifts. There are also many different race modes, some of which I didn't think would be much fun but are awesome - particularly rally mode where it's point to point and you have a staggered start. You wait in line for your turn to go (cars are let go about every five seconds) and try and be the fastest. Your not wheel to wheel but it's a great rush with the regular split times showing where you are. Your co drivers babbling notes add to the authenticity also - it feels like a seperate game in it's own right.

Because this is essentially an off road game there are a lot more bumps and varied corners than there are in a standard racing game so rarely do you get one player steaming ahead of the pack because they know the track. There are that many tracks and that many ways to approach the corners you can be confident you are playing on a level playing field. Only by nailing corners with a perfect tweak of the handbrake will you prosper.

They have also found a way to keep all the pillocks in once place as well. You are rewarded for clean races by being matched up in future races with likeminded clean racers, leaving the idiots to crash into each other. Reversing up the track or driving the wrong way will also result in disqualification. You also won't hit them as they are "ghosted" really effectively.

All in all, if you even remotely like racing games and are willing to give it a chance (controlling the vehicle and feeding just the right amount of power to the wheels and applying the handbrake at just the right time is a challenge, but ultimately very rewarding, dirt 2 will be an excellent addition to your collection and you will probably play it more than you think, that is until FIFA 10 comes out of course.

8.5 out of 10. Well worth a punt of anyones cash.