Review: Colin McRae DiRT 2

So, after a long time away from the joys of videogaming I decided to dust off my Xbox 360 and fire up Colin McRae Dirt 2, released last month from Codemasters.  All went according to plan until I found out it doesn’t play on PAL 50 hertz televisions, a minor grievance for those of us who aren’t quite up to standards of the 21st century!  So four days and one HDMI cable later I was ready to start my (overdue) review of DiRT 2.

Straight away you’re hit with an action packed intro which really informs you you’re playing a racing game;  the visuals are quite impressive with superb looking cars, jumps and turns.  However as you delve further into the game you begin to notice that other elements of the package such as in-game graphics are quite lacking.   It’s fair to say that it’s a bit distracting that the visuals depicting in fact the fans who stand around the borders of most races seem to be quite blockish and lacking in any real detail or textures.  Thankfully, however, you’ll spend most of your time concentrating on the swish looking cars and terrains which are both appealing and realistic. It’s fairly safe to say that the backdrops are fairly mediocre however as there’s an obvious difference between the track and backgrounds.  Perhaps some further depth of field filters may have changed my perception on this matter but as it stands it is just a little, minor annoyance.  Moving on to more positive aspects of the visuals my personal favourite in the graphics department was the ‘in car’ view where damage to your car such as a broken windscreen is shown.  It gets more interesting, and difficult to play, when you drive through puddles and thus get splashed with water and mud, hampering your driving ability by obscuring your ability to actually see.  Talk about a way to add an extra challenge for some of the long time race fans out there.  Whilst some of the aforementioned in-game graphics are lacking there seems to have been a lot of attention put on the trailer.  Your main base of operations, it is here from which you do most of your navigation of the games career mode.  Looking realistically grimy and cluttered, as you might expect because after all you’re a rally driver, there’s a huge amount of detail in the presentation here so it’s a shame that you don’t speed too much time here.

As well as the visuals the game also has some great accompanying audio work.  The revving engines, crunching crashes and even the splashing water are completely one hundred percent hi-fi believable, and as such it adds to the atmosphere of being in that environment.   Not only this but during races you’ll hear messages from other racers in reaction to in-game events, much in the way of the SSX series.  Although sometimes they are sent out of the blue, my favourite having been “So, anyone know any good jokes,” they add to the feeling of camaderie in the world of DiRT 2′s league of petrolheads.  And to top it all off, the entire music setlist is pretty awesome – even if I didn’t actually recognize the tracks.  Unfortunately the tracks don’t play during the race, just the preamble to each race, which kind of disappointed me in some aspects but then again this is a rally game where control and paying attention to your environment can be key to success.

Control.  The controls for this game are extremely intuitive and best of all, fully customizable.  Unfortunately the driving is a lot harder, and will probably take amateurs a while to get used to, but once you have the driving is very enjoyable.  The games physics system seems to be highly tuned right down to the dirt you race on, in fact it’s fairly safe to say that the elements of each track are perfectly reproduced.  Differing terrains have a large affect on the steering and swerve of your car, as well as affecting speed and braking.  However, although I’m no expert in the field the cars can take an extraordinary beating which can mean a swift defeat should you be the type to run and gun.  As you’d expect there’s the option to drive manually or automatically, allowing for added variation in difficulty.  Before each race you can ‘adjust your car’ which allows you to make slight changes to critical element parts such as suspension and breaking.  Making these changes have a large effect on your driving, allowing you to customize your style for each race.

The flashback feature from the first DiRT entry has also returned, allowing you to reverse time in the race and fix mistakes you made – very useful is you’re prone to totalling your car.  The only drawback in this feature however, and the same can be said of the recently released Forza 3 which also makes use of the feature, is that its usage can easily disrupt the flow and excitement of a race.  For drivers who prefer precision however I’m sure it’ll become an invaluable tool.  For each race you gain experience depending on how high you rank upon finish, as well as for completing the in-game missions.  This experience seems to represent your current level of fame, and with each new level comes more exciting locales and other unlockables for your dashboard.  Each new location is unlocked through other drivers recognising your driving potential and inviting you to events, and the same is true to gain access to the prestigous X Games.  This, combined with all your events being laid out across a world map, was both quite cool and a rather believable approach to what usually is just a series of menus.  What I did like is the amount, and variety of missions and achievements available for the game.  You get achievements for almost everything you do, and there are some humorous mission names, in particular – One Girl Two Cups – yeah, you know…  These as well as game statistics, such as your average speed, are displayed while events are loading and you can also zoom in and out at almost any point to keep yourself amused for a few seconds.

As a general point of interest I enjoyed the plot progression, because to be honest there’s not a whole lot of it.  There’s a small amount of focus on making a name for yourself, but other than that the focus is on the races, and not on some irrelevant back story.  If I want a story I’ll play an RPG, so thank you DiRT 2 for recognising that gamers want to race.  As I mentioned before there’s a lot of variation in this game – from race types to terrains to unlockables.  There are several types of races, which whilst some feel the same, others are greatly different and with the varying entry requirements there’s a wealth of different race styles to enjoy.  To add to this there are three tiers of race, Rookie, Pro and World Tour Qualifiers, as well as the X Games;  all of which gives varying levels of difficulty to the game, which extends greatly the length of your career mode. There’s also a range of liveries (paint jobs), and toys for the cars (including a hula girl!), and even a choice of your co-driver for rally mode.

Pluses

• The driving is both enjoyable and realistic.

• The cars look pretty swish.

• Varying level of difficulties cater for everyone.
  

• Plenty of achievements and missions.
  

• Variety of event types.
  

• Realistic damage and physics.
  

• Good soundtrack and audio.

Minuses

• Total devaluation of Colin McRae’s car.
  

• No in-game music.
  

• Repetitive tracks.
  

• Non-skippable cinematics.
  

• Races are unlocked too fast.

Available now on Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

PEGI Rating: 12+

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Finished Career Mode.

A promotional copy of the Xbox 360 version of the game was provided by Codemasters for review purposes.

In general I enjoyed this game with the exception that your starting car is one of the revered Colin McRaes.  Whilst it’s a nice tip of the hat to the late driver it is slightly more than demeaning to have his car as your entry level vehicle.  Whilst there are other minor flaws the visuals are quite pleasing, and in no way eye hurting like some racing games I’ve played such as Wheelspin on Wii.  The audio’s extremely faithful to the experience of rally driving events, and the music in both awesome and very suited to the genre.  The races themselves are pretty intense with the wide variety or race types, and vehicles, adding up to there being many different experiences for you to play through.  In fact my only real problem, which I mentioned before, is that your first car is one that Colin McRae has driven, and yet almost every other car in the game is better than it.  I felt this completely devalued a car which, by logical thinking at least, should be one of the best out there.