Dirt was a brilliant rally game that didn't have much room for improvement. The main problem I found was the reset feature which was either automatically triggered on an inconsistent basis, or could be triggered manually without much penalty. For Dirt 2, a new system is in place where you have a limited amount of resets, and you can rewind the replay to a point to restart from. Although still unrealistic, it means you don't have to restart the whole race if you made a mistake; so is a welcomed feature. Sadly, it's not all they changed. Dirt 1 had brilliant presentation and the menu's were voiced by Travis Pastrana. For Dirt 2, Codemasters seem to want you to be friends with other race drivers too, so there's constant comments by your competitors (it really does claim they become your friends or that they think "you're a legend"). When you start the game, you choose an audio name, so I chose 'James' and now am sick of hearing my own name. "Hey James, this one is gonna be tough", "Hey James, watch out!", "Hey James, brilliant driving out there", "Hey James, you've unlocked new races". Graphically, they have given it a skater-style makeover and also shifted the focus of racing from rally to circuit based rally cross. Although the menus still look great, it seems a bit unnecessary to presented like you are at a festival. After each race, you are stood near a crowd of people with live music in the distance, and you turn round and walk to your caravan and look at a desk where the world map is shown. You choose an event from here, then your character walks outside to a table, where you finalise the race details like choosing your car, then after the race, the process repeats. All the tracks are different from the previous game, and due to the races being categorised by track, it seems to be more repetitive compared to Dirt 1. Events are completely different too with new modes being introduced called Domination, Elimination and Gatecrasher. Domination is a race where each racers times are recorded between the checkpoints, and points are awarded accordingly. Elimination races remove the person in last position at intervals until the winner is left. Gatecrasher is a time-trail and time bonuses are awarded for ploughing through the gates. The normal rally races have been tinkered with too, instead of driving on the track by yourself and racing to beat other opponents times, all cars are now racing on the same track, albeit with staggered starts. You usually won't overtake though, so the difference is that it's hard to gauge how well you are racing since it may tell you that you are 1st then 20 seconds later tell you that you are 4th as the opponents behind you complete the section. Although damage is accrued during the races, it seems downplayed since the effects don't seem as dramatic, and does not carry over to other races in the series. The loading times are still really long too which is a bit disappointing. Despite my criticisms, there's no denying that it is still a great game. There's the phrase "If it's not broke; don't fix it", but on the other hand, churning out the same game would take criticism of cashing in. Although a few changes would have been nice, there's so many changes, it's a completely different game and means you can own both games.
DiRT 2 is one of the best racing games ever made by Kyle LeBlanc Fun factor: Fun Worth to: Buy Few racing games look and feel as polished as Colin McRae: DiRT 2, making this one a clear contender for racing title... Read Full Review
Intro Dirt 2 is the sequel to dirt (2007) and it has a lot to improve on, so how does it hold up in 2009, Well read to find out. Gameplay The main complaint with Dirt was the floaty physics of the cars, The good... Read Full Review
