This is a breath of fresh air, for me, when it comes to the racing genre. Trailblazer/Rally events are the highlight.
-Gorgeous Graphics
-Light Reflections, Dust build up, and other techinical deltails
-Full Control of Throttle
-Perfect blend of arcady/realistic precision driving
-Long single player campaign
-Varied Locations
-No Race feels the same
-A Sense of Accomplishmnet (Savage/Extreme difficulty)
Cons:
-Aggressive A.I. in the beginning of races
-Limited Track Variety (Repeated tracks)
-Rally Cross races
Dirt 2 is a fantastic game. Overtime, like most, I have become a little underwhelmed with arcade racers. Need for Speed is dead and Rockstar's Midnight Club Los Angeles failed to meet my expectations. So what was I left to play? The last good racer I played was from Dirt's creator Codemaster...GRID, before that Project Gotham 3, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and Midnight Club Dub Edtion. GRID , at the time though, was the perfect blend of arcade and releastic driving. I have never been a fan of Gran Turismo as I found it to slow, but as I began to get older and tired of arcade racers...GT became more interesting. Never played a title seriously, but I wanted GT5. GT5 never came out back then so I picked up GRID and loved it. Wanted GT5 in March, but it didn't come out again...so I choose to pick up Dirt 2 and I was pleasantly surprised. Never been into Rally racers, but this has changed my mind.
First thing I noticed was the in your face colors. Pink and Green never worked so well together. The menus are beatufil, the cars are detailed, and everything feels organic. Codemaster really took their time to give this game personality and it pays off. No other game feels as lively as this one and the closest is probably GIRD. Midnight Club LA tried to feel real, but it just felt like another Need for Speed. Anyway, Dirt 2 has one of the best presentations I have ever seen in a game. Your trailer is the menu and changing views in your trailer reveals all the options. You are not taken out of the atmosphere as going through the menu creates the allusion that you are really handling business instead of going through a video game menu. Aside from that, everything has character. The people you interact with and the relevance of cars decals. Everyhing is given character. You can place a boggle head in your car. That one customization is cooler than the tired rim customization in MCLA. The location all have character as they all take place around the world. Utah had to be the most amazing place I have ever seen in a video game outside of Nepal in Uncharted 2. Every track is detailed in this game, thought Rally Cross tracks seem water washed for some reason.
I not going to explain the game as many by now pretty much know what to expect, but I will say this game should have focused more on Trailblazer and Rally races rather than Rally Cross and Off Road Racing. I enjoyed the Off Road Racing, but the Rally Cross tracks were both cramped and annoying. Racing aggressive cars in such tight areas screams 'restart' everytime. The time trial events (Trailblazer/Rally) at first turned me off because racing against time is kind of boring at first glance, but I soon fell in love with these race types becasue instead of trying to out run my opponent, I was actually focusing on precision and proper shifting so I could achieve the best time. I didn't have to worry about someone crashing me or speeding into a barrier because I was in a rush to overtake someone. Trailblazer was something I never experienced before. Trying to keep your car on the road and in line has never been more scary. Drifting around a mountain and then trying to keep the car in the middle of the track while avoiding falling off the cliff or hitting the mountains extremeties is mindblowing. These type of races were tense and I was always trying to out do my lap time. On top of that, the cars get upgrade for these type of events and they look so bad a**. Mistiubish Lancer X STP is my car of choice. Replays have never been so beautiful.
I hate time trial races, but Rally/Trailblazer events in this game are fun because pf the enviroments and feel of the cars on these environmental surfaces are refereshing. Trying to drift on sand in a Lancer and keeping it in place while driving through tall grass with one boulder away from wipe out is exciting. Monitoring the throttle of a Land Roverr on mud so it doesn't spin out or slide into a tree is downright crazy. Every event beside Gate Crasher and Rally Cross were fun as hell to me. I haven't had this much fun with a racer since Grid. Before that, it was Project Gotham 3.
All in all, Dirt 2 is a fresh take on racing for me. I have grown tired of street racer and circuit based arcade racing. GRID rekindled my love affair with racers, and Dirt 2 solidified Codemaster's as my number one racing company. Now bring on GT5 and if that doesn't satisfy me, I always have Codemasters to look out for in the future. These guys are on top of their game. I have only played GRID and Dirt 2, but these guys have given me good reason to hold them above everyone else. But for Forza/Gran Turismo fanboys, know that I have never played those games, so they are left out of the conversation.