Colin McRae: Dirt 2: Reviewed (360, PS3)

With the untimely death of Colin McRae in 2007, Codemasters had a lot to live up to with the second outing of off road racer, Colin McRae: Dirt 2.

In a bold move with the franchise the original Dirt had a bit of a shaky start breaking away from its grass root rally home and moving into a broader off road racer that split gamers in two as to whether this was a good idea.  Sales were good but the jury was out even though it gained critical acclaim.

Moving on into 2009 and we have its successor knocking on the door and fighting for a prime position among all the other racers out there.  The demo that was released was good but I have to say that the full version plays so much better and we can now all breath a sigh of relieve that we have a break in form and a decent off road racer has been born to take away the tedium of playing Forza 2 and other racers way too much.

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is set across 9 different locations and has around 100 different events set over 7 different game types to give you a Tour mode that is feature packed and original.  The track design has to be commended here in a big way and every location, although easy in the beginning, will provide enough of a challenge to eat up many hours of your time and not leave you wanting.  Events and locations are unlocked as you gain money and experience through racing and each tier provides a little more difficulty that will not frustrate but challenge you to bump and grind your way to first place.  When each event is compete and depending on how you have done you will unlock new liveries, cars, toys (an Overlord Minion springs to mind that sits nicely on your dashboard) and also tracks.  The menu interface is very cleverly done as you view your trailer in a first person view being able to switch from your cars, news, multiplayer, tour mode etc with ease and joy.

The customisation element of the game is good too with the addition of being able to set your car up, add new liveries, customise game types to tracks and will provide endless hours of game play online and in LAN situations that will not diminish your interest too quickly.  Cheeky tournaments are also available here from the longest drift of the day to hot laps around certain tracks or courses and are all recorded as you play by the servers with live leaderboards and prizes for the winners.  This will also enable you to gain inspiration on setting up little mini challenges of your own on the forums for your friends to try and beat.

Graphically superb and with physics and dynamics that will please most people, although you will have to get used to the handling now, Colin Mcrae: Dirt 2 will cement itself in the minds of the gamer hungry for new driving games.  Far surpassing the quality of the original Dirt in every way I feel that Colin McRae himself will be looking down from above with a massive grin on his face at what Codemasters have achieved.