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Colin McRae: Dirt 2: Reviewed (PC)

gazzara — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:49:27 +0000

Its been 3 months or so now since the critically acclaimed Colin McRae: Dirt 2 was released on consoles and still remains one of the best racers out there.The PC version was excluded from the initial release as Codemasters were using the new Direct X 11 to drive their PC version forward into racing superstardom but now we finally have our hands on it, we’ve got out our super computer and given it a test drive.

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 complete 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 handling itself is what makes this game special. Each car and style of vehicle responds in different ways and is a far cry from the precision of something like Forza or the Gran Turismo series. That’s not to say that you don’t nee to be precise because you will, especially in the rally stages which I would liked to have seen more of. Perhaps we can have a rally pack as DLC! The adjustments of settings is also set out in such a way that it can provide more depth for the experienced racer without having to trawl through millions of options and affords the leeway to get the new guy involved too and can add a few vital seconds to those lap times or point to points.

The game itself, because of the style of racing is a great laugh and especially from what I have seen plays in a very casual way as players know what to expect from it. A lot of bumping, a few crashes and a lot of getting stuck provides the joy that a racer like this should give. That is because you know the style of racing and this type of thing is inevitable and so is played like that too. A little carefree abandon is not a bad thing and with a good amount of online options you can host a series of different races and never get bored.

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. The only problem I see with this game is the power you need from your PC to run it. For those of you that game on a PC anyway I am sure that it is well up to spec anyway so it will not be a problem. The game is also setup to take the 360 controllers windows version as well as a host of wheels which provide an accurate response time and do not sly away from their responsibilities.

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 console wise and the PC version is no different. A job well done by Codies yet again and although a longer wait for the PC gamer it was well worth the wait.

Colin McRae Dirt 2 demo available for PC now

gazzara — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:30:41 +0000

Codemasters today announced that the playable demo of the DirectX 11-powered PC edition of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 has gone live and is available for PC gamers everywhere to download and play.

A full list of mirrors, plus gameplay and tech videos, is now available at www.dirt2game.com. The full game releases on December 3rd through EPAC territories with a December 4th street date in the UK.

The playable demo enables gamers to compete in two of Colin McRae: DiRT 2’s exhilarating events. In the ‘Trailblazer’ event, players take on the ultimate test of rally car against the challenging Moroccan terrain on a point-to-point track filled with flat-out straights and hair-raising hairpins in the Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. In the second event, gamers compete in a ‘Landrush’ race at the spectacular Ensenada Port circuit set in Baja California, where players go wheel-to-wheel in an 8-vehicle riotous race over lethal bumps and killer jumps in the heavy duty West Coast Choppers Stuka TT.

Following the critical and commercial success of the console editions of Colin McRae: DiRT 2, Codemasters Studios has integrated the wealth of new performance enhancing features available in DirectX 11 for the Games for Windows Live edition. Colin McRae: DiRT 2 delivers the definitive off-road experience for PC Gamers and its launch heralds a new generation of games powered by the superior DirectX 11 technologies. In order for technology enthusiasts to test the performance of their equipment against these cutting edge features, the Colin McRae: DiRT 2 demo comes complete with a benchmarking mode.

Check out the new screenshots available here and look out for our review soon!

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

gazzara — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:02:09 +0000

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.

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.