Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Escobar

For over a decade now, there has been one title that has ruled off-road racing simulations on every platform from the original Playstation all the way to the PC.  That franchise is, of course, Colin McRae Rally.  Debuting on the Playstation and PC in 1998, Colin McRae Rally emulated the drivers, cars and tracks leading up to the 1998 World Rally Championship.  The series has come a long way since then, with the format and style of the game being updated in 2007 and the series simply being named Dirt.  Shortly after the release of Dirt, McRae was killed in a helicopter crash and rally racing lost one of its brightest stars.

DiRT 2 marks the first game in the series since McRae’s death, and the franchise continues to improve by leaps and bounds.  Offering more online game modes than ever before and an expanded cast of stars that includes such big names as Ken Block, Dave Mirra, and Travis Pastrana, DiRT 2 remains at the top of the heap when it comes to off-road racing games.

When driving around the different tracks in DiRT 2, one of the first things you’ll notice is how active the world feels.  Whether you’re racing in the forests of Croatia or the rocky hills of Morocco, the environment feels incredibly alive.  This is due in large part to the improved version of the EGO engine used to create the game graphics.  If you’re right behind another driver when they go through a pool of water, you can even see the waves and splashes that they leave behind as you approach.  Trees sway in the wind, dust blows up and drifts behind other cars, and light bloom effects abound as you make your way around the different courses.

The EGO engine also provides the look of damage as well as general wear on your vehicle.  As with most racing games, if you bump another car or sideswipe a wall the paint will be scraped and you’ll see the metal buckle or even get torn away if you hit hard enough.  Going a step further, you’ll even see mud and dust accumulate on your ride as the race progresses.  Little touches like this make the game jump out at you, and you feel like you’re really racing through these various locales.  Don’t worry though, all this dirt and damage is quite temporary – between each race your vehicle is fully repaired and cleaned up, leaving you with a pristine ride for your next contest.

When you encounter a new race type for the first time, you’re treated to a short video with a voiceover from one of the stars of the game explaining what the race is and how it is different from the other types.  For example, Rally races are technically challenging and use staggered starts (each car enters the course a few seconds apart, giving you the opportunity to pass or be passed) and are usually point to point.  In Rally races, you often have a copilot that navigates the course for you, calling out the upcoming corners and hills, letting you know when you should brake and accelerate, and how sharp the upcoming turns are.  This is a great feature that truly emulates real Rally racing and is a very welcome addition.

The voice work in DiRT 2 is solid overall, with many of the big name stars providing the voiceovers.  Much of the commentary you hear while working your way through the single player campaign is provided by Travis Pastrana, who introduces new race types and locales, and lets you know when you gain a new level.  You heard that right – DiRT 2 includes an RPG-lite element of having you earn experience for every race you compete in and complete.  In addition to earning cash for your races, the experience you gain goes towards earning you custom liveries (paint schemes) for your cars, new dashboard toys to customize the interior of your ride, and even unlocks new events for you to participate in, all the way up to the X Games!

Environmental sounds are extensively modeled and work very well together.  DiRT 2 is able to have dozens of active sound effects at the same time, and has thousands of these sounds sampled in the game.  This translates into an audio experience that will never be the same from race to race and truly reflects what’s happening in the world around you.  Nothing draws you into the game more than sliding around a corner, going from a gravel road onto concrete, and hearing the slide of the gravel become the squeal of the tires as you move onto the pavement.  Combine that with the rev of the engine as you accelerate out of the corner and you’ll be absolutely amazed.

To cap it all off, the music soundtrack that plays while you’re racing is outstanding.  Consisting of more than forty different tracks that can best be described as a cross between skate punk and rock, they truly capture the feel and pure “attitude” of this style of racing.

The controls for this game are pretty much standard, with R2 being accelerate, L2 for brake/reverse, and X for handbrake.  For those driving masters that can handle manual transmissions, the Square and Circle buttons let you gear down and gear up, and Triangle is used to look behind you.  Of course all these controls are customizable, so you can assign each of them to whatever feels most comfortable for you.  DiRT 2 also supports most major steering wheel accessories, including the full Logitech line of controllers.

By far one of the coolest features of this game belongs to the R1 button, which controls Flashback.  Pressing R1 enters instant replay, which is like a video recording of the race.  While paused like this, you can rewind the race to correct a mistake you’ve made or avoid a big crash.  While this doesn’t affect the score you receive for a particular race, you do need to be careful as you have a limited number of rewinds available for each contest.

The single player campaign in DiRT 2 is an absolute blast to play, with loads of different race styles, vehicles and upgrades to buy, and the X Games to conquer.  You start off in your RV in Baja California, waiting for your first race to start.  The RV is one of the more creative ideas in the game, and acts as your base of operations as you participate in races around the world.  Inside the RV you can view what races and locations you have available, what trophies you’ve achieved, check the online leaderboards, and enter multiplayer races.

When you first start the game, you are confronted with the options available in creating your character.  In DiRT 2 you pick your nationality, your first and last name, and your nickname (other drivers in the game often refer to you by your nickname in-game, which is very cool).  After creating your character it’s time to race!  Your first event is a Landrush race in Baja California and you start out in your trailer where you see a quick video introducing you to this race type.  The Landrush race type is a contest where you have multiple laps on a dirt track and all the cars start out side by side.  After the video you head outside to inspect your first car.  While it isn’t much to look at, it’s a sign of things to come, and before you know it you’ll be behind the wheel of the premier cars on the circuit.  Initially you won’t have a lot of choices when it comes to customizing your car, but those too will come in time.

When you head to the starting line you’ll see a quick intro to the race and then you’re off and running.  This is where the fun really begins, as you learn to control your car through the twists and turns of the course.  As mentioned previously, the sound is excellent and you’ll even hear plenty of radio chatter between the other drivers.  One of the more interesting points I found in the game was the attitude the drivers have towards each other, and their general racing conduct.  In pretty much every other racing game out today, you’re expected to “trade paint” with other cars as you race.  In some games it’s even encouraged and will earn you points (or even trophies) for “dirty passes” and spinning out other cars. 

This isn’t the case at all in DiRT 2 – you’re not only encouraged to race clean, you’ll often miss opportunities for some races if you bash your way around the courses too much.  The other drivers you race against pay attention to how you race, and if you impress them enough they’ll become your buddy and are available to partner up with you in special team events.  You can also interact with the other drivers in various “Throwdowns”.  Throwdowns are where you are challenged by a specific driver and invited to a head-to-head challenge.  These challenges can be any of the race types, and can even include some of the special race modes.

The race types are broken up into five different disciplines.  We’ve already gone over Landrush and Rally, and the other three types are Raid, Trailblazer, and Rallycross.  Rallycross is much like Rally racing, but is held on a tighter, flatter circuit, providing an even more frantic type of race.  Trailblazer and Raid are both point-to-point races, with Trailblazer focusing on top speed and Raid offering multiple paths through the course.

In addition to the five race disciplines, there are also three special race “modes”.  Gate Crasher is a race against the clock that places foam “gates” on the course that you have to run through to get time bonuses.  If you run out of time mid-race its game over, so you need to not only drive fast, but accurately.  Domination divides each course into a number of sectors, and you earn points by driving the fastest through each sector.  After a set number of laps, whoever has the most Domination points is declared the winner.  Last Man Standing is an elimination race where the person in last place is eliminated whenever the timer runs out.  This continues until there’s only the fastest, most consistent driver left.

Unlike other racing games where many of the multiplayer race challenges are unique, DiRT 2 manages to have nearly every kind of race you can compete in with single player available as an online choice.  Codemasters also made the smart decision with dividing the online racing into casual and hardcore groups.  If you just want to take a spin around the track with some friends (or strangers) then jump right into the Jam Session portion of online play.  You can still earn XP and fame online, but it’s not nearly the serious racing that the Pro Tour offers.  In Pro Tour the matches are more hotly contested and are ranked as well.

The developers did a good job on the matchmaking setup for DiRT 2.  It’s a solid, no-frills interface that gets you up and racing quickly, or lets you check your online ranking and scores.  Combining an excellent single player racing career with a well-rounded online experience makes for a ton of value when it comes to this title.

While some might consider off-road racing a “niche” category without much wide appeal, they would be dead wrong when it comes to DiRT 2.  This title manages to combine the fun and excitement of the X Games with a technically solid racing engine and come up with an experience that can satisfy nearly every kind of race fan.  Add to that tons of unlockables and challenges, toss in some excellent multiplayer, shake well with a lot of attitude, and you’ve got a game that no racing enthusiast should miss!

Gaming Trend Score

86

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 85
5. Value/Replay: 80
6. OVERALL:86