High speed mistakes are always entertaining
Dirt 2 features many prominent names from off-road motorsports. Drivers such as Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, and Dave Mirra hit the dirt alongside you. Though big names are not new to the series once named after the most successful racer in rally, Dirt 2 does add some interesting interaction with these drivers. New to this game is a ‘reputation’ system, which will change the driver’s attitude towards you depending on how you race around them. Help Pastrana out during a race, for instance, and he’ll become your friend and give you favor in future races. The drivers, all of which lend their voices to the game, will also talk to one another during the race. It’s fun hearing the drivers dish some smack to each other as they trade paint on the track. Neither of these additions do much to really improve the gameplay, but they do add a welcome bit of flavor to the game.
Mud splatter is placed on the car procedurally
So what about the muliplayer? You will certainly finish the singleplayer at some point (as Derek did in three days…), and then what will be left for you to do? Multiplayer offers both LAN and online play, with the online being divided into two types—Pro Tour and Jam Session. Pro Tour is a ranked match system where each race will earn you experience points and contribute to a worldwide leaderboard system. You will generally find more serious and skilled races in this type. Jam Session is the more laid back type of the two. Jam Session is what you want to join if you only have a few minutes to race and are not generally concerned with the outcome.
With any racing game that contains detailed car damage, you expect to see quite a few crashes. Unfortunately, this seems to encourage idiots online to careen their car as fast as they can into a corner and use the other drivers as their braking system. Dirt 2 is certainly no exception to this theory. You can count on one huge crash within the first two turns of a race that consumes a large portion of the field. If you can survive this inevitable early crash, you’ll have a good chance to win. If you fail to avoid, you’ll have to nurse your limping car from the back of the field. This is a very frustrating thing that happens all too frequently, and can easily discourage any racer from wanting to compete online. Fortunately, Dirt 2 offers server settings to prevent this, such as enabling a no-contact mode that allows drivers to pass right through one another. Sure it breaks the illusion, but when you’re playing with fools, sometimes it is the only option.
Dirt 2 handles playing with friends in a unique manner—when you jump online, you’re able to invite friends from your LIVE friends list, and they’ll join servers with you. For example, I first journeyed online with fellow Icrontic staffer Derek Brush. I invited him, he joined, and we were connected with a secure voice chat line. When I selected a server and connected, Derek automatically joined the server as well. When I left the server, he and I were back into our own lobby, in which we could search for more games. This was a nice system that enabled us to race together without the confusion of passing IP addresses or server names. The biggest drawback of this system is that when I decided to disconnect and leave Online play, my friends must disconnect with me. It’s a definite drawback for your friends to have to leave the session simply because you had to leave.
Dirt 2 is another outstanding racing offering from Codemasters. They have continued the excellence that they established with a decade of racing titles. It isn’t the perfect racer, and if you are looking for a hardcore rally sim, you may want to look elsewhere. Those looking for a detailed game with a welcoming learning curve will be pleasantly surprised with Dirt 2. There is enough variance in racing disciplines to keep most players happy for awhile, and even when all of the content is exhausted, the online mode should satisfy your thirst. Come for the tech, stay for the depth—just don’t be afraid of getting a little dirty.
Dirt 2 is available now, and can be purchased from Ye Olde Icrontic Gaming Shoppe.
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- DirectX 11 brings some serious water effects
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- Mud splatter is place on the car procedurally
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- The cars don’t look this good for long
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- High speed mistakes are always entertaining
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