Dirt 2

in dirt 2, codemasters drop all pretense of this being close to a traditional colin mcrae game, or even really a *rally* game period. yes, there is rallying, but really this is more of a compilation of all things offroad. of course, lots of fans were Very Not Okay with this, and yearned for the days of true rally instead of DUDE KEN BLOCK MONSTER ENERGY XGAMES BRO. and while i, too, certainly enjoy a good rally, this game actually turned out better for realizing its true identity rather than trying to act like something it's not, and manages to achieve a sort of focus via unfocus.

literally straight of the gate, the game just smacks you in the face with its loud, skaterbro aesthetic. and unlike many a generic and forgettable racing game aesthetic, it still stands out and looks pretty unique and stylish now, with the punky neon green festival style bringing to mind future games such as forza horizon 1, and past titles like nfs prostreet and even ssx on tour. also immediately apparent is the significant improvement in graphical detail - where dirt 1 has started to show its age in many regards, this game still looks quite good today.

the ui design is fucking stellar, and still one of my favorite menus in any game ever, and definitely among the most creative and immersive i've seen in the genre. this game places you in a physical space inside a festival site with a first-person perspective. and that's the menu. you can look around, and various items inside and outside your motorhome correspond to different menus, and all of the submenus actually have a physical manifestation that you can see even when you're not in them. every location in the game actually has a unique version of the festival area depending on where you did your last event, with different surrounding scenery in each one. various decorations, souvenirs, and scattered objects appear in your motorhome as you progress through the game, and random clutter objects and food items sitting around randomly show up and leave. even the events are all actually represented by unique lanyards. it all adds up to this thick atmosphere that you just rarely see on this level in racing games. it's like warped but with cars, so naturally i am all about this shit. imagining myself there, with the soundtrack playing off in the distance while the announcer guy talks about how the last song gave him a boner, it's pure bliss

speaking of the soundtrack, it is absolutely FULL of bangers, with killer tracks primarily from era-appropriate indie bands, including bloc party, silversun pickups, the cribs, yeah yeah yeahs, the stone roses, friendly fires, qotsa, and more. there's some surprise hits in there too - massive shoutout to "jeremy kyle is a marked man" by blakfish because holy HELL that song fucking goes. although it's disappointing that they don't play while driving. it's understandable for rally/trailblazer but why not in the other modes? at least have an option. as for other sound design, the engine sounds in this game are quite good, as well as the sounds of tires against different road surfaces, adding an appropriate amount of grit to the game. however, i feel a noticeable lack of ambient environmental sounds. for instance, you think maybe you'd hear some like, animal sounds or leaves rustling or some shit in the rainforests of malaysia. it would have added a nice bit of additional atmosphere to each location.

now despite the presentation's turn for the arcadey and exaggerated, the physics are actually a marked improvement in realism over the previous game. the brakes are no longer superpowered so you actually have to slow well in advance, and more realistic sliding on loose surfaces is very much present as opposed to the high grip of dirt 1. different surfaces actually feel noticeably distinct again, with major differences in feel between dirt and tarmac, so dirt actually feels loose and... like dirt. everything just feels so much more weighty and grounded compared to the predecessor. its easily the best driving the series has seen yet and that's including the classic games.

going back to what i said about "focus via unfocus," it may seem like an odd statement, but it really makes perfect sense - even though it's more sprawling and diverse than its predecessor, it still feels like it knows what it wants to be. dirt 1 felt like it was primarily meant to be a traditional rally game, but they decided to throw in some trucks and buggies at the last minute and make a couple tracks for each of the other modes. this game knows it's setting out to be a more even blend of various offroad disciplines, fully embracing the "americanized" style rather than treading on the edge. although there aren't a ton of tracks, the variety in locations and event types and the regular distribution of different race styles makes the repetition not quite as noticeable.

in comparison to the often homogenous, 2007-bloom-afflicted and slightly dull locales of dirt 1, all of the different areas in dirt 2 are vivid, colorful, and immediately distinguishable from one another. every single location has a vibrant color palette and lovely scenery both roadside and in the far distance. however, there is somewhat of a quality over quantity approach, as each location only has a couple tracks per discipline, and none of them feature every discipline. morocco has the most with 4, but utah and all of the rallycross locations only have one. the rally deemphasis is unfortunately also noticeable in the track design. while they are pretty, they are also scant in number, often very short even by videogame rally standards (typically around 2 minutes), and not as technically challenging as those in the previous games. the loss of some depth from previous games in aspects such as the damage and repair system is lamented, but in a way the game is designed around these omissions, so looking past it isn't too hard.

the car variety on display here is still good, but honestly a bit disappointing compared to the last game. many iconic or regularly-appearing rally cars are missing, and the main 3 rally divisions share many of the same cars, just with different kits. a good amount of those cars are not the kinds you would typically want to drive in a rally game, and some of the more "fun" disciplines like the hillclimb trucks from dirt 1 are gone. the car balance is totally out of whack, as in many disciplines there are cars that are clearly outstanding, and others that are noticeably weaker and practically unusable in the harder difficulties, forcing you to use the "meta" picks if you want to compete on that level. however, the minor customization in the form of dashboard bobbleheads and toys hanging from the mirror is a neat and appreciated little attention to detail, as well as the stickers you get on your dashboard depending on which events you have completed.

another aspect worth mentioning is the ai, which may not be perfect, but it's a noticeable improvement over the first game. they feel a lot more like human drivers (not just because of their voice reactions when you bump or pass them) and deal much better with large groups in tight areas. it's a nice touch that they race at the same time with staggered starts on timed events - much like a real rally event - but from a gameplay perspective it's slightly frustrating when you don't really get to see how well you placed until the end unless you're lucky enough to start last. it's also neat that they are capable of making mistakes and wrecking out of their own accord. however, the ai is still too inconsistent for the team races in this game to be fun when you have to rely on the ai teammate to do well. it typically just turns into a combat racer, where you have to take out the other opponents to allow your teammate to place well, and often restart because they crashed or just somehow inexplicably ended up in last after you looked away for 3 seconds.

overall, dirt 2 is bound to be polarizing in many regards and doesn't manage to perfect every aspect, but the amount of technical improvements in both visuals and playability compared to the original dirt, plus the unique charm and atmosphere that this game brings to the table, make it my favorite game in the dirt series and one of my favorite arcade rally games.

Dirt was a brilliant rally game that didn't have much room for improvement. The main problem I found was the reset feature which was either automatically triggered on an inconsistent basis, or could be triggered manually without much penalty. For Dirt 2, a new system is in place where you have a limited amount of resets, and you can rewind the replay to a point to restart from. Although still unrealistic, it means you don't have to restart the whole race if you made a mistake; so is a welcomed feature.

Sadly, it's not all they changed. Dirt 1 had brilliant presentation and the menu's were voiced by Travis Pastrana. For Dirt 2, Codemasters seem to want you to be friends with other race drivers too, so there's constant comments by your competitors (it really does claim they become your friends or that they think “you're a legend”). When you start the game, you choose an audio name, so I chose 'James' and now am sick of hearing my own name. “Hey James, this one is gonna be tough”, “Hey James, watch out!”, “Hey James, brilliant driving out there”, “Hey James, you've unlocked new races”.

Graphically, they have given it a skater-style makeover and also shifted the focus of racing from rally to circuit based Rally Cross. Although the menus still look great, it seems a bit unnecessary to presented like you are at a festival. After each race, you are stood near a crowd of people with live music in the distance, and you turn round and walk to your caravan and look at a desk where the world map is shown. You choose an event from here, then your character walks outside to a table, where you finalise the race details like choosing your car, then after the race, the process repeats.

All the tracks are different from the previous game, and due to the races being categorised by track, it seems to be more repetitive compared to Dirt 1. Events are completely different too with new modes being introduced called Domination, Elimination and Gatecrasher. Domination is a race where each racers times are recorded between the checkpoints, and points are awarded accordingly. Elimination races remove the person in last position at intervals until the winner is left. Gatecrasher is a time-trail and time bonuses are awarded for ploughing through the gates.

The normal rally races have been tinkered with too, instead of driving on the track by yourself and racing to beat other opponents times, all cars are now racing on the same track, albeit with staggered starts. You usually won't overtake though, so the difference is that it's hard to gauge how well you are racing since it may tell you that you are 1st then 20 seconds later tell you that you are 4th as the opponents behind you complete the section.

Although damage is accrued during the races, it seems downplayed since the effects don't seem as dramatic, and does not carry over to other races in the series. The loading times are still really long too which is a bit disappointing.

Despite my criticisms, there's no denying that it is still a great game. There's the phrase “If it's not broke; don't fix it”, but on the other hand, churning out the same game would take criticism of cashing in. Although a few changes would have been nice, there's so many changes - it's a completely different game.