Tech Olive

The newest creation from Codemasters has us going off-road with the second installment of the DiRT series. Continuing on with the Colin McRae name, Codemasters built upon the first DiRT and made one of the most impressive rally video game to date. DiRT2 has many of the same traits that you’ll find in GRID, which is Codemasters’ other racing game that takes place on the tarmac. Similar traits include graphics, physics and the achievement system. So essentially, think of GRID, but in an off-road, in-your-face environment.

One huge aspect I like about DiRT2 (as well as GRID) is that, while it is somewhat of a realistic racing simulator, it still has that arcade-type racing style to it. You can easily just sit down and play the game without having to know a lot about how a car works, besides knowing that the gas pedal is on the right.

The storyline is pretty basic and typical in a racing game. You’re an inspiring rally car driver looking to become big. You slowly make your way up to the top as you win more races. You get help from some famous faces like Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra. They’re very helpful at the beginning of the game because they easily explain what all the features are and introduce all the tracks as you progress through them, but they become extremely annoying real fast. After every race they give you words of encouragement like, “Great Race!” or “Awesome Job!” which is obviously very cheesy and gets old. They also introduce the tracks even if you’ve already raced on them. There’s just a small handful of things that aren’t really needed in the game.

The menu system is fairly cool. Each of the selections are spread out amongst your personal motorhome as well as right outside where you can view your vehicle inventory. All of the race events are spread out on a folded out map and there are other events that resemble posters on the wall. It’s a pretty interesting setup, but it’s not anything you wouldn’t expect in this kind of game.

The graphics aren’t bad at all. Despite not getting to play the game in DirectX 11 (I’m still using Windows XP), the look of the vehicles and the environment are fairly impressive. Besides coming to a complete halt when I hit a pile of haystacks, I’d say the driving physics and track detail are realistic enough to get away with. The only thing that looks extremely crappy is any water or mud that flies up from the spinning tires, which looks blocky and not one bit realistic.

One thing that needs to change is the achievement system, but then again, such an achievement system would deem the game pointless to play. That’s why developers need to go about it a different way. It gets old when all you do is earn cash and XP and unlock cool little goodies that you can hang from your rear-view mirror. Yeah, I’m not kidding. The goodies that you can unlock in DiRT2 include different horn sounds, as well as items that you can put on your dashboard and hang from your mirror like hula girls and fuzzy dice. How lame is that?

Overall, DiRT2 is an enjoyable rally racing game that will keep you busy and entertained for the first few hours of play, but like I mentioned, the repetitiveness of racing, earning and unlocking simply just gets boring after a good while. Then again, there’s always the multiplayer that you and some friends can enjoy together. No annoying, repetitious play. Just the fact of schooling your best friend.

Want to try out the game for yourself before you buy it? You can download the free DiRT2 demo from Codemaster’s website. It’ll provide you with around five minutes of racing time and you can get a good feel for the menus.

Scores

- Graphics: 8
The graphics aren’t bad at all, but some things need a little bit of work. The pyrotechnics are a nice touch though.

- Storyline: 7
Nothing special here. It’s your typical storyline in a racing game. Aspiring race car driver looking to become big.

- Gameplay: 7
Nothing too special here either. You keep racing to earn cash/XP and unlock stuff. Gets old real quick, but I suppose the satisfaction of earning cool new things is fun for some.

- Controls: 9
As long as you use an Xbox 360 controller, controls are perfect, but if you’re stuck using the keyboard it’s really not too bad. Most ideal PC gamers nowadays have a gamepad, so controls shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

- Lasting Appeal: 7
It’ll last you a good week or so with an hour or two a day, but once you beat the game, there’s no motivation to play it again. However, there’s always multiplayer that can keep you busy with your friends.

Overall: 8 Olives