Dirt 2 [Demo]

[BearBoy]

Must dust off my copy Richard Burns, and hope it works via backwards compatibilty.

It's on the compatibility list on xbox.com

[charlesr]

Yeah the game has more of an American style but it is not shoved down the players throat or anything.

Apart from the Travis and Block goading each other on over the radio or something during the truck racing - please make them stop.

The wii version has snow stages in it, which is a good sign - I don't think there was any in the first game?

[ezee ryder]

Never really paid much attention to that, too busy racing. It's just a bit of banter anyway isn't it? I don't think it's constant. I stand by what I said, I don't think this "American style" is being shoved down the players throat.

[jimtendo]

That was the thing.
There was a lot of heritage in previous Colin McRae's owing towards a easy sim/ arcade-like introduction to the rallying genre, where it was based (loosly) on the real WRC, which it did not have license to. Eventually, Evolution studios picked the much vaunted WRC license for it's own product.

That's where i feel the main critisicms for where this current breed of Colin McRae games are going. It's leaving it's already installed user base for what seems to be a fresh and newer crowd over the pond, and to have the 'Colin McRae' moniker tagged onto what seems to be an extreme sports version of rallying is heresy to fans of old.

It's on the compatibility list on xbox.com

Superlative!

[PeteJ]

I made my feelings known about dirt in the review on the site - I don't like the fact we probably won't get acproper rally title again. But that didn't stop it being a fun - if ultimately a little lifeless - racer.

Number 2 doesn't bring me a proper rally title ( and I didn't expect it to), but it does appear to fix the problems I had with the original. I'm looking forward to it.

[Wools]

This is my point, it is a Colin McRae Rally game, it’s called Colin McRae Rally: Dirt 2.

Again you’ve completely misunderstood what I was talking about in regards to location setting and used it as your sole argument, the setting is not the issue I have. Indeed, having a game centred around US racing is no bad thing at all. I’ve played a terrifying amount of racing games in all these years and the country of origin is no barrier for entry at all! My issue is that everything is now Americanised and that is not just down to new US tracks and cars, Dirt reverted everything to the good ‘ol US of A. It even changed the liveries of the Lancia Stratos and Subaru Impreza WRX to their US counterparts when in the originals they were the European and Japanese standard.

Let it be added to the record, I have no problem with international tracks and cars, I have a problem with a sport being re-focused to another country whilst the original sport is being sidelined.

I do enjoy the Dirt series of games, they look great and control well. However by having around 10 disciplines’, they have very few tracks to unleash those machine on and the player is left with a piddily few tracks to race them on.

Take Grid as an example. In TOCA WTC on the PSone you had an entire series of tracks based on that championship and I don’t think anyone could argue that was more than enough. In Grid I’m presented with the brilliant Aston Martin DBR9 and I can only race it on a handful of tracks... I understand that Codemasters had backed themselves into a corner with Rallying and I for one welcomed the diversification, but not at the expense of variety of tracks and locations and changing what was central to the experience.

Why should diversity of cars mean a watering down of the game?

Despite me being a whipping boy, I did love the demo! It looked great and controlled well and I’m praying the full game has a large line-up of tracks and cars. Also I must say the water splash addition is a welcome return and it really plays with the cars handling well, I spun off after exiting the first one in the demo!

[ezee ryder]

Pretty sure the game is called Colin McRae: DIRT 2, I don't think it includes the word rally anywhere in the title.

Nah I understood what you were saying Wools, I was just making another point too. The majority of what I said wasn't actually aimed at you as you actually explained your point of view in a decent manner.

You're main issue seems to concerns over a watered down game (not enough tracks), which is fair enough. The original DIRT didn't have many tracks either but it still managed to be an enjoyable game. Taking that into account, the amount of tracks is a not a huge issue for me (would be nice if they had a few different ones though), as long as the game is good then that should be enough.

[Wools]

I believe you’re correct, I missed you pointing to Colin McRae Rally and not Colin McRae, many apologies!

Judging from Grid & Dirt, they’ve had good but never enough tracks in all their disciplines. They will have a very good series such as dirt buggy, but only have a few tracks I can race the machine on. With the old games you would have a multitude of courses and it was never an issue.

I do genuinely enjoy the game but it really feels like they’re abandoning rallying and not only could one view it as turning their backs but it’s just a wasted opportunity. Imagine having all the countries from the original Colin McRae with all stages in-between, now combine that with the new, fully fleshed disciplines mixed with what the old games could offer.

It really could be something special and it’s just a shame Codemasters don’t appear to be using that potential.

But that aside, it’s still a great racing game.

[Brats]

If they nail the handling, the game could be set in Dunstable and your co-driver voiced by Shame Ritchie. They could even call it Michael Jackson's Dirt for all I care (although that would probably mean something else entirely).

[saturn-gamer]

Man, TOCA was great. I mean, I liked GRID for a moment.. but when I hear people talking about TOCA, I remember GRIDs actually quite the Cluster****.

Same goes for CMR 2.0, I bloody love it.

There is demand for a true Rally game out there, can't Sony/Polyphony pass up the WRC license to Evolution after GT5's been done?

[dvdx2]

hope they sort out the frame rate - nearly ruined the first one

[fahrenheit]

I'm surprised by some of the comments here. This is a sequel to a game that I thought quite clearly stamped its intentions as to who its target audience is.

If Codies want to abandon TOCA in favour of GRiD and abandon CMR in favour of DiRT, then you can guarantee that they aren't doing it out of spite or love, or attempting to retune our tastes. They are after all, the same as us. They all grew up with the rallies, cars and drivers that we did. Travis and Ken are as much outsiders to them as they are to us.

I'm sure the devs would love to give us what we want, cause they'd want it too. But money talks. Ignoring the US to cater to us is clearly financial suicide.

If the focus on point to point rallies in europe/australiasia has been even further reduced in this sequel, then yeah, I'm disappointed as those are my favourite races, but I wouldn't be at all shocked. Its just how it is.

[Leon Retro]

I'm sure the devs would love to give us what we want, cause they'd want it too. But money talks. Ignoring the US to cater to us is clearly financial suicide.

The Japanese have increasingly pandered to the American market( much to their detriment in my opinion ) and the British have also gone down that route.

It's a sad situation to have the American market dictating the style of videogames. It's clear that the games industry sat down and thought about which market style to focus on - and decided America was the best middleground.

It's all about greed - and that's why it's sooo negative. Codemasters should give Dirt a British flavour for its home market - and all the American style stuff should be kept for the Americans. That would be fair - and much more positive. Changing the voices and presentation for each region would be good.

[fahrenheit]

The Japanese have increasingly pandered to the American market( much to their detriment in my opinion ) and the British have also gone down that route.

Capcom have been rewarded handsomely for their pandering.

PAL territories are much more prepared to consume 'americanised' media than the other way around. I'm sure DiRT 2 will still sell really really well in PAL territories, but if it was designed to our tastes instead, it would tank in the US.

[Goldenballs]

What's the braking like in the demo? Can you still brake from 150mph to 0 in about 2 metres?