COLIN McRAE DiRT 2!!!!1

[Super Monkey Balls]

OK, I must confess I'm rather enjoying this. It takes some time to get used to the handling and learn the tracks but there's some seriously exciting racing to be had. I still think the buggy/truck races are guff but online rally tournies with colision off are seriously intense. I still think its a crying shame there's not more of what is by far the best discipline but the game is still incredible value and highly polished (a little to polished perhaps )

[analog dog]

Anyone up for some of this tonight?
It's pretty quiet in here so didn't bother starting a 1st play thread.

[sharky_ob]

I agree. This is a quality off-road racing game, really good fun. Superb visuals and great presentation. I love the "obnoxious" menus

I think some people need to realise DIRT 2 is not a pure rally game like the old PS2 Colin McRae or WRC games. I actually don't even think Codemasters have advertised it as a pure rally game. If they did then the "it's not a rally game" comments would make much more sense.

I think everyone is well aware of the fact that this isn't a pure rally game. The problem is that a lot of people, me definately included, have very fond memories of the early CMR games. This still has the Colin McRae name, so is at least some kind of a sequel. We just want pure rallying, so these mixed events and american smack talk are extremely jarring.

[MisterBubbles]

here's what needs to happen
help us Obi Wan DICE, please make Rallisport HD your our only hope.
as the codies have as The Skids would say ... working for the yankee dollar

[ezee ryder]

That's fair enough that people have fond memories of it but this is no longer like those games, even if it has the Colin McRae tag. Like I said, the publishers and developers themselves haven't advertised it as a rally game; it's an off-road racer.

If people want pure rallying then just play the older games I suppose or keep an eye out for the rally stuff in GT5. I can actually sort of understand some people being put off by the style of the game (I don't have any issue with it though) but to criticise or complain about it not being a pure rally game is kinda weird when Codemasters didn't promise anything like that.

Been playing more and more of it over the last few days and am still loving it. I think all the events have been implemented really well and are great fun to play. Still can't enough of the fantastic visuals either, love them!

[JohnMcL7]

I don't see why it's weird that people complain about it not being a rally game anymore - it still has the name of one of the most prominent WRC drivers and it effectively replaces a WRC game as Codemaster no longer produce rally games. It's not a completely different game or different direction they've taken, it just plays to me like a lazy half done attempt at rallying and I have to admit I find it difficult to see why people would prefer not to play a better rally game given the previous CMR games were already reasonably arcadey as it was.

Sadly there are no other WRC games at all and CMR 2005 looks seriously dated on an HDTV as well as the cars/drivers being totally out of date. I can't see GT5 being any good for rallying as the previous games were rubbish in that area as generally tarmac racers are when they try to add in rally elements.

I genuinely don't know why they keep the Colin McRae name as it would make a lot more sense to put the Ken Block name on the title given the focus in the game is on Ken Block, he's very current and he's not a great rally driver.

John

[arcnas]

Ive been playing it now for a couple of days, and really cant make my mind up on this one, i love the events with the rally cars, including rally cross and the like, but the big 4 x 4s feel very slow and i know they would be in real life but i feel you lose a real sense of speed with the big clunky vehicles, its good im sure of that, i just dont like it all, but im glad i bought it still.

[abigsmurf]

That's fair enough that people have fond memories of it but this is no longer like those games, even if it has the Colin McRae tag. Like I said, the publishers and developers themselves haven't advertised it as a rally game; it's an off-road racer.

If people want pure rallying then just play the older games I suppose or keep an eye out for the rally stuff in GT5. I can actually sort of understand some people being put off by the style of the game (I don't have any issue with it though) but to criticise or complain about it not being a pure rally game is kinda weird when Codemasters didn't promise anything like that.

Been playing more and more of it over the last few days and am still loving it. I think all the events have been implemented really well and are great fun to play. Still can't enough of the fantastic visuals either, love them!

I think there's probably a big fear that it'll go the Tony Hawks route where it became less about skating and more about Jackass style stunts.

[fahrenheit]

Liking it so far. Not sure I'll get the same out of it as I did with DiRT, but its fun in the race types I enjoy.

It really does feel more appropriate to call this 'DUsTY GRiD' rather than DiRT 2.

I knew that the presentation was going to be contentious and I was ready to deal with it by turning speech off like I did with DiRT. Still, thought I'd see what I'm missing. This really does feel like its aimed at a 14 year old boy.
Some of the speech is so inane, that I literally want to punch kittens when I hear it.
I was about to start one race when someone (lets just call him American dude 'X') says "This track is awesome". Seriously? Can you fill the air with anything more pointless and vapid? As I'm posting this, I have the game idle in the trailer and the waffle is continuing. There is even attempts to pretend that Americans know geography.....kittens better brace themselves...

Its also terrible in race too. There is no stress or radio static to their voices as they banter back and forth. Its studio perfect. Its a shame cause it really jars and isn't in keeping with what on the track.
Please Codemasters, in future, tone this down. I'm sure there are countless Americans embarrassed to hear some of this.

Well this is turning into a rant. Speech mute will solve my problems (so long as it doesn't kill my co-driver for the races that count).

Still really enjoying everything else this has to offer.

[robrymond]

Not really enjoyed it, until I played the Colin Mcrae memorial event, which was excellent and a lovely tribute afterwards.

Apart from that disappointed.

[Wools]

After the fairly rubbish teaser trailer, with a woman in a shower and a WRC Car jumping a dirt bike ramp, I was really unhappy with a game that was meant to live up to the Colin McRae name and be a fitting tribute to the legend.

After a fortnight with the game I’m far more happy and although it’s not as complete as WRC 04 and not as ruthless as Richard Burns Rally, it’s a far more diverse and exciting racer. The control of the game is incredibly kinetic with one of the most atmospheric and adrenaline inducing cockpit views ever committed to a game. Control wise it’s been tightened up since Dirt and with genuine environmental changes and shifts, including a terrifying water splash when in car, you really do notice and have to fight against a far more involving driving model.

One of the bad points against all modern Codemasters games is a real lack of tracks to get your teeth stuck into and Dirt 2 is no exception. Although there is a great range of locations, such as the beautiful Croatia and Utah, other locations such as London and Japan are visually arresting but only have one track in each, and after completing another 5% on the world tour, it does being to repeat.

Despite the lack of tracks and a still nauseating Americana vibe, it is a brilliant rally game and if you’re like me and have a love of world Motorsport you would of noticed a distinct lack of any mention of Colin McRae. After a few hours of play you may of forgotten occasionally and resumed rallying but you would ask yourself why Codemasters have been so tactless and completely removed almost any mention of the legend himself.

Once you’ve reached 25 races all will become clear and like robrymond mentions, Codemasters have a tribute Rally Championship set up in his honour. Once complete, a touching and fitting tribute to the legend will play that will completely undo all ill feelings towards the Developer.

Granted it could have been longer and include a longer line up of his most influential cars, but the inclusion of his family, friends and sponsors with his most Iconic Subaru Impreza does tug on the heartstrings greatly. Even one of the American rally drivers piping up after the event makes you warm to our American neighbours who’ve set up camp in our European Rally game!

In essence it’s a brilliant rally game that rights some of the wrongs of its past whilst adding to the game more of what’s needed.

[capcom_suicide]

After the fairly rubbish teaser trailer, with a woman in a shower and a WRC Car jumping a dirt bike ramp, I was really unhappy with a game that was meant to live up to the Colin McRae name and be a fitting tribute to the legend.
.

Nice impressions Wools!

I would just like to add, that if you are a complete racing Noob like me, the casual mode is superb fun in this game. It has a real arcade feeling & I love the fact that it is "Casual" you basically go through the game with no big challenges

I also love the fact you can pick and choose which events to play at which difficulty, so when done I intend to do my favourite events (Rally) on harder settings and aim to beat my best times etc.

It really is a beautiful game too, the attention to detail and the smoothness of the visuals are seriously impressive.

A great arcade racing game, which with Sega Rally, sits at the top of my list for recent games.

I found Grid too difficult, even on lower settings, so for graphics whore casual racers, this is as a good as it gets.

[MrMarbles]

Played my housemate's copy of this for most of tonight - must've completed a good couple of dozen events, as far as winning the second X-Games contest.

And I must say I'm feeling a bit of a love/hate thing towards it. I know the presentation has received a bit of negative feedback in these parts, but I personally really like it. A lot of thought has clearly gone into it and, in my opinion, it works well. Fair enough, the comments made by the other competitors are without merit and could've done with a lot more consideration, but the rest of it in my opinion is great.

The visuals too are really impressive - the amount of track-side decoration is astounding and the framerate is rock solid; it really hammers home how sterile and lifeless the environments can be in the "sensible racers" (hello Forza, GT); my only negative is that there's just not enough dust being kicked up by the cars. WRC on the PS2 is still the only rally game I can think of that did the dust in rallying right.

However, where the love turns to distinct hate is when it comes to the handling of the cars. Jesus, some of it is ruddy awful - cars veer between being twitchy messes to unresponsive whales, often within a matter of turns, with zero feedback provided to the player as when or why this occurs.

There's no feeling of the vehicle being connected to the track - no subtlety in grip, no feeling of when the car's on the verge of losing control. It just suddenly twitches its back-end out without warning when gently steering into a slight bend, resulting in a manic left-right-left-right recovery (or a veer into a slope causing the seemingly weightless vehicle to roll like a mother); either that or, what appears to be a simple sweeping turn results in the vehicle entering a completely uncontrollable, unrecoverable slide.

My god, that uncontrollable slide.

If there was any inkling - any feedback at all - as to why it happens then, fair enough, I'd be able to learn from my mistakes and try to prevent it in future. But there is no feedback. There's no clinging on, pushing the tyre grip to the limit, fighting to keep the car under control. No, the car just goes into a skid without warning that you can't recover from (often on the most innocuous of turns) and the only solution is to either slide to a stop whilst facing the wall, or hit the Flashback button. Where it'll probably happen again.

Ultimately it's the handling that ruins this game for me; everything else - the visuals, the presentation, the "missions", the stats dotted throughout, the grittiness of it all - it's all distinctly AAA as far as racing games go.

Shame it handles like a dog.

[Wools]

I’ve never felt an uncontrollable slide happen to myself either through over steer or through a random occurrence.

As with all rallying there are a multitude of surfaces and camber changes during one event and it is impossible for a driver to react quick enough or calculate when a change will occur 100% of the time. I’ve spun out by my own fault and have had a slide begin after a miscalculation of a corner or obstacle but I’ve always never felt a lack of feedback in the Dirt 2 handling model.

As I’ve said in my previous post, WRC 04 and Richard Burns Rally offer a more complex and rewarding take on rallying but I’ve never once found Dirt 2 to be lacking in any feeling or control.

[MrMarbles]

I refuse to believe that, although I can sense when I'm about to lose control of the vehicle in every other racing game I've played, the handling model in this game is so utterly sensitive to camber and surfaces changes as to be beyond my abilities and comprehension.

But if that's the case, then I shall blame myself rather than the game.

Good job I know it's not the case as I'm not one to blame myself for mishaps :P