Dirt 2

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I'm 69 years old and my gaming experience, until recently, has been pretty much limited to Pong, PacMan and the Microsoft Flight Simulator. Two years ago I bought a WII, my first console. My favorite game was Excite Truck. That led to a PS3 and GT5P and a Logitech Driving Force GT wheel.

Now my favorite game is "Dirt 2." What an amazing piece of work. The cars handle beautifully, the damage modeling is fantastic, and there is a nice arcade/simulator balance.

I am trying to get some of my friends to buy this game (console, game, wheel, broadband connection, etc.) so that we can race online.

When they pull our real licenses we'll still be racing. Dirt 5 perhaps.

Most of the women, including my wife, who have tried this game have been frustrated, mostly because of oversteering, and have quit after driving 15 minutes or so. After I added a second system and raced my wife on our LAN she started to like it. I think following a cooperative driver who stays in sight, helps a lot.

My 68 year old wife is now level 81 and drives about 1.5 nours every afternoon. I think many women who would give this game a chance would begin to really enjoy it.

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At first glance Dirt 2 is impressive. The overall presentation is original, the graphics are spectacular, the damage modeling is amazing and finally the driving experience is decently fun. My problem with this game lies in its general shallowness. I feel like the series have gone very far from its original roots as a realistic rally racer. With every new installment we get less and less realism and more flash, "action" and arcadish feel. For example, the fact that actual rally racing takes up a rather small percentage of the types of races available in Dirt 2 is very disappointing.

I know the developers tried to shoot for a flashy and user friendly interface, and while I give them credit for their ingenuity, I really feel like it is yet another step to dumb down the whole experience, as it makes the game feel very linear with limited choices of cars and races. While the driving is kind of fun, I keep feeling like I am not playing anything more than an arcade racer, where the goal is to mostly ignore physics and good driving techniques and just ram your way to the top spot, while avoiding the obstacles. The concept of opposing drivers saying very corny things via radio during passing and bumping just adds to the whole "childishness" of an already thin experience. Even after doing well in challenging races, I had no real feeling of satisfaction that I would normally experience while playing either the old Colin McRae titles or the Gran Turismo series.

I am guessing that to offset large expenses that come with good graphics and flashiness, the developers decided to build this game for the masses by broadening the scope of the races, doing away with the idea of driving technique and essentially stopping just short of eliminating the concept of "rallying" from it altogether. Personally, I am not OK with that because no amount of good graphics and flash can make up for that feel of a realistic rally experience that was lost somewhere in the evolution of this series.

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I'll start off by saying that I'm new to the 'Dirt' franchise though I've played other racing games by Codemasters. Prior to purchasing 'Dirt' I was getting my offroad driving kicks with MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. After hearing great things about the original 'Dirt' I began looking forward to playing 'Dirt 2' on my PS3.

So what's 'Dirt 2' all about? Simple off-road driving at breakneck speeds. D2 features a variety of modes though the meat of the game is the 'Dirt World Tour'. In World Tour you'll create your own character, choose a nickname and set off on conquering the world of off-road racing. Events take place in 8 locations spread out on 4 different continents. You'll be driving through the desert wastes of Baja California to the jungle trails of Malaysia to the (dirt covered) streets of London and a few places in between. As you progess with your career you'll inevitably come head to head with various professional drivers such as Dave Mirra, Ken Block, Tanner Foust and others. Eventually you'll be able to race against these drivers and if you beat them you can even befriend them and race alongside them in various team events.

World Tour features 3 categories of races starting with the relatively mild "rookie" races to the intermediate "Pro" all the way up to "All-Star". Along the way you'll buy and earn cars as well as purchase generic upgrades for the vehicles. That is, you'll pay to upgrade your vehicles from the beginner rookie level to pro and so forth. All told there are 35 vehicles ranging from rally cars, trophy trucks, buggies, stock-Baja and a few other classes. The vehicles include familiar brands such as Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan and more. One very cool feature of Dirt 2 is the ability to unlock classic vehicles like the 1993 Dakar Rally Mitsubishi Pajero or the 1995 Subaru Impreza WRX driven by Colin McRae and others.

Before you race you're given the option to set the difficulty for each specific race ranging from 'easy' to 'savage'. I believe that there are 5 difficulty settings in all. Besides making the A.I. more challenging in the races themselves the difficulty settings also dictate how many 'flashbacks' you can use in a race. Flashbacks are like a rewind feature that allow you to correct a costly mistake whilst driving. On easier difficulty settings you can use up to 6 flashbacks per race. On the hardest setting you'll be given no flashbacks at all. You'll also have the option to turn realistic damage on or change the setting to cosmetic damage only. With realistic damage vehicle performance degrades as your vehicle takes damage from crashes. Also of note, besides bragging rights from increasing the difficulty, Dirt 2 rewards players with extra cash for driving at higher difficulty levels.

The types of races available include: Rally, Rally-Cross, Trailblazer, Landrush, Last Man Standing and Raid. Rally races are the typical staggered-start events with you and your co-driver racing against the clock. Rally-Cross events are set in arena-like stages with a mixture of off-road and paved surfaces. These events are very tight and technical courses. Trailblazer is in essence a rally race without the co-driver and some cosmetic changes to the vehicles. Landrush and Raid take use Stock-Baja, Trophy Trucks and Buggies and feature tracks with plenty of jumps. Last Man Standing is an elimination event where the clock ticks down from 20 seconds and the last place driver is eliminated from the race until only one driver is left.

Each vehicle in Dirt 2 is rendered well including a full rendering of the cockpit. All the dials and gauges actually work which is very cool. Additionally the in-cockpit view is usable unlike some racing games where the viewpoint is so limited that it's near impossible to drive whilst using it.

All told I am thoroughly enjoying Dirt 2 and absolutely love the tight controls and spot-on physics. The graphics are good and at moments spectacular and have never, ever shown a bit of framerate problems or slow-down. But there are issues that keep me from rating the game higher.

I guess the first thing that I would note is that although Dirt 2 is a good looking game it just doesn't stand up next to the likes of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and some of the newer racers out there. I'm by no means implying that the graphics make the game less enjoyable, more or less throwing the information out there for those that may care to know.

My biggest disappointment with Dirt 2 would have to be the lack of genuine upgrades to the cars. Yes, you can purchase and upgrade to the vehicles from one class to another as I noted before. But there are absolutely ZERO parts to choose from and no real customization besides choosing liveries, horns and dash ornaments. Before each race you can modify basic settings like downforce and brake bias but the choices are few. If you're a fan of tuning your cars from parts you choose then be warned that Dirt 2 is probably not your game.

Another area where the game is weak is the environment effects. You'll spend most of your time in Dirt 2 racing in broad daylight and a few races at dusk where extra lights will be mounted to your vehicles. But no weather effects are present and no terrain deformation like in MotorStorm. Not a huge deal but still something to consider.

Also, Dirt 2 does feature damage models that range from bumps and scratches all the way to major damage doors falling off, broken windshields to broken axels, etc. However, in about 100 races I've realized a few things. Either the damage to your vehicles is extreme or it's very minor. There's very little ground in between. I've had accidents where I rolled my car at 90 mph and driven off like nothing happened this scenario is probably 98% of the damage you'll encounter. The only time I sustained damage severe enough to force me to retire from an event was when I intentionally rammed my car into a rock wall at 140 mph. I guess what I'm saying is that the damage model could be a bit more flushed out to allow for more realistic damage. I think that in the case of Dirt 2 the developers tried to make the game as accessible as possible and thus sort of rounded down the damage delt to vehicles.

My last gripe has to do with the menu. I find that entering certain events are confusing. Yes, 95% of the game is straightforward and not confusing at all. But to this day I still cannot find out how to download a time trail ghost and race against it. Also Dirt 2 features weekly community events where you can enter to race only problem is I've yet to figure out how to do so. Before you judge that this is a problem with me and not the game consider that I've been playing video games for over 20 years and play a lot of racing games. If I cannot figure it out, it's a problem with the interface of the game.

My last comment would be that although I'm new to the 'Dirt' franchise I was really expecting more of a rally type game than Dirt 2 really is. While it's true that there are plenty of rally events, they're generally short and more of an emphasis (out of sheer number of events) is placed on events like Rally-Cross or Trailblazer or the other game modes. I didn't realize just how much of an emphasis the X-Games played on rally racing or in Dirt 2 for that matter. Because of it the game has a sort of extreme-sport, "dude" type of feel to it.

All in all I don't believe that any of the issues I outlined are enough to keep me from enjoying the game and recommending it here. There is certainly enough content and races to keep a racer busy for a long time. Coupled with a fully featured online multiplayer Dirt 2 will be in my PS3 for many months to come. In finishing, Dirt 2 is an good off-road racer that lands just shy of greatness.

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Dirt2 rocks! Am up to level 40 and still having fun. Graphics are great, the mud on the windshield drives me nuts, I can't see! There is a switchable damage mode to allow for crash damage to affect speed and handling. And damage to the car will happen. You have to be really agressive in the car-to-car races, so it's inevitable. The "celebrity" drivers taunt you and will even break your concentration with their comments to you and each other. Hard to drive when you're laughing... Drive clean and they will be your friends. Ram them too often and they retaliate. It's even kind of cool when they tell you they think you're a legend after you beat them enough. You can drive any car on any track in Time Trial mode, something Dirt wouldn't do. The Dallenbach Special is a handful on the Del Ray Stadium track.

Don't know what others are crying about, there's plenty of Rally available in Dirt2. Is it ALL rally? No, but if it was, plenty of gamers would cry about that too. I was a little disapointed the big Raid trucks(DAF, Kamaz) are gone, as are Pike's Peak hillclimbers. Trailblazer cars a similar. But do you really want a warmed-over rehash of a game you've already played? I'm so sick of waiting for GT5 to come out and find out it's the same old tracks, the same lame cars, and a million races in Yugo's to get to a Ferrari. You get to drive decent cars on new tracks from the start and they get better...

All in all, a great game. If you love off-road, there's none better in my opinion.

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I bought this as a Christmas gift for my Hubby as it was on his list. After reading some of the reviews I thought I was going to send it back, but I gambled and it paid off. He and my Son love playing this game, I guess some people have really high standards for games. My guys have been playing these games for years and love this game every time they play, go figure!!