In Hindsight...: DiRT 2

[Silver Arrows]

Decided to start a new series of fireside chats on various older sim or arcade racing games. Most of them are going to be based on games released last generation, but there will be earlier ones.

With that out of the way, the first game...DiRT 2.

From Wikipedia:

Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (Dirt 2 in North America) is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows and OS X. It is the seventh game in the Colin McRae Rally series.

This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae's death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as "headquarters" for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types: Rally, Rallycross, "Trailblazer", "Land Rush" and "Raid". The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.

My own opinion of DiRT 2 is that it is the best DiRT game not named DiRT Rally. With the new handling model the game had, the cars really felt like you could really flick them around corners, and didn't feel halfway glued to the surface of the road like in the original game. Also, compared to practically everyone else's opinion on the sort of neutering and 'dudebro' nature of the tone present in the game, I thought it worked really well, and that the game had tons of style to spare. Also helped that DiRT 2 had some of the most creative locations in a rally game then and now. (Seriously, I cry out everytime for Malaysia to come back, or at the very least somewhere close to it that is SE Asian and jungle based, it really breaks the mold of environments that rally games can fall into)

So, GTPlanet...opinions on the game?

 

[BKGlover]

I also believe DiRT 2 is the best DiRT game I've played so far (so sans Rally & 4 until further noticed). I understand that people didn't like some parts of it, HOWEVER in my mind 'X-Games' ≠ 'Dudebro'. The former carries some class with it, and to date it still holds, whereas the latter is more those ****heads in town who ruin everything for everyone, yet no one slap the dip**** out of them...

Ah-herm...sorry, where was I? Oh right, I actually like the setup including the X-games for one massive reason, the immersion:

What other games do this? First time I booted it up and went through the sequence, I was VERY impressed.

As for the rest of the game, more different courses would have been nice, yes. More rally would have been great, yes, product placement is excessive, yes, BUT!!!

• All of the race modes were great fun and varied enough to be interesting.
• The cars didn't all handle EXACTLY the same, some were close, which makes the different disciplines even more fun.
• Speaking of, the cars available from go are nicely varied, then they lob what amounts to legendaries at us in the form of the Metro, RS200, 22B, Tacoma, etc., and the racing fan in me began his geek-out.
• Voice acting isn't good in almost every game, this one isn't great just because it get's annoying as hell after a while, and yet it's endearing because it gives the names on screen an added dimension. They aren't just names, they have something making them unique, and I appreciate that.
• ALL OF THE TRIBUTES TO COLIN! There's at least SIX major ones, and there's a number of references throughout. That video at the end though...
• I've bought a third of the soundtrack, more than half of it I really like.

I love the game, one of my favorite moments is running a Trailblazer event in Utah in a Z4, I'm pegged and flying when I clip a corner juuuuuuuust a bit much and find a rock, car goes tumbling at a violent rate, I'm cringing in my seat, earned the rollover trophy about the time I realized not only was the car still running but I still had it floored...AND THE CAR WAS STILL FLIPPING!

🤬 I need to play this again!

 

[Silver Arrows]

Exactly, atmosphere in this game is unmatched within the racing genre, and tbh, it's probably the best gelling on UI and style in a long time for me, being only recently beat out by Persona 5.

The soundtrack too is absolutely amazing, but one song always stuck out to me:



Also, might as well post some stages from the game:









EDIT: In regards to atmosphere, the only game that comes close to DiRT 2, in my opinion, is the various Motorstorm games. But unfortunately, Motorstorm basically never touches it other then a window dressing way until Apocalypse.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

I've beaten Dirt 1-3 starting from August of last year to about January this year, and this was my favorite in terms of style and feel. The soundtrack is good, the trailblazer events are pretty awesome, and I really liked the races where I could drive the Rally Raid trucks. The H2 Hummer and the Dodge Ram felt really fun to thrash around jungle and desert settings. I usually gravitate towards cars than trucks in racing/driving games, but this game in particular makes driving a truck feel realllyyy fun.

Lots of tributes to Colin McRae and even though I didn't grow up watching him or have as much of a connection to rally drivers, it was actually really touching the love they poured out in this game for him.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I've beaten Dirt 1-3 starting from August of last year to about January this year, and this was my favorite in terms of style and feel. The soundtrack is good, the trailblazer events are pretty awesome, and I really liked the races where I could drive the Rally Raid trucks. The H2 Hummer and the Dodge Ram felt really fun to thrash around jungle and desert settings. I usually gravitate towards cars than trucks in racing/driving games, but this game in particular makes driving a truck feel realllyyy fun.

Lots of tributes to Colin McRae and even though I didn't grow up watching him or have as much of a connection to rally drivers, it was actually really touching the love they poured out in this game for him.

Oh god yes, raid trucks and SUV's in particular were hella fun to swing around in this game, especially considering they had a lot of weight to them. Could get some really good rubbin' is racin' action on Landrush too.

Sad that they neutered Raid in DiRT 3, but I'm so excited to get back into Landrush in DiRT 4.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

I actually took a brief break from Dirt 2 when I was going through it to play TNN Hardcore 4X4 because it reminded me of how much fun I had with trucks in that game too. Hardcore 4X4 is a very far cry from being a "good" offroad racing game, but it really hit the nostalgia button for me.