	Colin McRae Dirt 2
	Developer: Codemasters Publisher: Codemasters Release Date: Out Now Players: 2-8 system link and online	Words By:
The old adage says you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. This is often true, but in the high-risk business of video game production and development, you have to try damned hard. The Colin McCrae series by Codemasters is a prime example of a game that used to take great pride in offering a serious and realistic rally experience, but has morphed into a more friendly and accessible racer for the masses. The series began life in the late 1980’s and aimed to provide gamers with an accurate portrayal of real-life rally drivers tackling ever more demanding stages in the actual vehicles used at the time. It was a popular and critically acclaimed series right up until the 2005 edition. It was certainly something of an acquired taste requiring patience and dedication to master. Flash forward to 2007 and the series takes a radical shift in the form of Colin McCrae: Dirt. It’s an arcade style racer that forgoes the realism of the series’ heritage in favour of fictional drivers, cars and tracks and much more forgiving and accessible handling. Today, Colin McCrae: Dirt 2 fully embraces that arcade sensibility. The key question is whether this gradual move to appease a wider audience has blunted our enhanced the overall gaming experience. Upon firing up Colin McCrae: Dirt 2, the first thing that strikes you is just how visually stunning this game is. Using an enhanced version of the EGO game engine, CodeMasters have taken enormous care and attention to create some of the most lifelike and tangible vehicles I’ve ever seen in a racer. Get stuck in to a race and you’re immediately taken aback by the damage inflicted to the cars as they bump and slide across the superbly realized stages. Parts from all angles of your vehicles get dented, scratched and ultimately lost. The attention to detail really is a joy to behold, even when it extends to the smouldering husk of your wrecked Subaru as it limps painfully across the finishing line. All the cars on offer handle like a dream and have a nice mix of drift-heavy handling and ferocious speed. The game is locked at a rock-slid 30fps. I’d also like to make special mention of the head-cam view which picks up special plaudits for actually being usable, and not just there to show off the car interior. It’s great having stunning looking vehicles, but where Codemasters have really excelled is in the stages. Nine locations are visited during the game from Utah, Croatia and Morocco to the jungles of Malaysia via our very own Battersea Power Station, there is really is a great mix of rally stages and fictitious but imaginative race tracks. All stages are brought to life through a smart use of lighting, realistic foliage and swirling dust clouds. The single player campaign really is a beast, covering almost 100 events which vary from standard lap-based to point-to-point events. You’ll manage your world tour from the confines of your mobile home which tracks your progress through a giant map and highlights the key events at each location. Once you’ve chosen your events you vacate the caravan to inspect your current livery of cars outside or use your hard-earned cash to purchase new vehicles or upgrades. Upgrades come in the form of tyres, shocks and body kits to ornaments like a fluffy dice for the windscreen or jiggling Hawaiian girl figurine for your dash. Once you’ve tweaked your preferred ride, it’s off to the actual events and it’s here that the variety of the title really shines through. Depending on the stage or competition you’ll either face a number of other contestants in a straight lap-based challenge or trying to set the fastest time in a rally stage. Slightly more unusual are the Trailblazer events where you ask to complete a rally stage minus your co-pilots commentary and the Gatecrasher mode where you earn extra time for (you guessed it) crashing through gates on route to the chequered flag. Raid mode replaces your standard cars for buggies and trucks and has a definite Motorstorm feel to it. As you progress you’ll be challenged to one-on-one races with other star drivers of the circuit. Complete these and you’ll become friends which then open up further team-based challenges in later tournaments. None of these game modes are particularly innovative, but they do serve to provide an engaging and entertaining experience that keeps you playing well through the 15-20 hour mark. Key to keeping your attention and reducing frustration is the excellent flashback mechanic. Make a fatal mistake and you’re allowed to pause and rewind the action up to four times per race (the more flashbacks you allow yourself, the less cash you earn). Colin McRae purists will no doubt scoff at such “cheating”, but for the average gamer it’s the ideal way to keep pushing through the game without the constant desire to destroy your DualShock controller. There isn’t much to criticize about the campaign mode, but as a reviewer I feel duty-bound to point out a few disappointments. For such a good-looking title, it was odd to find a complete lack of weather conditions especially as races take part in every corner of the globe. Similarly there is no deformation to the track after the first lap. It would have been an excellent touch to see how the rally cars would adapt to the environment after the mud had shifted considerably. Considering Motorstorm had this feature as a launch PS3 title I was surprised not to see it here. Presentation also isn’t quite as successful as other elements. Codemasters appear to have taken inspiration from a number of sources like the aforementioned Motorstorm and the SSX and Tony Hawk’s games. What this means is a standard ‘rawk’ soundtrack, garish menus, graffiti-style fonts and an incredibly enthusiastic (and some might say irritating) American commentator. For a title that’s made such forward strides in terms of entertainment, visuals and handling, it’s a shame that the front-end doesn’t seem to have been spared the same care and attention. Thankfully we’re back on familiar footing with the multi-player elements. While there’s no split-screen mode (do they event exist anymore in next-gen titles?) we’re well-served with online multiplayer and system link. The multiplayer allows for team-based racing for up to eight players and following prolonged play I’m pleased to say it’s just as ferocious and solid as the single player mode. Races are keen and competitive and wreckless driving usually results in spin-outs, so you needn’t worry about boy racers crashing their way to 1st place. Jam Sessions is a multiplayer feature that almost without limit lets you tweak and tailor the online mode to your specific tastes (although wins in this mode won’t add to your rank). It’s another example of Codemasters considering the long-term view with this title and adding yet more value for money. I had an enormous amount of fun with Colin McCrae Dirt 2, but I realize that my fun is likely to be replaced by enormous disappointment for fans of the serious rally simulator of yesteryear. You can’t blame Codemasters for trying to reach a broader audience, especially when they’ve got a game engine that’s capable of serving up such adrenaline-fuelled excitement. Overall it’s just tremendous fun to play with a campaign mode that allows steady and rewarding progression through the stages and a multi-player mode that can adapt to your own preferences. If Codemasters can rework the front-end of the game and fix some of the small niggles for version 3, they may well have the next-gen’s best racer on their hands.