![]() ![]() ![]() A special mention at this point to the Xbox 360 controller and its analogue trigger buttons, because the way they serve as such perfectly weighted accelerator and brake controls is quite a factor in refining the experience further still.ĭriving these cars is a complex, fun challenge, and it’s from there that everything else in Dirt 2 extends. Especially when it involves making use of water features or other elements as part of that direction change. Whether romping across the countryside in trucks, or racing in close confines in Battersea Power Station, the most exciting part of Dirt 2 is always managing to take excessive-feeling speed and turn it into improbable sideways momentum to make it round corners. And Dirt 2 follows through on that sensation completely. Its loose handling and swinging camera were precision engineered towards magnifying the excitement of that experience, and it ducked anything from real life that would get in the way of it. However, while Colin McRae Rally may have been wrapped in the trappings of serious sport, its biggest appeal was always the joy to be had in flinging a car around corners in such a way that it just held on to its limited grip on the track. ![]() That is all quite different from the first games, and Dirt’s upgrades, truck races, and constant flow of new coloured liveries for your vehicles are different too. When you start you are greeted by Ken Block ( RIP), known for his videos doing stunts in urban settings, and you get comments in-race from some other real life opponents, including Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the now head of motorsport governing body the FiA. The big events the game builds to, with rallycross finals, are the X Games, which rallying joined in 2006, and it features drivers from that extreme sports end of the sport. Rock music follows you through menus everywhere, although this being the late 2000s it is mostly British (and I’m always happy to hear more Bloc Party). In those you race against other drivers on short circuits with various jumps and water features, with fireworks going off when you complete a race. ![]() Rather than the set schedule of the World Rally Championship and its lonely timed runs, Dirt 2 gives you freedom to pick and choose events of different types, most commonly rallycross ones. Playing it now, I find that all of that was completely true, and completely besides the point. This wasn’t exactly new for a company who released TOCA World Touring Cars in the US as Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing in 2000, but it contributed to it passing me by. I had been away from the series for a long time by then, and also my memories of reviews from the time were of complaining about its distance from the roots of the series in favour of a whole different approach and vibe. By the time Dirt 2 came out a decade or so later, I had a console on which I could have played it. I absolutely loved Codemasters’ early driving game breakthrough Colin McRae Rally and its first sequel. Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (Codemasters, Xbox 360, 2009) ![]()
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