I absolutely loved Codemasters’ early driving game breakthrough Colin McRae Rally and its first sequel. By the time Dirt 2 came out a decade or so later, I had a console on which I could have played it. I didn’t. 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. An American one. 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. Playing it now, I find that all of that was completely true, and completely besides the point.
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. 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. 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). 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. And Dirt 2 follows through on that sensation completely.
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. Especially when it involves making use of water features or other elements as part of that direction change. 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.
Driving these cars is a complex, fun challenge, and it’s from there that everything else in Dirt 2 extends. It flashes progress markers at you at a rate unseen outside of the Burnout series, giving out experience points and achievements, and achievements within achievements, friendship rankings with the stars, previews of future locations, and none of it feels empty because everything is directed back to that driving experience. The array of variations on racing are a case in point. The dominator mode, where you compete to set the fastest times on different sections of the track, places working out sequences over racing. Gatecrasher, where you get time bonuses for knocking through obstacles on the track, emphasises the tension between straightforward speed and precision in a new way.
An even more fundamental update is the fact that, a few times a race, you can rewind time and try again. Dirt 2 wasn’t the first driving game to include this, and it would be a long way from the last. It means that the game can punish you hard for big crashes, while making that punishment completely contingent. The limited uses are critical to making it work, producing an extra layer of risk-taking and strategy. That’s typical of the game as a whole: inventive, modern, convenient, but with the same powerful driving experience at its centre.
Top of the charts for week ending 12 September 2009:
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