Diverse weather and course conditions. View larger.
Promising a thrilling race experience and an extreme sports attitude that borrows from snowboarding and skateboarding culture, DiRT 2 will take players on a World Tour to diverse and challenging real-world environments to compete in contemporary off-road events. Specifically selected to deliver aggressive and fast paced racing, DiRT 2’s garage will house a best-in-class collection of officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles; covering seven vehicle classes and players will be given the keys to powerful machines right from the off. Turbo-charged Off-roading with Extreme Sports Attitude Defined by its multiple racing disciplines, encompassing the very best that modern off-roading has to offer, DiRT 2 has more attitude, more adrenaline and more DiRT than ever – off-roading just got cool. Take it on Tour DiRT 2 will take players on a World Tour to compete in aggressive multi-car and intense solo race events in the most diverse and challenging real-world environments. Career paths will span the globe as players unlock tours in stunning locations spread across the face of the planet. Races within the USA, Japan, Malaysia, Baja, Croatia and others await as players climb to the pinnacle of modern competitive off-roading. It’s All About the Event DiRT 2 is adrenaline-fuelled extreme sports with eye-popping visuals and presentation in stunning real-world locations. Events include exhilarating rally cross in the massive Los Angeles sports stadium’s "Stadium King Shootout," edge-of-control canyon racing of Utah’s "Creek Trailblazer" event, the "Rawang Rally Run" along treacherous Malaysian rainforest tracks and the "Battersea Battle," where night races are staged at the iconic London power station. Love Your Ride Embark on a game-long love affair with your favourite cars. Rather than being forced through a checklist of in-game cars, DiRT 2 enables players to pick their favourite rides and drive them across multiple disciplines. Upgrade them, cherish them - and then smash them to bits at breakneck speeds. Get to know which to use for what event and surface, tweak them to perfection, then push them to the absolute limit. The Complete Off-road Package DiRT 2 invites players to become part of an extreme sports community on the Nintendo DS, with events across multiple racing disciplines. Packed with racing achievements, DiRT 2 will be a social hub for off-roading fans on the DS platform. Key Game Features
Turbo-charged off-roading action and in-game characters with extreme sports attitude
A World Tour race mode that encompasses both aggressive multi-car and intense solo race options.
Diverse and challenging events set in real-world environments, including sport stadium racing at Los Angeles' "Stadium King Shootout," edge-of-control canyon racing of Utah’s "Creek Trailblazer" event and jungle racing at Malaysia's "Rawang Rally Run."
The Ability to pick your favorite rides at any time and drive them across multiple disciplines instead of being limited to a few choices.
Great Game for the Older CrowdOctober 3, 2009 Dennis A. Lepak(Northwest Tucson AZ) 60 out of 64 found this review helpful
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.
Very fun gameSeptember 10, 2009 J. Weight 25 out of 29 found this review helpful
Coming from a background of Dirt, the Forza series, PGR series, Rallisport Challenge, and probably other racing games I have forgotten, I'm really enjoying Dirt 2. This review is based on about 10 hours with the demo, and 3 hours with the real game.
The racing in Dirt 2 is edge of control, white knuckle racing. The tracks are challenging, with most of those I've raced so far having a couple of nice high speed stretches, sweeping corners, and some tight, technical spots. One aspect that can make it that much scarier is that some tracks have multiple routes you can take. The differences are subtle, and the distance traveled is pretty much the same, but one will set you up for the next corner better than the other. This does introduce some intersection points in the track where the routes will cross which can lead to some nice t-bones. I found that I was physically cringing every time I ran through an intersection, full throttle, hoping for the best.
The different race modes include many types of off-road racing. There are timed point-to-point races where you won't see another car for the entire race, and there are rally cross style races where you can't seem to get through the race without hitting someone else. Both types are very entertaining. There are other types, but it basically boils down to whether or not there are other cars in your vicinity at the same time.
One feature in Dirt 2 that has made it much more enjoyable than the original Dirt is the flashbacks. There are few things more frustrating than coming to the end of a tight race, taking the last corner wrong, and getting 6th instead of 1st, or worse, totaling the car and getting a DNF. Flashbacks allow you to stop time, go back to a previous point in the race (seems like about 10 seconds or so max) and try that corner again. Obviously flashbacks are only available in tour mode, not in online play.
In tour mode you are able to set the difficulty for each race. Higher difficulty means the AI racers (which are quite good but also make mistakes) will be better and faster and that you will have fewer flashback, but you will also earn more prize money for winning the event.
Online play was available in the demo, and I spent 90 minutes playing with a close friend. We ran several races with others matched with us through xbox live. The rally type races were great. It was still point-to-point, timed, but everyone drove at the same time. The other cars on the track were only there for time reference. It was the other live drivers, but they were like ghost cars. In the other types, you are able to affect the other drivers by hitting them. I thought it was very enjoyable. Of course, the races can get dirty with people crashing into you all over the place, but that's a part of online play. I have not played online with the full version of the game, but I suspect the experience will be very similar.
I can see that I will be spending a lot of time in this game. The control is better than the original Dirt. The event selection is also a lot more engaging with real rally drivers inviting you to different parts of the world to compete. They have obviously put a lot of attention to detail in the game. The tracks and settings are immaculate. The cars are beautiful, and the other racers will even SAY your name. It's a pretty cool touch to hear Travis Pastrana say, "Hey Joel, nobody could touch you out there!"
I only have two gripes: One is that you still can't go very far afield when you wreck. If I really blow a corner, I would love to see my car roll over and over and over again. You only get that joy if your car happens to stay on or near the track. Unfortunately this is pretty standard fare for rally games.
My second gripe is that there is no split screen multiplayer. Once in a while it would be great to have a friend over and simply sit down and race each other. With this game he'll have to bring an xbox, a tv, and his own copy of the game and do system link, or stay at his own house and play over live. The live support is really great, so split screen will probably only be missed occasionally.
In summary, if you are looking for a real serious rally simulation, this isn't it. If you are looking for a very fun off road racing game with stunning visuals, great sound, good control, awesome tracks, nice cars, and edge of your seat action, this is it! I highly recommend it to the driving enthusiast.
Surprisingly Decent RacerDecember 11, 2009 Bill Cosby(Tha Hood) 8 out of 10 found this review helpful
First of all, I am guilty of being biased towards simulation racers -- Richard Burns Rally, NR2003, Live for Speed for example. Naturally I am bored with racing games that water down the difficulty by making the cars easier to handle, have the ability to rewind time, or don't have in-depth setup tweaks and fuel/tire management. I dislike these games and label them with 'arcade', which in my mind has a negative connotation to it. Dirt 2 is one of these games, but unlike the others that have left me bored in the past, it is actually rather enjoyable. So much so that even though it's still far from being a true simulation, I don't think it's fair to give it the same title of 'arcade'. Rather, it's simply a 'racer'.
If you want this to be a simulation of dirt racing, you will be a little bit disappointed without a doubt. And if you wanted nothing but loads of point-to-point rally racing, you will also have to keep waiting for such a game to be released. But if you're going to avoid the game because of those reasons alone, it's your loss really, as you're missing out on some pretty fun action. I know it has legendary Colin McRae's name on the title (at least in the European editions), but suffice it to say the 'realness' aspects of the game make it seem like it should be Dave Mirra's name instead. That's not a potshot, it's just what the game is intended to be: intense action sports in a X-Games sense, in this case in the form of off-road driving.
There are a little over half a dozen classes of cars to race off road with, and no shortage of liveries. From Robby Gordon's Hummer H3 complete with the Monster Energy logos to Colin McRae's No Fear ride -- you will have plenty to choose from as you finish the game's main campaign called the 'Dirt Tour'. In this mode you race several events in various exotic locale such as Morocco, Baja, Malaysia, Croatia and more. You'll do various events in the various car types including a few events that were made up by Codemasters such as 'gate crasher' where you get points for hitting flimsy walls by hitting your line. The track layouts are exceptionally well done for tight racing, and not to mention they are visually stunning on a powerful enough computer even on DirectX 9. Best of all the game has a buttery smooth framerate. Obviously this game has the added bonus of supporting DirectX 11, which would add to the eye candy even more if you have a supported video card. All of these tracks are playable online with friends as well.
The driving physics are spot on for a low learning curve and make for a highly accessible experience. The force feedback is actually fairly solid, so the feel you get in the car is very 'attached' -- opposed to another racing game like NFS Shift, where the force feedback practically doesn't exist and your car just slides on top of the track and is somewhat lagging in response to the wheel input.
The game has very well-scaled difficulty settings for the most part. If you're like me, a seasoned simulation veteran, then the point-to-point rally races will be a walk in the park. Right away I was winning those events by quite a few seconds on the hardest settings. They are still fun nonetheless. The real challenge comes with races directly against the AI, where the harder settings are highly difficult. The tougher settings are also very rewarding for two reasons: they heighten the sense of intensity very well, and you earn more cash to buy new cars or upgrade your current ones with. In these races you face off against 7 or so AI on tight tracks (think X-Games with 8 cars on the same small circuit). Races like this result in a fairly high amount of exchanging paint and clanking bumpers -- in real life tracks of this size are designed for single car runs. The AI makes mistakes, and is fairly unpredictable. Don't be surprised when you pass by trucks rolling over in a tumbling motion, or even flying over your head crashing in the race. This type of thing happens quite often in Dirt 2, and it will make you go 'oh #$%&!' and then laugh a little at the absolute insanity some of the tracks produce. Needless to say the more forgiving physics works really well in these types of races which are fairly predominant in the main campaign.
Lastly the sounds and presentation. I don't think you can ask for much more in the driving sounds. There is a strange absence of tire squeal when you skid on pavement. Outside of that everything is there with co-driver audio in rally and the sound of pebbles hitting the underside of your car as you slide through hairpins with a Scandinavian flick. As you watch replays and sift through the menus the soundtrack is not exactly my taste, but that is a very minor complaint, if not one at all. There's always the option to turn the music off. While I understand the idea behind the interactive style of the menus as trying to be new, exciting and different, it can also get old watching your character walk through his trailer in a first person view as a way of 'navigating' the menu. My patience for that type of stuff is pretty low and I can see that annoying other people as well. Those are minor issues and more a matter of preference, so I won't give them a knock in terms of rating.
Overall, this is one of the best racers out there for 2009. It certainly gives NFS Shift a run for its money, and in my opinion the poor steering feel in Shift was a deal breaker, so I'd give Dirt 2 the nod in that department as far as best game in this category of 2009. If I did have one complaint it would be the length of the main campaign, which is somewhat short at around ten hours long. Still, with the low price of this game -- being over ten dollars cheaper than most other new PC games upon release - the amount of content for your money is unbelievable and well worth every penny.
UPDATE: Turns out I was wrong, and I noticed there are indeed tire squeal sounds in the game. But for some reason they are at a very low volume when using the cockpit view, making it difficult if not impossible to hear which is why I never noticed the noise. Another point worth mentioning, even though the game's cover makes it clear, is that it uses Games For Windows Live (GFWL) to save your progress. Do note however that you can setup an offline account with no need for the internet for GFWL.
Here is mud in your eye! Fun and great graphicsOctober 13, 2009 J. J. Marino(Rochester, New York) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have been playing this like crazy since it came out. Up till now I had not considered an off-road game to be something I would enjoy. Dirt 2 has thoroughly changed my mind. From its beautiful graphics, To the small details thrown in, like how you can see your stats and global stats on little bits around the game. Look at a magazine cover and you will find the number one track according to the global player base or check the upper right of your clip board and see how many feet youve been on 2 wheels. Silly little tidbits like that make the game very real and fun to keep going back to.
The downside; I have been playing it on full damage mode since the beginning. I pride myself for almost never having to use a flashback (like a dvr that you rewind to get out of a potentially race ending mistake). So I think I am fairly good. When I go and play multiplayer, its nuts. Not in a good way either. I can never catch up to the other players. Even if I have the fastest car they seem to run perfect 100% throttle all the time races. Which, gets just a tad bit frustrating.
Con #2, I have no clue how to join a tournament. Last week there was one that looked like a blast, (it was a demolition derby). I checked everywhere on the game and could find NO WHERE to join, either from the News area or the multiplayer area. Maybe its hidden but the game taunts you to join one, so not finding it is kind of annoying.
Other than that in solo mode this game is just a blast. I love crashing my way through the jungle and tearing up the trails with reckless abandon. I have tried to nuke the celebs several times and they keep falling in love with me, go figure.
If you want authentic looking, sounding fun off-road racing this is the game for you!
Thanks for reading my review, and if anyone has the tip on where to find these tourneys please leave it in the comments.
Simply Excellent: The perfect mix between simulation and funJanuary 10, 2010 Henrique Uslar(Caracas, Venezuela) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been playing this game for one month, and I just love it. Physics and graphics are ultra realistic, while gameplay is entertaining and very fun. If you like realism, but do also want to have fun, then buy this title!
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Nintendo DS | ESRB Rating: Everyone
