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| Source // MobyGames |
After his death, the DiRT series took on a form all of its own, and it was at its most extreme in Colin McRae: DiRT 2, where rallying meets the X-Games, and everything is gnarly and neon.
I've played DiRT 2 to completion on my trusty PlayStation 3, and you might want to as well.
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| Source // MobyGames |
Fun Times
DiRT 2 isn't just different, it's extremely different. Gone is the pyramid of challenges hanging in the void, replaced with the hustle and bustle of a crowd packed around the paddock of whatever sporting event you've just rocked up to, but we'll get to that later. The changes are best seen in a race.
The graphic design is one of chunky letters, marker pens, gaffer tape, and lots of neon. It's one step away from a Monster Energy drink, and all the branding that can be found closer to the world of skateboarding, perhaps, than rallying.
DiRT 2 is extreme, and all about the fun of thrashing a car down a dirt road or, as is increasingly more common for the series, around a rallycross track in the middle of an arena.
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| Source // MobyGames |
The drivers this time out aren't really known for their rallying pedigree, though many have competed and excelled in the sport. Ken Block plays host this time around, but Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and even the late Dave Mirra lend their names and voices to the pack.
In amongst the rumbles of the engine and the numerous sound effects to emerge from an inevitable collision are the chatter of your competitors responding to your actions. Bump into them and they aren't too pleased. Show yourself to be the better racer in a head to head challenge later on in your career and they might look more favourably to a coming together in future, even joking about it.
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| Source // MobyGames |
In the first DiRT game, I was having a tough time driving anything until I switched into the first-person view, but in DiRT 2, the arcadey nature of the series is coming out, and the ease at which you can slide your car or buggy or truck around corners gives players the one thing they crave most in a rallying game: sheer bloody joy.
What might be a right pain in the arse in other games, controlling monstrous vehicles that serve only to send you spinning out as soon as you put your foot down, is accessible here. Physics as you expect it goes a little out the window, and physics as we want it comes to take its place.
We're all proper rally drivers now - and if you're still not, if a spectacular crash still interrupts your flow, you can rewind time a little and try again. If memory serves, you can earn bonus experience for both proving that you can use a flashback, and for completing stages without using any. It's a win-win.
The menus of DiRT 2 take the form of the camper van that takes you to events spanning the globe. Outside sits your current car that you can admire from any angle, much like the crowds at the event are doing, and inside is the world map to select events from, posters to inspire you to work towards unlocking their challenges, and an awful lot of trinkets that you collect on your travels.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
The menus of DiRT 2 take the form of the camper van that takes you to events spanning the globe. Outside sits your current car that you can admire from any angle, much like the crowds at the event are doing, and inside is the world map to select events from, posters to inspire you to work towards unlocking their challenges, and an awful lot of trinkets that you collect on your travels.
It's a little like MotorStorm with its tickets, in that you need to race to unlock more races, but progress comes without too much difficulty, and with progress comes new cars and car types that you can customize a little before sending them hurtling through the desert at breakneck speeds.
Every now and then a challenge butts in to issue a head-to-head event, but the general flow is to pick a location and an event that you haven't conquered yet and just get stuck in.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Frustrations
Once again, however, you can make the argument that it's all a little too repetitive. Croatia is home to some lovely rally stages, but no matter whether you're racing alone to set a fast time, or smashing through gates in a more arcadey version of a time trial, you're still just racing down the same stretch of dirt, at the same time of day, probably even in the same car because you know it's good, and you do it again and again.
Sure, sometimes the course stops halfway through or you do that section in reverse, but some stages are too limited for even that. Some stages are designed for one car type only, other circuits are so frequently visited that you just wish there was another variant layout to keep your interest.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Further Fun Times
On the flip side, if you fall in love with the handling of these cars and really get in the rhythm, DiRT 2 is a game where you simply won't mind the repetition, because it looks and feels so damn good. It's no Forza Motorsport 3, but the visual effects of mud and water splashes are there to see, as are all the little additional details that decorate your car as you win major events.
As your time with DiRT 2 goes on, you start to feel like it's all one big happy travelling family, doing what they love to do, which happens to be rocking up somewhere and driving over whatever terrain they find, be it in circuit races or point to point sprints. I would not be surprised to learn that many players first knew about the wonderful world of Rally Cross because of this game.
Your competitors will start to respect you, your camper van fills with souvenirs and medals, your garage full of machines tuned to the extreme in an attempt to let you go wild.
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| Source // MobyGames |
Final Word
The key point about Colin McRae: DiRT 2 for me to get across is that it just clicked, and once it clicks, there's little stopping me from seeing it all, whether it is ultimately repetitive or not.
I've mentioned before how these games I've not grown up with, notably Forza and DiRT have had such an impact on me that I've recreated their circuits (or intend to) for the tabletop in Rallyman: GT and soon to be released Rallyman: Dirt. You don't slap a circuit together in five minutes and call it a day. You slave away at finding the right corner to represent what it feels like to drive in the video game, and twenty minutes later moan that that very same corner now doesn't fit the aesthetics of the circuit you've ended up with.
This is passion, and it all comes from video games that are accessible, welcoming, and rewarding to play. Anyone can throw a car around in DiRT 2, but everyone will be more successful if they get used to how they handle and know when and how hard to push them towards their limits.
It's not a simulator, not by a long shot, but it is one of the best times I've had with a racer. As the DiRT series goes on, outside of the realms of this 1001 list, it'll bounce between realism and arcade, but never again - until DIRT5, perhaps, but I've not got my hands on that - will it feel as cool as it does in DiRT 2.
Obviously, the style has aged a little in the decade since. We gravitate towards clean pyramids floating in the void these days, but if you're looking for a fun offroader, you can do far worse than any of the DiRT games, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 perhaps being the best of the bunch.
Fun Facts
It may feel arcadey, but the physics engine under the hood allows you to pull off proper rallying moves, simulating weight transfer through the corners for a satisfying Scandinavian flick.
Colin McRae: DiRT 2, developed by Codemasters, first released in 2009.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2009.