Straight from the off you can tell Dirt 2 is going to be a very polished title thanks to it’s unique menu system. Basically your menu is your trailer van, allowing you to wander around inside checking out the available events, play online or tweak some of the games many options. You can also have a wander outside to check out your rides, customize them and even buy new vehicles. Other options outside include online leaderboards and a magazine cover which gives you some interesting facts based on the games stats and also customizes itself based on your friends list.

 

 

When you visit the map inside your trailer and choose a race from one of the many locations, an instructional video will appear on the TV to give instructions on the rules of the race. This will generally only appear each time you take part in a race you have never took part in before, so you don’t have to sit through these videos every time, though they are a very unique and impressive touch.

 

The Career Mode is where you will spend most of your time playing in Dirt 2 and plenty of it given that there are over 100 different events to take part in. When you choose an event from the map you will be told how much XP you will gain from winning that particular event as well as the cash prize up for grabs. The whole purpose of XP is to enable your driver to reach higher levels and therefore become more efficient and renowned. As you progress through the levels you will unlock new liveries for your vehicles, unlock new countries and therefore new events to take part in and you will also unlock neat gifts for your vehicles such as fluffy dice and a Codemasters air freshener.

 

Countries from around the world are certainly well represented in the game with Malaysia, Morocco, London, Japan and Croatia to name a few all making an appearance. No matter what area you race in there is certainly plenty of variety to keep you on your toes. Morocco for example is very challenging with it’s tight dirt tracks and narrow streets making it hard to stay on the course, Croatia sees you racing through vast scenery, while both London and Japan offer up your more traditional city based racing.

 

The events in Career Mode certainly offer plenty of variety, obviously there is rally racing, allowing you to vie for the best time on the track in question, however that are also some other rather interesting modes such as Trailblazer, which is basically rally without the dulcet tones of your co-driver, Gatecrasher, which basically tasks you with hitting as many gates as you can before you run out of time and to add to these there is also Rally Cross which is a standard race to the finish, Last Man Standing which should be familiar to most race fans, Raid which sees you race in trucks and and Landrush which is basically off road racing in buggies (and if also very difficult to get to grips with). Out with the standard events there are also special events to take part in such as the X-Games, which is a series of three events (Europe/Asia/America) each based over three races. To win any of the X Games you must come in at least 3rd in the two races leading up to the final, then after that the higher you finish the better your prize. There are also a few other modes which become available but I will let you figure them out for yourself.

 

So what of the actual handling of the vehicles? Well I am happy to report that this is pretty much as spot on as you are going to get, each of the different vehicles seems to handle as well as you would expect, with some obviously being tougher to driver than others, the Buggies for example were a real pest for me to get to grips with at first however after a few races I soon got the hang of their wild handling.

 

As well as getting used to the handling of the cars you also have the AI drivers to contend with, these guys certainly provide a challenge and don’t seem to make many mistakes, so don’t expect to catch up if you are crashing every two seconds. While you may not be racing against the AI in all of the races they still usually make an appearance, for example in Rally they will set off before you to set their time, however if you are fast enough you can actually catch them up and overtake them which goes to show that in some respects they aren’t completely perfect, which is obviously a good thing.

 

One of the major features in Dirt 2 I haven’t covered yet is the Flashbacks, this basically allows you to rewind time should you make a mistake and go back to correct your mistake. Obviously this ability is limited to only a few uses, but it does come in handy and works well. The amount of times you will be able to use flashback depends on what difficulty you are playing on.

 

As you work your way through each of the races you will gain the respect of the other rally drivers, which then opens up the chance to become friends with them by beating them in Throwdowns (a challenge set by them that you must complete), this will not only have them talking to you during races but also see them eventually team up with you in certain events.

 

 

Visually Dirt 2 is certainly a looker, the damage on the cars is especially impressive as they tend to turn to mush after you have hit the wall a few times (which also affects the handling). Elsewhere the framerate is super smooth with no real lag or tear to complain of, the in car view is very realistic as mud splashes onto the windscreen which therefore has you temporarily driving blind (this was a bit too much for me) and the environments are beautifully created and give a real sense of realism when racing through them. The sound meanwhile is pretty much spot on, the cars sound very realistic and the voice of each of your buddies complaining as you yet again crash them into the barrier is a fun addition.

 

Unfortunately I was were unable to try out the online side of the game as no-one seemed to be playing whenever I tried, however what I can tell you is that each event can be played with up to seven other players and that modes online include the same races from the single player mode and all of the vehicles. The only difference between each of the players online will be any extras they have earned offline.

 

Dirt 2 is the first of the big racing games about to be introduced to our consoles with the others (and perhaps bigger names) such as Gran Turismo 5, PGR5 and Blur all on the Horizon. The advantage that Dirt 2 has is that it is out first, is quite diverse and is also a very good racer (both in looks and execution). Whether you intend to buy these other games or not this title is certainly worth a look in the meantime.