Was the delayed PC version worth the wait?

Dirt 2 for the consoles came out earlier in the year to great reviews (AVG 87 metacritic), but Codemasters decided to make PC gamers wait for this title to add some DirectX 11 effects into the game. ATI also signed a deal with Codemasters to ship a free steam copy of Dirt 2 with every new ATI card in the 5700, 5800 and 5900 series, as they are the first cards to market with DX11 support. As i was due for a new computer this year, i decided to go ahead and build another PC, for the graphics cards, of course, i chose two HD 5850’s, so i had two copies of Dirt 2.

But on to the game, it weighs in at 10GB on steam as a download, uses Games for windows live and without ATI’s hotfix has some issues with Crossfire on ATI’s new cards. But thankfully i can get around 65 – 70 AVG FPS on mostly Ultra settings (dropped crowd and distant vehicles down to high), 4X AA and 1920×1080 resolution, in DX11 which is great, around 160 AVG FPS in DX9. So yeah, i’m getting a great experience with the game in terms of performance and graphics, but what about the actual game? Its fantastic, i didn’t expect to like it much because i didn’t get into the console versions demo, for a reason i’m still not sure of!

Already, this review has been geared towards the PC version, and for the next paragraph or so, it will continue to do so, so feel free to skip ahead. Of course, with my new DX11 cards i couldn’t wait to see what they could do, but at the same time, knew there would only be a few effects here and there which you would notice, as it isn’t a game developed fully for DX11. Either way, textures seem to pop and actually look like they have real texture now, instead of them previously looking like flat images like in DX9, the water effects certainly look great and the cloth seems to move much more realistically. So hopefully, we do start to see a full set of games using DX11.

On to the game, but keeping on the subject of visuals. I purposely went and taken a good set of screenshots from the game itself using a third party application (fraps) click on em for full res versions, mostly from the replay mode and one or two from my view in-game, all the images in this review will be taken by me, so you don’t need to worry about any bull-shots doctored up by Codemasters sneaking in here. But yeah, this game is georgous, especially on PC. The water effects make you want to drive through every puddle you see, the dust and dirt makes you want to skid around on the surfaces so you can look at how great it looks in the replays. I’m one of those people who disagrees with people who say Graphics don’t enchance a game, because if this was an ugly game, i don’t think i would be enjoying it as much as i am, its still a fantastic game ignoring all the nice visuals, but you know part of the authentic experience is the graphics.

Moving on to the actual gameplay, i do consider this an authentic experience in terms of off-road racing, in most parts apart from most of the gameplay. The way the handling changes fairly accuratly based on the surface you are driving on is one of the things that surprised me most, because on many other similar games, going from a gravel track to a solid tarmac usually has your car still sliding around unrealistically on the tarmac, but on this – you’ll have more grip and will have to change your driving style for that particular section, for example. As I’ve been playing the PC version, i have been using the keyboard to control it, so the arrow keys to move the car, it was a bit of a pain at the start and a controller is still preferable, but even through the keyboard, you get the nice feeling of the cars, actually, i’d say there are some characteristics of an off-road car that you will see more using a keyboard due to all the minor adjustments you are constantly making. However, it is still a fairly arcadey game despite some authentic sections to the game. The different racing views are also fairly interesting, you get the standard behind the car view, a cockpit view, hood view and bumper view. My favourite is the hood view, but the cockpit view is great to have a mess around with now and again just to listen to the sounds the car makes (other than engine), which i will go into later on.

The race/tournament structure is fairly standard for this genre of game, you have many different locations in which there are races to complete for all types of racing, large truck/buggie, Rally, Rally cross, Trail Blazer and a few others. I would go into them, but i feel that aside from one or two modes, they’re fairly standard. There are three levels, rookie, pro, and all star. For each race, you’ll earn exp and money, exp towards you ranks will allow you to unlock tournaments and other locations and of course, the money you earn will allow you to buy cars, or upgrade ones you already own for them to qualify for more advanced races.

Multiplayer, i don’t have much experience in this side, i have probably only played around 3 races online. But what i did play was smooth and they did re-create the single player experience online, little to no visual or audio loss. Not much else i can say, if i get into it, I’ll make a separate review for it.

Sound! Goes hand in hand with the visuals to create the authentic feeling, the way the cars creek around, the stones flicking up and hitting the fenders on the cars, the smashing into the walls and each other – it all sounds geniually realistic, not the typical video game realistic you’re probably used to in similar games, but sounds you have heard watching off-road racing, all blended into each other naturally, doesn’t sound like it has been enhances or altered, all there in its raw form.

That is more or less it, it is a must buy for any fan of the genre. I don’t and never have really liked giving scores for reviews, despite all my other reviews having scores, but i’ll give this one a score too. I’ll explain why one day..

9.1/10

For more screenshots of the game, keep visiting: http://eugn.co.uk/Dirt2/ – i’ll be updating it regularly for the next few weeks.