Dirt 2

by Codemasters

Product Features

• DiRT2 enables players to pick their favorite rides and drive them across multiple disciplines.
• Multiple race disciplines, encompassing the best that modern off-roading has to offer and fueled by the 3rd generation of Codemasters? world-renowned EGO Engine technology.
• 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.
• 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 and the 'Rawang Rally Run' along Malaysian rainforest tracks.
• DiRT 2 invites players to become part of an extreme sports community, with full online multiplayer race events and community integration across multiple disciplines.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001UVV8QS
• Item Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: December 8, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,887 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

As the sequel to the acclaimed racer of 2007, DiRT 2 is set to take off-road racing games to a new level. Packed with a wide variety of features and in-game events such as new benchmark technology, thrilling new race types, big event atmosphere, stunning locations, a new breed of off-roading heroes and a peerless line-up of super-charged speed machines, DiRT 2 isn't your standard off-road racing game. It is the new standard. High flying arcade fun. View larger. Varied events and environments. View larger. Customization options. View larger. Easy access to favorite cars. 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. In addition, DiRT 2 come complete with full online functionality that will be core to the overall experience, with head-to-head competitive online play and new social features to engage the racing community. Prepare for mud, gravel, dust and dirt too in DiRT 2. Turbo-charged Off-roading with Extreme Sports Attitude Defined by its multiple disciplines, encompassing the very best that modern off-roading has to offer and fuelled by the 3rd generation of Codemasters’ world-renowned EGO Engine technology, 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 Online Package DiRT 2 invites players to become part of an extreme sports community, with full online multiplayer race events and community integration across multiple disciplines. With leader boards, news feeds and ‘scribbles’ to keep you up-to-date on your friends’ racing achievements, DiRT 2 will be a social hub for off-roading fans. Key Game Features Turbo-charged off-roading action and in-game characters with extreme sports attitude Advanced graphics fuelled by the 3rd generation of Codemasters’ world-renowned EGO Engine technology. 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. Access to a wide array of online multiplayer race events and community integration across multiple disciplines. 2-8 multiplayer races via Games for Windows LIVE. Teams, leaderboards, tournaments, player stats, voice messaging and voice functionalities supported via Games for Windows LIVE.

Product Description

Following on the success of the original Dirt as well as a decade of videogame development in partnership with the late Colin McRae, DiRT 2 explores various disciplines of off-road racing. Dirt 2 features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to the most diverse and challenging real-world environments. This World Tour has players competing in aggressive multi-car and intense solo races at extraordinary new locations, from canyon racing and jungle trails to city stadium-based events.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best racers out there, March 5, 2010

By 

Schadstoffsöldner - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dirt 2 (DVD-ROM)

+ Idiosyncratic driving mechanics based on the car
+ Beautiful scenery and geometry
+ Overall great racing game
+ Very stable (never crashed once)

- No snow tracks. The last rally game I bought was exclusively because it had snow tracks. Snow is beautiful and an integral part of rally. How could they miss this?
- Need to sign up for a Windows Live Account to play online
- Annoying unnecessary & unskippable animations (I don't want to have to go from each gig scenery to my trailer every time I finish a race) in the menu AND at the beginning of each race (I don't care about who the AI thinks is the favorite to win the race).
- Game controller vibration feedback not supported, can't call the pause menu with controller buttons and I can't navigate in the main menu with it. (I use the most popular game controller.)

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Decent Racer, December 10, 2009

By 

Bill Cosby (Tha Hood) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dirt 2 (DVD-ROM)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Graphics!, December 28, 2009

By 

A. Takemiya (San Pedro, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dirt 2 (DVD-ROM)

This review is for the PC version. I am running Windows 7 Pro (32 bit), with an Intel Core Duo E8500 at 3.16GHz, 4G RAM, Radeon 4850 video card, and 24" Dell monitor at 1920 x 1200.
The graphics on this game are amazing! The cars look fantastic and the dust kicked up by cars in front of you are so realistic looking. I find myself losing concentration at times and just enjoying the graphics.
I think the PC version on a decent PC looks better than the PS3 version.
As far as game play I haven't tried the online mode so cannot comment on that but playing against the computer opponents is pretty fun. The realism seems to be just right (you can set the level - I have it set to Serious). I am not a hard core simulation person but I immensely dislike arcade style driving games. This game is way above an arcade style game. The force feedback effects are great. You can really tell when you are losing grip on the front end because of loose gravel.
Anyway, a very well done game. Keep up the good work Codemasters!

2115|R1YEQ12ILLQHPQ;2115|R2FEG924FW1661;2115|R2X3FUU0JE2CQ4;