I haven't tried a dirt racing game since the old Dirt series several years ago and they were terrible. This one is pretty good. The graphics aren't as good as some of the other newer racing games, but overall they work. It's not buggy (with the patch) and game play is straight forward. Just what youy would expect in a dirt racing series. There's several types of racing from BAHA to Arena and everything in between. The AI is a too hard for my taste, even in casual mode, once you get a few races under your belt, the AI is just about unbeatable unless you crash them into rocks, trees and walls. To me, that's not racing, but I can see that the majority of buyers probably just want a crash derby in any racing game they buy (as evidenced in the online tournaments of any racing game). So if it's a crash derby, bull your way to the top, run 'em down kind of race, than Dirt 2 is the one for you. Plenty of tracks in many countries and really they did a lot of work on the tracks. They are hard to get through and the cars are loose (even with the very limited car settings). I think they could have done better at giving us more adjustment room for setting up (dialing in) cars, but something has always got to be missing or you wouldn't look forward to the next in the series. Overall it's fun to run the tracks if you don't mind the AI beating you most of the time.
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Additional - I have to say that with most every game I have come across there are issues. Many times the issues are ones that we "gamers" have brought upon ourselves. Anyone with some money and enough knowhow to slap components together thinks they are computer gurus and many times they/we shoot ourselves in the foot. Gaming machines are buggy and unstable many times, due to the overclocking of components and due to the nature of "cutting edge" components as they usually have more issues than the components designed for slower speeds and better stability. When you see all the complaints about not being able to run a game, it's usually more of the lack of expertise of the "gamer" (including me), than of the game itself, but every game usually runs way better after a "patch", since they are seemingly always put out with problems. This game ran super smooth on my machine, but it runs much smoother at medium settings than ultra settings. That's normal with a game and truthfully I cannot see the visual difference, but the stability is so much better. Most games run much smoother with medium settings for the graphics. 2xAA is just as good as 4xAA, and you don't really need trees, grass & water set on ultra settings, you are driving too fast thru the scenery to see it anyhow!
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