I consider myself a hardcore gamer, I play many games of different genders and try to taste everything I can.
My first unforgiven experience I had with a racing game was with RallyCross por PSOne, before it, arcade racing games and even Mario Kart for the SNES were good, but RallyCross was incredible, very addicting and with content. After that game, I played lots off-road racing games like sega's rally and some of the rally modes from Gran Turismo, but non of them could top RallyCross until now; Dirt2 offers a lot and is a quality racing masterpiece.
GRAPHICS:
Not the graphics of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, but indeed, much better than Shift, Forza 3 or Grid in my opinion. The lightning in this game is what gives the sence of reality, the sunsets and sun reflects, the way the vehicule and the level behaves with the enviroment lights are amazing. Is very relaxing and satisfaying to watch the beauty of this game during a race replay, is stunning.
The water in the games is realistic and awesome, the car makes real waves on the water and when you are using the in-game camera, you can see the water hit your front window when you splash a water pod, is amazing. That kind of details are what makes dirt2 one of the best looking racing game this gen. Graphics details are what defines quality games over average, and dirt2 is pure quality.
GAMEPLAY:
This is were dirt2 takes the cake, is fun to race. The vehicule behaves different when you are over sand, over water, over road or over rocks, it's very realistic and the controls are very responsive. I only played with a controller, but I might buy a wheel just for this game and tell you my feedback later.
The crashes are very real and affect the way your car behaves during a race, your can have wheel and engine problems if you crash constantly also the damage is reflected on the car model as well.
There are replaysavers witch makes the game easy to play, so new commers will feel releif.
PRESENTATION:
Best UI on any video game PERIOD. The way you select the races, the options and everything is innovating. The stats are great, it tells you everything, even your trophy progress, which makes easier for trophie hunters.
There are plenty of racing modes: Rally, Raid, RallyCross, Landrush and mores, all of them playable online.
There are like 35 cars in the game, all of them with deep customization options, both visual and mechanical (not as mechanical as GT though), and the amount is enough, you don't need more cars really.
And the tracks... well, all of them well designed and fun to race.
SOUND:
The FX sounds are really good and realistic, and I do like the playlist the game offers (I read many didn't, well thats pure opinions). Save it for teh bedroom from You me at six song is awesome!
I could have been nice to have custom soundtrack, but I understang with this option was not included, and it's because the songs jumps to the chores when you are about to start a race event, I bet that detail could not be done with custom music.
OVER ALL:
The game is great!!
If you like off-road racing or racing in general then this game is a must.
PROS:
+ Graphics
+ Gameplay
+ Online modes
+ Tracks
+ Customization
CONS:
- Only around 30 cars
- Not as deep as Gran Turismo in terms of mechanical car adjustments.
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