Colin McRae: DiRT 2 game preview

Simulators (and indeed arcade racers in general) come out very rarely these days. Of the recent projects, the only ones that come to mind are FUEL, which surprises only with the incredible size of its game territory, and Need for Speed: Shift. The reason lies not at all in the crisis raging outside the window, whose consequences our colleague Kai has been pondering lately, but in the banal satiation of the public with bland "joyrides" (thanks to Need for Speed: Undercover, which made a huge contribution to this process). Everyone seeks a way out of the dead end in their own way. Some revive old, long-forgotten brands (Test Drive Unlimited), others add elements of extreme sports to racing (Pure). Studios with more than 10 employees on staff invariably try to mold a game of universal scale (just recall the same FUEL and Undercover), sometimes producing an inedible half-baked product.

The story of the rollout

In essence, this was also the case with Dirt, which for Codemasters was merely a beta test for Race Driver: GRID. Meanwhile, the series Colin McRae Rally had been waiting a long time for change. Already after the third installment it became clear that you can't get far on the name of a famous racer alone. Having released the first series of "dirty joyrides" in 2007, the developers swapped rally championships for a collection of races that included a pile of tournaments in cars of various classes. The end goal was clear: to cover as many popular racing disciplines as possible, but in the end the authors went little further than blindly copying ToCa Race Driver. On top of that, unjustified slowdowns, horse-sized doses of "blur" poured onto the roads without any measure, and an frankly weak multiplayer spoiled the whole impression. But in the case of Dirt 2, it seems this won't happen. At least judging by the information available at the moment.

Dirt 2 is now more off-road racing diluted with mind-blowing stunts and jumps than familiar rally. Naturally, there will be no complete abandonment of races on specialized tracks, but the bulk of the career will have to be driven precisely on dirt. The number of competitions, of which there were already plenty in the first series, will increase. The player will have to roam the roads of almost all continents. Well, except perhaps Antarctica. The most interesting thing looks to be the "Race of Champions" – a sporting event to which the best drivers in the world flock. The rivals are split into pairs and compete against each other on circuit tracks of equal length. The race lasts two laps, and the drivers must drive both the inner and outer sides of the track, which equalizes the chances of both participants. We'll be racking up the kilometers in several cars: from "subcompacts" to a cross-country buggy. However, for those who like to build strategies, there's no room for maneuvering in the "Race of Champions" – the winner advances further up the tournament "ladder", while the loser drops out of the running.

Stars & Cars

It is also known that there will definitely be races with famous extreme athletes. Ken Block (Ken Block), Tanner Foust (Tanner Foust), Dave Mirra (Dave Mirra) and, of course, Travis Pastrana (Travis Pastrana), who "worked" as a guide in the first Dirt, have agreed to take part in the game. You'll be able to pit your skills against the stars in the regular career too, not just as a bonus for performing some stunts.

No matter how smart the computer is, racing against a live opponent is far more fun. That's where the experience of the same Race Driver: GRID, which perfectly combined a captivating single-player career and a multiplayer mode, will come in handy. From now on, all cars and tracks from the "single-player" will be available for online races. The replay function will also carry over from GRID. At low difficulty levels, you'll be able to stop the race at any moment and "rewind" time back, in order, for example, to avoid a collision or a serious accident. However, you can't use this time machine endlessly – the number of "flashbacks" is strictly limited. So we strongly recommend letting poles, trees and other obstacles pass by your bumper.The authors have completely changed the game's physics. Now, depending on power, mass and off-road capability, each car will feel different on the road. For example, the low-slung Subaru Impreza WRX STI will take a sharp turn almost without slowing down, while an SUV repeating the same trick risks flipping onto its roof. All these innovations became possible thanks to realistic weight transfer to all four wheels. That is, if previously the body had no effect on driving, now you'll have to study the features of the track and even the road surface. Otherwise there's a big risk of ending up upside down on a dashing turn. After all, the system calculates the behavior of your "iron horse" in real time.

But the main advantage of Dirt 2 is, of course, the realistic picture. The third-generation EGO Engine had a new system of dynamic lighting and rendering of terrain details and the entire environment bolted on. Serious work was also done on the effects of water and mud flying up as the car moves. And, of course, don't forget that Dirt 2 will become one of the first projects to use Shader Model 5.0 and DirectX 11.

. The most promising and anticipated racing simulator of the year. Such are the things.