I’ll be straight-up with y’all because that’s how I roll: I have no idea how to review a racing game.
I can’t think of any racing games I’ve owned, though I’ve probably played dozens of them over the years, usually at a friend’s, usually not for very long, because I’m not overly fond of them in general. Racing is cool but ultimately there’s only one thing to do, which is race, which is, as I said, cool, but also sort of limited. To me, racing games are sort of like fighting games: there’s a lot of them, and I might enjoy a session or two of button mashing fun with friends, but never think about the games again when I’m done.
Anyway, a demo for Dirt 2 cropped up on Steam recently, and I downloaded it, played the two races it came with, and uninstalled it. Then I reinstalled it almost immediately and played the races a few more times. Then, I waited. Waited for Steam to make that small yet fatal error of pricing it at a discount. They did, and I pounced. The FOOLS!
Because Dirt 2 is pretty damn great. Here is what I like about it:
- It’s easy to play. Just get in a car, pick a race, and start driving. It’s very arcade-game-ish that way, which is what I’m looking for. I don’t want a lot of fuss about tweaking the brakes or steering or drift or differentials or whatever else — I just want to drive. (Though, Dirt 2 lets you customize a bunch of technical stuff in your cars if that is your thing.)
- It’s friggin’ beautiful. Just gorgeous. I think it may be the most beautiful game-world I’ve ever been in, which is a bit of a shame because I’m stuck in my car and the car is stuck in the race. Many times during a race I wish I could leave the track and just tear off into the wilderness, or pull over, hop out, and walk around for a bit.
- For a console port, I think the controls and menus are pretty good. The cars are much easier to control than they are in, say, Grand Theft Auto 4. The menu system is pretty overblown, with swooshes across maps and things slamming around and the screen shaking, but I still like it. It’s X-TREME, and in Dirt 2, I don’t mind being X-TREME. They make leveling up X-TREME TO THE MAX. And that’s a good thing.
- There’s a bunch of different racing modes, and while some of them are dumb (like one where you have to smash through foam gates for some reason), most are great, especially Trailblazer & Rally, which let you loose on miles of terrain with limited interference from other cars. And, if you like jostling around with other cars, there’s plenty of those modes, too.
- Completing a race will usually open up not just the next race but several new ones, meaning you won’t get stuck on one race that you have to complete to progress. One time, I won a race and it opened up roughly eight more all at once. I like having options.
- A HUGE turn-off for me are those racing games with real cars that don’t sustain any damage if you ram into something at 100mph. In Dirt 2, in an X-TREME race you’ll have mud splatters and paint chipped off and shattered windows and bumpers falling off and bent frames and doors missing and wheels ruined. It’s great. When I win a race my car is generally mangled, though I did finish first without so much as a scratch one time, and got an achievement for it.
- I normally don’t like driving in cockpit view, but it’s pretty cool to do from time to time in Dirt 2.
- If you’re doing great and about to win a long race but then fuck up and total your car, you can rewind to a few moments before you fucked up (you can do this a few times per race, depending on what level difficulty you’re playing). I’m guessing this is pretty standard in racing games these days, but I’ve never used it before because I don’t play racing games. Nice feature. I like not having to pay for my mistakes.
Things I don’t like:
- A lot of the music is kinda shitty, but it only plays on the menu screens and during replays. I can put up with a little cock-rock from time to time. Plus, there are some decent bands in there, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Bloc Party.
- Could use some weather. Rain would be cool. There are puddles on some tracks but no rain.
I recommend everyone try the demo out — like I said, I’m not usually one for racing games but I’m addicted to this one. It’s some really great fun, casual if you want it to be, and darn purty. Keep your eyes open for another Steam sale: I got it for $20 and it was well-worth it.
More pics in the gallery I just added. Also, you can click some of the images above for full-size. Which brings me to another thing I like about Dirt 2: the screenshots I take actually look like promo images for the game. Sweet!