DiRT 2

[snickothemule]

Codemasters Colin McRae DiRT was a fine racer if you are looking for a more serious take into the world of rally videogaming. Sporting some of the most sumptuous visuals seen in the genre of racing it truly stood out of the pack with its great realistic and heavy handling and the always delicious visual damage. Now they are back with a sequel, and some more goodies.

First being enhanced physics, now taking corners sees the car transfer more of its weight as it fights inertia to get around the corner, but at the same time makes (reportedly) the feel of the car feel better than that of the first game. Visuals are also increased to look absolutely incredible and reports indicate that the cars have an extra 50% of polygons to play around with car damage (including engine damage). The Ego engine certainly is testing the limits of the 360 and PS3 for visual prowess. Level design is also given a good update with less realistic tracks in favour of more varied and interesting set pieces, such as racing from a busy stadium through a waste yard all in the one track.

This is all great, and the new systems and approach to racing is nice but the thing I want to see more than anything else is deformable tracks like in Sega Rally (without the crushing AI difficulty) as this little feature truly helps to bring the arcade racer into modern gaming while keeping its old school roots intact. If they can have this little feature DiRT 2 will be a no brainer for me and racing fans alike.

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Last edited by snickothemule; May 8th, 2009 at 06:30..

[Samor]

Codies make pretty games already, but they're also still good at showing screenshots looking even better than that. I'm curious what the actual game will look like
...hope they dropped the "HDR overkill" a bit.

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[Paratech]

If you buy the game Samor, I'll be curious about your opinion on it.

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[LoneWolf]

Looks like a very cool game

[Samor]

Originally Posted by Paratech

If you buy the game Samor, I'll be curious about your opinion on it.

I skipped the first DIRT, a large reason being Sega Rally.
I don't have that reason now...

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[Paratech]

Originally Posted by Samor

I skipped the first DIRT, a large reason being Sega Rally.
I don't have that reason now...

It had NOTHING to do with the EVIL Starforce? Not that I might have dealt with that monster with my PC original...

I own BOTH Sega Rally and DiRT! They're BOTH worth owning...and CHEAP now...

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[nosound.97]

Sega Rally rox forever. I like Sega Rally even more that DiRT, since it's so addictive and even more addictive than any other racing game

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[Paratech]

Originally Posted by nosound.97

Sega Rally rox forever. I like Sega Rally even more that DiRT, since it's so addictive and even more addictive than any other racing game

I don't deny that, I just think DiRT is worth $9-$14, which it can be had for in the US...

How is the PSP Sega Rally, I was thinking of buying...

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[Samor]

Originally Posted by Paratech

It had NOTHING to do with the EVIL Starforce? Not that I might have dealt with that monster with my PC original...

I own BOTH Sega Rally and DiRT! They're BOTH worth owning...and CHEAP now...

with starforce? if a game is good enough, I'll even deal with starforce...
Admittedly, I do not play race driver 2 (starforce) on my pc anymore, but that's also a typical example of a game being surpassed by newer games (with racers and sports games, that's often the case).

btw, I might get Sega Rally a second time for 360, because of a framerate issue with the pc version.... it seems almost no one sees the issue, as it's minor, and for some reason pc gamers are very ok with inconsistent framerates, but I'm not* =P

btw, I like these screenshots (Samor loves his current car, but would also like to have a Lancer)

*nah, don't tell me it's my pc, because I felt the same with the 3 I had before this one. pc's just aren't very "smooth".

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[PsyMan]

I'm almost convinced to reinstall Sega Rally 2 after seeing this... and it's been quite some years since I last did.

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[Samor]

sega rally 2 is great too (probably the best in the series)
the pc version sadly doesn't want to play cd audio on an os newer than win9x, but otherwise it works fine, even on vista. Of course, you can just rip the cd audio and run it in winamp while playing the game, that'll work fine....

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[PsyMan]

Actually, there is an application that lets you "fix" audio playback for various games on Vista/XP.

Just google for "_inmm.dll"

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[strike105x]

I didnt like Dirt, but i did like Sega Rally, not the same imo .

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[Samor]

Originally Posted by PsyMan

Actually, there is an application that lets you "fix" audio playback for various games on Vista/XP.

Just google for "_inmm.dll"

i'll have a look, but SR2 seems to be an odd case (I did get other games' cd audio to work just fine)

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[snickothemule]

I've been doing some more reading about DiRT 2 and from what I can tell is that the visual prowess bump is due to a technique called deferred lighting which uses hundreds of lighting locations with each casting their own shadows. Certainly looks tasty.

Another interesting addition is water, which now splashed above the bonnet and will cover the windscreen temporarily blinding the driver until the wipers come into play.

As for the racing modes there is the traditional rally mode, and Rally Cross which pits you with 8 racers on the circuit based tracks. There is trailblazer which is like hillclimbing with a downhill section thrown in. Landrush which is basically car chassis with v8's bolted on for crazy racing styles and Raid which is like Dakar rally style racing with huge open environments.

This is now a must have for me.

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[Cid Highwind]

But no deformable track again? I thought Sega Rally made that a new standard. Highly innovative. I just don't understand what you mean with crushing AI, maybe you just lacked the skills?

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[snickothemule]

Originally Posted by Cid Highwind

But no deformable track again? I thought Sega Rally made that a new standard. Highly innovative. I just don't understand what you mean with crushing AI, maybe you just lacked the skills?

Sega Rally demands a high level of perfect racing lines. Hit the wall once or twice in the first lap and it is difficult to make your way into first place. Especially later on in the game. Once you learn those lines and keep a cool head it becomes a bit more formulaic when approaching each track, but getting that formula down pat can become troublesome with the way the AI smacks the player with their general flawless driving patterns. Still beatable, and quite easily so when you learn that formula.

As for lacking skill? Finishing the championship modes 100% certainly gave a nice feeling

Originally Posted by mudlord

Sounds like a gimmick. Use SSAO and be happy. Thats the new HDR, after all.....

You reckon? It seems to be a growing technique, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, Dead Space all used this technique to a good result and some say that it works very well with SSAO.

If anyone wants to read a bit on deferred lighting, this seems to be a decent source of info with examples in demo's and final products:

http://www.gamerendering.com/2008/11...red-lightning/

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Last edited by snickothemule; May 14th, 2009 at 01:34..

[Samor]

about sega rally, I'm thinking of getting it for the 360, since the pc's "won't run well untill I press restart bug" sure is annoying... and I'm less and less forigiving about pc issues anyway (seems the only things these things can do right is "folding" anyway).

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[Typhoon 01]

I am looking forward to Dirt 2, i was going to get the first one for the PS3 but when i saw that they are releasing a new one i decided to hold off. Still the best rally game, one that i play to date, is Rally Championship 2000.

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[snickothemule]

It appears that DiRT 2's PC release is going to be delayed a few months in order to comply with the new DirectX 11, kotaku reports:

The PC version of Colin McRae: Dirt 2 is being driven to December in order to make sure the title supports the hardware tessellation, multi-threading and Shader Model 5.0 technology coming in DirectX 11.

DirectX 11 already? Most games are still trying to catch up to DirectX 10 support, but Codemasters wants to make sure they deliver the “most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experiences in the business”, and that means the Games for Windows Live version of Dirt 2 is just going to have to wait a few months. With the console versions still on target for a September release, PC users will have to wait until December before they get a much nicer version of the title, provided they have the hardware to support it, of course.

Why not simply release the game and patch in DX11 support later? Perhaps Codemasters is taking a cue from the previous generation, where PC developers’ promised Direct X 10 patches trickled out far later than originally planned, impressing less people in the process.

Dirt 2 PC Delayed For DirectX 11 | Kotaku Australia

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