COLIN MCRAE DIRT II

COLIN MCRAE DIRT 2 ESTE PARTEA A DOUA A JOCULUI COLIN MCRAE DIRT. JOCUL VA FI DISPONIBIL PE XBOX 360 , PLAYSTATION 3 SI PC.JOCUL VA FI LANSAT IN SEPTEMBRIE 2009.PRODUCATOR CODEMASTERS
MOTOR GRAFIC =EGO

n 2007, UK-based Codemasters
racing studio overhauled its successful Colin McRae Rally series,
adding a slick new menu system, a gorgeous graphics engine and a more
comprehensive sampling of the sport's events to help attract a wider
audience. The result was Dirt, an impressive new racing property that
left racing game fans begging for a sequel.


And being polite British types, the Codies racing team cheerily agreed to do just that. The studio officially announced Dirt 2
back in November, but details have been thin in the months to follow.
That all changed this week when the developers stopped by the IGN
offices to show an early version of the mud-splattered sequel, and I
came away impressed.


On a wall of the Codemasters racing studio is an oversized sign
that reads, "Off-road racing with extreme sports attitude," and it's
this design philosophy that's driven the Dirt 2 team during the game's
18 months of development to date. While the pure rally feel of Dirt is
very much still the core of the experience, Dirt 2 is branching out to
include new off-road events that stray from the traditional.




It's only a bumper. It can be replaced.





The development team kicked off their demo with a handful of videos
from real-life racing events to set the tone, starting with a scene
more reminiscent of an X-Games exhibition than a rally competition. The
footage shows Team Subaru driver and DC Shoes founder Ken Block taking
his WRX STI over a 171-foot jump, and although stunts like that aren't
the sole focus of Dirt, they're reminiscent of the new direction some
elements of world rally racing are going, and it's a vibe you'll see in
the game.

The most obvious place you'll see this new direction is in the stadium
events. Set in huge venues like London's Battersea Power Station (the
scene on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals record), and a fictional
mega-venue outside of Los Angeles, these races feature tight tracks
with varying grades and surfaces where you'll be battling other racers
to cross the finish line first. In a single lap, you might roll over
tarmac, gravel, loose dirt, a tightly packed berm and a two-foot-deep
puddle of standing water. I was shown a few laps at Battersea that
contained all of the above, plus a dangerous jump in the middle of the
track that requires a steady hand and nerves of steel.

Any good racing game needs to have rock-solid handling, and getting
that just right has been a major focus of the Codemasters team. With
Dirt 2, the physics wizards at Codemasters have changed the way the
cars feel compared to the previous game. Each car now has realistic
weight transfer modeling on all four wheels, and the entire system of
how traction is transferred to tires has been updated. Whereas before
the suspension as a whole had weight load treatment, now the
differential and individual corners of the vehicle are independently
modeled. How does that translate into car handling in the game? I'll
let you know once I get behind the wheel.



The roaring crowds rally's been missing.





The physics aren't the only part of Dirt 2 to get an overhaul. The
third-generation Ego engine that's working under the hood has an all
new lighting/rendering system that's designed to give unprecedented
layers of depth to terrain and environments. The build I saw was based
on pre-alpha code, and there's plenty Codemasters isn't showing off
yet, but the environments already look stellar, despite missing
textures, lighting, and so-called "crowd furniture." I caught a glimpse
of what the developers are planning to do with particle and water
effects, too, and rally fans won't be disappointed. In the races I
watched, cars got progressively grimier until they looked like they'd
been airbrushed with brown paint. One flick of the windshield wipers
though, and you're right as rain.

Water, always a rally-racer's enemy, has also been given close
attention in Dirt 2. It may look pretty, but you don't want to plow
into it unless you plan on slowing down by about 30 percent. But if you
happen to land in the drink instead of hitting your apex, no worries.
There's always the replay.

With 2008's Grid, Codemasters
brought a clever new innovation to the world of racing games. The
replay function allowed you to tap a button on your controller or PC
keyboard and stop time in the middle of a race. And depending on your
difficulty level, you could then rewind your race to the moment before
you made your fatal error and try again. I didn't get to see it in
action, but Codemasters said the replay function will play a part in Dirt 2, which will come as welcome news to those of us who don't share Travis Pastrana's deft touch on hairpin turns.


Many fans of both Dirt and Grid will notice that there are definite
similarities between the latter and Dirt 2, including the replay system
and the introduction of tighter, circuit-based tracks. But Dirt 2 also
shares another trait with its street-racing sister game: online
multiplayer.


While Dirt was universally well-received by critics, it also took a
few hits for not having a robust competitive online multiplayer system
where a group of friends could log on and race against one another in
real-time. There was multiplayer, yes, but gamers wanted to see their
friends racing alongside them. That's all changed in Dirt 2. Now, the
new motto is all cars, all tracks, all online. In general, Codemasters
is paying a lot more attention to online connectivity in Dirt 2.
There's talk of including a system that will alert you in-game when one
of your friends beats your lap time on a certain track (good luck,
Goldstein).




Advanced lighting tech opens up new track possibilities.





But before you head online to start battling real-life drivers,
you'll need to get the basics down in the single-player mode. The main
way you'll do that is through World Tour mode, which is the meat of the
Dirt 2 experience. Codemasters is still keeping some secrets about what
World Tour will include, but we do know you'll be playing as a rally
driver who travels to events throughout the world to compete in races
of all different types. And at least at the beginning, you won't get
the Pastrana or Block star treatment. Instead, you'll start out the
old-fashioned way – in an RV.

In Dirt 2, your trusty RV serves as your menu system, allowing you to
choose races, get updates and tweak your cars, all from the comfort of
your plush captain's chair. But the RV is much more than a menu system,
Codies says. It will go with you to every event, and the exterior scene
will match your surroundings. So if you head to an event in China,
you'll see the mountainous environment in the background and your car
of choice parked outside. Hopefully I'll be able to set up my grill,
too. After all, it's not rally without steaks.





Leave em' in the dust.





In addition to China, Dirt 2 also takes you to California, Utah,
England, Croatia, Malaysia, and other well-known rally locales. So what
cars will you be using to tear up nature's pristine virtual
environments? Codemasters isn't saying just yet, due to ongoing
licensing discussions. But you can bet your rear differential that
Subaru will be involved.


I have yet to get my hands on Dirt 2 in earnest, and there's a lot
Codemasters has yet to reveal about its upcoming rally racer. But from
what I've seen so far, the team is set to deliver a razor-sharp
off-road racing experience in September. The environmental sound is
beefed up, the cars sound throatier and the damage and destructible
environments are already impressing. We'll have much more on Dirt 2 as
the game progresses, so check back soon for more mud, sweat and gears.