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played it, don't know if i like it more then dirt 1 though. The handling is definitely close to grid's, just a bit "heavier" if you know what i mean. Cars like to power slide more. It's cool how the game says your name though (mine at least, first game that has ever been able to do that).

Driving inside the car (dash view) is AMAZING. It's definitely the best dash view game i have played. When you are playing a night course that has puddles it's really cool because the water hits your windshield and you are literally blinded until the wipers do their thing.

The game is gorgeous looking. I don't understand what people's beef's are when it comes to the graphics. I am playing a a 42 inch 720p plasma and it looks amazing. Definitely a step up from GRID and DIRT 1.

The menu's are really slick, really like them. The co-drivers are a lot better. The game is better (IMO) then DIRT 1, but i don't know if i like it more then DIRT 1.

I am enjoying it so far, but now i am curious to see what EA does with NFS.

Awesome game, currently at level 11 but I have no money to buy any new cars for the pro events.

For those of you who are wondering how big the install is on PS3 it is 3984MB. :)

More than half the game :o

Graphics are definitely nicer than Dirt 1's, there's no doubt about that. However, in the very first race there is puddle of water at the start and the reflection on it looks like ass. Some of the other water areas do too, but that one stayed in my mind cause it was the very first race and normally that's supposed to be the "show off" level in games.

Water looks fantastic inside the car splashing up on the windscreen. I still stand by my previous comment this camera view can give Forza 3 and GT5 a run for it's money. Overall it might not be better, but for a multiplatform game it looks great.

DiRT 1's menus are easily better. I think those are my fav menus in games ever. The whole stadium / music festival vibe is cool. Not putting it down, it's really nice, but from a design perspective I think Dirt 1 wipes the floor with it.

@Garrett, agree with you on the name thing, GRiD does it as well. It's so awesome hearing the game call out " Hey Monkey Munky!" :D

SPOILER

3904239076_f06884fec4.jpg

The Colin McRae Challenge Event Revealed

Part 1.

Today we’re going to reveal the Colin McRae Challenge – a unique event in Colin McRae: DiRT 2, and a tribute to the late, great man himself.

Colin was an inspiring figure to motorsport fans and gamers around the world. His ‘on the edge’ (and often over it!) driving style endeared him to millions, and we at Codemasters were privileged to work closely with him over 10 years of Colin McRae racing games, where his knowledge, technical expertise and enthusiasm for gaming was invaluable, and irreplaceable. We wanted to do something special, beyond honouring his memory by continuing to use his name in the game’s title (a decision taken in conjunction with his family) but by celebrating his life throughout the game.

First we’ve created a challenge that is DiRT 2’s pinnacle event. And it’s something a little bit special, a bit different, and we hope he would have liked it. The event is inspired by 2008’s Colin McRae Forest Stages, where rally stars from across the world came together in Colin’s memory, including former World Rally Champions Ari Vatanen,Bj?rn Waldeg?rd and Hannu Mikkola, Alistair and Jimmy McRae, Kris Meeke, Ken Block and Travis Pastrana and many more to race the special stage, many in Ford Escort MKIIs. Check out this

of the day and some of the stars racing. Those Escorts sounds amazing.

So here it is: the Colin McRae Challenge - a spectacular 3 stage Rally set across Malaysia, Croatia and China featuring a line up of Colin’s family and friends from across the world of motorsport, presented by The Colin McRae Vision charity.

You’ll get to race against former WRC Champion Ari Vatanen, legendary motorbike racer Valentino Rossi and former F1 driver David Coulthard in this unique event. Once you’ve competed in it, you unlock the Colin McRae Tribute video which celebrates some of Colin’s finest, most exciting, and most sideways moments!

The car you’re racing? Colin’s Ford Escort MKII! Check out the story of how Colin was involved in developing this vehicle with DJM motorsport here.

Colin McRae Challenge Competitors:

1. Jimmy McRae – Colin’s father and 5 times British Champion rally driver. Good interview here.

2. Alistair McRae – Colin’s brother and rally driver – here’s him pulling off some amazing donuts during this killer run.

3. Ari Vatanen – legendary former WRC champion – check out this famous Pike’s Peek run here.

4. David Coulthard – F1 driver and close friend, who raced in the Japan Suzuka Grand Prix in 2007 wearing a unique helmet in tribute to Colin.

5. Valentino Rossi – ‘The Doctor’ is one the leading stars of world motorsport who famously raced against Colin in 2005. He might have been in a better car though!

6. Dario Franchitti – Scottish Indy car driver, the most successful British driver in the US, and friend of Colin. Insane crash here.

7. Ken Block – Colin was Ken’s inspiration for getting into Rally, became a mentor figure to him and they competed against each other at X Games.

8. You!

<snipped>

As well as this key event, we also have a lot of references to Colin and his career peppered throughout the game – some subtle which you’ll have to keep your eye out for, some less so. A good example is that the first car you unlock in the game is the Subaru Impreza STI Group N carrying the No Fear Livery from X Games XIII, and if you’ve got a DiRT save on your system, you’ll also get the Gold No Fear livery he sported in X Games XII where he went into a huge barrel roll after a jump, landed on his tyres and immediately drove off, narrowly missing out on the win. There’s not many drivers who would have been thinking about whether they could still race on while they were upside down! Classic McRae. Other vehicles include that Escort MK II and the Colin McRae R4, plus you’ll find liveries, images and video clips throughout the game.

read the rest + Part 2 here

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DiRT 1's menus are easily better. I think those are my fav menus in games ever. The whole stadium / music festival vibe is cool. Not putting it down, it's really nice, but from a design perspective I think Dirt 1 wipes the floor with it.

@Garrett, agree with you on the name thing, GRiD does it as well. It's so awesome hearing the game call out " Hey Monkey Munky!" :D

I don't think anybody will argue with that, but I don't know if any other game will actually beat that (it was just that awesome). Either way though, you have to give them some credit for a menu design like this just because it is pretty original and fun.

About the level 11 comment, I'm just about there and I just got the game. You win one race and you level up so 11 isn't anything special. To me it looks like this will have less maps than Dirt 1 though. :(

Lastly, do many of the races seem a lot shorter?

well just spent the last hour giving is a good old bash, and i must admit im really really liking it, when i unlocked the female co-driver i thought sweet some class in the car, but she seems a little nervous when she speaks, and sometimes a little hesitant in saying the corner id's so i switched back to the scottish guy! :)

but apart from that very good game and very impressed, roll on Shift next week :D

well just spent the last hour giving is a good old bash, and i must admit im really really liking it, when i unlocked the female co-driver i thought sweet some class in the car, but she seems a little nervous when she speaks, and sometimes a little hesitant in saying the corner id's so i switched back to the scottish guy! :)

but apart from that very good game and very impressed, roll on Shift next week :D

Aw crap, this is one of those games Im gonna have to buy to find out for myself. There are a few people on every forum I go to that are my "guinea pigs", and you are one of those on this board. If you say you are really really liking it then Im gonna have to check it out. Last chance Codemasters.... dangit, I say that every time.

well just spent the last hour giving is a good old bash, and i must admit im really really liking it, when i unlocked the female co-driver i thought sweet some class in the car, but she seems a little nervous when she speaks, and sometimes a little hesitant in saying the corner id's so i switched back to the scottish guy! :)

but apart from that very good game and very impressed, roll on Shift next week :D

I completely forgot about changing the co driver. The girl is getting quite annoying especially when I wreck. For instance, I flipped the car and basically destroyed the entire thing and was able to keep driving. My female co driver said while flipping through the air that it was "just a scratch". :p

the more i play this game the more i like it.

It's definitely harder then the last one (comparing hardest difficulty to hardest difficulty). It may not be a great game, but it's pretty good.

Yep, no contest there. I haven't won a race on the hardest difficulty yet.

I purchased this game yesterday, and ended up playing it all day nearly. I think the Graphics are a vast improvement on the previous, especially of you take in to account the scenery around you (although it can be hard as you fly by at 100mph ;) ).

From what I can last remember, I am on level 19 now but according to my Statistics I am only 26% complete - so hopefully there is still a lot left to do!

Yeah.. dont' know what's with the hate.. this game is a blast. Much better than Dirt 1, graphics and environments look amazing.. the effects, the audio, the feeling of rally driving is unprecedented.

I'm not sorry for getting it at all.. Spent playing like 4 hours playing. Couldn't feel how fast the time passed.

I just don't see how NFS can be better. Really, not only that Dirt 2 has all of the physics and amazing effects as you hit something where it really feels as if you hit something, the interior view is great. They took the best parts from Dirt 1 and Grid and integrated all of it in Dirt 2. As someone said, best in-dash view and experience I've ever played in a game. It's pretty much the real thing as far as how you feel when you drive.

And after all, this game, just like Dirt 1 and Grid is pure arcade. Codemasters know how to make great arcade driving games.

I can honestly say that out of all games coming out I expect Split Second to be the only one who will be on par with Dirt 2 fun factor and most likely surpass it (due to the game being made by the same guys who made Pure which was super fun). I have a feeling that NFS Shift will be another EA failure.

Because CMR isn't an arcade racer and never has been, and never was until Dirt.

That's why we are hating.

Personally, I think DiRT 1 was the perfect mix. It was made a bit easier to pick up and play for the casual players, but it was still real enough to please the sim racers. It also had the ability to do 100 player races online! Obviously, it was all ghosts so the racing was still proper, and you had no gits trying to crash you out by going the wrong way.

DiRT 1 was a good game, but it's time for them to go back to their roots and give rally fans the game they've been waiting for. Not this watered down tripe for the masses.

Of course like I've said, that won't happen. Wider audience = more potential money to be made. So no doubt they'll keep going down this course of sell out titles.

WRC games are dead as far as I'm concerned (don't even anyone suggest the **** they include in GT games).

CMR '04 = the de facto game :heart:

Yeah.. dont' know what's with the hate.. this game is a blast. Much better than Dirt 1, graphics and environments look amazing.. the effects, the audio, the feeling of rally driving is unprecedented.

I'm not sorry for getting it at all.. Spent playing like 4 hours playing. Couldn't feel how fast the time passed.

I just don't see how NFS can be better. Really, not only that Dirt 2 has all of the physics and amazing effects as you hit something where it really feels as if you hit something, the interior view is great. They took the best parts from Dirt 1 and Grid and integrated all of it in Dirt 2. As someone said, best in-dash view and experience I've ever played in a game. It's pretty much the real thing as far as how you feel when you drive.

And after all, this game, just like Dirt 1 and Grid is pure arcade. Codemasters know how to make great arcade driving games.

I can honestly say that out of all games coming out I expect Split Second to be the only one who will be on par with Dirt 2 fun factor and most likely surpass it (due to the game being made by the same guys who made Pure which was super fun). I have a feeling that NFS Shift will be another EA failure.

NFS shift just got a 9/10 at IGN....

NFS shift just got a 9/10 at IGN....

Now I've played both it's easy to put these head to head. It's going to come down to which aspect of racing you enjoy more. If you love rally games then get DiRT. If you like both track/road based racing and rally-esq. Get NFS there's no question it's the superior game. The presentation on the menus isn't as slick but the way the car handle and sense of speed is much better.

dirt1 was better? :o

did the console version hav different handling physics ... brakes, steering.......?

i just hope codeM dont ruin F1 game by making it worse handling game than grid. :o all for the "mASS". :p

my laptop gfx card gave out in morning, on a weekend :\ damn!

DiRT 1 was a good game, but it's time for them to go back to their roots and give rally fans the game they've been waiting for. Not this watered down tripe for the masses.

Of course like I've said, that won't happen. Wider audience = more potential money to be made. So no doubt they'll keep going down this course of sell out titles.

WRC games are dead as far as I'm concerned (don't even anyone suggest the **** they include in GT games).

CMR '04 = the de facto game :heart:

Agree.

mASS, lawl, come up with that yourself? :p

Wtf is up with Shift's handling? The game looks great, why did they have to throw it away with GRiD like handling :no:

Thought I finally found an NFS game I'd like..NOPE

:D

WHAT???

grid like?

all those reviews where they compared the game to likes of Forza, GT...

did EA also pay the reviewers? :p

btw, what driver aids are you using?

low TC is a must for gamepad users (atleast in GTR2 :D ).

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