Quote from The Very End :

Sorry for my lazyness, anyone have a link to the demo?

Thanks for the quick reveiw there, makes me want to try this game a lot. I don't care if it's super realistic, just as long it's fun and somewhat "good" feeling over it.

There is no link. Xbox marketplace or PSN Store. No PC demo yet.

Regarding the demo...

I've played it on PS3 (no gold membership for xbox live atm), and i must say, it does feel a lot better than its predecessor. Sliding is finally possible again, and i felt like playing one of those fun CMR rally games again (even tho, this one still feels more arcade). It's fun to blast through the stages, fun to crash, flip the car, watch the replays.

The physics seem ok to me, still a bit arcade-ish, but more or less ok to have some fun. Something that is still very bad is the weight feel of the car... it feels like i'm driving a cardboard box (light as a feather) tbh.
This might be due to me playing on the PS3 where there is no rumble in the joypad, but i doubt it feels much better on the xbox.

The replays look really nice, with some good cameras. But there is a downside aswell, which is that it looks like it's on fast forward (a little faster, and you could actually play along the benny hill theme song). It looks seriously stupid sometimes.

The best description i have for this game is... GRID. I can't help it, but it feels like they copied a lot from it. It feels like GRID on a loose surface (gravel, mud, whatever). The sliding reminds me of of the drifting in GRID too, it's exactly the same "pseudo sim" arcade control feeling.

I guess i'll wait aswell until it's on discount somewhere. Probably a fun game to kill some time, but nothing really exciting.

I'd imagine its the same (if not exactly, a very slightly breathed on) engine as GRID.

Well I downloaded it after I got back from work yesterday and had a quick go before the girlfriend wanted some attention from me.

I must say I'm very surprised! As much as I hate codemasters this is very good! I think Quicksilver said it all really, it's a very fun game to play, really good on the pad (xbox 360) and a massive improvement on DiRT1. The thing I like from reading the previews compared to the first one is that you can put any car on any track which is an added bonus!

I might buy it on release, I love a good fun semi-arcade rally game to play on console, and for me this is the first good one to come along since the WRC games on PS2.

Tested the demo last night on x360.

It is an improvement to dirt 1, but I don't like it very much.

In Dirt 1 there were two cockpit views: one was close to the dashboard, another one was far away from the dashboard. In Dirt 2 there is only 1 cockpit view - the one far away from the dashboard.. There's more of a cockpit in the view than the road, which I really don't like. Feel of the car in the cockpit view is horrible too, just like Jibber said - it feels like driving a cardboard box. The car feels much better when played from the hood unfortunately.

So no buyer for me.

I like the water splash effect though, and crashes and replays, but that's not what racing game is about.

i bet the cover desingers were the same as the overall game desingers on skate 1
http://zoknowsgaming.com/wp-co ... 9/06/zkgdirt2ps3cover.jpg

Its a shame they lost the old "CMR" feel and hopped on the "waaaaahoooo, yyeeeeeaaahhh man, x-games" type atmosphere they have.

Mind you, any game that has Bloc Party on the soundtrack is good with me

Quote from danowat :

Its a shame they lost the old "CMR" feel and hopped on the "waaaaahoooo, yyeeeeeaaahhh man, x-games" type atmosphere they have.

Mind you, any game that has Bloc Party on the soundtrack is good with me

I quite like the X-Games feel to it, but then I have always thought rallying deserved more attention and style than drunk people standing in mud in a random forest somewhere.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I quite like the X-Games feel to it, but then I have always thought rallying deserved more attention and style than drunk people standing in mud in a random forest somewhere.

Are you sure you're not American? :P It's certainly isn't "more hardcore" or whatever then previous CMR's. CMR 2 still has the best arcade and in the same time chalenging physics of any game i've played.

CMR 2 was about as challenging as putting your trousers on in the morning, the only time I ever crashed on that game was when I did it on purpose to see what the damage was like. I think I might be a bit American though, I just think they put on a much better show. The X-Games is probably the best thing to happen to rallying recently, it will attract loads of new fans and sponsors. Colin McRae cracked America faster than The Beatles with that roll of his, how many Americans knew his name before that?

Maybe challenging wasn't the right word, but i've clocked countless hours on that game, it's probably my most played racing game besides LFS. So it did something right.. Now this Dirt is arcade PLUS it doesn't have that feel to make you wanna come back to it.. I don't know, maybe that better physics doesn't work on the PS3 demo (you play it on 360 right?). To me, and as someone else said, is the same on every setting..

Maybe it's better on the 360 using the 360's gamepad. I guess it's an aquired taste, I liked GRID and DIRT and this new one takes the best parts of both of those games.

Lets get some friendly competition going and post some times up for people who have the demo. Here is the benchmark, my best result so far...

Hardcore, Full Damage

1st place - 2:59.68

Someone is bound to get a high 58 because I made a few mistakes on that run.

Tested the demo yesterday. Didnt like buggy's, but driving with eclipse was quite awesome, driving through those puddles at high speed if so cool, haha. I'm definately getting the full game.

Quote from danowat :

I'd imagine its the same (if not exactly, a very slightly breathed on) engine as GRID.

No, GRiD is based on Ego engine, which is modified version of DiRT 1 engine (Neon Engine).

Edit: Feck, DiRT 2 uses Ego Engine aswell.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I quite like the X-Games feel to it, but then I have always thought rallying deserved more attention and style than drunk people standing in mud in a random forest somewhere.

isnt that quite much attenion, i mean, not everyone likes to go into woods, stand on mud and drag beer into there for nothing you know but i like it too, the x games style. not sure about the game, but i enjoyed killeri SSS alot more than going into woods and stand in mud

I didn't have a clue the demo was out!
I shall be right back!

Bump - The demo is really good! Cars handle fairly well and the damage is good. The menus are really good too, I won't say why because that'd ruin it for people who haven't tried it yet. But it's a really fun game once you get used to the way the cars handle, it's definately an improvement over DiRT and GRID, visually and physically. The game is more Xgames based, with announcers, crowds, big banners etc. The career mode is very simple to follow, and the Xp system works really well with unlocking new items/cars.

One thing I will say, is that the Rally, Rallycross and Trailblazer cars are all the same, except they are adapted to their branch of offroad racing, which was rather dissapointing because i really wanted to drive a 1000hp Pikes Peak monster, or a Class B classic rally car, like the audi quattro. And there are no Class B cars in the game, unless they are released in a DLC.

Overall, the game is challenging on all difficulty modes, from casual giving you a fairly close battle with the leader, to hardcore which makes you fight through the grid. It is easy to earn money and Xp, and all the cars are fairly balanced, which leads to close and exciting races.

I'd give it a 9/10.

Oh noez, Demo was out?! Must.... download.... NAOW!!! Or a little later.

It finished downloading eventually, I tried both races, and I was quite impressed by the demo, even though it was very limited. The cars have loads more grip than they did in GRID and DiRT 1. The lighting is very well done, without the overdone bloom, but not exactly realistic. Still, that game is a W.I.P.

As for the races, I prefered the Trailblazer race with the Eclipse. The roads were so tight, you had to turn in so much! It was challenging, but fun. I had to use the flashback feature a few times. The Rally raid was OK, but nothing interesting.

So overall, I'll give it a 8/10. That score could get higher on the final piece.

Did you write a little mistake there, you said it got more grip that Dirt1 and Grid? Or?

Well, either way, waiting myself to test the demo on the PC

My god i wonder if all you people are driving a different game here Steering is just AWFULLY twitchy, seriously, you like this? Maybe cause i haven't played the first Dirt, so you find this an improvement..

Quote from Boris Lozac :

My god i wonder if all you people are driving a different game here Steering is just AWFULLY twitchy, seriously, you like this? Maybe cause i haven't played the first Dirt, so you find this an improvement..

Maybe it's worse on the PS3, we need someone with both consoles to test that really. I do know that the Playstation pads can be very twitchy on some racing games. I use a PS2 pad for LFS and manage to do okay with it because there are enough settings to reduce the sensitivity. But I did play iRacing with the same pad, and the effort just to remain smooth was too much for me and I was actually doing damage to my hands because of the way I had to hold it. RBR is even worse, I only have to move the stick about 5mm to go full lock. So I can't really be a good judge of it since I am so used to working with tiny margins and twitchy controls.

Hm, that would be strange, because the analog stick on sixaxis and dualshock is fantastic, at least in other games like Killzone 2, Uncharted etc.. prety smooth with much finese. I'm suspecting that maybe the PS3 demo got twitchier controls, different car setup or something...

Quote from The Very End :

Did you write a little mistake there, you said it got more grip that Dirt1 and Grid? Or?

Yeah. By that I mean both of them. Driving in those games felt like driving on the ramps in lfs. That prob has been fixed in DiRT 2.

Quote from Furiously-Fast :

Yeah. By that I mean both of them. Driving in those games felt like driving on the ramps in lfs. That prob has been fixed in DiRT 2.

yes indeed, also it always looked like the cars were going slightly sideways on grid

While the handling is not the best (weird arcade-sim mix/fast forward/super grip), this is certainly a fun game.

I've just spent about two hours racing online with a friend. We sure had a great laugh. It's really fun to see other cars crashing in this game (no visual damage for other cars tho). Races are fast, and accidents are mad.