Pixelnauts.net

Every once-in-awhile, a game just reaches out and grabs you. Whether it's a game's menus, its music, general ambience or all of the above, sometimes there's a 'je ne sais quoi' factor that a game has that just gives users an irresistible urge to play. I'm not talking about an issue of style over substance. Rather, I'm talking about those games where the style intrinsically adds value to the substance -- stitching it together and ensuring that the experience doesn't stop at the end of each level. Codemaster's rally simulator DiRT was just such a game, but unfortunately, its sequel can't make the same claim.

From the start of DiRT 2, it's clear the team focused on attracting a different market. Whereas the first entry was clean, subtle and sophisticated, the sequel's design is more akin to a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. The game never ceases to push it's corporate brand of 'extreme' with suburban angst and an American-centric design. The featured drivers are almost all from the US and the track hierarchy has American tracks as the top destinations -- not to mention that X Games USA is the biggest tournament in the game. An unusual choice considering the tournament didn't even have a Rally event until 2007.

These changes are incredibly odd for a primarily European sport. It would be similar to having Madden players dreaming of winning the European Federation of American Football Cup instead of the Super Bowl or striving to gain enough reputation in the NFL to make it to the Canadian Football League. It doesn't make sense outside of a marketing tie-in, but then again, little about this game does.

Serving as the foundation for the look and feel of the game is a dingy trailer amongst a festival crowd. The environment is a barrage of marketing to promote the extreme sports culture accompanied by an ironically anti-establishment licensed soundtrack. It's insulting that most marketing firms believe the only way to sell something to a teen or young adult is by blasting a constant barrage of cacophony into every one of their senses.

These changes greatly diminish the overall experience. Whereas the time between races in DiRT used to serve as a relaxing, but subtly exciting interlude, its sequel never provides players with respite from the relentless intensity.

If that was ultimately the only issue, then this review would be more forgiving of the seemingly superficial A/V changes, but these changes serve as the foundation for the gameplay's startlingly dramatic shift in focus.The franchise is no longer a rally series, but now an off-road racing series. While rally is still represented in the sequel, unfortunately it's diluted with fake arcade-style modes, off-road conventional races, etc. And therein lies the rub.

The rally, in almost every respect, is improved upon from the original game. The races now feature true rolling starts. This seemingly minor feature almost never matters in single player since cars rarely find themselves on the same portion of the track outside of a crash or huge gap in skill between the drivers (AI or human). However, in multiplayer it makes a huge difference because multiple people can race the track at the same time instead of waiting for a competitor to finish.