Game review: Colin McRae DiRT 2 - Sony PSP (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Game review: Colin McRae DiRT 2 - Sony PSP

9:42pm Thursday 17th September 2009

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Falling short of a perfect experience, Colin McRae DiRT 2 still has enough under the bonnet to put it near the front of the grid in the racing game genre on PSP.

Motoring purists looking for a full-on finely crafted simulation are going to be disappointed if they get behind the wheel of this handheld racer.

The emphasis here is on light, arcade-style driving action. Go elsewhere if you want crash damage, tyre wear, gear changes or fine-tuning your car’s handling.

Also expect a let-down if you are anticipating a fully-fledged turbo-charged port of the console version of DiRT 2. What we have here is a stripped-back portable edition.

Don’t be put off though – the PSP conversion is still a game with lots of attitude. It’s a rugged off-road racing game from Codemasters which isn’t afraid to get its wheels muddy. It sneers at other wussy driving games which send pristine supercars around flat dirt-free tracks.

Here there are bumps, jumps, thrills and spills as you race hell-for-leather around a series of undulating circuits and rally stages. There are nine locations in the game, taking you from the UK to such exotic stops as Ethiopia, China and Mexico. Several of the locations have more than one track and all of them have the option to mirror or reverse the routes to bulk up the overall number of layouts.

Terrains include gravel, sand and snow. You car doesn’t handle wildly differently between surfaces but it does feel like there are subtle variations.

The locations are all distinctive in appearance and the routes offer good variation in design, some featuring long, fast straights while others are more about twisty corners and narrow tracks. There is nicely detailed scenery to admire as you zoon around.

While the different terrains may not affect handling significantly, there are some nice handling variations between the vehicles in the game, which include rally cars, pick-ups, a Hummer and other rough and tough off-roaders. Some of them are small and nippy, others are unwieldy.

The cars look OK but could do with some extra graphical polish. They occasionally look slightly blocky and clunky. There are some nice touches, such as how dust flies out from beneath your car, how the suspension bounces as you go over the bumps and also how your car gets dirty as you drive around.

It's always been hard for racing games on the PSP to replicate a wholly believable sense of speed but a decent job has been done here.

The action generally runs smoothly, though there have been a couple of glitches where the background has got distorted and my car has got stuck floating in mid-air.

Thankfully these operating issues have been few and far between but one recurring problem I’ve had is with the cars’ steering.

Controls in the game are very simple. They are the same as almost every other racing game I’ve played on PSP – basically one button each for accelerate, brake and handbrake, and then the analogue stick for steering.

The controls are easy to use and work well for the most part, but cornering is weak.

Steering is not sensitive or sharp enough. I’ve found taking a corner at speed or going for an inside line to be overly difficult as my car feels too heavy while I strain to convince it to turn in. You can hit the handbrake to slide around bends but it’s not a big help.

Another thing about the game which isn’t ideal is the collision physics. Sometimes if you hit an obstacle at a certain angle your car will fly into the air and crash or it will flip over. But then it will land safe and sound back on the ground without any noticeable after-effects. Other times when you clip or run into a trackside hazard your car just comes to a dead stop.

Another slightly frustrating aspect is the game’s low tolerance for when you veer off the designated track. You don’t really get the full off-road experience when you barely only need to put a wheel off-course in some places before the game stops you and puts you back on the road.

Colliding with other vehicles during races is pretty lame too. It feels like there is a shield around other cars, and even if you smash into the back of someone the blow is cushioned. It doesn’t seem possible to make opponents spin never mind crash.

As I said at the outset DiRT 2 is a lightweight arcade kind of racer as opposed to a sim but I like driving aggressively in racing games and I've found myself craving just a little more realism - something with a bit more crunch.

The AI in the game is quite poor overall. Sometimes computer cars will rubber-band so that if you crash and fall behind you’re able to catch up too easily. Other times if you make just one mistake they will zoom off into the distance never to be seen again. With a maximum of only three other drivers in a race the track can get lonely sometimes.

With the several issues in DiRT 2 which I’ve highlighted it might seem as if I’ve not enjoyed the game.

But in actual fact DiRT 2 is still very much an entertaining game overall. You just need to be aware there are certain things which it can’t or won’t do.

Despite its limitations, the racing action is among the fastest and slickest I’ve seen on the PSP. It’s not groundbreaking or quite as spellbinding as I was hoping for from this title, but it’s good nonetheless.

Content-wise DiRT 2 has a lot to offer.

World tour mode will keep you busy with loads of races and competitions. Earn models to unlock new cars and events along the way.

The challenge mode features 20 events to beat, such as Airtime (spend time in the air) and Gatecrasher (go through gates at a specified speed).

For quick play there is the arcade mode with single races, five-race championships and time trials.

For those who want them there are also multiplayer options.

Bold and brash, DiRT 2 is a fun game to spend time with.

By my reckoning there are four big driving titles due out on Sony’s handheld this autumn, with Need For Speed: Shift, Gran Turismo and F1 2009 revving up ready to follow in DiRT 2’s tyre tracks. While the first one out the garage doesn’t set the bar quite as high as I would have liked, the others will still need their engines running at peak performance if they want to rob DiRT 2 of a place on the PSP racing games podium.

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10 – Despite a few gameplay shortcomings, Colin McRae DiRT 2 still serves up a fresh and feisty off-road racing experience.

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