Consolation Prize

The 769MB
DiRT demo was made available on the 24th May on Xbox Live Marketplace. Thanks to the new low power download settings of the dashboard I was able to download this overnight as it was going at a snails pace yesterday.

I wasn’t really aware of this game before the demo, and I was pleasantly surprised with how the games shaping up.

Colin Mcrae DiRT (to use its full name) is all about off-road racing, as you’d expect if you’ve heard the name “Colin Mcrae” before as it’s synonymous with a number of rally games over the years.

The demo offers you three different cars (Subaru Impreza, Misubishi Evo IX and Ickler Jimco Buggy) but each one is linked directly to a track, so unfortunately you can’t try out each car on each track. The tracks on offer vary quite a bit from a tarmac based rally special stage using the Subaru, a long hill climb on gravel using the Mitsubishi and finally a mud based circuit using the Ickler buggy.

Two difficulty levels are available: “Rookie” and “Amateur”, with the damage and the opposition skill increasing for the latter of the two. For each race you can also get additional track information including a verbal rundown from your co-driver if desired.

Overall I was impressed with this demo, the graphics are excellent and you’re offered a good variety of camera angles including two in-car views. Both the Subaru and Impreza handled pretty well, but it took some time to get used to the Ickler on the mud track. Damage looks like it will have an impact in the game. The cars get nicely deformed from each knock, and handling does deteriorate. However with the difficulty levels available in the demo your car can take a significant amount of damage and you can still make the finish line.

I’m pleased I played the demo as it has now brought the game to my attention. I’m not sure of the exact release date, but hopefully it won’t clash too much with the Forza: Motorsport release date on 8th June.

The Forza 2: Motorsport demo is now available as a sizable 691MB download from XBox Live Marketplace.

The games starts off very smoothly with a camera panning enticingly over some detailed car models to the sound of a high beat music track. It all looks very nice at this point, but it’s how the game plays that matters.

Once into the meat and potato of the demo you’re presented with three car classes to choose from: “C Class” containing production sports cars with makes from Ford, Mazda, and the like, “A Class” with high performance sports cars such as “Ferrari” and “Porsche” and the final class “R2″, which has purpose built race cars.

After you’ve chosen your class its next onto the car selection. There’s a multitude of cars to choose from (8 for each class) and you can rotate, pan and zoom the camera to get a better look at a vehicle. There’s also a variety of colours for each car you can choose from. In the upper right area of the selection screen you’re shown a diagram indicating the drive type (e.g. 4 wheel) and the the engine position. Common stats such as speed, acceleration, and handling are also displayed to help you choose the perfect ride.

Once you’ve decided upon your vehicle there’s a number of various “assists” which you can be tweaked such as “suggested line” and “traction”. I especially like the “suggested line” assist which when set to full shows the best racing and braking zones, which is perfect for novices learning the game.

Unfortunately there’s only track available in the demo, but with numerous cars to choose from it gives a bit of variety. I tried a couple of cars from each class and I was happy to find that they all handled differently. I was fairly underwhelmed with the one track that’s available, although the graphics and detailing are nice there was nothing that jumped out at me as PGR3 did all those months back. There are a number of camera views available to choose from; the obligatory bumper and rear to a nice bonnet view. However, I was disappointed to find that there was no in-car view and the rear view mirror is only available when using the bumper cam.

The handling of the cars felt good and far more realistic than say something like Ridge Racer or Test Drive. Although I doubt its a full simulation it feels like a happy medium has been reached.

One plus I liked was the car damage. When viewing the replay it was great to see my car taking a few knocks and this kind of detail increases the level of immersion for a game. I’m not sure how much this effects the car physics directly, but it’s nice to see developers going to the trouble and car manufacturers actually allowing damage to their precious car licenses.

I’m fairly happy with the demo, in the end it has to be remembered that this is just a taster of what the finished game promises to offer. I’m still optimistically looking forward to the game and getting a better impression when it is released on June 8th.

F430 clip on Youtube