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4 May 2007, 10:06 (Ref:1906432) | #1 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 473
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DIRT
Yesterday I was one of the lucky people who were invited to Codemasters HQ for a guided tour and a first play of DIRT.
It was an action packed day and in my view well worth the 350 mile drive from Hastings to Leamington Spa and back to take part. Firstly thank you RFT of Codies for inviting us along it was great to meet other gamers and share some views about this and other games. We started by Rich and Sam of Codemasters giving us a guided tour of the Codies HQ which gave us a few sneak peeks of what goes on behind the scenes, and while we were there two gameplay videos came in hot off the press that RFT hadn't even seen yet so we were treated to a first view of the latest game play vids. The rest of you should be able to see them in a couple of weeks and trust me they're fantastic. While we were there we caught sight of a few posters which contained some pretty exciting images of a (I assume) certain game coming in '08 but I'd better not say too much as I'll probably never be invited to a forum day again and RFT would probably hunt me down like a dog for spilling too many beans. Then it was on to the game. We went into the conference room and there was a race seat setup with an XBox 360 and the new force feedback wheel. While RFT did some technical stuff to get the other 360 running we took it in turns to have a go in the seat. Monkey was first up and did a Buggie race, they looked pretty difficult but as always Monkey got on top of them pretty quick and they looked awesome. Gaz was next but I can't remember what he did, safe to say it was very good though as he came away smiling. Then me, I raced a Subaru around a super special type crossover stage in Canberra Australia the car handled brilliantly and there was just enough room between the barriers to get a good slide on. By now the second 360 was setup so we all swapped from console to console trying out different stuff. I wittnessed & Played; Rally Cross, Fwd Rally, 4WD Rally, Rally Raid, RWD rally & Hill Climb @ Pikes Peak. All of which looked stunning, handled fabulously and sounded great. Glitches: As far as I could see Dirt was pretty solid and almost glitch free, the only bug we noticed was when RFT was Rallying in a FWD Fiat Punto and he damaged the rear of the car, the boot lid flapped in the breeze as you'd expect but the glass panel in the boot appeared to still be stuck to the car and was independant from the metal frame it should have been connected to. RFT was the first to spot it so I'm sure it'll be fixed before release and to be honest you'll only notice it if you use the chase cam which most people don't anyway. Visuals The visuals were simply fantastic, the damage modeling was phenomenal and extremely accurate, the way glass broke into tiny pieces was amazing and there were loads of simple touches that made this game very impressive, if you lose your bonnet you can see the engine rocking on it's mounts under the stresses of acceleration & decelleration, if you can see the susspension then you'll see it working in incredible detail. The track furniture has improved greatly as well, tyre barriers actually deform when hit and if you bury the car deep enough into the tyre barrier you see each individual tyre move as the wall collapses around you. Handling The cars handle pretty well and I'd say they were somewhere between Sim and Pro Sim on ToCA Race Driver 3 in terms of difficulty of getting to grips with and you have three levels of dificulty AM-PROAM-&-PRO as far as I can gather these modes just affected the level of damage sustained to the car rather than the way it handled. The rally purists among you will probably slate the game for this handling but it was challenging enough without being too easy and was very user friendly. The Online mode As far as the online mode goes I've always been in the "dissapointed that there's no online head to head" camp and I still feel that way, but this is the game we've got and nothing will change that. The 100 player lobby function wasn't tested by us to the max but we did get 11 in a room at one point and it has to be seen to be appreciated, you get a choice of abpout 8 or 10 different types of race that will be up next and all the players in the lobby get to vote what they want to do next, whichever series gets the most votes becomes the next race. And away you go. Although you don't see your opponents cars you are all running at the same time so your sector times are live and your race position is constantly updated as the stage progresses and it does get pretty addictive just trying to gain one more position. We raced with: Kenworth Freightliner Trucks with massive wings Audi Quattro's Subaru Imprezzas Lancia Stratos' (The Old Ones) Renault Clios And the Big one at the end was a full Pikes Peak hill climb in the legendary Peugeot 405 Pikes peak car. Don't write off this online mode it's a lot of fun. Online chat Basically there is none, but realistically how could you have open comms in a room of 100? What you do get is a text chat room in the lobby, this is a room where you can send pre determined text messages to everyone else. You select the mood of the message you want to send by using the left analouge stick, moods such as "Frustrated" "Angry" "Brag" "Goodbye" and then use the left stick again to choose the pre determined sentence you want to send such as; "Trees are my nemesis" "Who Voted for this rubbish?" "Travis Who?" and "Toilet Break" It's a fun feature but I reckon it won't be long before it wears a bit thin and stops being funny. If you do want Voice chat I suppose there'd be nothing to stop you setting up a conference chat on Yahoo messenger or using Ventrillo comms as there'll be no issues with lag what with you racing on track alone there'd be no harm in having the PC on and chatting that way while you race on your console. Overall Impressions: This is gonna be an awesome game and in my opinion the best off road racing game ever, with the new Neon engine being a great base to get Race Driver One going and any other Codies Next gen racing game that could be around in the future. Putting Codemasters at the forefront in next gen racing games. Would I Buy it? Not as easy a question as it sounds. If I already had a PS3 or an XBox 360 then DIRT would be at the very top of my wish list of games, I'd even go so far as to queue up on release night to get my copy as soon as humanly possible. But I don't have a PS3 or an XBox360 and this lack of multiplayer head to head racing has clinched it for me. I have been waiting for a game to come out that would give me a good enough excuse to buy a PS3 and DIRT very nearly did it, but not quite. I guess I'll be hanging on a little while longer before I venture into Next gen gaming but one things for sure I'm pretty confident that with what we've seen today it's going to be well worth the wait for Race Driver One Jonboy's rating 8.5/10 A great effort and a fantastic game but I just don't have the time to play it or the money to get into the next gen, but if you're already a proud owner of a PS3 or a 360 then this is a must buy game. |
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4 May 2007, 10:20 (Ref:1906439) | #2 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 256
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Thanx for that jonboy i will be buying it on the 360
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10 cars spining |
7 May 2007, 15:20 (Ref:1908368) | #3 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 10,500
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I was considering buying a PS3 or 360 for this, but I may buy a DX10 card for my PC and go that route.
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8 May 2007, 00:01 (Ref:1908693) | #4 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 100
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Do you know if the game is available for PS 2?
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8 May 2007, 10:32 (Ref:1908882) | #5 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 473
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No It'll only be on PS3 XBox 360 and PC
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8 May 2007, 13:20 (Ref:1908999) | #6 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 100
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Thanks jonboy1066.
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8 May 2007, 15:59 (Ref:1909123) | #7 | |
Racer
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 361
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when is it actually being released
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moments forever faded |
8 May 2007, 18:46 (Ref:1909242) | #8 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 100
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Im not sure roachy101.
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8 May 2007, 20:17 (Ref:1909336) | #9 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 10,500
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June 07
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8 May 2007, 20:29 (Ref:1909347) | #10 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 100
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Thanks JAG.
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9 May 2007, 00:57 (Ref:1909528) | #11 | |||
Racer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 473
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Quote:
The version I played last week was the DeBug Disc on an XPox 360 and there was still DeBug text across the screen on some parts so none of the games are finished yet. I can't say an exact date as we were asked not to say but standby for a demo VERY soon. |
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9 May 2007, 14:20 (Ref:1909904) | #12 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 10,500
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It'll be interesting to see how demanding it is on the PC, would a X1950XTX be able to run it with all the bells and whistles?
With GTR2 I get upto 80fps at 1080p, but Test Drive Unlimited trundles along at 30fps. |
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23 May 2007, 09:50 (Ref:1919414) | #13 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 473
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The first Dirt demo will be available to download for XBox360 and PC players tomorrow at 09:00GMT. It'll have a Super Special Crossover stage with Colin McRea as your opponent, a Buggy race against 9 AI cars and a Hillclimb with Travis Pastrana's time to beat
You lucky people.......................enjoy. Last edited by jonboy1066; 23 May 2007 at 09:53. |
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23 May 2007, 10:11 (Ref:1919423) | #14 | |||
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 256
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Quote:
EXCELLENT Thanx for the info |
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10 cars spining |
23 May 2007, 17:35 (Ref:1919714) | #15 | |
20KPINAL
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 29,853
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Fantastic!
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24 May 2007, 09:29 (Ref:1920141) | #16 | ||
Rookie
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 32
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Downloading the demo now
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When you've seen one nuclear war, you've seen them all. |
24 May 2007, 09:46 (Ref:1920155) | #17 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,964
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Another time for me to get jealous of 360 owners....
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Hah! |
24 May 2007, 10:09 (Ref:1920171) | #18 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,286
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Score!
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Cryos, thats me! To keep the national IQ higher, we prevent links in the signatures. Its clearly in the notice, but that doesn't stop some people moaning about it.. |
24 May 2007, 12:35 (Ref:1920254) | #19 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 10,500
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About to download the PC demo, 800MB+, also requires a hefty spec to run it at full detail.
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25 May 2007, 18:42 (Ref:1921183) | #20 | |
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Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 29,853
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What did you all think then?
I thought it was pretty good personally. Astonishing graphics mainly. Good fun arcade racer (don't let the ghastly "Richard Burns Rally" brigade hear that!). I particularly liked the CORR race which is manic with some aggressive opponent AI! The hillclimb was also awesome. The crossover race was naff though, but tarmac stages were always bad on McRae games. Nice damage too and the in-car view is neat. Gonna be an expensive June. |
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25 May 2007, 18:59 (Ref:1921199) | #21 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,286
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downloading on the xbox at the moment; Its times like this that broadband seems slow at downloading 750meg :P
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Cryos, thats me! To keep the national IQ higher, we prevent links in the signatures. Its clearly in the notice, but that doesn't stop some people moaning about it.. |
25 May 2007, 19:10 (Ref:1921209) | #22 | |
20KPINAL
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 29,853
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It took me ages. My net speed plummeted to 20 kb/sec on download day for some reason!
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25 May 2007, 19:52 (Ref:1921231) | #23 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 10,500
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If anyone finds a download site thats alows 'resumes' for download managers let me know.
I have a broadband connection but it usually cuts out at least once every hour or two. Hope the game lives upto expectations, I have enough sims, I want a fun arcade game with DIRT, just like Test Drive Unlimited. A heads up, Dirt is only £17.99 on Play, have it pre-ordered myself. Last edited by JAG; 25 May 2007 at 20:00. |
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25 May 2007, 20:32 (Ref:1921254) | #24 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,286
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Ok first impressions....
I like it, but that automatic gearbox drove me mad in the game!!! Not as good as i thought it would be |
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Cryos, thats me! To keep the national IQ higher, we prevent links in the signatures. Its clearly in the notice, but that doesn't stop some people moaning about it.. |
25 May 2007, 20:38 (Ref:1921256) | #25 | |
20KPINAL
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 29,853
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Yeah, that does get a bit annoying. The solution is simple though.
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