A lot's expected from Colin McRae DiRT 2 and senior executive producer, Gavin Raeburn, is confident the final game will live up to the target renders the developer's dishing out at press days.
When announcing the game you said that the decision to continue using McRae's name was made jointly between his family and Codemasters. Has his family had any input or contributed to the game's development at all?
Gavin Raeburn: Colin's death was a huge loss to us here at Codemasters. We have worked closely with him on the McRae series of games for 10 years and we considered him a friend. The decision to continue using Colin's name was made jointly between Codemasters and the McRae family.
His ventures into events such as the X-Games, Dakar Rally and the Race of Champions have inspired us to look at events covering the extremes of off-road motorsport. This is where we're taking the series with DiRT2 and Colin will play a part in that. DiRT2 will be a great tribute to an incredible champion.
It must be an honour to see his name live on in what many consider to be the best rally game around?
Raeburn: We certainly hope Colin would be proud of where we're taking the series.
How has working on this game been different to previous ones, that McRae would have been involved in? What's the mood like?
Raeburn: The most obvious thing to change is that Colin hasn't been to the studio this time, and we've really missed his contribution and his enthusiasm. However, we learned a lot from him over the years and we have an experienced team who know what they're doing. The mood in the team now is great - we see this game as a tribute to Colin and are dedicated to doing the best job possible.
You put out some "target visuals" with the original announcement. How confident are you that the final game will match them and are you aware of the backlash in waiting if you don't?
Raeburn: Target visuals are just that. A goal for our team to try and achieve, which I think we did with DiRT 1 and GRID. DiRT 2 is no different and is already by far our best looking racer to date, putting both GRID and DiRT 1 in the shade.
What has the EGO Engine allowed you to do that that couldn't be done in previous games and how will we see this in gameplay?
Raeburn: DiRT 2 is actually running on the third iteration of Codemasters' EGO Engine proprietary technology, whereas DiRT was the first generation. As a result, there are many improvements that have been made to DiRT 2 over DiRT. We made key improvements to the EGO engine during the GRID project which lifted the quality of the game to a level we were very happy with.
The development team have learnt a lot from the development of GRID, and have strengthened massively in their ability to get the most out of the hardware, notably pushing SPU usage on PS3, improving multi-core performance on Xbox 360 and adding PC specific features and technology.
In DiRT2, we're building on these changes to the engine, adding more physical modelling of the environment, improving lighting and shadowing, water physics and we're broadening the use of our streaming system to allow much higher texture detail. Overall these changes mean we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the hardware as much as possible, and we're confident in our ability to lift the quality bar again.
You promised the game would bring with it "new social features". What can we expect from this?
Raeburn: DiRT 2 includes Leaderboards, news feeds and 'scribbles' to enable players keep up-to-date on their friends' racing achievements. More details to follow soon but I will say that we've listened to our community's feedback from DiRT and we're putting together a comprehensive online package that we think players will be very happy with.
Since the move to off-road racing and, what us Brits would say, the Americanisation of the last game, can we expect a stronger focus on rallying that made the games famous in the first place?
Raeburn: Colin McRae was a pioneer in rally/off-roading, competing in the X-Games, Dakar rally and Race of Champions following his WRC career. DiRT 2 has his spirit of adventure coursing through its veins and, like him; we're embracing fresh challenges and opportunities.
We believe that DiRT 2 encompasses all the very best that contemporary off-roading has to offer, with but that doesn't mean that we've forgotten our heritage. We've still got a good spread of 'traditional' rallying in the game, which we believe captures the sport at its most thrilling - dizzyingly fast, dangerous and very dirty. Man and machine in perfect harmony, pushing it to the absolute limit. We think you'll like it.
Downloadable content is becoming more and more popular. Without saying that 'it's something we're looking at', what can we expect post launch?
Raeburn: Well it's definitely something we're considering! Haha! Seriously though, we have plans to launch a number of small DLC packs soon after launch which players can use to personalise and augment the boxed game. More details to come...
Are we likely to ever see the original PSone Colin McRae games released as downloads over the PlayStation Network?
Raeburn: [Declined to offer any comment]
What's the single biggest, key feature that's new about the game?
Raeburn: It would have to be the World Tour. This is the career mode and with it we're creating a journey for the player, which will encapsulate the spirit of off-road racing - it's about travelling the world in your RV, hitting off-road festivals and building your rep as a driver.
Along the way you'll build friendships with the stars of the modern off-road world and these relationships help you move up the ladder. If you impress and get on well with the big names on the circuit, they'll invite you to cooler events and even offer to team up with you for major competitions. The USA, Japan, Malaysia, Croatia and others await as you climb to the pinnacle of modern competitive off-roading.
If they could recreate the pure rally feeling of CMR2.0 I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The driving model of Dirt felt too easy. Hammer into corners and you snap oversteered at the apex so you could take them far faster than would be physically possible. I have 04 and while it's okay, it didn't have the same feeling as 2.0 did.
And that World Tour thing sounds a little dubious, but I'll save my opinion for when we get more details.
I remember playing the first Colin McRae game on my PS1 and loving it. I still have it and 2.0 someplace, I should dig them out.
The bit that's concerning me is as the interviewer says is the americanisation of the series and the race driver franchise.
I liked the Britishness of it, driving around Castle Coombe or brands, much in the way that I enjoyed Colin McRae 3 whereby you could only drive the focus in your career mode.
I'm not all that bothered about the "Britishness" of it - after all, WRC does span the entire planet :)
But it seems to have lost focus on throwing your car down a narrow dirt track as fast as possible, and more about big jumps and an impressive damage model. I dont' expect it to match Richard Burns Rally in terms of realism, but since McRae was a WRC driver I'd have thought it made sense to have his named franchise actually related to his sport.
There's plenty of other drivers around for other forms of motorsport.
im surpirse they didnt ask him if there will actually be some decent online functionality in Dirt 2, 1 was crap just comparing times once your finished.
I enjoyed Dirt 1, but i much prefer Grid, reasons and hopefull improvements: 1. The handling in Dirt was really annoying, the brakes were far too powerful 2. Controls - Both Grid and Dirt need to have the sensitivity turned down for the 360 pad, why? its obvious it needs to be done and i havnt heard anyone not have to do it for the PC verion. 3. The complete overuse of HDR, some the tracks looks like you were rallying on mars 4. Performance, Grids performance was fantastic, Dirt was a dog, lets hope Ego 3 is even better( on the PC anyway :) )
CMC2 is still the best, i couldnt get into 3 and gave up at that stage
Also i hate target shots, whats the point? may as well be showing Hollywood cgi
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