687th played so far
Genre: Racing
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
I’ve been enjoying racing games in the past – while loads get frustrating and I always feel unlikely to pick them up myself, I enjoy playing them as long as they go okay. Colin McRae: Dirt was an example of what I enjoyed – tough, with plenty of challenges, but also letting you progress without perfect results. It compromised and delivered a lot of fun.
For today, I pulled out the sequel to that game, and I’m optimistic that I’ll enjoy this one as well.
Our Thoughts
It didn’t quite work out as easy this time, and the first race almost feels to blame. Tutorials in racing games, I’ve come to realise, are crap because they don’t seem to match quite how the game plays normally. I always struggle more with them than the races that follow, which feels wrong. I mean, I’m still not great, but I never feel the tutorial helps me that much. Not having any customization in the first race doesn’t help either – the vehicle didn’t really suit me.
And it’s such a shame considering how the game is set up afterwards. Regardless of your result, you always get some cash and get closer to the end result, so it’s actually incredibly friendly to keeping you going once you get past this hurdle. Sure, it’s not easy, and especially not to get high in the rankings, but the game realises that you can play just to have fun, without having to be the best all the game. Sure, it helps and gives you a goal, but I don’t always feel the need to.
The other advantage, again, is that the game has many game modes. You’re not just racing around a circuit trying to beat a time (although there’s some of that as well) but end up doing rally stints, parts of laps and all sorts of different modes. It really adds to the variety of the game.
Final Thoughts
The variety and contents of the levels in the game make the whole thing enjoyable and I feel the game cares more about having fun than pushing you to always be the best. It’s quite refreshing and why it still feels like one of my favourite racing series.