IGTV: Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Interview

19 Aug 2009 at 13:38:48 by Tim McDonald

With DiRT 2 screaming aroud the corner towards its release in early September, our own Tamer Asfahani decided to get DiRTy with Codemasters' chief game designer Matthew Horsman and find out just how filthy the rally game can get.

For 2009  (September for DiRT2) we wanted to add in more of an extreme sports vibe, just like what's happening in the real world with rally and taking part - in America - in the X-Games. So now throughout the game it's very much about you living the lifestyle of an extreme sports star.

Our first brainstorming that we had, we put three main points on the board that we wanted to prove, and it basically just said “Multiplayer,” “Multiplayer,” and “Multiplayer!” *laughs* So very much, multiplayer is a big focus of the game. We've very much focused much more on our single-player as well as we love the single-player experience, and there are still a lot of people who aren't online. But multiplayer, we went a bit crazy. We've got competitive multiplayer, we've got anti-cheat methods – so if people start mucking about and griefing they get kicked out – and we've got this feature called Jam Sessions where you're the host. You can pick any car, any track, you can change the rules if you want to. If you want to put a big buggy down rally tracks that's fine. We've team support, so you can have teams of four, teams of two and you can compete against other teams. Private sessions, open sessions...

We've had some feedback, especially in America, where people love the damage but hated doing one corner, smashing their car up, and basically getting terminal damage and having to restart. So for DiRT 2 you can choose what you want. You can have full damage, or use our Flashback system to come back. If you want a nice experience – you want to see all the damage on the cars but just want to keep driving – then you can pick visual damage only.

If anything, DiRT 2 has got more rally than DiRT 1. We have a sort of DiRT World Tour, which is our version of the WRC-inspired event. We have staggered starts now, just like in real life, so you will catch someone up if you do well or someone will catch you if you do badly. We have a Scottish co-driver in there now. We have a couple of co-drivers you can choose. You can choose simple calls, or you can use the numbered system where the gear that you should be in on each corner is used. We think rally, and we've tried to improve, and I think there's more varied rally tracks now, so you've got jungle rallies, you've got dust rallies, you've got Croatia which is a very traditional twisty, hardcore rally. I think for the rally fans, there's a lot in there, especially as we've got authentic vehicles as well. We've got the new Evo 10, the new Subaru...

Are they all licensed?

Yep. All the vehicles in the game. We've got 40 plus off-road vehicles and they're all licensed, from all the big manufacturers – Subaru, Mistubishi, Nissan, BMW...

How are they with damage? Usually they're not very happy.

They're quite good now! They're relaxed. In the old times they're fine but because they get damaged because of racing, they're okay with it. They don't let you set the cars on fire, they're against that! And because all the cars are protected by rollcages the driver has to be protected, but apart from that, you can fully smash up the cars as much as you want.

Comment