Published: September 11, 2009 04:05 pm      

'Dirt 2' delivers jaw-dropping car racing graphics

The latest driving title, "Dirt 2," represents a changing of the guard for the genre. The torch is being passed from driving legends like rally race legend Colin McRae to a new breed of ESPN "X Game" types.

On this title, with its jaw-dropping graphics and solid race physics, it works like a charm. The big names are young upstarts like Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra, who are no strangers to speed. So it's a good fit.

The races are fast and off-road, or at least off intended roads. I played the Xbox 360 version ($60). "Dirt 2" is also available for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

In one of my first races, I went for the "Baja" series and climbed behind the wheel of a Dodge Power Wagon. Puddles of water hid behind patches of tall grass, and it took a few retries to remember them and avoid spinning out of control.

Eventually I bested a field that included Mirra in the two-lap race, which earned me $66,000 for my career, some new dashboard items and auto accessories. One nice touch: The bobblehead skull I won has wacky eyes that roll around when I banked hard into turns.

Where "Dirt 2" leaves the competition behind is in the graphics department. Eye-popping detail and 3-D menus make every twist and turn enjoyable. From the maps and fast-food trash strewn around my touring RV to the loose gravel kicked up on a crusty Croatian outback during a race, I've rarely seen better attention to detail in a racing game.

The car handling is exceptional throughout all the difficulty modes. There was a great feel I got for the virtual roads, and the learning curve was challenging, but fair.

Races are planned from inside the RV, and the globe-trotting took me from Baja to London to Croatia to Tokyo in the early competitions.

Hats off to the folks at Codemasters Studios for perfecting two very important features in "Dirt 2" — instant restarts and thoroughly enjoyable replays. The restarts are addictive, and they allowed me to improve without watching boring cut scenes while waiting for the green light.

Race replays are a feature I usually ignore, but here the fast-forward is slick and I could pause and stop on a dime to gaze at the turn I missed, and why. I could also toggle the viewing angles on the replay to put myself on the side of the road or in the driver's seat.

Other race types include "Gate Crasher," in which I drove a Subaru Impreza STI Group N and bashed through as many yellow barriers as possible in the allotted time. Each barrier bashed earned me a few more seconds on the countdown clock and a better score.

There are also races called "Throwdowns," one-on-one affairs against featured drivers. I took on Jayde Taylor in Morocco in a throwdown. I lost to her a dozen times in a row, but she still rewarded me by becoming my friend, which hopefully means she'll give me some driving tips later on.

"Dirt 2" is the best driving title I've played in years. Buckle up, it's a raucous ride.

Game is rated "T'' for Teen and contains some suggestive themes.

Four out of four stars.