"That is all quite different from the original Colin McRae Rally games, and Dirt’s upgrades, truck races, and constant flow of new coloured liveries for your vehicles are different too. However, while Colin McRae Rally may have been wrapped in the trappings of serious sport, its biggest appeal was always the joy to be had in flinging a car around corners in such a way that it just held on to its limited grip on the track. Its loose handling and swinging camera were precision engineered towards magnifying the excitement of that experience, and it ducked anything from real life that would get in the way of it. And Dirt 2 follows through on that sensation completely.

Whether romping across the countryside in trucks, or racing in close confines in Battersea Power Station, the most exciting part of Dirt 2 is always managing to take excessive-feeling speed and turn it into improbable sideways momentum to make it round corners. Especially when it involves making use of water features or other elements as part of that direction change. A special mention at this point to the Xbox 360 controller and its analogue trigger buttons, because the way they serve as such perfectly weighted accelerator and brake controls is quite a factor in refining the experience further still."