As we moved from the last generation of consoles to the current one, Colin McRae Rally became Colin McRae DiRT. Codemasters saw the opportunity to branch this offshoot from the Colin McRaes Rally series when it became clear that racing fans had a broader range of off-road racing tastes than just the arcade-sim World Rally Championship style of the older series. DiRT delivered a thrilling melange of off road racing gameplay styles, but many thought the handling had lost something.

Colin McRae DiRT 2 has addressed those problems, and delvers a mix of traditional Rally style racing with a selection of other off-road gameplay styles. Apart from the classic stage-based Rally style race, theres Trail Blazer which sees you blasting along cliff edges and mountain tracks in long high-speed races in China, Morocco and Utah, USA. Rally Cross is taken straight from DiRT and features dramatic wheel-to-wheel circuit racing on tight courses in London, England and LA. Land Rush brings a host of vehicles together for thrilling multi-class racing on short circuits full of jumps and drop-offs. Raid is extreme Rally, with huge point-to-point courses, littered with rocks, trenches and trees.

DiRT 2 has powerful vehicle customisation features including gear ratios, suspension setting and aerodynamics, but also the fluffier stuff like dashboard mascots and sticker packs. The innovative Flashback mechanism, which gives drivers a second chance to avoid a crash, lifted directly from Racedriver: GRID is included. Throw in a smattering of special modes, Domination, Last Man Standing and Gatecrasher, and eight player on-line multiplayer with integrated social networking features to enable you to broadcast your victories and you have one of the most comprehensive off road racing games ever created.