Colin McRae: DIRT Q&A

Released last week, the PC and Xbox 360 demo of Colin McRae: DIRT has been a popular download. With good reason - this sim-lite rally game boasts impressive graphics and engaging gameplay, all wrapped up in a shiny next-gen interface. With a week or so left before DIRT hits the store shelves we took time to chat with Rich Tysoe, Community Manager for Colin McRae DiRT, about the finished game.

Rallying

Boomtown: DIRT sees the McRae franchise broadened out from the traditional rally fare, what else does it feature other than regular rallying?

Richard Tysoe: DiRT also features Circuit-based racing, with Rallycross cars, Buggies and pickup trucks, and Rally-Raid vehicles so people looking for wheel-to-wheel action needn’t worry that it’s "just" an against-the-clock rally game. There’s also the Hill Climbs, but that’s closer in spirit to traditional rallying.

And for those who's focus (no pun intended) is rallying, what features remain in DIRT for fans who really want a great rally game.

There's still a solid rally game in DiRT – 42 all-new stages across 6 countries, more than 20 rally cars from a wide range of eras and styles, too. To put that into context, that’s more stages and cars than some "stand alone" rally games have had. In addition to appearing in the Career mode, Rallying gets a whole mode to itself, where players can compete in the traditional single stages, multi-stage rallies, and championships they’re used to. And what hardcore rallyer couldn't be enthused by the extreme Hill Climbs? Certainly for fans of the Group B cars in older games they’ll find insanely-fast cars and challenging courses.

The Next-Gen?

Claiming next-gen features is very popular now, but what features exist in DIRT other than graphics that you couldn't have pulled off without a high powered machine such as a PS3 and Xbox 360?

The first thing that comes to mind is the Physics and Damage system, which is far more advanced than we’ve previously done. Lighting is another, as is the level of detail in the environments coupled to massive draw distances. In fact, it's fair to say that every area of the game has been subject to the mindset of trying to push it as far as we possibly can to make the most of the power of this generation of consoles and PC hardware – that comes through in all aspects of the way the game looks and plays, really.

Are there any particular differences between the different versions?

In terms of content, no. Graphically, well, the difference between PC and 360 depends a very great deal on your setup, of course. The PS3 version's running to a slightly different schedule so it's too soon to say definitively.

How many courses, vehicle types and vehicles feature in the game?

46 cars, spread across 13 classes – 42 rally courses (including crossover tracks), 3 CORR off-road circuits, 3 Rallycross tracks, 3 Raid Courses, and the two hill climbs, which can each be raced whole (each is more than 12 miles) or split into sections.

The Multiplayer Question

There has been some controversy over the lack of regular multiplayer races; how do you feel about those comments and what do you think players will enjoy about DIRT's multiplayer features?

Well, people are entitled to their opinions, up to a point, but it's not a decision we took lightly – we had to look at the full range of consumers, not just forum posters (although these are important), and try and make the best game for everyone.

We've started from scratch with this game, and "full" multiplayer, as a lot of the forumites would have it, would either have extended the development time unacceptably, or cut into some of the game content. Or the physics, graphics, or damage code. Something had to give for this game, and it was wheel-banging multiplayer.

Now what is there is an intense game style that really doesn't look good on paper, that’s true, but it’s exciting, it’s immediate, and it's scrupulously fair. In a way, it's rendered more exciting by the fact you can't see the opposition, because in your head, you know they’re there. The threat you can't see is scarier than the one you can…

The Pretties

Let’s talk shiny things. What does the NEON engine bring to the table in terms of next-gen loveliness? I know quite a few people who haven't quite believed the screenshots, so how pretty is the game and how smoothly does it run?

It is eye-wateringly pretty. The screenshots we’ve put out are how the game looks – we did release some "concept art" renders, which were labelled as such, early in the dev cycle, but everything since late last year has been the real deal.

The game runs at 30 frames a second on 360, which is another thing some people have criticised us for, but taking a leaf from PC sim practice, we run the physics update much faster, which I'll come back to. That frame rate is now solid as you like, too.

A lot of people say "oh, I don’t get a sense of speed from 30 fps," but I think that's more a problem of other games that have run at that speed. One of the things about DiRT is that with the narrow tracks and the physics means that 60mph feels fast, whereas in other games it can feel like a comparative standstill.

Wheel Fun

What use does DIRT make of controllers other than regular joypads? Can we expect to be thrilled by force feedback wheel controls?

The game supports FF steering wheels on all platforms, and it's all done properly, that is, by calculating the centring force based on what the front tyres want to do and relaying that back to the player. For the serious racer, it adds so much more involvement.

I’ve been racing on force-feedback for a long time now, in fact since TOCA 2 PC in 1998 and what I always say is that you can tell if it’s good if you can drive by instinct - to "let your arms do the thinking" and use the Force Feedback to tell you where the grip is. The game is also really nice on a pad as well. Out recent community event let people play on both controllers and both the pad and wheel users seemed really happy with the implementations.

Mr Newton

Let’s talk physics and car handling. What has been the approach this time around regarding the balance between simulation and accessibility? Is there scalability for the varying skills and desires of players? What are the unique features of the physics/handling model compared to previous McRae games?

As always, we try and strike a balance between the two stools and that's what we've aimed for this time. There's no scalability in the handling itself, there's one model, where scalability comes in is in terms of damage. That one model, though, is probably the best thing we’ve ever done in this area.

It's challenging, accessible for beginners – at the same time, has real meat and depth to it, so high-end players won't find themselves hitting the ultimate limit without some serious seat time.

What's unique about the engine compared to previous games? Well, pretty much all of it - it's the first clean-sheet-of-paper physics engine McRae has had in a long time, and in the tyre modelling (each contact patch is dynamically modelled), suspension (update run at 1000Hz for accuracy; dampers have both slow and fast bump settings, geometry makes a much more significant contribution), drive train (limited-slip differentials are modelled for the first time in a McRae game), in fact throughout, it's a massive advance on CMR2005.

We love smashing cars to bits, so how much can we wreck the cars in McRae, unlike many other driving games can we roll them over and over and over like we once saw Gwyndaf Evans do when he hit a tree stump? How much of the visual damage has an effect on the actual health and handling of the vehicles?

Cars can be fully damaged, flipped several times (in fact, it's possible to corkscrew jump the cars if you get it right). We’ve always seen this as one of our core strengths - both in McRae and Race Driver - that we go much further with damage than any other game featuring real licensed vehicles. We don't over-dramatise, we want to make damage as realistic as possible, but this means not only visual deformation calculated in real time but systems damage as well - the car is mathematically modelled as a set of interconnected systems, and visual damage can get translated into functional damage based on your chosen level of difficulty.

Has there been any involvement from rally teams and Colin McRae on this game?

Colin keeps a close eye on things. The game is important to him, it always has been. We also work closely with teams and manufacturers to get car models as accurate as possible, for performance data where available, and of course research.

Colin McRae: DIRT is set for release in Europe on June 15th 2007 and June 19th 2007 in North America.