4Players: Hi! Please introduce yourself and tell us how you are involved in the development of DiRT 2...

Gavin Raeburn: Hello, my name's Gavin Raeburn and I'm Executive Producer on Colin McRae DiRT 2.

4Players: In DiRT you decided to go a similar way you did with Race Driver and offered lots

Executive Producer Gavin Raeburn promises many improvements for Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (ab 11,51€ bei kaufen).

Gavin Raeburn: Yes! We're expanding on the variety of race disciplines and players can expect a wider selection of race formats, inspired by authentic contemporary off-road solo, multi-car, and multi-class racing. Traditional 'Rally' returns, of course, reinvigorated with all-new edge-of-your-seat courses through hazardous and beautiful locations around the world and the hugely popular 'Rallycross' also features for close battling racing. 'Raid' is a reinvention of DiRT's Rally Raid and will offer wide open point-to-point stages for multiple competitors to race the heavier off-road vehicles on terrain filled with natural obstacles. Also new to DiRT 2 is 'Trailblazer', a new hill climb event that takes drivers downhill too! Watch this space for more info soon.

4Players: What can you tell us about the career mode? Will it be similar to the one in DiRT or will there be a new approach?

Gavin Raeburn: In DiRT2's World Tour we're creating a journey for the player, which will encapsulate the spirit of off-road racing - it's about travelling the world in your RV, hitting off-road festivals and building your rep as a driver. Along the way you'll build friendships with the stars of the modern off-road world and these relationships help you move up the ladder. If you impress and get on well with the big names on the circuit, they'll invite you to cooler events and even offer to team up with you for major competitions. You explore new disciplines as you explore the world. Your off-roading career spans the globe as you unlock tours in diverse locations spread across the face of the planet. The USA, Japan, Malaysia, Croatia and others await, as you climb to the pinnacle of modern competitive off-roading.

4Players: What other game modes will there be?

Gavin Raeburn: We've tried to pack as much variety into the racing as possible and there are numerous challenge races available to try out against the other characters in the game. Additionally, there is a time trial mode where you can race against up to 5 ghost cars and post best times to the game's leaderboards. Naturally all the game modes are available online as well as off.

4Players: In the first game the online mode was kind of half baked, because you could neither race against other cars nor create own game sessions where you could actually choose a track instead of just voting. Do you have any new plans concerning online races?

Gavin Raeburn: We've listened to feedback from our community on DiRT's multiplayer features and responded wholeheartedly. DiRT 2 supports full online multiplayer and community integration, with online racing across all disciplines, plus leaderboards and other features that will enable you to keep you up-to-date on your friends' racing achievements. We'll reveal more in the coming months but we believe we're giving gamers the complete off-road online package and we're proud of what we're doing .

4Players: The driving physics of DiRT were a mixture of simulation and arcade with a slight focus on the latter - especially when you think of the "wonder brake" which seemed to be very unrealistic. Did you change anything about the driving physics?

Gavin Raeburn: We always try to make our car physics as accessible, intuitive and fun as possible, starting from a realistic physical base. For DiRT 2, we've completely overhauled our car physics model to deliver greater depth and accuracy, which makes the cars feel even more intuitive and natural to drive. We believe DiRT2 will deliver handling that will appeal to a broad spectrum of racing fans.

4Players: Some players like it more the arcade way. Some prefer an accurate simulation like Richard Burns Rally. How difficult would it be to deliver a hardcore simulation and an arcade racer in one game? Or have you ever discussed the idea to split the Colin franchise into separate arcade and simulation games like Electronic Arts plans to do with Need for Speed?

Gavin Raeburn: No, we don't feel that is the way forward for our game. The balance between arcade and simulation in our games is something which we look at closely and with DiRT2 I think our car handling and vehicle physics are much more advanced than they were in DiRT. Weve spent a lot of time working on tyre physics, which obviously has a big effect on the way an off-road vehicle handles, and this means that driving in DiRT2 is more realistic than it was in the original game. However, we concentrate on making sure the game experience is as accessible and entertaining as possible, and in that respect we're making a much more mainstream game.

4Players: Race Driver: GRID offered an amazing crash experience and gave players a chance to rewind scenes. Do you have similar plans for DiRT 2?

Gavin Raeburn: Both DiRT and GRID are developed by the same team at Codemasters Racing Studio so both benefit automatically from the cool tech we develop for each of them. As a result, the Flashback system we developed for GRID was available in DiRT 2 from day one and is now being expanded with additional features and functionality. More details soon.

4Players: Your EGO engine is a very powerful tool which is capable of delivering stunning graphics. What kind of progress did you achieve in technical areas since the first DiRT and GRID?

Gavin Raeburn: Following what was widely hailed as an impressive debut of the EGO Engine with DiRT, we were able to make key improvements during the GRID project which lifted the quality of the game to a level we were very happy with. The development team have learnt a lot from the development of GRID, and have strengthened massively in their ability to get the most out of the hardware, notably pushing SPU usage on PS3, improving multi-core performance on Xbox 360 and adding PC specific features and technology. In DiRT2, we're building further on these changes to the engine, adding more physical modelling of the environment, improving lighting and shadowing, and some fantastic water physics, plus were broadening the use of our streaming system to allow much higher texture detail. Overall these changes mean we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the hardware as much as possible, and we're confident in our ability to lift the quality bar again. We think you'll be very pleased with the results!

4Players: If somebody asked you what makes DiRT 2 special compared to other offroad racing games like Motorstorm or Pure - what would you answer?

Gavin Raeburn: The easy answer is our emphasis on realism - both the games you mentioned are set in fantasy environments and that makes them a very different experience. In DIRT2, all our cars are fully-licensed offroad vehicles and all our tracks are real-world locations, painstakingly researched and recreated by our track design and art teams. For me, that's what makes DiRT2 so special - we let the player perform amazing feats in real cars on real tracks.