Colin McRae demos live Comments by Tom Bramwell

Mine crapped out at 9% download too (XBL) - sounds like I'm not missing much.

How disappointing; sort it out codefelchers.

Left my console DL the Demo while I was out.
Got home after 6 hours and it wasnīt ready yet ( 94%).
Waited 45 min (?) for the Download to finish.
Played the Demo.
What a miserable demo! What a waste of electricity and time.
Deleted the Demo, it's reallly perfectly useless, I got to think it was a joke... but it isnīt.

The American voices seem very inappropriate. But I guess that is the way of videogame culture now, it is all about the American teenage male audience.

Overall it isn't such a great demo anyway. The menus and general presentation are nice but the game itself plays like a pig. Maybe I'm just bad at the game, but the controls feel so twitchy that I could barely drive in a straight line, let alone take a corner. Narrow tracks and twitchy controls are a strange combination, I guess it takes more skill than I possess to play it but I sure didn't feel inspired to part with any money for the game. Also, the framerate is very variable especially with the in-car views, and that is pretty much a deal breaker when it comes to racing games IMO.

It's amateur night.

Tried downloading it last night. Took 2 hours to get to 34% then lost connection. As Nige says sounds like I'm not missing much.

It would seem the problem is widespread if you read these posts...

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/...

Think I'll wait for the PS3 demo. At least Sony seem to use dedicated servers for this kind of thing and the service is free. Getting really hacked off with XBL lately.

mixed opinions on thsi one.
Am a big fan of the series so was almost sick at the stupid septicalization of this.
Feedls totally wrong to have some yankee doodle tellign you to "give it your best shot , maaaannn!!" fuck off

but visiually its rather splendid and most importantly , the handling hasnt been dumbed down too much. Cockpit view is awesome and the as usual the best way to drive...

good demo, taste of many aspects of the game but appalled at the US of A-ness of the whole affair

started at midnight, 4hrs or so later and it was stuck at 50% or so, what a mess up... tsk....

I gave up trying to get the PC demo to work on my setup as it wouldn't load in XP or Vista (I have a dual-booting system); it just crashes with an error message before it even gets to a loading screen... :(

The 360 demo took EIGHT hours to download (compared with just 30 minutes tops for the PC demo) but I like it alot despite the minor v-sync tearing. Plays as well as I remember and the superb helmet cam complete with internal dashboard, etc., makes it the most immersive rally I've played to date. Was going to buy the PC version but with the issues I had getting the demo to work it can just piss off... no wonder people prefer to play games on consoles these days...

P.S. I have nearly 40 games installed on my PC (all XP) ranging from oldies like Quake III Arena right up to new ones like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and LOTRO and all work perfectly... only CM DiRT doesn't!!! /rolls eyes

What is it with americans that they have to have their own accents in games to like them?!

Managed to get the 360 demo, was underwhelmed by it. I too thought it might be like Motorstorm but its nothing near it. Cars feel heavy and sluggish and handle like crap.


Hehe, funny, I've so far mostly seen complaints how the cars feel like they had no weight at all. :p

I quite like the handling, feels good to me. It's no GTR, but it's also not as arcadey as some people say. In my opinion, of course.

>What is it with americans that they have to have their own accents in games to like them?!

Let's call it "Hugh Laurie" syndrome...

Sony doesn't use any dedicated servers for Demo downloads. Most demos are hosted by the developer an not Sony. On average, most demos I have downloaded from the PSNET takes 3 to 4 times as long to download compared to an equal size demo from XBL.

This must be an issue for certain parts of the country because the demo downloaded in less then 20 mins on my 360.

Jesus wept - could they turn the damn bloom effects down? It looks like walking into the sun after 3 bottles of Vodka the night before. BAD LIGHTING!

Was able to download the demo this morning (location UK).

I rather like it but the american voice guy should have been given the boot months ago. Liked all the effects such as the mirrors and the dirt being spun up off the tyres but they do need to do somthing with the bloom lighting effect and work on the handling of the cars. I couldn't drift very well at all because of the lack of "feel"

@ Machiavellian
What rubbish! 'Sony downloads take on average 3 to 4 times as long". Not seen that in my experience, they're both about the same. Take your thumb out of Live's ass.

Finally got the demo downloaded (phew!) ... looks promising... beautiful and smooth graphics when racing alone on the thack agains the clock... but when there are more cars on the track, there's trearing and even slowdown :(

Hoping this will be fixed before release !

And yes - the american voices are annoying... A Colin McRae game must be in scotish :)

Game downloads are generally quicker for me on PS Network and certainly more consistent in terms of speed than what I'm experiencing with Live at the moment. Sometimes I can get large 360 demos in little over 30 minutes but at other times, like with the Colin McRae DiRT demo, they take hours and hours and hours and hours!!! And hours and hours! I pay Ģ40 per year for Live so these kinds of niggles are less forgiveable than they would be on the PS3 where the online service is completely free.

>>What is it with americans that they have to have their own accents in games to like them?!


What is it with Brits that they have to have their own accents in games to like them?!


pot kettle black

Once this finally downloaded I have to say I thought it was great. It seems there is a lot of variety in there, with the CORR races and traditional rally races. Remember Colin McRae does not have a WRC drive right now and has done a few crazy things in the past year or two like being in the Le Mans 24 Hr and the X-Games. This and the CORR races helps to explain the americanisation of the game. As well as a desire to increase sales. Rally driving is big in Finland and that's about it!
Personally I would rather play this than Forza 2, but it's horses for courses. Looking forward to this. I would say a lot of the comments here seem harsh.

"What is it with Brits that they have to have their own accents in games to like them?!"

It just make more sense that the voices in a Colin McRae game are scotish... or at least british ;)

Using american voices in the EU version is a bad desicion - fine by me to release the game in america with american voices, but please let the EU version be different!

Yeah, games aren't expensive enough to make as it is. We also need an Austrian doing the voiceover for the Austrian version, and a Suisse voice-actor, or rather three, for the Suisse German, French and Italian accents. ;)

"Yeah, games aren't expensive enough to make as it is. We also need an Austrian doing the voiceover for the Austrian version, and a Suisse voice-actor, or rather three, for the Suisse German, French and Italian accents. ;) "

There should only be one voiceover, but it should be British, not American.

Thank you please.

Took AGES for this to download. Seriously, the Halo 3 beta and Dead Rising demos were quicker and were larger files.

Very disappointed with the demo to be honest. It's the same Colin McRae rallying gameplay, but with a stupid mini-map in place of a co-driver (which actually has implications on how the game, ie, not being able to purely focus on the actual track as much).

There appears that there may be even less focus on actual proper rallying than I was expecting (and I was expecting less than the CMR tradition anyway).

The tracks are still too short for a rally game, when I was hoping that they would be lengthened from the previous games. This also lessens my hope of more stages within each track compared to previous games in the series (especially seeing as a lot of the game's space will be taken up by stupid buggy racing).

And FFS I hope this is the demo of a seperate US version, because I seriously wanted to plant that Yank fucker square on his jaw to shut him up as soon as I pressed 'A' on the title screen. Seriously, this game reeks of pandering to the Americans. I can understand that targeting games towards the Yanks may be a economic benefit, but I thought American's couldn't give a shit about proper rallying. And the CMR games have always been more popular in Europe. So yeah, the blatant American pandering grates just a tad, as they hardly deserve this series being turned into an 'American' game, as WE are the ones that have made it successful.

Sorry for the rant, but being a CMR nut and massively looking forward to this game, this demo pissed me off to no end.

Actual rallying with the wheel was fun though.....

There should only be one voiceover, but it should be British, not American.

Thank you please.

That's quite alright, no need to thank me.

Looks nice apart from mild popup but the floaty, pivot on central axis handling means a no-sale for me.

Oh and the American guy - what a twat

For fuck's sake, you should just be glad we haven't decided to rub Britain off the map.

Up till now we've found you odd in a likeable way, but if you start whinging about our accents...

and P fucking S, version 9 or 10 will have your codriver speaking in Chinese.

Welcome to the world!

;)

@ cyber_nicco - "For fuck's sake, you should just be glad we haven't decided to rub Britain off the map.

Up till now we've found you odd in a likeable way, but if you start whinging about our accents... "

It's not about that though is it. It is about the blatant unneeded Americanisation of a game series that has never been 'American' in any way whatsoever. The patronising, cheesy Yank twat in the demo is just an annoying part of that, as is the shoehorned inclusion of motorcross, and US 'rallying' Travis 'complete non-entity outside of the US' Pastrana.

Wait...so there'll be no "left 4, right 2" stuff like in rallying?? You've got to be f**king kidding me....

And yes, the voiceover dude is a prick. THIS AINT TONY HAWKS!

I just downloaded it, the servers seem to be a bit better now as it wouldn't even start yesterday. Anyway I liked what I saw, yes the Yank voiceover is very annoying especially in what is normally considered a European title and maybe we'll get the option in the full game to knock it off, but I thought the game itself was pretty impressive, very very nice graphics for a start with only a tiny amount of tearing (I know there shouldn't be any at all, I wonder if it'll be present in the PS3 version) and clearly I seem to be in the minority but I liked the handling too, well bar those buggy things, I really couldn't get the hang of those at all, the hill climb seemed to be the best of the bunch in my opinion. Anyway going from the demo it'll be a purchase for me, it was a hell of a lot more fun than the dullsville that was Forza 2.

This demo is terrible the game is just nowhere near as good as the rest of the CMR series, give me Forza anysay and the American twat is very annoying in what is essentially a game about a British/European Sport

I read this game got a 9 out of 10 in the Official Xbox Magazine!

I am really looking forward to playing this game on the Xbox 360 a lot!!!!!!

Nice menus. I think the two rally tracks look and play well. But buggy off road stuff is disappointing, its frustrating and isn't fun. Codemasters: play more 'Motorstorm'

@SexyBobyBuilderDude

Never. I repeat, NEVER, pay attention to the scores a game gets in an official mag for any format. Most biased bullshit this side of 'Man Utd fan' Graham Poll.

Ive downloaded and completed the PC version. Dam this game eats resources. I have an overclocked E6600, 2 gig of Ram and an Nvidia 8800 GTS. And i can still only run it 720p mode at decent framerate.

Great looking game. Crashes are quality, you get a real sense of speed. Lets hope the full version is better.


7 / 10

Why all the hate?

How many of you have been to the USA? Do any of you have American friends? Is it because of our jackass president that you are punishing the rest of us? I don't hate people in the UK, and neither does anyone I know. It's just a video game, after all. I don't really understand why it's cool to hate America. People are people. So chill!

@ fushionhat

OMG - if you had even bothered to read everyone else's comments before eagerly leaping on board the racism-esque bandwagon that you seem to be riding, you would realise that no-one actually has a problem with Americans, just the way in which this game panders to the Americans.

Colin McRae is Scottish/British, however you want to look at it, and Rally Driving predominantly is a British/European sport.

To my knowledge all previous iterations of this game have featured British co-drivers and British voice-overs, but for some reason in this version, the whole thing has been unnecessarily Americanised and now bares very little resemblance to the other games in the series and its THAT that people are complaining about.

Now, off you go to read everyone else's comments again, and then go and sit in the corner and think about what you have done.

Thank you please.

Yes, I have read everyone's post, and I do feel that what I said was appropriate. I'm not talking about outright racism. Just a sour sentiment towards Yanks. Quite sour!

And besides, I was in a bad mood! Give me a break!

Fusionhat have you actually heard the guy at the start of the demo? If so, honestly do you believe that it sounds normal, do you think it has a place in a rally game, infact any game? I mean there's talking in an American accent, but then there's talking in an American accent and sounding like a twat. And this guy's the latter. If he's there to motivate and psyche me up for the upcoming race then I'm afraid Codemasters didn't succeed with what they were trying to do.
I'm English and if the voiceover guy on a game was talking in some stereotypical upper class posh voice that would also piss me off.
''PRESSURE, pressure's for tyres'' Indeed.

Like I said, I was in a bad mood. I'm better now.

As captainrentboy says, he's a twat - doesnt matter what accent he has, he is a twat. But he should be a british sounding twat.

And thus concludes the debate.

I hate to inform all the complainers but Codemasters intentionally changed the name of the game to DIRT while removing Colin McRae's name. Though you may think it's a Colin McRae game...it's NOT his game anymore....hence they can put American voices and not British ones. Personally I wish they used better voices...period.
BTW...I don't think Codemasters used focus groups to find out what voices appealed to American teenagers because if they did they wouldn't have chose these voices.

The game is officially called "Colin McRae: DIRT", at least in Europe.

So fuck off.

YOU FUCK OFF!!...Thats why they changed the name....cause of assholes like you with NO respect, Somatic...who cares what name it has...does it play and look good, shithead??? I can have my opinion just as your warped one is allowed here.

Guess what you can do? Don't buy the damn game!!!

Ummm, they haven't changed the name. It's still called Colin McRae, that's my point.......

And to reverse it on you.... They "changed the damn name" to appeal to the lowest common denominator yanks like you, who couldn't give a shit who McRae is, and who wouldn't buy the game unless they stuck buggies in it, Travis Pastrana, an American announcer (because anything British wouldn't be accepted), and made the special stages have 'laps' like Ridge Racer.

"does it play and look good shithead"

The brakes are way too over-powerful, there is no vibration or feeling in the cars, so no, it doesn't even play as well as the previous games in the CMR series. I'll give you one thing, it looks good though. But then I'm never going to buy a game purely based on how good it looks, as if I was to do that....... then I'd buy Pirates of the Carribean instead.

Can we try to be civilized, Somatic?

"Ummm, they haven't changed the name. It's still called Colin McRae, that's my point......."

Well, I don't know what you are playing in Europe but, on Xbox Live, the demo is called DIRT demo. And when you boot the game the first words that appear are "DIRT" and when you go to the start screen it says "DIRT". Nowhere does it say Colin McRae. As I said before they changed the name so Colin McRae fans like YOU aren't offended since it's NOW not a Colin McRae rally game. But of course you're offended anyway....sorry!!!! The game is DIRT.

"They "changed the damn name" to appeal to the lowest common denominator yanks like you, who couldn't give a shit who McRae is..."

I DO know who Colin McRae is...I'm a sports/gamer/movie fan not a lcd as you called me...Errr...do you know who Vince Young is?

"The brakes are way too over-powerful, there is no vibration or feeling in the cars, so no, it doesn't even play as well as the previous games in the CMR series."

Ummm....that's cause it's not part of the CMR series.
BTW, you tried a demo....you don't know how the game will play until it's released, uhhmmm....Sherlock!

must be a different name in the states then? I swear it said Colin McRae on my demo, but maybe i was mistaken.

Instead of bringing people together, XBL seems to highlight the differences. There's a lot of hate out there!