In the US rallying is seen as the new extreme sport, and you've got people like Dave Mirra, the BMX champion, Ken Block, the skateboarder and snowboarder, all those kinds of guys, participating in the new rallying events. With DIRT2 we wanted to increase the fidelity, and then look a bit more at what the Americans do with the X-Games, and the American Rallying Championship. We added offroad racing classes from the US, official rallycross, and overall more variety so that a wider audience would be interested.
![dirt 2 pc extreme settomgs dirt 2 pc extreme settomgs](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3ofNk7DvQuY/maxresdefault.jpg)
Matt Horsman, who is the lead designer on the project, put things into perspective: "DIRT was the basically the most authentic offroad racing experience of a couple of years ago. Off-roading with noise and energy drinks might just work. My instincts recoil from that kind of glitz, admittedly, but the Codies team talked the talk, and showed me a ridiculously solid-looking racer too. This is a racer that intends to chime in with the huge engine of US TV, rather than simply court the classical mud-mastery of international rally. Suddenly the snazzy, colourful presentation of the new game began to make sense. I had no idea that rally had finally penetrated the American entertainment consciousness. Things kicked off with me feeling rather old.
![dirt 2 pc extreme settomgs dirt 2 pc extreme settomgs](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/dirt2-ng.01.lg.jpg)
There's also a lovely picture of me sat in one of the most expensive gaming peripherals I have ever been strapped to. They explained to me how the game is intended to appeal to a wider, US-dominated audience, and how the core of rally-game realism remains in this rather more excitable racer for the extreme-sports generation. On a recent visit to Codemasters I had a chance to play DIRT2, and to talk to the lead design team.