If thelatest trailersare any indication,DiRT 2is shaping up quite nicely. But there’s one thing we haven’t heard or seen much about yet, and that’s the multiplayer component. The original game technically had multiplayer, but it wasn’t what most people have come to expect from racing games.
Codemasters will be addressing this in the sequel, thankfully. Talkingto VideoGamer, design manager Ralph Fulton has revealedDiRT 2will support up to eight players at once. AlthoughGRID, another racer from Codies, had 12-player online, there’s a reason for the decrease.
“I’m at pains to stress that’s not a technical limitation,” says Fulton. “In our extensive play-testing ofDiRT 2, both internally and external focus tests, we found that these types of cars on these types of tracks, 12 players just gets a little crowded, and made crashing a bit too prevalent. That takes away crucially a lot of the fun of multiplayer competition.”
Eight players,” he says, “is the sweet spot.” I am positive I’ll be able to find a way to crash even with only eight players, but I do like that they didn’t make it about having big numbers onDiRT 2‘s box.
