The "Complete" List

Resistance 2
Mirror's Edge - 360
Quantum of Solace - 360
House of the Dead: Overkill - Story & Directors Cut
Fable 2 - Story Mode
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot - (Liquid Easy)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Saints Row
Race Pro - Career Mode
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (Easy) - 360
Conan (Easy) - PS3
GTA IV - 360
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Manhunt 2
Prince of Persia
No More Heroes - Real Ending
GTA: Chinatown Wars
Silent Hill 2 - (4 star rating, Leave ending)
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - DS
Silent Hill 3 - (5 star rating)
Little Big Planet - Story Mode
Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Killzone 2
WET
Halo 3: ODST - (Legendary)
DiRT 2 - 100%

Not a huge amount too add. It remains a great game. Hugely fun online. My only problem is there's not enough tracks. After you've completed The X Games events and the World Tours and the special McRae championship I still had a huge number of events left to go.

All well and good but when you've got to grind your way through several events at, for instance, LA which has around 10 events (some of which are made up of 3 race events) and there's only 3 variations of the same basic course, one of which is a reverse, it gets dull pretty quick.

Overall though a hugely enjoyable game.

Currently Playing: DiRT 2

First off the bad news. Ken Block and his X game American cohorts yelping and hollering is annoying. As is the games instance on battering your senses with menu selections and unlocked events hammering into place every few seconds. You get the feeling that our American Cousins will be loving being told their awesome after every event by the AI. It's just not something we, more reserved, Brits appreciate.

You've got to look past the surface sheen. Or even enter into the spirit by talking back to them (sample exchange: Ken Block "Woo.. Alex.. There's enough room for both of us!" Me "Eat wall you idiot!" having just punted him off).

The career mode is immense. While there's only 2 or 3 tracks per country there are a lot of countries and they're all nicely diversive in an organic way (They feel like countries and not a generic 'this is a jungle and this is a snow level'). The graphics are sublime. As the car crosses the line (complete with pyrotechnics) there's a super slow mo which never gets old and you can really see the love that's gone into it.

Of course any driving game lives and dies on it's handling. Initially DiRT 2 disappoints feeling over arcadey and with a tendency to be too oversteery on the limit. Perservere though (especially with the brilliant bonnet cam) and it all starts to come together and it reveals the depth that allows you to start taming what at first felt impossible.

Online is a huge leap for Codemasters, both from the previous game and GRiD. There's a Jam mode where, at last, you can have a host and pick exactly what you want to do as well as the Pro mode which is similar to previous efforts (no host and a random track and vehicle selection which you can veto) which works fine. It's nice and snappy and there's no waiting around while people chat and no idiot picking a car that's too good. It's better than before because of the wider scope of disciplines now availabe online.

If this is, as has been hinted, the last game to feature McRaes name then it's a fitting send off.. Just remember to tell Block to fuck off from me.

Purchase Power

After two visits to GAME I managed to get myself a copy of Colin McRae:DiRT 2. I got £25 as part of a special offer for my copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum which soothed some of the pain of having to pay £45 for it.