Colin McRae: DiRT 2

Monday 6th July/... Codemasters® today announced that the Games For Windows® LIVE edition of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 , the thrilling and stylish sequel to the award-winning off-road racer, will support the wealth of new performance enhancing features that will be available in DirectX 11.

With DirectX 11 hardware expected to ship in the second half of 2009, and DirectX 11 coming to home computers with the release of Microsoft Windows 7 on October 22, 2009, Codemasters also announced that the Games For Windows® LIVE edition of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will benefit from an extended development program to take advantage of DirectX 11 and is now scheduled to be published in December 2009.

“While the console editions of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will retain their September ship date, we believe that the DirectX 11 feature set is too compelling to ignore, especially considering how much more it can add to the visual experience for PC gamers,” said Bryan Marshall, chief technical officer, Codemasters. “As a leader in digital racing entertainment, we are staying ahead of the pack by immediately taking advantage of key new technologies such as hardware tessellation, multi-threading and Shader Model 5.0 to deliver the most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experiences in the business. The fusion of DirectX 11 with Codemasters’ EGO™ Engine will raise the technical bar considerably in the racing genre.”

With the introduction of Microsoft Windows 7, DirectX 11 will be made available both as part of the operating system and as a downloadable update to Windows Vista. Codemasters intends to immediately take advantage of DirectX 11 features that add to the realism of the racing environment. Hardware tessellation will further improve the appearance of water and other surfaces as well as crowd animations.

The shader performance of Shader Model 5.0 (SM 5.0) will aid in creating an even richer 3D experience, enhancing key image quality parameters such as depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows. These DirectX 11 features, and many others, will add the horsepower needed to improve performance.

“We expect Codemasters’ early move to DirectX 11 to place them in a leadership position in developing the next generation of PC games and simulations,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Products Group. “To aid in transitioning to DirectX 11, AMD is providing Codemasters with access to our software engineering expertise in DirectX 11 technologies such as tessellation and shader modelling. DirectX 11 has all of the ingredients needed to take PC gaming to a new level of realism by giving developers tools to effectively utilize the multi-CPU, multi-GPU systems now available to players.”

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 is being turbocharged for Games For Windows® LIVE supporting DirectX 11 and is set to ship this December. Editions for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system are scheduled to launch in September. For the latest videos and information, powerslide over to www.dirt2game.com.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Adrian Lawton Communications Manager

adrian.lawton@codemasters.com

Codemasters (UK 01926 814 132)

Richard Eddy, Director, Communication

rich.eddy@codemasters.com

Codemasters (UK 01926 814 132)

Stu Taylor, Account Manager, Lifestyle Press

stuart.taylor@bhpr.co.uk

Barrington Harvey (UK 01462 456 780)

NOTES:

ABOUT COLIN McRAE™: DiRT™ 2

Melding turbocharged off-roading with extreme sports attitude, the eagerly anticipated next chapter in the legendary racing series, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 , will deliver a thrilling and stylish off-road racing experience. Colin McRae: DiRT 2 takes off-road racing games to a new level with thrilling new race types, big event atmosphere, stunning locations, a new breed of off-roading heroes and feature a peerless line-up of super-charged speed machines covering seven vehicle classes.

From multi award-winning developer, Codemasters® Racing Studio, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 builds on the acclaimed career mode of the best-selling original with the introduction of the “DiRT 2 World Tour”. Alive with vibrancy and colour and packed with attitude, this extreme sports festival takes in nine stunning locations around the world, each with a unique flavour that brings the very best of modern off-roading together into one engrossing, highly personalised racing experience.

Events include exhilarating rally cross in the massive Los Angeles sports stadium’s “Stadium King Shootout”, edge-of-control canyon racing of Utah’s “Creek Trailblazer” event, the “Rawang Rally Run” along treacherous Malaysian rainforest tracks and the “Battersea Battle”, where night races are staged at the iconic London power station.

Building on the technical and gameplay benchmark of Colin McRae: DiRT and borrowing from snowboarding and skateboarding lifestyle and culture, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will also add full online multiplayer and social networking functions, inviting players to become part of an extreme sports community.

Titling information:

To be titled “Colin McRae: DiRT 2” in all territories outside of North America where the game will be published as ‘DiRT 2’.

PRESS RESOURCE WEB SITE

Download game artwork, screens and essential Codemasters’ press materials direct to your desktop from: http://www.codemasters.com/mediabank

ABOUT CODEMASTERS

Codemasters is a leading developer and publisher of best-selling interactive entertainment products for a global audience across multiple gaming platforms and channels. Established in 1986, the company’s dominant brands include Colin McRae DiRT, Race Driver GRID, Overlord and Operation Flashpoint; the company retains the exclusive worldwide video game rights to FORMULA 1. Codemasters is headquartered in Warwickshire UK, with North American operations based in Universal City, Calif. The company also maintains operations in Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Malaysia. Codemasters receives over two million visitors to its web site every month, discover why at www.codemasters.com

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