Poll: Party Mode

[prisonermonkeys]

Okay, so for those of you who have had a chance to try it out, what's your favourite game mode in the party games? If you haven't had a chance to check them out yet, go into multiplayer and select online. Then check out the Pro Tour, where you can find the party games; alternatively, go into Jam Session and select Custom Game, and you can search for the party mode games.

Transporter - this is probably my personal favourite mode, simply because it's so frantic. It's basically Capture the Flag; drive over the swirling green vortex to collect it, and take it to the purple one to score (there's usually two to prevent players from defending them). If you get hit while carrying the flag, you lose it.

Outbreak - conversely, this is probably my least favourite because it's too easy to simply run and hide for an entire game (and if you know the Battersea Compound intimately, you can hide very well ... so much so that you get accused of cheating). One car starts out "infected", covered in a bright green virus (and you get a disorienting fish-eye lens to drive with) and has to hunt down to other players. Once you're infected, you can spread the virus, too.

Invasion - is pretty much the same as the Smash Attack challenges in Dirt Tour. You have to knock over the cardboard robots to score points, but hitting the carboard skyscrapers will lose points. More and more robots appear as the game goes on, which means getting an early lead is vital (it really should be the other way around).

Cat 'n' Mouse - the lone teams-only party game. Players are divided into teams of two. One driver (the mouse) is in a Mini Cooper, the other (the cat) in a powerful car. In order to win, you have to be the first team to get the Mini across the line. Cats get to circle around the track, taking out Minis to get their car into the lead, or taking out other Cats to protect their own Mini.

 

[AOS-]

In Outbreak, is there no map or a big label above each car identifying their names?

In Invasion, do you take turns going at knocking out robots with a set amount of time?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There is no map in Outbreak. Cars are labelled when you approach them, and the infected car is easily identified by its bright green colour. The infected cars also get icons directing them to uninfected cars, but uninfected cars only get an arrow icon when an infected car is near (and an audio cue).

In Invasion, everyone is on the course at once. It get get very frustrating when other people crash into you to prevent you from hitting a robot - and doubly so when they aim to push you into the skyscrapers.

 

[AOS-]

When that happens, just brake and let them throw themselves into the skyscrapers. That's when you message them and say "haha "

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Yeah, but you can't always see them coming. Especially since you have to concentrate on your own run.

 

[AOS-]

Official DiRT Forums (if it exists) is going to be cluttered with crybaby complaints in that case.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Anyone who has the time to plough into you obviously doesn't care for winning themselves, since it's very difficult to target other drivers at speed.

Of more concern is the first wave of cheaters showing up. I got accused of cheating because I survived a ten-minute game of Outbreak with my standard run-and-hide tactics. I managed to squirrel myself away in a corner of the Compound that not too many people know about (much less know how to access). And in another game, I got pushed off the top jump at low speed and ended up stuck in the rafters. All the infected cars were circling at the bottom, waiting for me to fall.

But there are genuine cheats out there. There's a glitch on the waterfront side of the powerstation that allows you to float in mid-air under the platform on the depot side. I kept finding a guy up there until I worked out that if you hit the ramp at speed and at the right angle, you could crash into him from below. But there's an even bigger one in Transporter. I was playing a game against a guy called BlitzTeamGerman and he always scored every point. We all figured he was just really good - he's at Fanbase lvl. 34 - but then we realised that when we picked up the flag, we couldn't actually score when we drove through the purple vortex. But then Blitz would hit someone, pick up the flag and get a point. Even if we hit him, we still couldn't score at all. By chance, I spawned next to him when the next game began, and his car changed colour as if he'd picked up the flag as soon as the start buzzer went. All he had to do was drive to the green vortex, collect the flag and score. He must have been using some hack that stopped the game from recognising that other people had the flag when they drove through the score zone.

 

[AOS-]

And that is why I don't play on PC

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Actually, I'm not convinced he's cheating. I raced him today and followed him through an entire stage. He was impossible to catch, but there was nothing to suggest he was cheating/ I suspect my inability to score in that Transporter game had something to do with driving off the edge of the waterfront and into the water, triggering a gllitch.

 

[AOS-]

Finally got around to play Transporter. Certainly fun.

I'm just bugged by the scoring system in Outbreak... I seriously think how long you stay clean from infection should vastly outweigh your score from infecting others... A lot of the times I'm one of the last to be infected, but can never catch anyone, so I end up sitting in last place... that's so lame. Because of that, the rest of the time spent was put forward into taunting the original infected. I find him, and I follow him. If he turns around I turn around him and so he basically can't touch me. It'll drive them nuts because I'm supposed to be running away, yet I'm not quite doing that.