Dirt 2 PC stalled until December

During the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, Codemasters said that its rally racer Dirt 2 would hit the gas on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, DS, and PC in September. However, one of those editions has been flagged before even getting to the starting line, as Codemasters said today that Dirt 2 for the PC has slipped to December.

It isn't entirely bad news for PC gamers looking to tear through Dirt 2's new courses. Codemasters said that the reason for the delay was so that the development team could implement DirectX 11 technologies into Dirt 2. The application programming interface set is expected to release alongside Windows 7--Microsoft's latest operating system--on October 22, with compatible hardware due later this year.

As for what this means to Dirt 2, Codemasters' chief technical officer Bryan Marshall noted, "We are staying ahead of the pack by immediately taking advantage of key new technologies, such as hardware tessellation, multithreading, and Shader Model 5.0 to deliver the most realistic, immersive, and exhilarating racing experiences in the business." In layman's terms, the tech aims to improve crowd animations, water effects, depth of field, and shadowing.

Check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Dirt 2 for more on the game.