Release: June 8th
Format(s): Xbox 360
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft

Website: http://www.forzamotorsport.net

Xbox Site: Forza Motorsport 2

Forza Motorsport 2 is one of those games the Xbox360 has had many of. No, not driving games, for me, there aren’t enough for my liking, but one of those games that follows somewhat of a barren spell, much like Oblivion after launch day or Dead Rising/Test Drive Unlimited in August 2006.

Game sales for Forza 2 have been high with pretty much everyone I know playing it, both online from Overclockers, The-Reviewer and in my personal life, so the game has obviously done something right in marketing itself as the next big thing for Microsoft’s Xbox360, whether this is a result of no major games since Crackdown or Lost Planet, or whether it’s because Forza 2 is worth its label of a ‘Driving Simulator’, something which hasn’t been forthcoming on the console other than GTR2 which unfortunately still hasn’t had its release.

Forza Motorsport 2 is obviously the sequel to the highly praised, though under-popular Xbox racing game Forza Motorsport. Microsoft has never formally said it, but every games player knows that Forza Motorsport is Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s Gran Turismo series, bringing a large selection of both regular road going cars as well as full blown race cars that we can only dream of driving.

The brining together of the two categories of car follows the tried and tested method of car classes, ranging between ‘D Class’ and ‘R4 Class’, with many in between. Categories contain cars suitable for that category, based on several criteria such as Top Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Braking and Rarity. Class D are your slower, more affordable passenger cars such as Audi’s TT line of car (when this became ‘slower’ and ‘affordable’ is a debatable question), where-as the R4 Class features limited edition racing cars such as highly tweaked, custom Porsche GT3s etc.. The list of cars within Forza Motorsport 2 is quite staggering featuring over 300 cars each with a very impressive level of detail on each, though in my own personal opinion there are some simple flaws with them, but more on that later.

Whilst a lot of effort has clearly been taken in creating a full fleet of automobiles to suit the needs of petrol heads all over the world, the track listing has clearly been overlooked, drastically so in fact. There are very few full racing circuits, of which there are very few variations on the track design, leaving the ‘Test Track’ as the most played racing track in the game, unfortunately it’s as dull as dishwater for the most part. Another thing that will annoy racing game addicts is the list of tracks, there is very little new in terms of track, it’s very much a case of the usual suspects, Laguna Seca, Nurburgring and New York, the latter of which has only one variation, a simple 2 long racing sections with corners at each end, think the fast track of Project Gotham Racing 3, but without the interest of the Brooklyn Bridge. How a game that has clearly not been rushed to release, has been in production for years and has a clearly high level of quality in terms of car variation in design has such poor variation tracks is beyond me, it’s nothing short of a tragic crime, disgraceful. I don’t think there would be one single games player who wouldn’t take fewer cars and more tracks in Forza Motorsport 2 and it is clearly the game’s biggest shortcoming.

The tracks are accurate representations of real racing circuits, which, amazingly enough is a first for a driving game on the Xbox360 with other racing games such as Need For Speed: Most Wanted/Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Test Drive Unlimited featuring real roads or roaming environments (or in the case of Test Drive Unlimited, both.) This certainly brings a welcome change to the game, knowing that you are racing circuits that challenge the professionals, going lap after lap trying to shave seconds off your time.

The game itself features 4 modes of play:

Career:

The core basis of the game play. The main aim behind career mode is to progress through different ranking events, both levelling up your driving skills and also levelling up your car. By progressing through the levels you open up further events to race.

Time Trial:

A series of car classes with a predetermined car for you to race with, the aim of which is to beat a preset time trial time, useful for both learning tracks and car dynamics, as well as trying to beat times of gamers both around the world and on your friends list.

Arcade:

Sixteen events of which you race tracks with the option of selecting cars from any of the car categories. Racing against 7 other A.I. drivers, winning results in a Gold medal, 2^nd and 3^rd Silver and Bronze respectively. It opens up the game allowing a wider usage of cars without buying them in Career mode.

Multiplayer:

Obviously the ability to play friends over Microsoft’s Xbox Live service or to play random strangers, unfortunately this usually results in a game of destruction derby without the friendly banter.

Turn 10’s aim with Forza 2 was to work its magic on two different levels, firstly to feed the all out petrol head, offering a racing simulation experience centred on track issue monsters and high-performance cars. Not only offering a wide range of cars, it offers all the information any race fan will appreciate, ranging from full telemetry, to g-force and racing dead zones. I am no expert on any of this, so I won’t pretend to be, but I do know it offers more in terms of settings than any other console racing game I have ever played, and I have played a lot of them.

The second level is aimed at feeding those less experienced racers who have possibly tuned into racing on a console for the first time, or perhaps just want something else to play without wanting to get involved in all the dynamics of setting up your road car to shave those extra milliseconds off your lap time. For these users the game involves several options such as full driving line, which informs the player of when to accelerate, when to brake and unlike those found previously in Gran Turismo, it’s full dynamic updating in real time to your actions as well as allowing options such as Traction Control, ABS Brakes and Stability control on, making it a far less daunting experience.

The inclusion of both options will definitely make it easier to bring a larger range of racing fans to the game. Players do have the option to chop and change the game settings to make it easier or harder throughout career, however to stop players taking the easy way out it offers incentives, giving a sort of cash for difficulty opportunity. For example, turning off the racing line will give 10% more cash on a win, turning ABS off likewise. Whilst having some options turned off won’t have any negative effects, others such as TCS off will result in a 0% profit on a win, but turning it on will give -5%, allowing for a little more strategy, especially when it comes to racing certain events or specific cars such as RWD American Muscle cars which are difficult to keep stable even in a straight line.

The downside of adding such an option results in the game being neither here nor there, it’s not an all out arcade racer, however unlike its billing, and it’s far from the racing simulator, which is a crying shame. Playing something like Live for Speed or GTR shows the games major downside which, for someone like me is very disappointing, but being the only track game on the Xbox360 the game will get a lot of leeway from both the average Joe and for the most part, the media who you can never really trust these days with bungs and what-not going around (believe me, this does still happen, I may be a gobshite, but I’m not a bullshitter.) This is not a self-righteous rant, nor is it an insult to those who like the game, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and this is mine. J

Forza Motorsport 2 does contain a level of depth beyond simple car settings however, the option to completely change settings such as telemetry, down force, gear ratio’s etc is a welcome addition and will please those looking for a more in-depth racing game. Possibly the greatest addition to the racing dynamics however is the ability to completely modify your car with new parts in stages such as clutches, flywheels, turbo similar to Gran Turismo, but it also more in depth things such as spoilers, body kits and even smaller details such as tyre width and compounds.

Even further on car modifications is Forza Motorsports real shining light, its car appearance section which allows users to full paint their car in pretty much any choice of paint they wish. Paint colours range from regular paints, through metallic paints to pearlescent, all in a range of colours not seen before in a video game. If that wasn’t enough the game has a quite phenomenal paint job editor, which will suit any creative type to a tee, in fact it is very possible that you could spend more time in the paint shop than you will racing around a track. The custom paint section allows for a massive 1,000 layers of paint on each body surface, more than enough to create some fantastic pieces of work to equal those seen in some PC racers. Within the editor you are able to select from a range of vinyl’s and add them on layers, however it is also possible to build up paintworks from a range of primitive shapes such as squares, circles and triangles and by using colours basically draw shapes, with practice some fantastic pieces of work can be created. Alongside the car paint is a photography mode almost identical to that found in Project Gotham Racing 3, it also features the ability to upload it straight to the official Forza website, save the image and upload it to show all your friends your spanking new paintjob off to its best. Definitely a great feature.

Outside of the menus there is actually a game to play, and after all, if you’ve spent up to £50 for the Limited Edition version of the game to play, then I am pretty sure that, that’s important to you. The major element, as already mentioned, is the Career Mode. This mode revolves around a series of levels, 50 of them to be precise; these certainly add a level of depth to the game giving the player something to aim for in order to progress. As you reach the next level the distance and credits required increase, this is where adding or removing driving aids becomes more and more important, you can race cars without the aids and progress a lot faster, however driving more and more powerful cars can become very difficult, especially those that have been modified with enhanced engines to get more speed out of them. A great example would be the Corvette Guldstrand, a car which on its own is very quick, however after adding turbo chargers and other items to enhance the power it can become very temperamental, almost to the point of being unable to control the car, so it adds a nice change of not just being able to throw everything on your car, something which puts the car modification one step ahead of Gran Turismo.

One thing that does often fly under the radar is that Forza 2 does feature damage which will affect the handling of the car. This is a lot better than most driving games that don’t feature anything, but it’s also not too complex. Visually it’s simple run of the mill loss of front bumper, loss of spoiler, dents and scratches, unfortunately all crashes end up looking the same, but having it effect the steering or gears is a nice change, unfortunately the depth of it falls way short of more complex PC driving titles.

As you achieve higher levels you unlock new events which you can compete in, each of which has a series of sub-races. It soon becomes apparent just how much game time is, with each further race unlocking more races, each with more and more laps. As an example to this, in the endurance race section the ultimate race involves 7 laps around the Nurburgring, quite an epic task. Thankfully Turn10 have added the option to hire an A.I. driver to compete in these races for you, another nice feature, although it completely takes away from the playability of the game. There are a collection of A.I. drivers to choose from, all with varying skills and abilities, some are faster and more aggressive, some far more civil in their approach. To stop the user selecting the most aggressive, fastest driver there are a selection of costs involved with the best driver taking 100% of the winning purse all the way down to the worst driver taking 15%, it’s up to you as the player to decide which one of the drivers is the best bet to win the race.

As well as the option to buy new cars from shops you are able to connect to an ‘Auction Room’, an online shop where users can buy and sell cars to other users on Xbox Live, this is definitely a welcome feature, allowing users to buy cars and use them before unlocking them in Career mode both making it a lot quicker to proceed through the game allowing you to go at your pace rather than being pre-determined with the games unlocks. It’s also possible to sell your works of art over the marketplace, spreading your skills and abilities to other users. You are able to select a ‘Buy it now’ price similar to eBay or allow for a straight highest bid wins auction. By using the system you are able to make more money over the auction to buy better cars in game.

Achievement wise they are pretty predictable, which is a shame as I am a fan of the more obscure kind. Those in Forza Motorsport 2 include “Reach Level ‘x’” or “Get all Gold Medals”, a shame as there was certainly more scope for more interesting ones, but Turn10 wanted a serious game for the racing purist, so I guess they stuck with that through the achievements. There are 1000 available for the user and they aren’t difficult, however they are time consuming with Turn10 promising around 70 hours of game play, certainly a lot by current days standards and not seen too often outside of RPG’s.

Multiplayer in Forza 2 is great. Really great. In fact, Forza 2 features some of the best net code I have played on, on an Xbox360 title but as will all Xbox360 titles so far, you are limited to a users connection as Microsoft still employ a stupid Peer-2-Peer system (I’ll stop there as I will fly off the handles!) so upload rate is very important, but once you are on a user with a good upstream the net code is unflappable. The server administrator has full rights on car ranking limitations such as Grade D, A or R1 for example, which groups people. Even opening it to all cars won’t result in whoring of one car like the Ferrari F50GT in Project Gotham Racing 3, a welcome change and it definitely results in a far more balanced game.

One thing Turn 10 did promise from day one was the most complete experience using the Official Microsoft Steering Wheel, building the games dynamics around the wheel, something which hasn’t been done on any title thus far, and despite games like PGR3 (the edition that comes with the wheel) and Test Drive Unlimited supporting the wheel, anyone who has played those games knows that it doesn’t feel right.

Because of these claims of superior game play through the wheel, I decided it was time to splash out on the wheel, despite the almost ridiculous cost of £90 British Sterling for a peripheral suitable only for driving games I decided if any game was going to be worth it, it would be this one, so undeterred I picked both up from my local GAME store and went about setting it up.

First of all, the build quality is top drawer, whilst it may not be up there with Logitech’s top offering, it is certainly the best steering wheel quality I have known for a games console, so first impressions were of great expectations, hell even the box is packed better than anything I’ve seen. It took well over 5 minutes to open it without tearing tabs and covers etc… Something I am far too anal about. The pack contains the Wheel, Pedals, Desk Clamp, Power Lead and Connection Lead. The wheel is definitely high quality, featuring a rubber cover around the wheel for grip made from the same stuff as the grip on a golf club, which, whilst offering a large amount of grip, can also become quite sore for your hand after extended use, something anyone who has used a golf club without a glove will know all too well, personally I would rather have paid £100 and had a leather/faux-leather trim, but it still shouldn’t be complained about, it’s better than plastic. The pedals are made from plastic which does have one obvious flaw, it’s far too light. The design is made so that the heels of your feet fit between the gap between the frame and the pedals, but only God knows who’s feet this was designed for, because after 30 minutes usage my feet are in agony with shooting pains, not only that, but it doesn’t guarantee being stable to the ground as you obviously lift your feet slightly between braking and accelerating meaning that the pedals have one serious flaw for any user not using a £200 racing seat, which I would guess would be the vast majority. Without a doubt, the cheapest component of all is the clamp, which, like the pedals, is made from a lightweight plastic. This isn’t so much of a problem as it does its job of clamping, in fact it does so very snugly to the point that the wheel doesn’t move, to prove this point I even let my mother have a go… believe me, you have never seen anyone as angry as my mother when playing games, and being a woman, she can’t drive anyway, so the riving delivered was quite spectacular, still, the wheel never moved an inch. The problem with the clamp stems from the fact that it, or at least mine does, squeaks at an ear wrenching decibel which is no good if you fancy a late night session of gaming at your desk.

In order to use the pedals I used a chunk of wood spare from the decoration of the house similar to a door frame, this was snapped to a rough estimate to half the width of the desk I used. One end of the wood was placed up against the skirting board, the other end against the back of the pedals, this worked even better than expected in keeping the pedals completely stationary, even after hours of game play (I like to test these things thoroughly don’t you know!) So if anyone is thinking of something to come up with to stop their pedals moving, this works wonders, another tip involves placing a cushion or pillow over the gap reducing the strain across the top of the foot. One thing that will definitely please people is the level of resistance from the pedals, they are just about perfect for me, the springs are neither too tight, nor too slack, so you can gauge a real feel for the level of power on the brakes or accelerator, but the lack of clutch and manual gears is a disappointment, especially when you look at the standard of Logitech’s G25.

The wheel itself was incredibly easy to set up, and looked great too. Because I wanted it clamped to the desk I had to use my Dell 2405 computer monitor instead of my usual Toshiba 32WLT66, which actually worked well with the wheel and made the game more immersive.

As a quick test I started an arcade race and it immediately became apparent that the wheel had a nice level of force-feedback, more than your standard controller, but also not as much as the ridiculously over powered Microsoft wheel from the late 90’s for the PC that almost tore your arms from their sockets.

The feeling through the wheel was nice, hitting cambers results in a very nice rumble on the wheel and credit must go to Turn 10 who managed to convey a sense of weight from the cars through the wheel, certainly living up to the promise of giving a ‘complete’ experience to the game using the Steering Wheel. The gear paddles are easily reachable and comfortable to use and you will never feel you have to reach too far, so that’s definitely a good thing.

The wheel does have two problems though, one with this game and one inherently. Firstly the game has one problem with the wheel and that is that on a few minor occasions the sense of weight and feedback through the wheel disappears for split seconds when turning corners that aren’t a result of sliding or losing control, but this is very minor and could probably be fixed via a patch. Secondly the wheel itself doesn’t have a large turning circle; it doesn’t even turn 360 degrees which will disappoint racing purists.

Using the wheel is definitely beneficial to the game and it certainly allows for far more fun, with the player thrashing his arms around and I must say, it’s hard to keep a grin off your face whilst power sliding around a corner at 150mph. Of course, to test the ‘fun factor’ I also played with the joy pad. Using the joy pad is definitely a lot easier, and whilst the game is clearly a good game, it undeniably loses something over use with the wheel. Whether or not purchasing the wheel is worth it for just this game I don’t know, the other games I have tried with the wheel haven’t used it to anywhere near the standard of Forza Motorsport 2 but with several racing games on the horizon such as Colin McRae Rally: DiRT and Flatout in the near future as well as Project Gotham Racing 4 and GTR 2 before the end of the year it could well be a more than worthy purchase. It’s also worth mentioning that the wheel does work on PC’s via the wireless adapter.

The wheel is definitely for anyone serious about their racing games; otherwise it will be a dust collector, and an expensive one at that.

Overall Forza 2 is a complete game and has been worth the wait, but for me personally it does fall short of the hype. There are too many little niggles that drive me mad such as little model defects on cars which are a result of lazy smoothing groups before being put into games, these really show up on cars with shiny paintwork, however this certainly won’t annoy 99.9% of games players, but much like my issues with Resistance: Fall of Man on the Playstation 3, there are just too many little things in terms of 3D modelling that bug me, and that is certainly the biggest one for me.

The lack of tracks is the single biggest flaw in the game, and it is a massive oversight, just to re-iterate, how you can make a game with over 300 tracks and think that a low amount of cars will go down well is beyond me, however Turn10 have been very sneaky in advertising it with a lot of tracks, where as it’s alternate routes, if this was the case PGR3 had lots and lots of tracks and a track editor. The few tracks that are in the game are also bland with a capital ‘B’, there is just no flair or pizzazz on them, a major disappointment for a ‘Next-Gen’ game, and whilst it does look great, the final layer of shine just isn’t there yet, however the reason for this is obvious, it was done to keep the frame-rate at 60fps, the holy grail for any racing game. Getting 60fps is definitely an achievement, but I would definitely rather have a better looking game and a constant 30fps, I am definitely disappointed that for a 60fps game that it does run too slow, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that you will fall asleep before you finish the race, a real shame, but that certainly won’t affect the opinions of those big racing fans who really care about getting faster and faster laps.

Visually the game isn’t a revelation, the tracks aren’t the best, it clearly doesn’t feature the promised 4xAA (though it does look better than the demo on the marketplace) and it also allows for 1080p playback which is a nice thing to see, though personally, I don’t see much of a difference, but it’s nice to have regardless. The cars are definitely a high point, though for me, they miss the extra coat that those in Project Gotham Racing 3 had, but they are superior to those found in Test Drive Unlimited, so if you were happy with those in TDU you will love them in this. Plus the ability to paint custom paintjobs gives anyone that way inclined a real way to express themselves with their cars and keep them entertained way past summer. Compared however to games such as Colin McRae Rally: DiRT this falls well short in the visuals department and games like PGR4 have a real chance to show what is possible if you run at 30fps, however all those people who said they would take fps over visuals might be happy, but deep down I still can’t see them being totally happy.

Sound wise the game is definitely up there with the best sounding games on the Xbox360. Obviously it’s full 5.1, but the ability to differentiate completely between front audio from the engine (if it’s at the front) and exhaust noise is absolutely sublime and really gets you into the spirit of things, especially when using the steering wheel, slamming down on the gas in an American Muscle classic like the ’69 Camero, a real roaring beast that will take your breath away. You are also able to pick up on the other little noises, like positions of cars behind you, or whichever side the crowd are sat on as you whip past them, a good example is if you look behind you whilst driving and you will hear the sound whip around on to the reverse side.

Without a doubt the presentation and the modification side of things within Forza 2 are a shining example for other games developers to follow and hopefully we will see more features such as the photography mode, paint shop and custom paintjobs in other titles sooner rather than later, remember, copying is the greatest compliment anyone can pay and companies could copy a lot worse than Forza Motorsport 2.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

The game definitely falls right between Simulation and Arcade, and people who want to play either of those styles of games will be happy with the game, it definitely gives a brilliant first impression, and I highly recommend it for those people who want to play a proper racing game who care about lap times instead of being cool, just fast or smashing people off the road, something which only Forza 2 offers, so for that reason I really recommend it, but for anyone else, we know from Turn10 that there are over 70 hours of game play but with the lack of tracks you will be bored well before you cross the finish line.

Pro’s:

• Over 300 different cars.
• Track racing.
  
• Large career mode.
• Amazing 5.1 audio and soundtrack.
• Superb online net-code.

Con’s:

• Pathetic amount of tracks.
  
• Becomes very tedious
• Very slow.
  
• Public online multiplayer becomes bumper cars.
  
• Bland tracks.

Please do no copy or reproduce this review in any way without my express permission; however you are free to link directly to this review.

Thank you,

Karl ‘NokkonWud’ Moon