Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360, 2007)

Gameplay: 25/25
Graphics: 13/15
Sound: 8/15
Controls: 20/20
Longevity: 24/25

Overall: 90% (5 stars/Superb)

weatherbee1982's Excellence Award

Forza Motorsport 2 vs. Gran Turismo

Inevitably, the question will be asked. Which one of the two series is better, and which one should I, as a fan of sim racers, prepare for given the options available to me now? Having been a fan of Gran Turismo since the first one came out way back in 1998, and the subsequent iterations, I can tell you with confidence that the rivalry between Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo is duly noted. What makes these games a rivalry is that it is brought by Polyphony Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) for Gran Turismo and Turn 10 and Microsoft Game Studios for Forza Motorsport.

In 2007, we sit here as fans of Sim Racing wondering if Forza Motorsport 2 is the game for the XBox 360 that makes the case for the genre, or if one should wait for Gran Turismo 5 in the interim (slated for 2008 at the earliest) for the Playstation 3? In this review, it will be determined that Turn 10 Studios has done the job necessary for Forza Motorsport 2 to definitely make the case for the former rather than the latter.

Gameplay

You want cars? This game is not one to disappoint. With over 300 cars available for you to unlock from nearly every major manufacturer in the automobile industry (including those not offered by Gran Turismo, such as Lamborghini and Porsche). Of course, you will not be able to buy those in the offing, but that will be determined by a system that I will describe here shortly.

The game modes available to you include Arcade Mode (with Exhibition, Time Trails and Free Run), Career Mode and Multiplayer Mode (with Online Career, Tournaments, buy or sell in Auction Mode, Gift Cars, or watch Forza TV). Each mode is described as follows:

-Arcade Mode: Exhibition mode allows you to compete against AI opponents with the ability to unlock cars for use in Arcade Mode only. Unlocking cars requires you to place at least 3rd (to unlock 1), 2nd (to unlock 2) or 1st (to unlock 3). Time trails mode allows you to race against a time with the ability to beat said time allowing you to unlock a car. The last arcade mode (Free Run) allows you to use all cars you've unlocked, including your Career Garage, to practice on most any course available to you.

-Career Mode: This mode is THE mode that will take up a great majority of your time in the game. You start with 11,000 Cr in one of three regions that you choose (Asia, North America or Europe). The region that you choose affects the discounts that you receive as you level up (you as a driver) for the region ONLY. However, if you amass 100,000 Cr, you can transfer to another region, should you not like the cars in the region you are in. You can also level up the car you are using (up to 5) to gain discounts on the upgrades available to the vehicle. This rewards you for using your vehicle over longer periods of time, rather than switching vehicles constantly to try to always get the best one. Your vehicle also is rated on an D, C, B, A, S, U scale (or higher) using a PI rating. The trick in some racing events is to keep your car within an event keeping those letters in mind.

-Multiplayer Mode: Online career mode allows you to compete with other drivers, much like you would with other AI drivers in Career Mode offline. Tournaments occur online, with between 64-256 online players, some with cars that you can earn from the game itself, some you can race to earn real world prizes (one is forthcoming to earn $3000). An Auction Mode exists allowing you to put a car that you designed (through a paint job that you put on it, and with or without car upgrades that you put on it). This Auction Mode can be viewed through the Forza Motorsport 2 Official Website (through which you cannot bid, unfortunately) and earn in game credits. You can Gift Cars (or the skin of cars) to a friend on your friends list (so long as you have XBox Live Gold) at no cost to either of you. The last mode is Forza TV, which allows you to watch races or hottest races that occurred through the "TrueSkill" ranking system.

Whooo! Talk about a fist full of stuff, and that is my best trying to summarize it.

What really is great about the gameplay is that the physics is ran at 360 FPS, as opposed to 180 or 60 FPS. Having a background in computer modeling, you want to run your physics as often as possible in order to create more realism. This is despite the fact that the graphics are running at 60 FPS. Add further the physics accounting for damage to your vehicle, and the processors are working extremely hard to keep up. Damage I said? Yes, damage! You really can mess up your vehicle if you set this game to full simulation mode in the worst of ways. So keep that in mind as you take your turns, and watch out if you want to slam into an opponent vehicle.

With that last statement said, that might scare beginners away. I remember Gran Turismo 1 nearly doing the same for me without much in the way of tutorial help. However, in this game, there are options to help you out should you be a beginning Sim Racer. These options include: Traction Control System, Anti Lock Bracking System, Stability Management, and the Racing Line. All of these options might increase the arcadey feel to some, but helps keep the car on the road and you can turn them off at any time as you ease your way into the game. Another feature that is impressive is the racing line. This feature helps you determine when it is best to brake, how to take each turn and when it is best to accelerate out of the turn. Anything to help the beginner in his/her quest for the championship.

On your way to the championship, whether you are a beginner, or a pro, at simulation racers, you have the option of racing against online opponents or AI opponents (in offline mode, the number of which is discussed later). Depending on your fancy, the AI opponents are not totally slavishly devoted to the racing line. Some AI racers, which you can pick out by name, will make mistakes on certain turns. You can use this to your advantage during the races to try to gain important tenths of seconds against them. Now usually, the AI is quite gentlemanly about the way it races against others and you. However, certain AI opponents (M. Rossi will come to mind for many) will be slightly to moderately more aggressive than other pseudonyms, depending on how aggressive you are to it. If you are very aggressive to all the AI opponents, then all bets are off about them being gentlemanly at all towards you. In fact, depending on the difficulty you have it set on, you can expect a very difficult race (and develop a certain and unhealthy hatred towards a specific AI pseudonym *cough* M. Rossi *cough*, sorry). This is a definite deviation from other racers, where the AI will not deviate and will not do anything to you for being aggressive towards it. This includes all iterations of Gran Turismo, unfortunately.

The amount of customization of upgrading for each and every vehicle is simply amazing! You have the ability to paint your vehicle to the finest minute detail. I am personally NOT a very good painter, but I have seen people paint and place on the auction house items ranging from actual replicas of race vehicles themselves, to Nintendo characters, to a full blown repaint of Terminator all over the vehicle. The Japanese have taken the repainting to a whole new level, with Anime popping up online as well in the Auction House.

Graphics

As I have mentioned in past reviews, see Project Gotham Racing 3 review, I have mentioned that the difference between 30 frames per second (FPS)and 60 frames per second is perceivable to the human eye. This is despite assurances by scientists that we could not perceive above 24 frames per second. The racing in this game looks very smooth. However, I would not say you would be incredibly impressed with the graphics when compared against the aforementioned Project Gotham Racing 3.

The reasons are quite simple, the first and most glaring item you will probably pick up on are the jagged edges around some of the vehicles (usually the rooftops) that you will use in racing. This is due mainly to the 2xAA that is used during the gameplay, whilst being run at 60FPS. However, when you run the replay of the races that you are playing, you will not notice these jagged edges as much, due to the replays being run at 4xAA and at 30FPS (at a level comparable to PGR3). This difference will make some wonder why the graphics are not set to this level all the time, but that will always be up for debate all the time.

Another item of concern, which again is debatable, are the lack color variability around the tracks that you are racing on. This is very likely due to the emphasis on the real life components of the track (as opposed to exaggerating items that are not there). Whatever the case, this could be an item of contention that some would see as noteworthy. However, the vehicles do present themselves with multiple color variability, and they become dirty (and damaged) over time.

What is lacking graphically is the inability to change the races between day and night (which has been tried and true on past racers on the 360). Another lacking item is weather variability that can occur during races (a la Moto GP 06). I am not asking for much, as this could be just a graphical interface, to add more realism to the racing environment.

Sounds

I will be blunt to say that, outside of 3 songs, the music sucks! A lot of the music that you hear during the menus leave plenty to be desired (and really makes you thank whomever deity you want that they do not have any music in races). I am a fan of some of the music they were trying to include, but even those songs were rather lackluster. Thank goodness you have the option to rip whatever music you desire to the hard drive and listen to it while you race. There isn't anything like listening to some heartpounding music of your choice while your racing within tenths of a second ahead of (or just behind of) someone. :)

Another slight flaw in sound is there seems to be a lack of variance in automobile noises. When compared against Gran Turismo 4 (the most recent iteration that is NOT a tech demo), the vehicles do not always sound like their real life counter parts. There is also that tendency for some muscle cars to have a recycled noise between themselves, which is slightly disappointing. I just wish that the developers had taken the time to go out and record more noises (or at least d/l a few of them to include for the vehicles) to make them sound more varied. I cannot speak for all of them, but I can speak for the few that I am aware of, namely the Mustang Models and the V8 muscles.

Controls

Much like racing games past that I have rated, I always consider whether there is a delay between the controls and the onscreen actions. Thus far, no such delays have been observed. Usually all errors have been a result of dumb user error (namely mine). >.<

Longevity

There are 8 AI's or 8 online racers against you. I have in the past held this against a game (MotoGP 06 has many more). In this case, though, there are many reasons to bring longevity up. The first being the ability for those artists in the crowd to paint their hearts out on the vehicles with plenty of choices available to you. I kid you not when I say that Turn 10 Studios improved this feature from Forza Motorsport 1 and definitely upped the ante with more choices. Even better, they included an auction house for those who wish to sell their work to those who will appreciate it online (for in game credits of course). Some have noted in forums of spending close to 8-10 hours on this feature alone per vehicle. I'll admittedly state that I have only spent 2 hours on 1 vehicle (2005 Mustang GT) to try to make it look like a Shelby Cobra.

Another major factor in longevity is the ability to tweak your vehicle(s) to your hearts desire. You name the variable(s), and this game is likely to have it. Want to tweak the gear ratios? Done. Feel that the tire pressure might play a factor in victory? Done! Want to change the vehicle from a FWD to a RWD? Done! You name it, this game is likely got that option for your vehicle (far exceeding the items available on the latest iteration of Gran Turismo).

Considering these factors, along with being able to level up your driver, your car, and being able to race online (still not available in Gran Turismo), the case of longevity is laid bare before you.

Conclusion

At $59.99, it is understandable that a gamer would want to know what is available in this game before a decision is made to buy it. I will make the strongest recommendation I can for anyone interested in the Simulation Racing Genre to consider this game. Even if you are a casual gamer, there are options within the game itself (just before you start a race) that allow you to put on Anti-Lock Bracking System, Traction Control, and the Racing Line itself (where to break, when to slow down and how to take the line) that will allow you to ease into the game at your own pace. This is very much UNLIKE Gran Turismo, which basically threw you into the hot water and said "good luck."

I hope to see you out there on the race track, and good luck tuning your vehicle. ;) Just don't take that first turn too quickly this time, because unlike another "Sim Racer," the damage really hurts this time.

Recommend this product? Yes