Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360, 2007)

After spending over 30 hours with this game, I realized that I am going to be spending more time with this game. There are just so many races to do and so many online matches to be played that I can log in over a 100 hours before I begin to tire from this racing simulator. For me, racing in some of my favorite tracks (Tsukuba, Mugello, Laguna Seca, etc) is just fun to do in this game because of the car selection and how realistically the cars can handle. The amount o details the tracks have are also noteworthy, even irregular bumps will be there and if you don’t avoid it that bump will make your car spin out of control. Look at the real life pictures and see how well every detail was done. So if you are a hardcore race fan, this game is a must buy for the Xbox 360.

Single Player
A good amount of this game will be played in career mode. The career mode is actually fun to play because the races involve things like rivalries amongst manufacturers (i.e. Camaro vs. Mustang). The endurance races also get exciting because you have to race within your class and you just can’t put the most expensive set-up to win the races. There are a good amount of races where the amount of upgrades put in your vehicle won’t matter, but after a while you get bored of shutting cars out. The most enjoyable feeling for me in this game is to race for 30+ laps and only win by 2 seconds.

Arcade mode is ok to play, but winning all the money and prize cars is what I like doing in this game. I have only played arcade mode for two races and I wasn’t too interested because I would rather get all of the cars in the game so I can play online while having a good variety of cars to race with. However, I can see myself knocking out all those arcade mode races in order to get those achievement points.

Online Multiplayer
This is another addictive element of any racing game. With the new Xbox live software including MSN messenger, it will be much easier to plan club/car meets with all of your friends because now you can bother them at home and at work. So it will be even harder for them to resist those challenges that take longer than the one hour you promised.

The auction system is also another addictive element in the game because you can buy customized cars from other gamers using the credits you have earned in single player mode. A good amount of the auction cars look amazing. Now if you are one of those people that want to get your designs out without having people steal idea, you can copyright your decals and as soon as someone tapers with it, the design will disappear permanently.

In terms of finding a good race at any time of day, this game allows that since it has an international fan base and you can expect to race people from Singapore, Japan, Italy, France, and the UK. As a host you are given many different options to host the races to your liking so you can level the playing field and also host some tournaments. Another good feature about online racing is that you can earn credits after the race used to buy cars in career mode or in the auctions. Those credits also go towards your driver level, so don’t hesitate playing online thinking it won’t help you with the career mode.

Graphics
There is nothing super about the graphics, but it is at least running at 60 fps. When running tight races with difficult, every frame of visuals matter in the game. The damage models of the vehicles look okay, but I play most of the game in first person driver perspective anyways. What matters most to me is everything runs at 60 frames per a second without any slowdown. When I am stressed out after a long day, I like driving like a maniac on the tracks and all I ask is for it to go smoothly and this game delivers.

Car Selection
In terms of car selection I was very happy to see that there are over 300+ cars to collect throughout the game even before the downloadable content. Now what makes the car selection in this game exciting is you have a range of exotics like Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini down to Toyota. The varieties of cars you will collect aren’t too repetitious. Upgrades are available for almost every vehicle you can acquire and once you have your favorite cars, you might need to buy multiple levels of upgrades rather than just the racing version of everything. For example if you buy racing tires and you do an endurance race, you will be losing lap time because of how constantly changing tires at the pit stop. Another issue with over upgrading you vehicle is the weight to horsepower ratio, you can spend hours making everything ultimate on your vehicle yet cars who underclass you will pass you well. In other words, some cars have a stopping point when it comes to upgrading their class.

In terms of the amount of time it takes to tune your vehicle, the amount of settings you can change your vehicle are reasonable enough to work with and set things up to your driving style. What’s the best way to determine your driving style? Start with slow vehicles and see how much you can progress with them before it becomes harder to control. If you can control it for most parts then turning off the computer assists will also help you understand your car and it will give you more money as a race bonus for taking off the assists.

Physics Model
Although you cannot flip over your vehicle in the game, you can cause damage to every other part of the car. So if you bang the wall really hard you can damage your transmission and have problems in shifting and accelerating. Now the physics doesn’t just stop with the internal parts of the vehicle, the damage can also be seen on the outside. I think the developers did a good job with that.

When it comes to the movement of the cars, this is what makes this game a real good simulation. For example, I watch a lot of drift king videos from Japan and he usually discusses important aspects in tuning the vehicle and the abilities of a vehicles drive train. So if you were to take his advice literally and follow those techniques in this game those ideas will actually work. If you went on the internet and did a lot of research on Ferrari’s race development ideas and applied it to tuning the Ferraris in this game; it will also work.

The physics model won’t be appreciated until the races get harder. When you race on tracks where the opponents are much harder you will experience how well the controls react with your vehicle and every twitch counts. So if you pause the game, it would be better if you do so on a straightaway because in the middle of a difficult turn you will lose control when trying to resume the race again. Shifting too fast will also be something that you notice with the sound and feel of your car. Such nuances like “turbo lag” where the turbo kicks in at 3,000RPM and can throw you off on a corner in a tight turn exist in this game. Some racing games do not emphasize at how something like a turbocharger or supercharger can affect the vehicle’s performance. If you want a racing with a lot of human car involvement instead of the default computer assists, remove them and prepare to have fun and drift and drive your troubles away.


Customization
What I really like about this game is the customization capabilities. For most cars there is usually some body kit to add to it and then there is the ability to make custom decals and put them on your car. Custom decals use a system of layers and basic shapes to make the image on the car work. The current limitation for decal design is 1000 layers of shapes. I have gone on Youtube and seen some of the user designed decals for their cars and even with a 1000 layer limitation people have been able to make photo realistic designs all the way down to simple cartoon characters. What’s the whole point of customizing your vehicle if you and only the people in the race are going to watch it? The answer to that question is that if you race well enough it will be a highlight of that race day and be broadcasted online through Forza TV which is the database for all of the most exciting races in the game. Forza TV allows gamers from all over the world to experience your glory and also enjoy your design capabilities with your car’s appearance.

for more information about the forza community check out:
http://forzamotorsport.net/




Recommend this product? Yes