Forza Motorsport 2

[Revvin 1]

I am completely addicted to this racing game on the Xbox 360, its very realistic and holds up well against some of the PC sims out there. Graphically its very nice, better than anything I've seen on the PC though perhaps not as outstanding as say Project Gotham Racing 3 also on the Xbox 360. It's been slated by some for not having an in-cockpit view but I think thats unfair as it does have two 'bonnet views' one of which is a good approximation of the drivers eyeline looking straight out of the window, so if you imagine the TV screen as your windscreen its pretty much spot on and besides I don't often look at the detail on my dashboard when driving a real car and if I'm travelling at speed you can bet your bottom dollar my eyes are fixed on the road! :) With 300 cars modelled from around the world I can forgive the lack of cockpit views.

 

The campaign can become a grind but as you unlock more events it just keeps that 'just one more race' addiction going. You can upgrade your cars using aftermarket add-on's such as sports ignition and fuel systems, racing spec brake systems. You can really feel the difference between the stock car and the upgrades you buy for it though you can upgrade your car to the point where the races can become a little easy apart from a 'factory spec' series. I've just enjoyed tuning a racing spec Viper to race against some of the supercars who have much higher top end speed than my car but I can make up ground with the handling you'd expect from a racing spec Viper.

 

Its good to see some of the old fantasy tracks from the original Forza Motorsport game given a complete makeover to next gen standards, I found it nice to have some familiar tracks on top of the real world tracks like Silverstone and Road Atlanta. Also in Forza 2 you'll find the best looking rendition of the Nordschleife 'green hell' I've seen in any sim or mod for a sim, its simply stunning. Online play is limited to 8 players but its not often I've raced against more than that in a PC sim anyway. There is also a paintshop to customise your cars paintjob which is quite easy to use for basic patterns but some users have used thousands of layers to create some stunning paintwork. If you are looking for a good racing sim to play on your 360 this comes highly recommended from me but there is also a demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace so you can try it out first.

[+Fates 63]

Too bad the G25 Logitech wheel doesn't work with the X360. I've got PGR3 and it is incredible as well.....

 

If my kids were more into the driving sim, I'd pick up a copy, but until then...I'll have to stick with rFactor for PC.

[Revvin 1]

Yeah I wish I could hook up my G25 but according to the Logitech tech support site its never likely to happen, I am contemplating getting the MS wheel for the 360 though, its got some good reviews. I have rFactor, GTR2, Live For Speed, RACE, GTL and netKar pro but Forza 2 has me hooked right now. It has a nice little upload option to the official site so you can take screen grabs from the game then upload and view them on the Forza 2 web-site, here are a few I took and saved to my own webspace:

 

Racing in an all Porsche race at Mugello

 

My 1967 Stingray racing on the streets of New York

 

My 'pimped' Lotus Elise

 

A custom paint job for my Elise

[+Fates 63]

I sometimes feel they just put too much gloss on these models.

 

Here's some info I posted of at SHQ:

 

Forza2 and PORN

 

http://www.platformers.net/index/index.php...0&Itemid=33

 

Here's a HOW TO on upgrading your Xbox 360 wheel bearings as well.

 

http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/13260...l_Bearings.html

 

 

Cheers~

 

Fates

[Falcon161 3]

Hope they bring this to the PS3!

[Revvin 1]

Well my camera work is not the best, you can adjust the exposure etc, as for that first article on porn..I've commented elsewhere but I'll say it again here that article is the headline grabbing garbage I'd expect from a low quality tabloid newspaper. They have singled out Forza and not really done their homework. First of all anyone who has spent just 2 minutes playing around in the paintshop in Forza 2 will know its not easy to make those kinds of images. Each car panel is allocated a few thousand layers of which to apply coloured vinyl stickers. You can make regular shapes and patterns easy enough but to make up images like that Borat one would takes hours of work and many layers not to mention quite some artistic talent. Its not a case of little Johnny importing an image from a porn site on his PC and then sticking it on his car in Forza it takes a lot of craft to do those pictures with a small number or talented people doign them, only a small percentage would choose to make something obscene. This is of course then ignoring Microsoft's control over the Xbox Live service which means someone can be reported and banned quite easily if they are found to be using obscene images or indeed language, this is not the unregulated gaming found on the PC format. Finally, obscene images have been seen online in PC gaming for years going right back to games like Doom and Duke Nukem. You could download naked women models to run around in quake etc and its far easier to import obscene images into a PC game than it is to make those images in Forza 2. Only recently there was some stupid kid running around a Counterstrike server spraying his tag - an ingame feature for those who have never played it, his tage involved animated graphics depicting sex acts including beastiality. Quite often you'll get some idiot spraying XXX images in servers populated by young players.

Edited July 11, 2007 by Revvin