Forza 2 review
Discussion
As i sit here my heart is still pounding, Genuinely.
You see i have never driven a fast car or driven a car fast for that matter; untill now. However thanks to Microsoft and the makers of Forza at turn 10 i believe iv'e now come as close as i'm going to get to such an experience short of being in the drivers seat.
Short of scratch and sniff xbox's with eau de tire smoke i don't believe there is a lot more turn 10 could have done to make this game more realistic. A bold statement i know but i havn't been this excited by a consol game since playing gran turismo 2 back in the early nineties.
Ok ok, so maybe there are a few things that could be improved but everyone always remembers the bad things so i want to concentrate on the good. The forums will be clogged with the moans and gripes of seasoned 10 year old gamers come this afternoon anyway but as i listen to the sound of me crossing the finish line in pole position on replay, i can't think of any.
So, first impressions.
The opening title sequence is pretty much as you would expect. A staggering showcase of the graphical abilities of this machine set to heart pumping rock music. With the end caption of ' Press start to begin '
The first thing i noticed was how much more plesant the game world enviroment is compared to Forza 1. The best way to describe it is like moving from Windows 95 straight to Vista.
You get 3 classes of cars in this demo; C, A, and R2. Without further adue i went straight to each class and admired the cars on offer. Very impressed with the variety, one car from each manufacturer it seems and all equally matched within their class.
I felt a bit spoilt for choice considering this is only a demo. I felt like a 5 year old boy again with 50p to spend at the sweet shop!, so feeling the presure of the salesman's impatience i plumbed for the 1997 BMW Motorsport M3 E36. Very pleased this one made it into the game.
A few seconds later and i'm on the starting grid. A thousand things scan through my mind, colours good, cars good, scenery interesting, realism not bad. The traffic light starters flash green and were off. I quickly flick the shoulder button to my favourite incar view. Hmm, a seperate tachometer and rev counter specific to each car, so each car shows the appropriate amount of revs to redline indicative to that vehicle. I press 'Y' to see behind me and immediately notice a change from the engine noise to a more throaty exhaust noise, nice i think.
Watching the cars weaving behind me i notice the front bumper of the nearest to me dip as he breaks for the corner, "Shit", i think and slam on the brakes returning to front view. An E brake enduced power slide round the bend and i hold it, just!. That's strange, i was expecting to be rear ended there but it seems the other opponents realy are intelligent in this game. So i return to rear view to check what happened to the Mustang behind me only to see he's creeping up along side...Wow! Using the 'free view' toggle to look around it's realy noticeable how well proportioned the cars are to the track with, much more natural than in Forza 1.
I run a little wide on the corner expecting to be snached by unexplained forces called grass and flung into the neares barrier but with 2 wheels still on the track a much more natural slowing of the car occurs and i get back onto the racing line. A few cars have passed me now after my escape from concrete and i can see fine sprays of dirt flying off their rear end as they touch the grass. Wow this 60 frames per second is realy great. No more counting the pixels as they fly past you.
Because the difficulty leve is set to normal in this demo it's relatively easy to inch your way to the front of the pack but even so i'm realy impressed with new class system of the cars. No longer will there be a nemisis in each class that you have to beat by souping your ride to the max. And even on normal settting the cars remain well spaced and more importantly well behaved.
A class
And what a choice. I picked out a 2004 Ferrari F430 and watched it slowly rotating on a polished background. A nice touch i descovered is by pushing the right toggle switch down all the screen displays disapear and you can admire your car without any distraction, could be very nice later in the game when cars are personalised.
So were off again and straight away the noise and power are so much, well, more realy. I check out the different tachometer and switch to rear view to hear the different exhaust note. Straight away i'm into second gear and i notice a lovely twitch from the force feedback in the paddle and a delightful click from the gearbox every time the car changes gear. At this point i should mention that on replay of the cars tyou can see the driver changing gaer as well as steering.
I'm on the straight now powering up behind a Ford Gt on one side of the track and a Porsche 911 turbo ( 997 ) on the other. I see a gap inbetween them and go for it. All 3 engine noises ring in my head and i actually let out a little yelp as i squeeezed through. Suffice to say i polished off the rest of those laps with the eagerness of eating my 50 pence worth of sweets.
I jumped into the TVR Sagaris for round 2 and boy what a contrast. This thing makes the Fezza look positively dull in comparison. The sheer power from this beast, i managed to wheelspin in nearly every gear. Of course i had turned off the driver aids at the start of the game and all i can say is that the sheer verocity of this car will make your bladder bleed. What a noise too. I am aware that turn 10 made considerable alterations to the car engine and exhaust notes with realist dyno samples. Talking of noise, the dump valve from the turbo on that 911 is like having a quick orgasm every time it goes off. A class cars have tacken my breath away.
R2 class
I left them till last not because i wanted to race the cars in order but because i have always found them pretty boring to be honest. Boring!, i hear you say. Well i suppose it's because they are so unobtainable to me with no real way of ever seeing any comparison between real and in game fantasy. But, and this is a big but. I am now converted. Thankyou once again turn 10. you have added a 3rd more to this game for me that was always missing. Whereas once i shunned the saleens and mclaren's of this world i can now say this is one of the more exciting parts of the game, for me anyway.
What can i say?. Inbetween desperatly trying not to lag behind and be empalled on the splitter of the Ferrari 550 and not rear ending the saleen infront i can honestly say this is the only time i have enjoyed breathing down another man's neck.
Once the online play, upgrades, engine and drivetrain swaps, and other goodies have emerged in the full game i can honestly say this for me will be the best racing game i have ever played.
You see i have never driven a fast car or driven a car fast for that matter; untill now. However thanks to Microsoft and the makers of Forza at turn 10 i believe iv'e now come as close as i'm going to get to such an experience short of being in the drivers seat.
Short of scratch and sniff xbox's with eau de tire smoke i don't believe there is a lot more turn 10 could have done to make this game more realistic. A bold statement i know but i havn't been this excited by a consol game since playing gran turismo 2 back in the early nineties.
Ok ok, so maybe there are a few things that could be improved but everyone always remembers the bad things so i want to concentrate on the good. The forums will be clogged with the moans and gripes of seasoned 10 year old gamers come this afternoon anyway but as i listen to the sound of me crossing the finish line in pole position on replay, i can't think of any.
So, first impressions.
The opening title sequence is pretty much as you would expect. A staggering showcase of the graphical abilities of this machine set to heart pumping rock music. With the end caption of ' Press start to begin '
The first thing i noticed was how much more plesant the game world enviroment is compared to Forza 1. The best way to describe it is like moving from Windows 95 straight to Vista.
You get 3 classes of cars in this demo; C, A, and R2. Without further adue i went straight to each class and admired the cars on offer. Very impressed with the variety, one car from each manufacturer it seems and all equally matched within their class.
I felt a bit spoilt for choice considering this is only a demo. I felt like a 5 year old boy again with 50p to spend at the sweet shop!, so feeling the presure of the salesman's impatience i plumbed for the 1997 BMW Motorsport M3 E36. Very pleased this one made it into the game.
A few seconds later and i'm on the starting grid. A thousand things scan through my mind, colours good, cars good, scenery interesting, realism not bad. The traffic light starters flash green and were off. I quickly flick the shoulder button to my favourite incar view. Hmm, a seperate tachometer and rev counter specific to each car, so each car shows the appropriate amount of revs to redline indicative to that vehicle. I press 'Y' to see behind me and immediately notice a change from the engine noise to a more throaty exhaust noise, nice i think.
Watching the cars weaving behind me i notice the front bumper of the nearest to me dip as he breaks for the corner, "Shit", i think and slam on the brakes returning to front view. An E brake enduced power slide round the bend and i hold it, just!. That's strange, i was expecting to be rear ended there but it seems the other opponents realy are intelligent in this game. So i return to rear view to check what happened to the Mustang behind me only to see he's creeping up along side...Wow! Using the 'free view' toggle to look around it's realy noticeable how well proportioned the cars are to the track with, much more natural than in Forza 1.
I run a little wide on the corner expecting to be snached by unexplained forces called grass and flung into the neares barrier but with 2 wheels still on the track a much more natural slowing of the car occurs and i get back onto the racing line. A few cars have passed me now after my escape from concrete and i can see fine sprays of dirt flying off their rear end as they touch the grass. Wow this 60 frames per second is realy great. No more counting the pixels as they fly past you.
Because the difficulty leve is set to normal in this demo it's relatively easy to inch your way to the front of the pack but even so i'm realy impressed with new class system of the cars. No longer will there be a nemisis in each class that you have to beat by souping your ride to the max. And even on normal settting the cars remain well spaced and more importantly well behaved.
A class
And what a choice. I picked out a 2004 Ferrari F430 and watched it slowly rotating on a polished background. A nice touch i descovered is by pushing the right toggle switch down all the screen displays disapear and you can admire your car without any distraction, could be very nice later in the game when cars are personalised.
So were off again and straight away the noise and power are so much, well, more realy. I check out the different tachometer and switch to rear view to hear the different exhaust note. Straight away i'm into second gear and i notice a lovely twitch from the force feedback in the paddle and a delightful click from the gearbox every time the car changes gear. At this point i should mention that on replay of the cars tyou can see the driver changing gaer as well as steering.
I'm on the straight now powering up behind a Ford Gt on one side of the track and a Porsche 911 turbo ( 997 ) on the other. I see a gap inbetween them and go for it. All 3 engine noises ring in my head and i actually let out a little yelp as i squeeezed through. Suffice to say i polished off the rest of those laps with the eagerness of eating my 50 pence worth of sweets.
I jumped into the TVR Sagaris for round 2 and boy what a contrast. This thing makes the Fezza look positively dull in comparison. The sheer power from this beast, i managed to wheelspin in nearly every gear. Of course i had turned off the driver aids at the start of the game and all i can say is that the sheer verocity of this car will make your bladder bleed. What a noise too. I am aware that turn 10 made considerable alterations to the car engine and exhaust notes with realist dyno samples. Talking of noise, the dump valve from the turbo on that 911 is like having a quick orgasm every time it goes off. A class cars have tacken my breath away.
R2 class
I left them till last not because i wanted to race the cars in order but because i have always found them pretty boring to be honest. Boring!, i hear you say. Well i suppose it's because they are so unobtainable to me with no real way of ever seeing any comparison between real and in game fantasy. But, and this is a big but. I am now converted. Thankyou once again turn 10. you have added a 3rd more to this game for me that was always missing. Whereas once i shunned the saleens and mclaren's of this world i can now say this is one of the more exciting parts of the game, for me anyway.
What can i say?. Inbetween desperatly trying not to lag behind and be empalled on the splitter of the Ferrari 550 and not rear ending the saleen infront i can honestly say this is the only time i have enjoyed breathing down another man's neck.
Once the online play, upgrades, engine and drivetrain swaps, and other goodies have emerged in the full game i can honestly say this for me will be the best racing game i have ever played.
runs off home !
my thoughts are:
Visually - stunning, the cars look superb, the backgrounds are great, and what a Frame rate! Light textures work well (though limited in the demo) as does the dust kicked up.
The sounds are pretty good too, from the engines to the crowds.
Handling - not bad, as GT and Forza, its nicely balanced between arcade and simulation, you cant drive on/off, but still can enjoy the race without being pedantic, though I'm disspointed with the collision dynamics, a slight touch of an AI car sends you spinning off track with them carrying on without an issue. the grass/gravel dynamics seem fine.
Hopefully it'll have the depth of gameplay of the first, which is the big selling point for me.
All in all, the demos okay, and if its anything like Forza for cars/tuning/depth, then it should be a winner!
Visually - stunning, the cars look superb, the backgrounds are great, and what a Frame rate! Light textures work well (though limited in the demo) as does the dust kicked up.
The sounds are pretty good too, from the engines to the crowds.
Handling - not bad, as GT and Forza, its nicely balanced between arcade and simulation, you cant drive on/off, but still can enjoy the race without being pedantic, though I'm disspointed with the collision dynamics, a slight touch of an AI car sends you spinning off track with them carrying on without an issue. the grass/gravel dynamics seem fine.
Hopefully it'll have the depth of gameplay of the first, which is the big selling point for me.
All in all, the demos okay, and if its anything like Forza for cars/tuning/depth, then it should be a winner!
Aparently the demo is using arcade mode so damage is set to superficial ( meaning it won't impact on the cars driving ability ). Also it has been said that the game won't ship with 4xAA's so anyone using a big tv will get jaggies? It runs at 4xAA in 30 frames per second and 2xAA at 60. Also it has been implied that the demo is running at easy.
bilko2 said:
Also it has been implied that the demo is running at easy.
It does seem quite easy to reel them in (I say reel them in because this morning I spent most of the time looking for badgers in the run off areas - I think I;ve got the hang of the Force feedback now though, will see tomorrow morning!)
Phil
So far, I've spent time in the M3 and the F430. Both demonstrate a far more complex physics model at work than in GT4 and it's predecessors (can't speak to GT:HD). There is a much greater sense of weight transfer, progression from traction to slip and back to traction is better conveyed, the transmission plays a much greater part in the handling (dropping two gears can unsettle the cars in a way that you never saw in GT) and generally the handling is both more absorbing and challenging. Sure, it's not GPL, let alone the more advanced sims that have undoubtably hit the PC since, but it does a hell of a job of making you forget that you are fidding around with a controller playing a fancy version of pole position. If you have a 360, you'd be mental not to pick it up.
Good
Dynamics - very good. Under the skin there is something much better than TDU, GT.
Sounds
Graphics, very smart
Telemetry will give me hours of fun!
Bad
Braking is difficult to judge
Controls are not to my liking but I'm sure the full game will let you change it
Too easy for AI to spin you and they continue without a problem
Interior view would be good
Dynamics - very good. Under the skin there is something much better than TDU, GT.
Sounds
Graphics, very smart
Telemetry will give me hours of fun!
Bad
Braking is difficult to judge
Controls are not to my liking but I'm sure the full game will let you change it
Too easy for AI to spin you and they continue without a problem
Interior view would be good
Played the demo with the microsoft wheel and have to say im very impressed and look forward to the full game in which i think will be far superior. I think alot of people mainly younger kids will not like this game as its a simulator so i expect a lot of negative feedback on it but personally i think it it looks great
Mekon said:
So far, I've spent time in the M3 and the F430. Both demonstrate a far more complex physics model at work than in GT4 and it's predecessors (can't speak to GT:HD). There is a much greater sense of weight transfer, progression from traction to slip and back to traction is better conveyed, the transmission plays a much greater part in the handling (dropping two gears can unsettle the cars in a way that you never saw in GT) and generally the handling is both more absorbing and challenging. Sure, it's not GPL, let alone the more advanced sims that have undoubtably hit the PC since, but it does a hell of a job of making you forget that you are fidding around with a controller playing a fancy version of pole position. If you have a 360, you'd be mental not to pick it up.
i'll agree with you there...
Just for comparison, I found the M3 very direct handling with a twitchy rear end under power, while the IS350 was stable and more refined.
The Dodge viper is really like trying to wrestle a large heavy car around the tight corners (okay, ive never driven one, but it seemed a beliveable behaviour) whereas the F430 was much more pointed, though had a tendancy to understeer if you carried too much speed into the corners.
Loved the demo, except two things:
No cockpit view - bonnet view doesnt give a proper feeling of driving.
and the AI is a bit poor.
I am hoping that both of these will be sorted for the proper release though, and will definatley be buying the game. It looks bloody lovely, is a challenge with driver aids off, sounds good, and has a nice feel.
No cockpit view - bonnet view doesnt give a proper feeling of driving.
and the AI is a bit poor.
I am hoping that both of these will be sorted for the proper release though, and will definatley be buying the game. It looks bloody lovely, is a challenge with driver aids off, sounds good, and has a nice feel.
I've been having immense fun with the ford GT.
Too much throttle when you pull off the line at the starting grid and it steps about 6 feet out to the right, too much right foot around the corner and once again the back snaps out pretty rapidly.
Having read on here that all the driver aids need to come off so I did that instantly and the only 'aid' I have is the auto option due to not having the wheel or pedals.
I can't wait for the full version!
Too much throttle when you pull off the line at the starting grid and it steps about 6 feet out to the right, too much right foot around the corner and once again the back snaps out pretty rapidly.
Having read on here that all the driver aids need to come off so I did that instantly and the only 'aid' I have is the auto option due to not having the wheel or pedals.
I can't wait for the full version!
Fidgits said:
Yeah, the AI is a bit follow-the-leader not making any mistakes, but then it is arcade on easy - so perhaps thats why?
The AI will quite happily punt you off mid overtake if you've - ahem - punted them earlier.
It is rather good.
There are some graphical issues - run off into the sand trap at the end of the start/finish straight and then watch the shadows in the replay - you'll see what I mean. Plus the the effect for grass being thrown up is somewhat underwhelming.
The one thing I did expect to see is deformable tyres ala Live for Speed. The absense of this contributes to the feeling that the cars aren't quite in contact with the ground. Having no "give" in the tyrewall also contributes to the appearance that the wheels are either incredibly heavy, the dampers are shot, or gravity is at least twice what it should be - again, watch the supension travel as soon as you get off track in the replays.
I could also comment on the extremely low resolution and limited draw distance of the environment mapping on the bonnet view, but I won't.
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