Very initial Forza 4 Thoughts

I like racing games.  I suck at racing games.  I find them fun at times, infurating at times, fulfilling at times and non-sensical at times.

Let me reiterate:  I suck at racing games.

So, last night, Forza 4 came out, and I have been working late.  A new gadget, the wireless racing wheel also released.  Since I'm all about gadgets, I decided I would take Best Buy up on their offer of a $25 gift card when purchasing Forza 4 and the wheel.  

I've only gotten up to the third event of the second season, spent the majority of my evening downloading the pack in cars, tracks, the free BMW, and installing disc 2.  I'm not quite sure if I want to touch that $30 season pass for more cars - since I suck at racing games.

I didn't have to do anything to enable the race wheel.  It comes with a setup disc, but the xbox update last night seemed to square that away.  I wasn't quite sure if the wheel would be overly sensitive, under sensitive, or just wouldn't work.   As I started, I immediately spun out.  Adjusted my touch on the wheel and all was well.  I like it better than the other race wheel because it's not as bulky, doesn't require a plug in to the outlet (sure, the original race wheel didn't *require* the ac power, but it made for a better experience).  Also, being able to control gas/brake from the triggers brought a "best of both worlds" feel to the game.  Sure, I had a wheel, but I didn't have to worry about the pedals sliding on the floor.  As I learned the sensitivity of the wheel, it felt very good.  I was actually able to race without overcompensating and going into a wall.  

As for the game, I should probably save my opinions and defer to those more well versed in the Forza series and who have a good understanding of tuning and the nuances.  But then again, that's what's nice about Forza.  It gives me, a guy who sucks at racing, a relatively low entry point that I can go into and not feel overwhelmed.  The tracks look great, the car models look great.  I was racing my little Vauxhall shoebox around the alps, and saw something really cool.  At one point on the track, I was going uphill.  The engine rev'd harder, and I was going slower.  I would guess that previous iterations of Forza did this, but to me it was a "wow" moment.  I will leave it to the pro's to discuss whether this is a full on upgrade, or a dot release to Forza 3.  For now, I think it's a pretty cool game, with a slick interface and solid racing.  I do admit, I was a bit put off by the bowling event - seemed a little gimmicky for a sim, but oh well.

As for Kinect integration, I haven't done much.  I tried to get the head tracking to work initially, but my kinect was doing some goofy stuff.  Then I tried to calibrate my Kinect and it said it couldn't find the floor.  I recently put one of those Nyko Zoom's on it, and never actually got the time to try it out, so I think that's the problem.  I'll play around with it some more and see if it can work.