Smashing into your buddies at 180 mph is always a good time right, not if you want to actually cross the finish line in one piece in Forza Motorsport 2. If you are looking for a bang-em up, bounce off the walls arcade racer Forza 2 is definitely not your game.
On the other hand if you are looking for a Challenging / realistic racer and a game where you can customize just about everything that is on, or in your car then look no further.
With over 45 tracks in twelve different environments, over 300 cars from 50 of the worlds leading manufacturers, Millions of paint and decal options, and tons of different tuning set-ups/upgrades Forza 2 will keep knee deep in racing for the months to come.
The Environments
The developers at Turn 10 didn’t just want to create a realistic racing game that was challenging to play they wanted to create one that was beautiful to look at as well. In that they definitely succeed.
The level of detail involved in the roller coaster at Suzuka, to the writing on the track at Nurburgring (it’s the names of the drivers that have died on the course), to the weather in England, where it looks like it is just about to rain, is just beautiful. If you have a chance to be a spectator, take a look around at what they have done, you won’t be disappointed.
The Tracks
Ever wonder how the professional race car drivers take a certain corner at the speeds they do, well now is your chance.
Turn 10 took the some of the Top automotive engineers, professional race car drivers, and experienced programmers and made sure that every bump, crack, and rumble strip on each individual track was in the game.
With over 45 tracks to choose from, Forza 2 has a little bit of everything for everyone. From the banking curves on the oval at the Nissan Speedway, slow curves at Silverstone National Circuit, to the grind and technical driving of the long course at Nurburgring, this game has it all.
The Cars
Ranging from the mini cooper to the many different Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s there are a ton of different car choices. If you have a favorite car that you own, love to drive or dream of owning the chance that it is in this game is very high.
The 300 plus cars in the game can be a bit overwhelming if you aren’t familiar with the different makes and models, but after a few days of playing you begin to get familiar with what you like /don’t like in a car, what cars other people are using well.
After you figure out what you like you’ll start to get a feel for how far you can upgrade certain models to get them to the peak of their performance.
There are ten different car classes. Six of these are production classes, (D, C, B, A, S, U), and the other four are race classes (R4, R3, R2, R1), ranging from the slowest (D) to the fastest (R1).
The hardest choice you’ll have to make in the game is what car you want to drive, and although Turn 10 has done a great job in giving you the details about what the car can do, it is easy to get lost in the numbers rather quickly.
Each car is given a performance index, a numerical value that changes as you upgrade your car with aftermarket parts. You can use this index to upgrade you car to the class you think it will perform the best.
The Upgrades
If tinkering and tuning is your thing, then take your car into the garage and turn it into a corning machine, or an all around well rounded race car. There are thousands of different combos that can be put together in order to get the most out of your car/cars that you are driving at the time.
Whether you want the best tires, a turbo charger, good brakes or a new engine the options are there for the taking. Just remember that you can over power your car and turn it into a crash mobile just as easily as you can turn it into the fastest racing machine on the track.
After you put the parts in your car don’t forget to tune it up and test it out on the race track. You can do this on any track for as long as like and even tune on the run to see the difference a tweak in the gearing or suspension will make on a certain corner.
If you don’t like tuning by yourself you can turn on the telemetry during offline or online races and watch what happens to your tires, springs, gearing, etc… when you take a hairpin turn into wall at 120 mph.
Afterwards you can then tweak your car to your hearts extent using what you learned from watching the numbers during the race. You cannot however take off or buy upgrades while you are in a room on Xbox Live waiting for a race.
The Customization
The options to personalize the looks of your car in this game are endless. There are millions of different ways you can do this in the paint shop. The shop is kind of like MS paint for the 360 and with the option to have over a thousand layers on your car the sky is the limit
You can go stock and put manufacturer decals galore all over your car like a real race car or you can create your own decals, logos, and designs from scratch. Designing from scratch can be fun and frustrating at the same time. Just be sure and make time in your busy schedule if you want to draw your favorite cartoon character, or anime, because it’s not something you can do in a couple of minutes.
If you are interested in seeing what you can do with the tools that you are given in the shop check out the custom designs that people have already created in the Forza 2 forums.
After you’ve made your masterpiece why not take a few pictures and make some money. The new addition to the Forza series, the auction house, enables you to up load a picture of your custom ride, set the price, and then wait to see how much in game credits you can get for your mobile piece of art.
Another cool option is gifting. Here’s the way it works: buddy sends you a car over Xbox Live; you throw a design on it for him or upgrade it for him (if you are a really good friend); and then give it back freshly painted, (this also works the other way around with you gifting you buddy the car.) All this at no cost aside from the money spent on the car and whatever you spend on aftermarket parts.
Single Player
Arcade Mode
There are three game types you can play in Arcade mode each with its different style of racing: Exhibition, Time Trials, and Hot lap
Exhibition – In this game type you can race any car you have in the garage against AI opponents on 15 different tracks ranging from 2 to 6 laps a piece. The AI opponents will match the car you are driving, but it is not that hard to out run them with good driving skills and knowledge of the course.
Be careful of following the racing line if you are using assists, because the AI will not budge and if you are in their way they will run you off the track on the last lap as you are about to finish. Trust me it happened to me twice.
Come in third place in a race and you unlock one car that you can then go purchase in career mode, come in second you unlock two cars, and first place you unlock three cars.
Time Trials – On 25 different tracks you are given a lap time to beat and a pre-determined car with no real chance to upgrade or tune. These are a real pain the rear, because some of the cars that you have to drive are almost un-drivable.
So get ready to spend a lot of time driving in the grass and wanting to chuck your controller at the screen or rip the steering wheel from its hinges. If you make it around the track without going insane under the allotted time you will unlock a car…YEAH.
Free Run – Drive as much or as little as you like on 47 tracks by yourself, but you don’t get any money or unlock any cars in this mode. If you don’t know how to drive and want to figure out the line on each track this is your mode. Otherwise it is kind of boring.
Career
There are 9 areas you can race in for career mode each with 10 events that have three races a piece. You can only race certain events after level up you car, which you do by winning or completing races, or have a specific type or class of car.
For example: To enter the big block challenge in the amateur cup races you must have a level of twenty (that’s for you not your car) and a car with a V8 engine.
If you are into solo races against the computer get ready to put some serious time into this game. The further you advance in your career the races get harder and the upgrades / cars pricier.
The best ways that I have found to make money fast is to design cars and sell them in the auction house or play career mode against your friends in career races on Live and win races. This will alleviate some of the burden of having to finish up the career which can become rather tedious quickly.
Controls
The controls for the game are fairly easy to get used to depending on what you are using to drive. If you are using the game pad you will have a considerably higher learning curve and a little bit more ease of use when navigating the menus than if you are using the racing wheel.
Using the wheel at first might seem a little more difficult but if you give it time you’ll see that it is to your advantage. Racers can hold lines and turns a lot easier as long as they stay on the track and the force feedback/rumble doesn’t kick in to throw them off.
Multiplayer
Race against up to eight friends on all the race tracks in an Exhibition Race, (you won’t get any money or upgrades for a win or place finish); Career Race (earn credits, level up your car/driver, and TrueSkill Ranking); or a join a tournament with eight brackets, of 64 players, sixteen brackets of 128 players or thirty two brackets of 256 players on live (you’ll have to qualify to be able to race in an online tournament).
In online races you can either pick a car out of your garage that you have tuned up or take one that you have unlocked onto the race track. If you take a car that you have never driven before out on the track make sure you apologize in advance to your fellow racers for putting them into the wall, because some of these are fairly un-predictable until you get the hang of things.
Taking your newly painted baby out on the track is fun, but it kind of hurts a little when you see her smashed into a wall when you corner to fast or someone smashes into you destroying what you’ve made for a little while.
Hosting a match can be quite bothersome at times if you aren’t familiar with the menu system or the track name (they don’t have pictures to look at in the menus).
As far as lag goes I have noticed a limited amount up until the past few days when in the middle of the race our host would drop out and finish his own race by himself while the rest of the people in the room battled it out.
All in all this game is what it is a racing simulator and a damn good one at that. If you are into racing games and customizing your rides you definitely need to check this out. If you want to be able to pick up a game and play it without much of a learning curve turn the other way and run.
The Good
- The car customization is pure crack
- Host hands off the lobby to someone else if he disconnects.
- The PI indexes help separate classes even further and the mysterious speed traps keep people from getting an advantage by blowing through chicanes off course
- The audio kicks ass. Engine sounds are sweet, but you can actually hear the difference between a normal tire screech and a total loss of grip screech.
- Gamertag posted above the cars in MP is nice so you know who you just knocked off the track
- Telemetry readout during replays is fantastic
- Damage modeling, although bizarre at times, works great. The physical changes to handling to the depiction of damage are much better from Forza 1
The Bad
- No Private, custom tourney set up
- Camera angles on the replays are not that great which makes take pictures rather difficult.
- Why no rear view mirror in hood view?
- Some of the older tracks do not have a pitting (no idea why, but you cannot run them on full simulation).
- Random spikes in lag while playing on live causing another driver to throw you off the track.
The Wish List
- A Picture of the track you select in the menus when hosting – similar to the view all the players see in the lobby once the track is selected.
- A lobby system where you can tune, upgrade or purchase cars with your friends and the go out and try out what you’ve done.
- The ability to customize your tuning setup in the pit stops. The more changes you make the longer the pit stop…just like real life.
- Caution lights that tells you a crash has happened on the track so you can adjust your driving style.
