Forza Motorsport (Xbox)

[fahrenheit]

RAD73, I believe we've already met through another forum, either that or someone has stolen your material. Nice to see what else you have done with the set up.

I was concerned when I heard about the lack of a bonnet cam with Forza, you can't underestimate how much of a disadvantage it is to not have it. The bonnet acts like a crosshair in a FPS. It gives you something that you can align with the track, it shows the movement of the car and gives you an idea of distance between you and the car infront. Without it, you feel as if you are a disembodied ghost that is floating along.
The bonnet cam also gives you a more natural height position that lets you see over or through the windscreens of cars in front. Lower your car in Forza and you can feel like your flying with your chin only centimetres from the ground.

Without the reference of the bonnet, you are therefore more reliant on your eyes and the tactile feedback you get back from the controller or wheel. This highlights another one of Forza's shortcomings, the feedback you get from the controller is weak. Its not till you touch the ripple strip or go completely off track that you get any real feeling through the controller. And the lack of true force feedback for wheel users doesn't help either.

Its certainly not game destroying stuff, but it is something that will need to be improved on, especially as the GT series now has a bonnet cam.

[Richard.John]

I find that the low bumper cam helps me feel more in touch with the road. The high one just seems too floaty, like you are driving a bus or something. Just my opinion, of course.

[Leon Retro]

Sometimes developers amaze me- why the hell can't you just configure the cam as much as you want!

All the cars affect the cam differently though- it's just a case of finding one that you like!

[Richard.John]

Yes, I agree. A free cam would hardly be difficult to implement. I remember a rally game on the PS having such a feature. A third bumper cam, inbetween the current two would be perfect.

[Dragon2k4]

Yes, and to be able to scale, zoom and lock teh camera in external views would be nice - this'll be a useful option for third person games too!

[RAD73]

Totally agree with what you guys are saying let the user choose if they want from a manual camera position and FOV. Even have it so any such views can be changed and altered to a individual car as part of the cars setup which you load, oh now were talking.

Somebody mention this to the PGR3 team, we can only hope they are allowing such features.

Hi fahrenheit, seems this internet ist as big as we maybe thought eh.
I actually joined that other forum just to converse with you so nice with recently joining here found your a member too. Agree that the new view in GT4 was very good and Forza should of had a bonnet style cam.

[Commander Marklar]

Gah, Forza is such a mixed bag at times What Forza does well is the mid-range cars, ones with a little power in the back end, know what I mean lads? Oi Oi!

/me slides Exige around corner

Fantastic little car, great for looooong slides which Forza's handling model seems to cope well with. The F360 is another with a nasty back-end; Outrun 2 style drifts around New York (I've got a video if anybody wants to see). Yet, other cars (failing to think of anything right now....) handling totally unrealistically to anything even resembling a car. The Exige, for example, is almost a spitting image of its GT counterpart.

GT events are perfect too. However, this is the brink of Forza's graphics though as the frame-rate struggles to convey any sense of control in the stupidly fast racing series (I think GT might be wrong actually, maybe R or P class? It's been one of those days...) That's just me though, never could get along with PGR2's 30fps and Forza has the same problem in places (not wanting to turn it into one of those discussions; see locked thread, etc...)

Sorry, just thought I'd say. Top game. There's definitely something pleasing about how it plays

[Alastair]

I'd like to see the vid, can you host it somewhere?

I'm still loving Forza, got into it a little late but am at 50% now. Just starting to encounter the frame rate issues too which unfortunately is starting to sour the experience a little.

What I have found though is that this game seems to have the best racing AI I've come across. Actually having opponents that hassle you, take different lines, drive aggressively etc really have kept my attention in this game.

[MartyG]

Top game. There's definitely something pleasing about how it plays

Are you playing it with a wheel? This really does help the game big time. I've got a mad catz one, and although it doesn't have the feedback of the DFP on GT4, it's a step up from the pad.

OutRun2 on the other hand is worse with the wheel.

[Commander Marklar]

I did try a couple of wheels (SEGA GT one, Mad Catz) but they're all lacking any decent kind of feedback. Or a strong resistance. So I ditched 'em. I've not found a none-force feedback wheel that I'm comfortable with. I need the same level of resistance that the ASCII DC wheels provide, for example.

That's a no then. I gave up on Xbox wheels after that.

edit: I'll put a couple of clips on my website after the weekend; let me sort them out (~200 replays) and I'll post back. The test track is perfect for drifting too. Vrroooom!

[Commander Marklar]

What I have found though is that this game seems to have the best racing AI I've come across. Actually having opponents that hassle you, take different lines, drive aggressively etc really have kept my attention in this game.

Yeah, it's really good when its good. But sometimes (example of this last night), it's like the AI is switched off completely and the odd event will just smash its way around the course, into you or whatever. Rubbish! Seems to happen on a couple of courses. Tokyo being one.

Best race I've had though is with one specific CPU car which refused to pit in (funnily enough, it was on Tokyo). It started to slide a bit, make mistakes and then I had to pit due to tyre wear. Down a couple of places, I'm playing catch up and he's still leading. I get up to his position and boom, into a corner the CPU car starts to fluff it but just maintains the line (I could see the back end having trouble, sliding around a bit and the wheels spinning; sounded like it was pumping the gas, controlling the 'spin'). Grip levels must have been all over the shop and on the penultimate lap, the CPU pits in and I win. That was ****ing great, that was.

[Alastair]

...I could see the back end having trouble, sliding around a bit and the wheels spinning; sounded like it was pumping the gas, controlling the 'spin')...

And that's another great thing. It's so immersive that you can actually tell when the CPU cars are struggling, and not just because they throw it into the wall. It also seems mostly fair. If I struggle after 20 laps on the same tyres so do the CPU racers. Not like many other games where they all seem to have schumi after he's taken some more perfect pills behind the wheel.

[TheForce]

yeah, nice to see more people that are still pleased with the excellent Forza, I love to race with the R-GTS series . and yes the AI is great in this game, it sometimes beats playing against real humans (because they tend use my car as a brake sometimes #$#@).
Without a doubt the best racing game since the original GranTurismo (PS) !

somebody fancy some online racing ?

[Alastair]

I've not got live

[Yoshimax]

I sold mine

I'd love a 360 version !