Forza 2

[Swallow]

I really dread having to drive RWD cars no. it's not that there's just a small margin for error, I'm fine with that, but spinning out and getting sideways seems to happen completely randomly.

[merf]

its the feel of this thats so right, even in arcade mode. they've really nailed it.

you have to forget everything you are used to in arcade racers, you can't jam on the brakes or full throttle all the time, you have to be really subtle with the controls and as soon as this clicks, the game is a joy to play

the key to RWD is to only accelerate hard in straight lines, if you are coming out of a bend and jam on the throttle you'll go sideways, you need to feed in the accelerator.

[Bleeders]

There's a tutorial on the Forza forum.

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/213264.aspx

I'm amazed at some of the designs, I have an arts degree and I've no idea how some of you doing these designs.

Check out Vemon!
http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?i...specialpj5.jpg

Thanks mate, incredible designs going around. Hats off.

[cavalcade]

Decided to play this for a week or two and ponder whether to put time into this or DIRT. This was the "Limited Edition" pack, which was rather disappointing. 3 extra cars (meh) and a large booklet full of largely dull information, some of which is reprinted in the manual.

I'm not a huge fan of hyper realistic driving games, but I do remember playing Gran Turismo 3 a fair bit, mainly because the graphics were so astonishing for the time. Forza 2 is essentially a shinier version.

The surprising thing for me is that really it acts as a great casual as well as hardcore game (I'd forgotten this about GT3). It's pretty good for putting on, blasting a track, painting a bit of a car, or aimlessly fiddling and then switching off. It demands very little in terms of continuous time, which is good (though obviously to actually finish it, you'd have to spend days playing it).

The driving models are a bit stiff, but once all the aids were switched off it felt a lot more fun. Though, again, I don't think the actual fun of driving is really a reason to play it. This is the automobile equivalent of World of Warcraft, where the actual gameplay mechanics are fundamentally quite boring, but the leveling/crafting/acquisition of items is the addictive bit. Like TDU it manages to nail that feeling of "ownership" that many car games lack. (If you could marry TDU's ideas with those in Forza you'd have the ultimate car game.)

Overall it's a strange proposition compared to DIRT. One (on demo observations) looks gorgeous, is great fun to drive and has great variety, yet has little peripheral entertainment, the other looks rather plain, has less variety and is boring to drive, but nails the peripheral content. Which begs the question - Should a driving game be fun? Does it need to be fun? And when I say fun, I mean seat-of-the pants excitement. Forza can be tense, but it's rarely heart-flutteringly exciting. I'm not sure if this is a problem though - World of Warcraft is rarely "exciting", yet can be utterly compelling.

However, at the moment, I remain on the fence between the two products (DIRT and Forza) - I've already played Forza 2 more than many games I've bought recently, so that is a good sign, but whether I can last the distance with it before getting bored is another - it has surprised me though, and has made the choice between the two a lot more difficult.

[charlesr]

I really dread having to drive RWD cars now

Use manual and choose a higher gear coming out of corners so you are less likely to spin up.

[charlesr]

However, at the moment, I remain on the fence between the two products (DIRT and Forza)

I'm the complete opposite to you. I'm finding the main reason to play Forza is how fun it is to drive, whereas I found Dirt to have a sub-par driving model that almost blanked any sense of fun that a rally game should have. Maybe the final game will be better than the demo (similar to the arcade mode in the forza demo limiting it).

[Ciaran]

The driving models are a bit stiff, but once all the aids were switched off it felt a lot more fun. Though, again, I don't think the actual fun of driving is really a reason to play it. This is the automobile equivalent of World of Warcraft, where the actual gameplay mechanics are fundamentally quite boring, but the leveling/crafting/acquisition of items is the addictive bit. Like TDU it manages to nail that feeling of "ownership" that many car games lack. (If you could marry TDU's ideas with those in Forza you'd have the ultimate car game.)

Have to completely disagree. I'm playing on hard and generally I try and pick a car with the same PI or less than the lead car. The racing is always tense and exciting as I'm constantly fighting off opponents and tussling for first place. Anyone finding it easy should set it to hard, it doesn't make it impossible but makes the game much more entertaining.

[sharky_ob]

Have to completely disagree. I'm playing on hard and generally I try and pick a car with the same PI or less than the lead car. The racing is always tense and exciting as I'm constantly fighting off opponents and tussling for first place. Anyone finding it easy should set it to hard, it doesn't make it impossible but makes the game much more entertaining.

Totally agree with you mate. Forza is there to be played how you want to play it. For me, the entertainment is in the fantastic handling and tense racing. the AI on hard is great, and really pushes you when you're using cars with similar PI.

I loved the 1st game, and this does everything so much better. Can't say enough good things about it really.

[hudson]

Never played the first one and after playing the demo, I wasn't too blown away. But after playing this a few days, I got to say that it is frickin brilliant.

It plays spot on. The structure of the career game is perfect. Online (although only played a handful) is also mustard.

I'm not really a heavy driving sim fan, but this game is so accessible (apart from the tuning page where I get scared).

And then there's the paint car mode, where you could get lost for weeks... ace.

Like above, it's all good here.

[Jebus]

I think the fact I played it for about 6 hours yesterday shows how good this is! I'm not really a driving game fan, I like the occasional Ridge Racer but not a lot more than that and I usually HATE realistic driving simulators.

However, this game has gotten everything (apart from the auction house...see TDU for how that should be done) right.

If this game gets ME playing for that length of time then it's something special I can tell you.

[Rossco]

I am LOVING this!!

Just spent an hour or so there kitting out my new Celica with a nice paint job. Looking swish now, I shall show you some pictorials when I plug into Live later on today.

Playing the game on Champion with the wheel, in HD with surround sound is the ULTIMATE driving experience. So exciting, so tense, every second counts. I've even saved a few replays that were pure mental races with me either pipping it at the very last corner or holding off the opposition behind me the whole race with some crafty blocking techniques!

Cant get enough of it.

[cavalcade]

Have to completely disagree. I'm playing on hard and generally I try and pick a car with the same PI or less than the lead car. The racing is always tense and exciting as I'm constantly fighting off opponents and tussling for first place. Anyone finding it easy should set it to hard, it doesn't make it impossible but makes the game much more entertaining.

I said Forza could be tense, so I'm not disagreeing with you. But it isn't butt-clenchingly exciting like Burnout 4 (for example) can be. Even in the high performance cars the sense of speed is moderate at best. With something like Burnout, Colin McRae, Motorstorm, or Excite Truck even, there is a constant feeling that you're just hanging on to 1000 variables to maintain the sliver of control you need to drive your car around the course. Forza is tactical, and makes more of the interplay between cars, racing lines, and effective use of brakes, and it is undoubtedly satisfying. But it isn't that exciting.

This isn't a bad thing, it isn't an arcade racer after all, I just can't imagine I'd ever play Forza for the sheer visceral thrill of driving for drivings sake. It's like driving chess, when for me a driving game should be more about driving bungee jumping.

What it excels at is what surrounds the driving model - basically building the feeling of ownership you get as you take a customised car on the track. In this sense, it is almost without equal, though TDU runs it close. This is the bit I think is very addictive, and this is the bit that will keep me playing.

I still think DIRT will provide the more satisfying drive though.

[HaHaUK]

In the championship races, are you only awarded the winning car the first time you win the championship or everytime you do it like in GT?

[VR46]

Don't know, only done a couple of championships once.

What region did everyone start in ? I picked Europe - am assuming all cars from all reqions are available once you get a fair way into the game ? seems you can change regions but it costs over 100,000 credits (depends on what level you're on)

[HaHaUK]

Don't know, only done a couple of championships once.

Well just tried it and it doesn't work. You just get rewarded credits for each race.

What region did everyone start in ? I picked Europe - am assuming all cars from all reqions are available once you get a fair way into the game ? seems you can change regions but it costs over 100,000 credits (depends on what level you're on)

Started with Europe as well. As long as you have enough credits and the cars are unlocked you can buy them from the garages. Think the only difference with choosing the region is that you get a discount on your regions cars depending on how far you've progressed.