So finally Microsoft’s sequel to Forza Motorsport makes it’s debut on the Xbox 360. So is this highly anticipated racing
Below are more detailed info about the game:
Graphics
The visuals are great. It runs at a native 720p at steady 60fps. Car models are very details. Although just like the original there is no inside car view. The anti aliasing on the car models is good and the tracks look very much like their real life counterparts. The damage looks great (admittedly Colin Rae: DiRT seems to have better damage, but considering this game has licenses like Ferrari it’s great). If I were to pick a few minor points, it be the poor quality reflections on the hood of the cars. Some textures on the tracks are not great either.
Sound The cars sounds are really good, just as you would expect from a triple “A” racing sim. The sounds of shattering glass or the thud of hitting a cone all sound great. The 5.1 surround sound is excellent, and is an improvement from the original as there is now a sound channel for the front centre. They have also worked on the LFE channel output, for great rumbling sound effects. The only down side of the in-game sounds would be crowds are not that diverse, but if your paying attention to that then your not playing it right. Lastly the music in the menus is so much better than the annoying music in the original game. Customization
Well one slight annoying thing about the customization especially with car livery designs is that there are no points for doing it. As I think I have spend about 25 hours painting/decal cars alone. Which I could have earned points in the career with those hours . Never the less it is good, but still hard to make great designs. If you have played the original “Forza Motorsport” you’ll be pleased to see that they have made some improvements to the car painting area. You still can’t import Jpeg images onto your car, nor can you use a paint brush, but they have increased the number of vinyl shapes as well as increasing the numbers of layers to a staggering 4000. You can also save vinyl groups and save you whole car livery to stamp on other cars you have. This is very handy for making cars to sell in the auction house or for car clubs to use the same team liveries. The game is very physics based so as with the previous game even the slightest change to your car can effect it performance. There are a huge array of licensed parts; from wheels, to engines and body kits. Even for cars without many body kits, Forza have designed their own. Each car will start in a certain class (these range from D-U class and racing cars R4-R1 class). Within that class the car is given a performance index (P.I.). This number denotes how competitive this cars will be in that class. By changing parts on your car you will increase it’s P.I. There is a limit of the P.I for each class, if you go over it your car will jump into the next class. This creates a game in it’s self of trying to get your car as close to the class limit without going over it.
Tracks
There are 45 tracks, but this is only derived from 12 environments (shortened versions, reversed etc). Though saying this you don’t noticed it too much. The game features 8 real world tracks they are :
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Mugello Autodromo Internazionale
Nurburgring Nordschleife
Road Atlanta
Sebring International Raceway
Silverstone
Suzuka Circuit
Tsukba Circuit
As before there is a option to show the dynamic racing line. They have improved this feature by letting you choose to view only the braking areas.
Auction House
The auction house is where you can sell you cars. You can also sell cars with custom parts and liveries. If you don’t want people to edit/copy your design you can also lock it, so that they are either stuck with your design or have to remove all of it. The auction house would be better if you could name the design on your car and search for that name but other than that it works fine and is easy to search for any class, make, model etc.
Achievement Points As for the point in this game, well they'll take a long time to get but nothing really looks hard in it. Although I have many million credits earned in the single player career, the million credits earned online achievement personally sounds the hardest. Levelling up is relatively easy if you put in the time. I am level 41 and I had only played the game for 1 week 3 days and I also had time to complete all of the arcade section including time trials. Saying this I had played it for many hours during that time. So the average person will take much longer. Though it still is not hard to earn Achievement points for levelling up if you put the time in even if you don’t play the game in the hardest difficulty.
Steering Wheel Well this game works very well with the official 360 wireless steering wheel. It feels much more natural that what the PGR3 force feedback was like. I played with the wheel for the first 20 hours of playing the game and really enjoyed it. The only advantage of the wheel is that your steering tends to be much smoother and precise. It obviously feels more realistic but controller is perfectly fine for playing the game if you don't have one.
Limited Collectors Edition
The limited collectors edition caused some outrage in the US as it wasn’t announced for that region, but is it really worth it? Well basically that is your preference. For £10 more you get different packaging, a 156 Page book and three cars which you can only get with this edition.
The book contains info about how the game was made and their vision for the Forza Motorsport games, about each car manufacturer, tracks, racing school (helps you learn how to drive the perfect line).
The 3 Bonus Cars are 2003 Ferrari Challenge Stradale*
2006 Saleen S281E*
2006 Subaru Impreza S204*
*Please note you must be connected to Xbox Live to download these cars, the box contains a card you redeem them from xbox live. If you don’t have an internet connection you can’t get these.
Over all they are nice to have but if you don’t get this addition there isn’t much your missing out on.
Final thought:
I you like racing games and you have an xbox 360 then this game is a must buy
My tips for playing the game.
1. Don't got buy loads of cars. Don't got buy loads of cars just because you like them, else you could run out of credits when you need them. This has never happened to me in racing games like this but I know people do that. why bother when you are given plenty of cars for playing the game. I say only purchase them when you really need them: If you can't enter without buying a car (although if there are other races try them, you might unlock a car that will work in the previous race and save your self credits). Or if you are filthy rich and really like the car but still watch out if you haven't got near the end of the career as you have to think about car AND the cost of upgrades.
2. Spend time painting up one good design. Spend time painting up one good design. Then sell cheap cars from your own region with your design on it. It's like printing money and you'll get a achievement after a while for doing this.
3. "Concentration is Key"
This is really the most important thing I can say when racing. It is so easy to be leading a race for ages and loose focus for a second, most of the time causing you vital damage and race position.
4. Dont cut corners
Unlike other racing games, cutting corners doesn't pay. Even on concrete your cars will slow down, get caught in the sand or grass as it's like driving in syrup. You'll also get a time penalty for it, so if your doing a time trial stay on the track or your time will be much longer. Saying all this though, there are a few places that is worth cutting (if your just racing and not caring about lap times). Try finding them they are very useful. 5. Brakes are more important than your accelerator
Believe it or not, braking is more important (especially with no ABS). At all times remember your braking points. Obviously this will change from car to car but once you work out where they are keep it in your mind. If you don't brake enough, you will be well off of the racing line or even worse smashed up against a wall. Nearly all your mistakes will usually be down to braking, just remember you have to be slow to be fast.