Forza Motorsport 2 - A real next-gen gem!
Is it perfect? No. Is it the best racer to date? No. Are there things it can improve upon? Hell yeah. But with all of that said, it sure is fun to play and there is so much content that I can see enjoying it for a long time.
So let’s get right to it and discuss FM2! Sound – I rarely ever harp on sound in a game when it comes to music, but FM2 really falls short in this department when navigating menus or doing some of the non-racing activities. Within about 30 minutes of my exposure to the game I was playing customized race “tracks” from my I-Pod and had the in-game music turned all the way down. The sound effects for the most part are pretty good, although I could never really honestly tell you the difference between a Chevy Cobalt and an Chrysler Crossfire in terms of true engine sound effects, sure they are different, but I’ll have to take Turn10’s word on this that most of the car model sounds were recorded with the actual cars. However, as I’m winding around the track, many cars start to sound the same when upgraded with similar parts so that just may be the way it is, but that and some of crash effects do get a little annoying which leads me to just turning it all down. I know, I know, it’s a racing game so enjoy the screaming engines and stop crashing and all would be fine… but for some reason it annoys me more than other racing games and I can’t put my finger on it.
Graphics – Well this is easy… FM2 is a GOOD looking game. The car models are great, the cars in motion are great, the environments are pretty... well… pretty, and the frame rate performance is top notch. There are little annoyances here and there that could have used a little more development love, like some track details and shading, some environment objects and physics (cones or stiff bumpers falling off), the supposed damage modeling of crashes in general are pretty mundane. But I understand that some of that stuff may have been sacrificed in order for the game to run so smoothly and have other excellent physics with the cars themselves. So since I’m not reviewing a Burnout game, I’ll shut up about the lack of damage modeling. An aside question for everyone - seriously, why do sports spectator type games, any of them, still bother putting crowds in the stands or having a gallery? I know they are going for a level of realism and authenticity, but until the technology even goes beyond the next-next-gen, I think we would be happy with just crowd noises. I’d rather hear the crowd cheer for me and not see anyone in the stands, than hear the crowd go wild and see cookie-cutter, low quality, blurred, sometimes motionless flagpoles. That goes for all games, but in FM2 in particular, if eliminating the sparse, stiff, blurred crowd would allow the developers to squeeze a little more into the damage modeling of the cars, then I would say, “Se la vie!” to spectators.
Gameplay – There is a lot of great racing and a sense of accomplishment to this game. I can’t really think of any constructive criticism or 2 cents worth to add in this department because the whole host of race types, modes, car performance/handling physics and customization all play out in excellent fashion in FM2. Some of the aspects of the menu system are a little annoying because it takes too many clicks or d-pad movements to get things in motion, but that hardly detracts from the racing experience. For example, after I have completed a particular series and have won the gold (or any) cup, I like to try a couple other eligible cars in that series to get a feel for how they perform maybe add some minor upgrades to them and such. But one of the options I loved was the fact that if I’m busy with something else, I can choose a race and hire a driver to do all the thinking for me to win a little extra money while I go eat perhaps. This is great, but also takes 8 button presses and 4 menu movements to set up. Seriously, if the feature is there for convenience and allowing me to make some extra money and be lazy, then set it up for the whole series, or multiple races, or at least with that track cached in memory so I don’t have to reload everything again (i.e. “Would you like your hired driver to race XYZ again?” – A – Yes, B – No thanks, I’ll earn it now!). I know the developers didn’t want to make it so easy that someone could set it up at 10pm and run it for 12 hours making $280k in their sleep, but I also think the set up process could be streamlined or a little more flexible, if not, then just eliminate the hired driver game mechanic all together. I like that the game has so many options, thus requires a decent amount of menu navigating but please make it a little less cumbersome. Why do I have to back almost all the way out to get in a different car when I want to sell the current one or put it up for auction? Just give me the option that I’m trying to sell my current car (yes) and if I’m sure I want to sell it, pick another one to get in. I found many of the menus frustrating when I was jumping between multiplayer, selling stuff or trying to customize things.
Fun Factor – This is another area where there are so many great things that I’d probably forget to mention them all. Bottom line is this game is FUN. Some would argue that it leans more towards the car enthusiast simulation racing side, but that just is not the case. There are a while host of options and settings where you can enjoy this as a quick arcade racer, or you can get totally immersed in the depth of the career mode on difficult settings and make it a true sim. Factor in all the multiplayer options and the HUGE amount of customizations both with upgrades and visuals (paint and vinyl groups) and you can have hours of fun and not even realize how much you’ve been playing. Just last night I thought I’d throw in the game for 30 minutes just to kill some time before going to bed and instead I put $40k worth of upgrades into a crappy hatchback and then added my own custom (some may argue - ugly) paint and vinyl job and didn’t even realize I was at it for 1.5 hours. I was so caught up in the moment enjoying myself that I didn’t even notice the time passing. Like a good movie, FM2 will please quite a few people.