Forza Motorsport 2

That's a shame; Monday Night PGR was a laugh. But I know what you mean though. If it wasn't for FIFA 07 (shock horror) and PGR (possibly Table Tennis as well) then I'd have followed suit.

Saying that, I haven't touched the PSP for six months and I've still got that; I know I wouldn't get the £300 I paid for it so I'm keeping it as a matter of principle :mryellow:
 
lol @ JB. I cant play PGR3 anymore as my disc has an ever grow crack appearing from the Center of it and my 360 obviously hates reading this disc!

DJ
 
ClassicD said:
The whole technicality issue surrounding framerate annoys me.
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You wanna be a developer and sit and listen to people saying completely wrong things about the subject... THAT is annoying.

There's this obsession over something that people don't seem to understand... just post something like "The game runs at 30fps but the controls and physics run at 60fps" about a game and it causes all sorts of fun...

(note: that statement is not made in respect to Forza, it is just a general statement designed to highlight the confusion and misconception surrounding the subject)
 
I dunno what the confusion is about, I'd have thought you see twice as many frames per second @ 60 than @ 30, and thus it's a 'smoother' experience, visually at least (I know PGR3 doesn't run at 60fps but has some sort of compensatory system with regards to control).
 
The Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report
January 26, 2007 -- Volume 31

By: Che Chou

Forza Motorsport 2 on Sale May 2007!

Hello and welcome back to another Turn 10 Pitpass Report, a weekly Friday update on the development of Xbox 360's premier racing simulator, Forza Motorsport 2. If this is your first visit to FM.net or the weekly updates, feel free to peruse our back catalog here. Those who have been following my ramblings since we announced the game at E3 2006 will notice that today's Pitpass Report comes much earlier in the day than it usually does. So what's the occasion? Well, ever since we missed our holiday 2006 release date sometime last November, we've been gunshy about committing to another date until we were absolute sure. The schedule had to be one such that it was realistic from a production point of view, as well as one that allows us to give FM2 the polish it needs and that the fans deserve.

This morning, we teamed up with the PR team at Xbox 360 to send out an email blast to our friends in the press and auto community alerting them to the fact that we've officially fired-up our marketing engines and put the promotional pedal to the proverbial metal. The first important detail in the email is something you probably noticed already -- Forza Motorsport 2 will be on North American store shelves May 2007. Wait, so just May 2007? No exact release date? Not if we could help it. Our schedule right now has us hitting Xbox certification around the middle of April and going gold soon aftewards. We want them to put the game on shelves as soon and fast as they can humanly muster. So optimistic estimates have us at retail in the first half of May -- obviously the sooner the better and that's our goal.

This Week At Turn 10

In the meantime, we're hoping to shorten the wait between now and May with a rolling schedule of new FM2 info, announcements, assets, and videos. There's so much stuff we haven't really touched on with the game; I'm not only talking about major features but a ton of little details that really set FM2 apart from every other racing game out there -- arcade, sim, or otherwise.

As well, I realize that this week may have seemed particularly dark for some of you when we announced that we had to scale back on the total number of racing environments in the game. There were a lot of questions and a discussion between the community and Turn 10 ensued on our forums. In the end, we realize that lack of information about the game was driving the majority of our community insane -- so okay -- in the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act, let me present to you the list of...



Forza Motorsport 2 Tracks

* Mugello Autodromo Internazionale
* Suzuka Circuit
* Sebring International Raceway
* Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
* Tsukuba Circuit
* Road Atlanta
* Silverstone Circuit
* Nürburgring Nordschleife
* Maple Valley Raceway
* Sunset Peninsula Infield
* New York Circuit
* Test Track

I asked Turn 10's game designers to pick their favorite new track in FM2 and tell me why in 200 words or less. Here then, are their responses...

* Chris "Master of Cars" Vanover on Mugello: "After watching the wealth of F1 Mugello footage available and then finally getting some seat time in-game with our cars, I've found myself thinking about taking a trip to Italy for the real thing. Combined with an elevation that varies 135 feet from top to bottom, the track has a great flow to it, and with 15 corners, every completed lap dares you to find even one place to go just a little faster. Like anywhere else, however, consistency is key -- miss a brake zone or start checking out the amazing vista from the top of the hill and you'll wind up far off track in one of the numerous, wide gravel traps. Mugello will definitely take time to master."

* Rhett "Career Overlord" Mathis on Suzuka: "Suzuka is my favorite new track. It has a lot of personality, plenty of variety, and is great for racing because it features numerous passing opportunities. I like the way it dares you to go deeply into turn 1 before getting on the brakes to control the car for turn 2. The entire east section is a blast in any car -- the esses being fairly easy to drive, but tricky to really perfect. In some way, Suzuka feels to me like it has two personalities due to the high-speed nature of the west section. You can reach some crazy speeds on the back stretch, and there’s a real test of the kinds of stones you have coming through the 130R before crushing the brakes to safely navigate the triangle."

* Dan "Forza Visionary" Greenawalt on Sebring: "I’m really excited about Sebring International Raceway. I’ve been following the world famous 12 Hours of Sebring event for years. Its one of the most physically punishing courses in the world -- the attrition list at the end of the annual endurance race is pure madness. Sebring features several grades of sun baked asphalt as well as lots of ill-fitting concrete slabs loosely sealed together. It’s built on an old airstrip and nothing really matches up, so cars are always skipping and jumping all over the place. All those different seams and surface types really let us show off our physics engine, which is something I’m really excited about. The final corner, a long sweeper over several concrete slabs, is pure evil. Though Sebring doesn’t have a lot of elevation change, its one of the roughest, craziest, nastiest tracks out there. Its truly one of the premier sportscar race courses in the United States."

As you can see, 8 of these 12 tracks (or environments as we refer to them) are real-world locales -- and as such, feature all the authentic real-life ribbon configurations of the tracks. Fans of Suzuka Circuit know that the track has 3 ribbons: The full Grand Prix course, the West course (used for MotoGP events), and the East course with the famous esses (and where I hear they held a NASCAR race in the '80s). All told, there are 47 different ribbons in the game across the 12 environments.

Since we've built every track from the ground up (no assets or models were recycled from Forza 1), we've naturally gone in and added a ton of new detail to all the environments. More importantly, the track artists have followed up on a lot of suggestions, as well as corrections from track experts (e.g., track stewards) to make each track more accurate and true-to-life. Hundreds of Gigs of new GPS data (for elevation, dimensions, etc.) and reference materials were collected this time around in the pursuit of realism. Drift fans will be happy to know, for instance, that the drift loop has been added to Road Atlanta -- if nothing else, we do it for the sake of being completist.

A final thought to keep in mind, and it's something I've already mentioned on the forums earlier this week, is that with reams of track reference data for much more than just these 12 environments, our track artists will continue to be working and cranking out content even after our game ships. In other words, expect downloadable content in the form of both tracks and cars in the months following FM2's release. Will it be free? We don't know and can't say for sure right now but whatever it ends up becoming, we at Turn 10 aim to do right by the community. Definitely no horse armor here, folks.

Anyway, we'll be revisiting in-game tracks on and off with lots of behind-the-scenes detail and making-of info as we hurtle towards FM2's release this May.

More FM2's Multiplayer Options

In last week's Pitpass Report, we began looking at some of the server options available to you on Xbox Live when you want to host exhibition races online. As promised, this week we continue exploring the riches of multiplayer.

* Advanced Rules: In this options tab, you set damage type, tire wear and fuel consumption, collisions, spectators' voices, grid order, and the end race timer. It's worth noting that we've upped the ante when it comes to damage and how it affects your car this time around. The "cosmetic" or "limited" damage settings give you a taste of a fender bender, while the "simulation" setting allows you to knock off everything from fenders, bumpers, sideview mirrors, windshields, and in worst case scenarios, entire engine blocks are demolished with one impact. And finally, the end race timer allows you to set a countdown after the first-place winner crosses the finish line.

* Overrides Options: The whole purpose of overrides is to let the host restrict how people race on their server. Options here include the ability to force all players to use manual transmission, force the suggested line to be turned off, force STM, TCS, and ABS to be inactive, as well as force a certain camera view, whether it be hood or behind-the-car. The game also gives you the option to force stock upgrades and tuning for all cars on the track, essentially leveling the playing field for cars of the same make.

* Car Restrictions: The last tab in the multiplayer options menu is all about letting the host get specific about the kind of race he wants to run. The restriction categories here include Car Class (D-R4, "no race cars", or "any"), Performance Index (restrict the room for cars under a specific PI number), Power (restrict the room for cars in a specific horsepower range), Region (North America, Europe, Asia), Make (choose from all 50 of our manufacturers), Model, Year, Curb Weight, Drive Type, and Engine Position. Additionally, as you narrow the scope of your room, a number at the bottom of the screen tells you in real-time how many cars you have in your Arcade and Career garages that qualify for this specific room.

Keep in mind that although this is a lot of options to set every time you want to run a specific race online, you always have the ability to save your server settings. Another nifty thing we've added to multiplayer this time is the ability for you to save replays from your online races. Have a particularly harrowing race with some online buddies? Now you can save the glory of your triumph to your hard drive.

Although this wraps it up for the multiplayer options, do know that this is by no means the end of FM2's Xbox Live and community features. Lots more stuff to talk about as we get ever closer to May 2007.

See you all next week.
 
Seems a low number of tracks, could get repetitive pretty quickly... But it seems like they've put a lot of effort in. Looks good.
 
Im sure they are touting that the game will run at 60FPS. I think it needs to as the original Forza seemed to run too slow and you never really felt you were doing the speeds you were doing. Im looking forward to this yes the lack of tracks is a little bit of a concern but perhaps we might be able to download more off of Live Marketplace?

Dj
 
unfortunately, it seems like its fallen down the PGR3 trap of brightness

sure it still looks great, but its not as realistic as it could be, or even dare I say ir, as GT:HD
 
Might not quite look as good as GT but at least it has realistic physics and Damage!! GT is boring and lifeless compared to Forza in my opinion. GT is a bit like Need For Speed games... has all the cars and handles like Need For Speed but doesnt do much else...

Dj
 
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djdoc360 said:
Might not quite look as good as GT but at least it has realistic physics and Damage!! GT is boring and lifeless compared to Forza in my opinion. GT is a bit like Need For Speed games... has all the cars and handles like Need For Speed but doesnt do much else...

Dj
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Hear, hear
 
matherto said:
yeah, GT:HD looks better, and GT4 has a better car list, so I guess this isn't so appealing
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Whatever...
I'm not going to start an argument about these two games. I used to be a GT fan. In fact, I reckon that apart from PES Gran Turismo has been the only "other" game that got me to spent days in from of the tele. I've completed the four different editions of it. I honestly thought it was "the real car simulator" until I played Forza which IMO left Polyphony's game a quarter mile behind.
If you think this is not so appealing and you like GT that much I'm sure there is already a thread going around in which, by the way, you won't find me bashing the game or trying to sell Forza.

Peace
 
pepe montoto said:
Whatever...
I'm not going to start an argument about these two games. I used to be a GT fan. In fact, I reckon that apart from PES Gran Turismo has been the only "other" game that got me to spent days in from of the tele. I've completed the four different editions of it. I honestly thought it was "the real car simulator" until I played Forza which IMO left Polyphony's game a quarter mile behind.
If you think this is not so appealing and you like GT that much I'm sure there is already a thread going around in which, by the way, you won't find me bashing the game or trying to sell Forza.

Peace
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well fair enough, I guess I'm not being very productive if I enter this thread and bash the game.

BTW, is the original Forza on the backwards compatability list for the 360?
 
Holio said:
It is, it was rubbish at the start, but it has been updated, so hopefully it's sweet now, though I havent tried it.
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It's much better now. I played a few hours last night.

Matherto, if you have a 360, try Forza man. You won't regret it.
Since I'm not a huge fan of the shooting genre I sold most of my 360 games last week (Rainbow 6, Gears, GRAW and COD3). I also got rid off Splinter Cell (nothing new) and TDU (nice graphics, shocking handling). I got sick of FIFA 07 after a month and, despite how badly I wanted to, I couldn't get myself to like PES6 (both gone too). Although I kept Tiger Woods 07, Fight Night 3 and Project Gotham 3, I spend most of the time playing Forza.
I remember that it took more than a year for the PS2 to come up with a good game (IMO) and I guess this is happening once again to me, now on the 360. Forza 2 will mark the beginning gents.
 
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i think it might not look as detailled as GT4 HD, but still more realistic. i hated those highly polished straight from the showroom-looking cars in gt hd. didn't look right on the racetrack.
 
I had Forza but got rid of it because of the state of the emulation. Is it worth buying it again with Forza 2 out shortly?
 
Jack Bauer said:
I had Forza but got rid of it because of the state of the emulation. Is it worth buying it again with Forza 2 out shortly?
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If Forza 2 is in you list then yes. I guess you could probably find a cheap second hand one. It would be good to learn some of the tracks that will definitely be included in the new game.
 
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The backwards compatibility is possible with a memorycard, isnt it? HD not needed surely? Was thinking about getting the xbox version as i saw it for 15euro's and was interested to find out how it plays, forza 2 looks good aswell so could be a nice warm-up to that.
 
tiktiktiktik said:
The backwards compatibility is possible with a memorycard, isnt it? HD not needed surely? Was thinking about getting the xbox version as i saw it for 15euro's and was interested to find out how it plays, forza 2 looks good aswell so could be a nice warm-up to that.
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I'd be more than happy to test it for you but unfortunately I don't have a memory card. I'm pretty sure you do need a hard drive to play xbox games though. Sorry man.
 
Matherto my advice is to play Forza 1. You will then see how flat and 1 dimensional Gran Turismo is and always has been.... Ok Forza 2's graphics arent as mindblowing as GT:HD and I will give you that one, but in terms of gameplay I think Forza 2 will win the day due to the physics/handling of cars and of course Damage... I see GT:HD or GT5 or whatever the heck it is (im so confused about GT) as a Car Catalogue... have a nice look at this huge selection of cars from tonnes of manufacturers and see what they will look like on the track..... Nothing more than that.

Dj
 
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