The Big Forza 2 Thread *

[Rys]

for wheel owners,


how good is the wheel???

It's sweet with the wheel, much nicer than playing with a pad. Contrast that to PGR3 which I can't stand to wheel with, and this is the car game on the 360 that'll see the most wheel time with me so far, without a doubt.

Graphics in the demo are a little disappointing (I play upscaled to 1080p by the Xbox, and car texture quality seems low, there's a noticeable lack of filtering and jaggies), but I like the basic game mechanics enough and the car control to want to spend a lot of time with it.

As for the constant 60fps, I didn't think I'd care too much but it's really nice.

Looking forward to it, pre-ordered the collector's edition eons ago!

 

[expletive]

Got mine of EBAY for $99 shipped! Comes with a copy of PGR3 that should net me $15-20 as well.

Now if only the postman would hurry up

New or used?

 

[Tap In]

Got mine of EBAY for $99 shipped! Comes with a copy of PGR3 that should net me $15-20 as well.

Now if only the postman would hurry up

wow good deal

 

[woundingchaney]

Gameplay is very well done and a good recreation of the feel of driving. Graphics are very underwhelming, I was anything but impressed by the visual presentation. Bland and blank backgrounds, poor road side character, very poor building detail, lighting doesnt stand out as anything impressive and car builds arent overly impressive either (jagged and lacking refinement) definetely not the visuals I would have expected out of the series.

 

[scooby_dooby]

New or used?

Apparently 'barely used', we shall see.

The guy has about 8 for sale at any given time:
http://search.ebay.ca/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQ...ageNameZMERCQ5fVICQ5fRCRXQ5fPr4Q5fPcNQ5fQ5fSI

 

[mrcorbo]

I'm glad to finally get a hands-on with this game. The graphics are pretty much what the people who have been following this game were expecting. Not stunning. You don't really have to go out of your way to find graphical flaws. Fortunately, one of the more noticeable blemishes is the behind-the-car view during gameplay (it's not that bad during replays), which I don't use and recommend you don't either. Not only does playing with the Hood or Bumper cam make it much easier for my real driving reflexes to take over, it also improves the view considerably. The sense of speed improves as well.

2nd point I'd like to cover is that this game is challenging for me as a non-hardcore racer. I turned off most of the assists (left on ABS since the real cars actually have it so it doesn't feel cheap to me to leave it on). I started with a C class car and was able to win a race with it and have pretty good control. Then I tried A class....ouch. Couldn't keep the cars on the track. I was a mess. I'm sure I will improve, but for those expecting to just pick this up and be able to handle the most powerful cars , you may have trouble. The actual game will fortunately allow for a much smoother progression of difficulty than this demo does so you can acquire and engineer more and more powerful and challenging cars as your own skills improve.

FF with the MS wheel is very well done and is a night and day difference with the bolted-on FF of PGR 3. Unfortunately, I can't blame my sloppy driving on the controls. Though to be fair to myself I played Forza 1 exclusively with a gamepad since the XBOX never had a FF wheel. I was so spoiled by my CMR2 experience that I refused to race another game with a wheel that didn't support it. It's been a looooooong wait.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the AI. Much improved from FM1. Watching replays makes this very apparent. No where is this more telling when you can see the cars actually go out of their way NOT to hit you. Surprising how many racers have yet to figure out how to do this.

And the mountain of available telemetry data when you are watching your replay gives an intriguing glimpse of the complexity beneath the surface of this sim. Good stuff!

 

[nintenho]

am I the only one that didn't notice any vibration in the demo?

 

[RobertR1]

am I the only one that didn't notice any vibration in the demo?

There's plenty of rumble in the controller. Weird!

 

[nintenho]

I think I turned it off or the battery's running out.

 

[Tap In]

....
And the mountain of available telemetry data when you are watching your replay gives an intriguing glimpse of the complexity beneath the surface of this sim. Good stuff!

available during game play as well

 

[Tap In]

damn

the more I play this demo the more I appreciate this game. The racing is perfect.

The graphics look better too now that my initial looking for the wow has worn off. there are fine details in the wheels and the lighting and such that really come to life at night in a properly (dim) lit room with a calibrated set.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I
2nd point I'd like to cover is that this game is challenging for me as a non-hardcore racer. I turned off most of the assists (left on ABS since the real cars actually have it so it doesn't feel cheap to me to leave it on).

Um, real life cars have traction and stability management control systems as well as ABS.

I found the demo a bit to easy personally.

 

[Arwin]

Um, real life cars have traction and stability management control systems as well as ABS.

I found the demo a bit to easy personally.

Normally, when a game has the option to enable or disable stuff like ABS and traction control, there are two levels at which this can work.

First are in the form of gameplay modifying user assits. These work irrespective of the car's abilities and specifications.

Second are in the form of options that cars themselves have. A lot of standard cars have ABS which you cannot disable, for instance. The game should leave this intact irrespective of whether or not you disable ABS as a user assist.

I don't know what the situation is regarding Forza of course, but just pointing out the difference.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I don't know what the situation is regarding Forza of course, but just pointing out the difference.

In Forza's situation, every car has the same ABS, Traction and Stability control systems. You can choose to turn it on or off, it has nothing to do with what the car might have of traction\stability\abs to begin with.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Normally, when a game has the option to enable or disable stuff like ABS and traction control, there are two levels at which this can work.

First are in the form of gameplay modifying user assits. These work irrespective of the car's abilities and specifications.

Second are in the form of options that cars themselves have. A lot of standard cars have ABS which you cannot disable, for instance. The game should leave this intact irrespective of whether or not you disable ABS as a user assist.

I don't know what the situation is regarding Forza of course, but just pointing out the difference.

Well, in the spirit of Forza, you can mod your car essentially top to bottom. So, it's not much if a reach to say that ABS could br disabled through a small modification, which is possible on most cars I think.

No-ABS is much improved in F2, but still alot harder. You have basically 50% trigger until the wheel locks up, but if you can brake smoothly it does feel quite rewarding. Can't wait to try it with the wheel/pedals.

 

[TheChefO]

Normally, when a game has the option to enable or disable stuff like ABS and traction control, there are two levels at which this can work.

First are in the form of gameplay modifying user assits. These work irrespective of the car's abilities and specifications.

Second are in the form of options that cars themselves have. A lot of standard cars have ABS which you cannot disable, for instance. The game should leave this intact irrespective of whether or not you disable ABS as a user assist.

I don't know what the situation is regarding Forza of course, but just pointing out the difference.

I haven't played the demo yet but in some other racing games the "abs" would actually stand for "automatic braking system". As in, the game would start to brake for you approaching turns. Not sure if forza2 is enabling this or true abs emulation. As for the other assists, I have no idea as I turn off assists in racing games.

Agreed though that fixed functions of the vehicles the game is emulating should remain intact. Some of these vehicle functions could be turned on or off though. ABS isn't one of them though AFAIK.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I haven't played the demo yet but in some other racing games the "abs" would actually stand for "automatic braking system". As in, the game would start to brake for you approaching turns. Not sure if forza2 is enabling this or true abs emulation. As for the other assists, I have no idea as I turn off assists in racing games.
.

Abs is forza 1 and in forza 2 is true ABS. Without it, you get a wheel lock when you brake.

 

[TheChefO]

Abs is forza 1 and in forza 2 is true ABS. Without it, you get a wheel lock when you brake.

cool.

So no auto-braking then?

 

[Cheezdoodles]

cool.

So no auto-braking then?

Of course not

 

[scooby_dooby]

cool.

So no auto-braking then?

No auto-breaking, but it does have a 'brake line' you can toggle on, which is a dynamic line that appears on the road, indicating when you should brake. As your speed changes, the line will change from red, to yellow, to green, red means "Slam the breaks on NOW!", yellow is medium, and green usually means you're not going fast enough.

It's a great tool for beginners.