Forza 2

I really enjoy this game, but I've always had a soft spot for sim racers. Haven't played it online at all.

The best thing I did was switch up the controls to put the downshift and break on the L's and the accelerator/upshift on the R's. I was really struggling with manual before I switched things up.

moving those buttons is a great idea, but i have already gotten used to the dumb manual controls in this game. too late for me, i guess!

it is a lot of fun though. for a long while i was trying to get rido f my copy, but thne i watched a bunch of otp gear and started playing the game and enjoyed it.

I just enjoy how the focus of the game is on being precise and consistent (which I guess is kind of the same in all racing sims). It makes for a good change of pace from the bulk of most other games I've been playing. And just the graphics, the sky and the lighting on some of the races, is really nice - particularly on the sunset / autumn type tracks.

Since I haven't unlocked 'em yet, I'm curious how long the endurance races are at the end...

They are very, very long. You should play through the Arcade mode, unlocking one course at a time. It's a good way to unlock cars for versus mode, if nothing else.

Now that I've hit the mid-20s, the game is definitely getting a lot more challenging. I also accidently (was just going to take a peek, but got sucked in) did my first endurance race last night - 45 laps! That was exhausting.

I didn't realize you could just hire a driver to do the races for you. Where's the fun in that?

I did this one time and I'm glad I did it. It was for the heavyweight cars, on a winding track. I'd tried the race a bunch of times and just found it really frustrating AND boring, so fuck it, you're hired.

Should I give in and buy the wheel? Or is that crazy talk?

do want
http://www.fanatec.de/img/products/rsws_03.jpg
http://www.fanatec.de/img/products/rsws_04.jpg
http://www.fanatec.de/img/products/rsws_05.jpg

link?

only $300
http://www.fanatec.de/html/index.php?id=210

loving this shit again, since i got my big tv. so beautiful!!

i highly recommend getting a tuning guide. i don't know dick about cars and there's a lot of stuff to fiddle with

http://www.britishgamers.co.uk/forza2setup.html

the one by "kaedo" on this page has done me right

You think this looks good - just wait till Forza 3 (next month)!

yeah, that would be nice. I have the "official" 360 wheel but it's tough to find a place to set it up where it's comfortable to use and where I can see the tv at the same time.

apparently, the tip is to hold off buying a wheel for a wee bit yet as there's going to be a forza-related wheel announcement soon from MS; just in case you're still in the market jeff

Not exactly - I'm sure I ordered the ms wheel ten seconds after my question mark post above, almost two years ago, but if they do come out with an improved wheel that feels more solid and has a proper gear shift, I would probably double dip.

that's just my developer friend's tip, he was being hush hush wink wink about it but the implication was a new improved MS wheel to coincide w/forza

the current model is relatively cheap now; I'm considering picking one up myself

my dream is to buy a F355 Racing cabinet and do up all the innards so that I can play whatever racing game I want with it

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb308/Phantom_Mark/Image426.jpg

oh yeah that'd work too

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1048/1000059n.jpg

hmmmm

hmm what?

this is kind of a turn off:

However, it's unfortunate that car detail goes down a notch when you decide to use the cockpit view of Forza 3. While I trust Turn 10's judgment when rendering the inside of a Ferrari California, as I've never even been within 500 feet of one, it still looks far less detailed in comparison to the outside of the car. I also wasn't a fan of the lack of a shifting animation in the game. You would think Forza would have incorporated this animation with how true to life they insist on being in every other facet of the racing experience. It also seems like it wouldn't be much of a challenge since a lot of race cars these days use paddle shifters for quicker response shifting. But in Forza Motorsport 3 you're driver somehow telepathically tells the car to shift while keeping his hands at 2 and 10 without a finger twitch in sight.

o i c there is a demo out! well then

yeah, sorry, the demo's out and I'm not sure what to make of it

I'm going to be all jeff-on-the-fifa-thread here but it feels and looks the same to me, the untrained eye : /

Hopefully my TV will be fixed today and I'll be able to try out the demo. It certainly looked a lot better than 2 in screenshots (though I liked the way 2 looked too). There's also a lot more tracks and content added to the game, I think...

it still looks pretty jaggy on my TV and the detail on the cockpit view is gross

it does feel nice and fast tho, but I can't compare it to FM2 cos I never unlocked any really fast cars in that

probably feels a ton better w/a force feedback wheel

I really liked the overall presentation of the demo, but yeah, the game itself wasn't too different.

Very similar to how I felt about Gran Turismo 4, actually.

really don't understand why racing games invest so much uh libidinal energy in graphicalist one-upmanship. who gives a fuck? they all have crappy AI, they all have lame repetitive race types (though forza is the best at fixing that) and/or ridiculous boring ones (ditto). if a game finally came out that had something interesting, challenging, and FUN to do with EVERY CAR IN THE GAME, i'd play it forever and wouldn't give a rat's if it looked like GT2

rewind, guys! holy shit!

how are you saying this is not different, this rewind business is an order of magnitude different than any other driving sim ever

Er, except Grid, where it's nicked from.

wasn't it in the very old Indy 500 game too?

real men don't rewind

Er, except Grid, where it's nicked from.

― JimD, Saturday, September 26, 2009 3:08 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

ah.

Finally got to try Forza 3 out and even after reading the comments I still wasn't quite prepared for just how average (at best) the graphics would be. In particular, in a post Need for Speed: Shift world, the pathetic cockpit view here made me want to puke. It's time for Xbox720!

However, I do feel like the overall presentation, especially the menu design seems much improved, though it still feels like there are too many layers of menus you have to pass through just to get to a race.

Its been a while since I played much Forza 2, but the racing did feel slightly better, like there's now more of a sense of speed - though that could have been partially a result of the demo track, which is very short, narrow and curvy.

I didn't like how every time you made a slight error, the "press back to rewind time" comes up - hopefully that can be toggled off in the final game. I liked the leaderboards that say what percent you are in - I wish the friend's leaderboard could be integrated in race though (Geometry Wars 2 style) and you didn't have to specifically go look at it - would make time trials more addicting.

Never played a Forza before, but I didn't think these visuals were average, looks fairly gorgeou to me. The percentage thing is pretty lolsome when you're as shit as I am - "You are in the top 100%!".

Yeah, average might be a bit harsh, but the in-game racing graphics are definitely a step below NFS:S, Dirt2, GT5:P and even PGR 4 which is at least a few years old now :(

I just finished beating everbody's time & scores on my friend's leaderboard :)

Goole - are you using a wheel or pad? You have some good times.

Very much looking forward to the full game now.

do u mean for 2 or the 3 demo? pad for both anyway.

i haven't played the 3 demo but once, but i was impressed! i'm still only halfway thru 2 but i've been going hard on it in anticipation -- if anything it'll keep me from buying 3 until it's been out for a while and i can get it used ^_^

i have found that the suggested brake spots are a little bit late to get good exit speeds, and on shallow turns are needlessly heavy. also you can over-rev every single car if you drive manual. the only trouble is the AI's robot precision is really hard to match at high speeds. i find myself able to do really really well at D, C, B class but am hopeless crap at high speeds w/o a car that's way better than the field

3. I guess I'll start a new thread. May go back and play some 2 tonight for comparisons sake.

Goole - I'm still only about halfway through 2 too. Going back to it, it's amazing how much content is in the game. I've played a ton, but there's still so much to do. I do feel like it gets bogged down a bit once you hit the middle though. The races just get so long & the realism makes it that much tougher over the long haul. I was doing some manufacturer races tonight at seven laps... In theory I like them, because for once all the cars are even, but if you don't come off the line in the lead, it seems almost impossible to gain even a spot. It makes those seven laps a lot longer when you're staring at the back of the same car, unable to gain any ground for the entire race. If you are in the lead, it's terrifying, because you know if you make just a little mistake, you're fucked.

I want to keep playing 2 more, but I definitely won't be able to hold off on 3. The upgrades do feel significant after playing both side by side. Mainly it's the little things though - like the improved menus & car models. I also feel like at least in the demo for 3, the cars seem a little more grippy. In 2 I still have a problem, feeling like it's too easy to over-steer and lose the grip on the road.

you can change the rims on your car and it doesn't count as an "upgrade" for the purposes of the mfgr stock races. there's a faq out there on which models drop the most weight -- but any improvement will bump the rating of your car a little bit which will put you in the 1 or 2 spot on the line. tip!

Pro tip - thanks!

god what is the point of a race more than 3-4 laps long