Vitals
Genre
Racing
System
Xbox 360
Release Date
Q0 0000
The Lewis Hamilton of racing games. For the longest time the genre of driving simulator was a one-horse race. Mostly because the other horses were lame and needed to be shot, this meant that one horse kept winning over and over again. Gran Turismo was its name and it ruled without equal for some time. Then Forza Motorsport came along and things changed. Now there was a fight on, as this young upstart managed to do plenty of things that GT never got right. To many it was a GT beater but to me, it was just its equal so when Forza 2 came out I was excited to see what they’d managed to do to the original game to make it better.Forza Motorsport 2 has no story, I mean you could make one up as you went along but to be fair if you’re after story this is the wrong game for you. This is the game you want to play if you want to drive a lot of cars very fast.GraphicsLooks wise it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand the cars are stunning to look at and the animation as they move is wonderful. Every effort has been made to make the cars look as real as possible and it has paid off. The courses are less impressive and in many cases are quite plain. The spectators all gather en-masse and don’t look exactly excited to be there. The courses all look accurate but they’re missing some style but that doesn’t exactly detract hugely from the way the game plays.Some of the car paint jobs are amazing to look at; you can create absolute works of art and then sell them at an online auction. Some of the cars there must have taken hours of painstaking work but they look worth it. The 300 car is a particular favourite although I would like the person who just keeps drawing Eminem on lots of cars to stop. The painting aspect of this game comes with a ton of options and you will spend a long time taking care of your own little piece of art.The damage modelling is pretty nice but it’s not Burnout so don’t expect spectacular flips of the car or wheels flying off in all directions. The one thing that I will say though is that the sensation of speed is very impressive and the game goes smoothly at 60fps.
It's like car porn or something.GameplayForza 2 has more in common with RPG’s then most other genres, which on the base of it sounds strange but it works very well. As you race you gain money, eventually going up a level and giving you discounts on upgrades and unlocking new races. If you use a certain car a number of times that car will also go up in level giving more discounts. As far as a system for getting you through a racing game goes it works like a dream and you’re always trying to get to that next level to see what free car you might get or what races you will be allowed to compete in.The other aspect of the game that you’ll soon realise is the ‘gotta have em all’ quality towards the cars. You’re rewarded (with achievements) by having all the cars from certain countries and most of the cars look and handle differently enough that you’ll want to get as many as possible. On top of that you get a new car for winning every set of races. After only a few hours of play I had about 20 cars in the garage all a variety of types and looks. It makes you feel like you’re always achieving something when you look at your garage and see a mountain of cars. The one problem I found is that in about 6 hours of play I brought 2 cars. My original one and a Lotus Exige (because why the hell not) but I didn’t even need to buy that. There’s no real need to buy any cars as you get so many for free, you’ll want to buy them because they look cool but you don’t need them. Selling your winnings only gains you a tiny amount of credits so before long you will literally have a lot of cars that you will never drive.The thing is that whilst you start with a fairly crappy car with a few wins you can upgrade it to become a fearsome beast. Just be careful when upgrading because if you give your car too much power you won’t be able to use it in certain races. That means you can’t just upgrade one car to the heavens and thrash everything else in sight, a la GT (thank you Mitsubishi GTO). The way you can tell how powerful your car is, is also very simple. The cars start at ‘D’ class and go up through C, B, A and S until you get to ‘U’ and the higher the number next and letter the more powerful the car. Easy. There are 12 environments and 45 tracks meaning there’s more than enough to keep anyone busy and most of them are excellent to drive around. The superb handling of the cars also means that no two feel alike so taking a Honda Civic around the track is very different to a Vanquish. Another truly inspired idea is the difficulty selection. You can make the game as hard or easy as you like by changing the competence of the other drivers or adding and removing various aspects of help such as seeing the racing and braking line or putting on ABS. The harder you make it the more money you make.
You can pick a hundred colours and you go with Orange. Why would you do that?SoundThe racing sounds are excellent and really help to make the experience that more impressive. The cars engines’ all sound different and hearing your opponents engine rev right behind yours after a hard race always gets the blood pumping. Even the music on the menu is pretty cool although it is a shame you can’t have it on when driving around.Lasting AppealForever. Seriously you could play this for months on end and that’s just the single player. Tweaking cars and customising them will take you an age. Then you’ve got the arcade mode with time trials and normal races where you can unlock even more stuff and you’ve got one huge game on your hands. On top of this there’s the multiplayer and online gaming all of which is excellent, although a few more types of race (like PRG3 has) would have been nice.
The attention to detail is amazing.Fun FactorThe only problem this game has is this; it’s not massively fun in single player mode. Don’t get me wrong it is excellent and you will love playing it but everything is very clinical. As a piece of technical achievement this is an amazing thing but you’d never play it for a bit of a laugh. You play it to get better and better. Get some friends together though and it’s as fun as any game can be.
Graphics
8.8
The cars are amazing to look at but everything else is just good.
Gameplay
9.8
Best simulation driving game ever. The car handling alone is a work of genius.
Sound
8.7
Great engine sounds but why can’t you put music on when driving?
Lasting Appeal
10.0
Single player months. Online. Forever.
Fun Factor
8.5
Very clinical but still something you’ll come back to again and again.
Overall
9.6 [ Amazing ]
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