Forza Motorsport 2 was really the pinnacle of racing sims so far on the Xbox 360. The depth of tuning could be a plus or minus depending on your understanding of the concepts of tuning.Graphics: While a few 'jaggies' are present on most cars, the game runs at 60FPS for a fluid racing experience. The speed is true and doesnt feel artificial. The myriad of cars and their accuracy of the design is truely outstanding. The game comes with 310 cars and more are available for download via Xbox Live. There are a modest number of tracks, all of which are very accurate. The pains that Turn10 went to ensure that they represented every slope, dip and rumble strip deserved well earned praise. I know a person that has raced on Silverstone in real life and when he saw the track in game, he was amazed at how accurate it was. While there is no weather in the game, the tracks themselves are brilliant with color. The cloned bystanders all doing the same fist pump in unison are the only real reminder that you are in a video game.
Controls: The controls feel nice and the amount of ways you can customize the controller is nice. For example, you can use the right analog stick to shift. By flicking the stick up and down, you can shift gears. The triggers are easiest for me to control the gas and brake. Forza Motorsport 2 was the first game to truely use the force feedback with the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. It was supported with PGR3, but just rattling when you went off the road cannot substitute the level of feedback you receive in FM2. As you take corners, you feel the loss of traction if you are going too fast and feel it firm back up when you slow down and gain traction. The Racing Wheel truely adds a depth of control that had been missed on the 360. My only complaint about the wheel itself is that the default settings on the wheel are a bit too forceful. The full 100% feedback and vibration almost wrench the car further out of control and make it difficult to regain control. When I toned these settings down, I was pleased with feeling the bumps and traction loss and not having the wheel jerk violently out of grip when trying to gain control. The gas and brake are pretty good, but a friend suggested that I cut up a spongy stress ball and put some of the material in between the base and the pedals. This really added some realism as it takes more to push the brake and gas to 100%. This spongy feeling allow better control especially when coming into and exiting turns. Some problems have been reported with the wheel (the 'X' button or start button activating out of nowhere, and occasional stalls where the feedback gets confused and give improper feedback), but these issues are minor and do not happen enough to warrant any concern.
Lasting Appeal: With the amount of cars and optional downloadable content, the sky is the limit. The career mode is a good instructional path to the amount of online fun you can have. It allows you to start small and really feel what it is like in the lower class cars. Immediately going to the R series cars would dimish the path to get there by racing a Honda Civic or a VW Golf. After a few series races, you can earn enough money to purchase something a little more beefy. With the range of cars from classic American muscle cars to the European supercars to the Japanese Tuners, all of the cars are a joy to drive and have their own unique behavior and engine sounds. The cars truely do not feel like modified clones, but a real nod to why these great machines were included in the game. With only 8 people in multiplayer, its a little weak on real series racing like the American LeMans and other series that include many cars. This game also seems to be very sensitive when pairing up people to race with. Several times there are people that simply cannot connect in the same room. The hinders online communities to launch races until they are sure everyone can be in the same lobby together. The pit options are very thin and some more thought could have been given to standardizing the way multiple cars pit together. Cars pitting at the same time do not exit exactly as they came in which could be chalked up to better pit crews (not likely), but I think the developers didnt envision the way that this game would be used in series play. Loosing your position in pit row as the other car 'ghosts' through yours and peels away when you had a 1-3 second advantage on them going in makes it frustrating. Also aero damage cannot be repaired, so they can change 4 tires in 6 seconds, but that front wing cannot be touched with a stitch of duct tape. Overall the ability to use this game in series play makes this one of the best in the 'Lasting Appeal' category in my opinion, but the lack of pit options and ability to set a grid order, make me long for the next version of Forza Motorsport where I would hope they would address these concerns. Other than that, this is a great one to have in your game collection for some realistic racing fun. You can now pick up this game for $20 now that it has gone Platinum.
The Good +
+ Lots of cool cars and very accurate tracks
+ Deep career play
+ Lots of downloadable content
The Bad -
- Sensitive connection issues during multiplay
- Limited lobby options (grid order, number of laps, only 8 person MP)
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