Forza Motorsports, Intro-Trailer Video !!!!!

[bmagni]

Originally Posted by Vansquish Well maybe that's the problem I have...I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism.

Realistic driving i bet, and looks too, but theyre not as important as the "driving simulation" capabilities of the game... then u wouldnt have liked GT and GT2.
And i look for the same, realism is very important for me and it also means fun to me, so i think also to u, so in the end ur looking for fun too... But what fun is it to drive realisticly 690 cars i dont care about, if in forza i can drive with the same amount of reality (for what ive read) 3 ultra cool cars. Thats the difference to me.

[bmagni]

More info
The Gameplay Modes

The modes look fairly straightforward at this time for Forza and are poised to satisfy gamer’s motorsports addictions both online and offline. It’s easy to see from merely navigating through the various gameplay modes that Forza Motorsport is a title for nearly any person into cars and car racing of nearly any type. That’s a huge undertaking by Microsoft Game Studios, but one that the large majority of car fanatics will deeply appreciate.

The Arcade Mode is where we have been spending much of our time in the game mainly because it’s the most stable area of this particular build. Players are able to choose from a large majority of the cars represented in the game, but it looks as though some cars will only be available when earned through activity in the Career Mode.

Arcade Mode works in a somewhat typical fashion; some cars and tracks are available for play but many have to be unlocked through suitable finishes. Gold, silver, and bronze trophies are awarded for the first three finishers in wheel-to-wheel races and will unlock the next race series but only the top two spots will unlock cars (two cars unlocked for a first, one for a second). It also looks as though Arcade Mode races won’t be as open-ended as may Arcade Modes, and will ask drivers to compete in fixed-length events on sometimes the same circuit. As you progress up the available Arcade Mode events, you will find more laps and tougher courses, but the competition will pretty much stay consistent. Seven other cars will be in competition with you for each of these races and each will be in cars of the same class and similar subclass (more on classes and subclasses below). It appears that Forza will ship with four open events and twenty eight locked events in the Arcade Mode.

Forza Motorsport’s Career Mode allows racers to compete in both offline and online racing to earn credits (money) and improve a driver’s overall level. A home region is first selected which mainly affects how easy it is to access foreign cars in the game. For instance, if you select North America as your home region, expect to pay out the ass for a ride like the R34 Skyline which isn’t imported Stateside (yet). On the other hand, good luck getting your mitts on 70’s muscle cars if you live in Japan. The same goes for the European region, where Porsche’s and Ferrari’s are a dime a dozen, but both Asian and American cars are quite rare. You will still be able to unlock every car in the game no matter what your home region is, but it’s a good idea to choose a region that is most cost-effective for the types of cars you’re into. But don’t think for a second that you’ll be able to pick up an Enzo or similar uber car cheaper in Europe just because it’s made there. The truly rare cars are big bank no matter where your home region is (more on the rarity system later).
Racers will start out with 25,000 credits and the ability to purchase a variety of D class rides, each with a different purchase price (sound familiar?). Higher subclasses within the D class will obviously cost a bit more, but gamers will be getting more out of the box, so the actual cost of same-classed cars is often a wash.

Once an initial ride is purchased you’ll be pretty much broke. Gamers can take what little money they have and head to buy upgrades, tune their beast the way it sits, customize the paint, or apply decals. The best idea is probably to take it to the track and try to learn proper driving technique and hopefully earn some additional credits. Not only will you earn more money by finishing high, but you will also increase your level which determines the events which you can and can’t enter.


There are five offline events types; Amateur, Point-to-Point, Professional, Championship, and Endurance, but only a few will be open to zero level drivers, which is how all profiles start out. Good driving, tuning changes to compliment tracks and track conditions, and logical performance upgrades should eventually lead to higher levels and the ability to race in some really trick racing events (we’ll save those for a future article). Higher levels will also mean the possibility of parts and car manufacturer relationships which offer big parts discounts and unlocked super rides. This build lists 49 possible driver levels, but we have a feeling that a fiftieth may be lurking about somewhere…

An important aspect to point out about the Career Mode is that drivers who choose to compete at higher difficulty levels will have the potential to earn more money. Those of you who still haven’t switched to manual shifting will have a lower earning potential than those who row the gears. AI difficulty, damage, and assist setting will also affect the overall ability to score loot. It’s nice to know that those who play Forza at its utmost hardest will be rewarded for doing so.

There looks to be in the neighborhood of one hundred Career Mode events for offline play, but you can also take to the online arena for even more wheel-to-wheel racing. Online racing in the Career Mode is broken into car classes only and works completely on a matchmaking system, much like Halo 2. Hosts can change the track, the number of laps, the number of players, and number of friend’s slots, but that’s it. Competition will be automatically selected from, what we can only assume, is a very complex algorithm. Online Career Mode events cost money to enter, but also brings the ability to earn extra dough if offline races prove too tough.

Xbox Live racing in the multiplayer mode, however, will function a bit differently. Anyone who has played Rainbow Six 3 (or chess) will immediately recognize the ELO system used for ranking which assigns a number system to each Gamertag. The number represents a rank which figures in matches played and strength of competition among other things. Game hosts in multiplayer matches can suggest an ELO rank for those in the match, which should help matches have similar talent show up via the OptiMatch feature. Quick Match will also try to line up players with similar ELO’s as well, but it will probably end up a crap shoot after the servers fill. Another cool feature that game hosts can play with is collision detection, which can be set fully on, ghost style, or such that contact occurs only within the true racing line - a nice feature for those who lose due to impatient trailing cars.

Racers will have the option to create or search for single races (a normal circuit race) or point-to-point style races which will be familiar to RSC2 fans. There’s also the option to search for lobbies that occur when members are buying or selling cars. Yes, similarly to Sega GT, gamers can convene and sell away their prized vehicular possessions. The online car swap meet should prove interesting due the rarity system and the ability to sell cars which have been highly modified by the original “owner�.

There’s the option to create or search for a “Group Challenge� event which is tied in with the Car Club functionality of the multiplayer area. Car Clubs are basically clans of Forza players (up to one hundred in each club) who want to be tracked as a group and easily found online. A Car Club is formed by a president who then designates a certain number recruiters. Recruiters can sign new members to the club and drop existing members from the club, but they can’t drop other recruiters. Only the president has the power to drop recruiters from the Car Club. The Car Club functions similarly to a shared Friends List, except that the members of your Car Club don’t actually have to be a part of your actual Friend’s List (probably a good idea though). Car Club members can compete in the aforementioned group races or just complete online solo, with their stats adding to the overall club’s ranking.


It looks though all prior information about Forza’s Live functionality was correct. Gamers can compete wheel-to-wheel on Xbox Live against seven other drivers, go split-screen for two-on-two, or set up eight person System Link bouts. A Free Run mode allows any car to be taken onto any track, and allows SCCA fans to compete in Autocross events. There’s also a Hot Lap which is basically a chance to set the fastest lap time on a certain track with a particular car. A separate Time Trials mode functions similar to a Time Attack event, with the goal being to set the fastest lap time on a given track. Time Trials pit a single player against the clock, but downloaded ghosts can accompany if so desired. Scores from Time Trials can be uploaded and featured in the scoreboards, and a player’s ghost can be made available for download as well.

Cars, Upgrades, and Tuning

The car lineup that this build flexes is absolutely great and does not discriminate in many areas. You’re not going to find any stock cars in the game or WRC beasts, but as far as circuit racing and normal production cars go, Microsoft Game Studios couldn’t have done much better. Whether you’re into stock production cars, club racing, sport compacts, GT, Le Mans, V8’s, IMSA, JGTC, or just a car fanatic in general, Forza has got something for you. The car selection doesn’t appear overly skewed toward one market either which is nice. You can pretty much fine the cream of the crop from Europe, North America, and Asia, so anybody thinking that this is a game about Japanese cars only is missing the point. Sure, there’s a large contingency of Asian cars and most of the pre-tuned cars are from Asian countries, but Forza still feels very universal when going to select a ride. We’re assuming that, while the American and European players are grabbing a JGTC NSX, the Asian gamers may look forward to driving the Hennessey Viper or Lingenfelter Corvette. You won’t find many cars in Forza’s lineup that are just there for fluff either. Any motorsports fan that plays Forza will probably want seat time in every one of the 230+ cars represented in the game, which says a lot about the choices made by MGS.

A bit of a surprise in the car lineup are pre-tuned cars from popular companies. The previously mentioned Lingenfelter and Hennessey cars are two examples, as are a host of cars from Saleen. Asian cars flex upgrade packages by Mines, Tommy Kaira, Border, INGS, and Tom’s, with some American companies such as Wings West showing their stuff on the JDM products. European cars seem to shy away from the tuning models, but the standard AMG cars are well represented in Forza Motorsport. The ability to race with already modified, instantly recognizable cars from top manufacturers is a worthy addition to a racer which contains the ability to personally modify cars for looks and performance

Speaking of mods, Forza will allow performance mods in three areas; Engine and Power, Appearance and Aero, and Chassis and Drivetrain. Each category is broken down into simple areas of performance such as exhaust and intake in the Engine and Power category, body kit parts and wheel style in the Appearance and Aero section, and Weight Reduction in the Chassis and Drivetrain area. Each area has a few stages which offer higher levels of performance but at a price. Each proposed mod will affect the general areas of a car’s base performance, which will be displayed before the mod is actually purchased. That way, gamers can buy the best “bang for the buck� mods since they will already know what to expect performance-wise in the areas of acceleration, speed, braking, downforce, etc.


An important factor to keep in mind, however, is that modding cars may jump them into a higher class. For instance, if you start you career with a D1 car such as a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX and you modify it, it may end up having to compete in a class filled with C3 cars. Cars will continually go up in rank as they are modified save for R class cars, which stay R class cars forever. No car can move into the R class either, no matter how much aftermarket work is done to it…a race car is a race car in Forza.

The tuning phase is way advanced in Forza, with the help of replay telemetry and the ability to tweak intricate portions of your vehicle. Cars can be tweaked with a generous amount of sliders in areas such as gearing, spring stiffness, damping, downforce.

The Quick Test Drive

Our initial feelings are that Forza Motorsport is going to blow away pretty much anybody who decides to pick it up in April. It’s difficult to get a handle on how the actual driving against AI and online competition will play since these areas are far from optimized. We think the earlier demos give a better understanding of how Forza will actually play; smooth, accurate, and well, basically perfect. The game’s framework is excellent but work is obviously being done to improve the interface a bit. The progression in the Career Mode and the integration of online and offline gameplay throughout is far above our expectations. It’s not really worth commenting on Forza graphically at this stage since it will see some changes before launch. Expect graphics better than what is showed in the OXM demo with a higher attention to detail and a smoother overall look.

This build of Forza Motorsport confirms what we expected about this highly anticipated race r- it runs flat out and bounces right off the speed limiter. We can’t wait to wrap our hands around the steering wheel of the final build, but for now, tooling around in this build will have to do. Look for additional features from this build, where we will break down things such as the Drivatar system, the cars and tracks, and the modification, tuning, and telemetry system

[SFDMALEX]

Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism.

Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally

[|Nuno|]

Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism. Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally

Word.

[FordGTGuy]

http://www.webquad.com/forza/

the champion of unofficial Forza Motorsport Fan Sites. Check the 2005 january screen.

[FordGTGuy]

new screenshots


screens

[OVERLORD_CHRIS]

I was comparing screen shoots of this with GT4, and this still looks alot funner to play. And every time i see GT4 its never in High res mode with mor ethen 2 cars on the screen....But any way, this game seems more like the way die hard car fans have always wanted it......but as long as they don't charge us for crapy down loads like PGR2 did, it will should be a bench mark for some time to come.

[HoboPie]

Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism. Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally

I agree with you completely, but there is something about pitting and Enzo against a CGT at the Ring that drives me insane with anticipation.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism. Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally

If you want real - get out and drive...

[SFDMALEX]

Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism. Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally If you want real - get out and drive...

THats not an option for a poor student

Hence the sims

Id rather save a few years for a second hand vette then go out and buy a civic now

[RC45]

Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Id rather save a few years for a second hand vette then go out and buy a civic now

Holy sheister... these have to be the most profound words ever typed on JW...

[Vansquish]

Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by Vansquish I'm not looking for "fun" in racing games, I'm looking for realism. Then you have to ditch the console scene mate and turn to Grand Prix Legends, GTR, Live For Speed, Richarb Burns Rally If you want real - get out and drive...

I DO!!!!

Granted I don't have a Z06 like you, nor do I even have the RX8 yet, but the 6 works pretty well. I go out and play around in it whenever I've got the time, hence the lack of money to go out with any girls on the weekends.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by Vansquish I go out and play around in it whenever I've got the time, hence the lack of money to go out with any girls on the weekends.

Yet more profound wisdom from the drivers of JW...

[bmagni]

Popular Science Test Drives Microsoft Game Studios’ Forza Motorsport. Just how real have video games become these days? The folks at Popular Science magazine aimed to find out by putting Microsoft Game Studios’ highly anticipated and critically acclaimed Xbox® driving simulator, Forza Motorsport, to the test in the cover story of their April 2005 issue, which hits newsstands March 15, 2005. The story examines the blurred lines between reality and virtual reality by comparing and contrasting the performances of two drivers on the real-life and virtual American LeMans Series track Road Atlanta.

“The drivers weren’t really racing against one another,” said Eric Adams, Aviation and Automotive Editor, Popular Science. “The most scientific way of testing Forza Motorsport’s realism was to look at how the drivers performed against themselves – in real life and on Xbox.”

Popular Science equipped American LeMans Series racer Gunnar Jeannette and veteran racing gamer RJ DeVera with the ultimate video game driving rig, which included the all-new FANATEC Speedster ForceShock steering wheel, a VRX SPARCO Pro2000 racing seat and a 50-inch plasma screen television to serve as a virtual windshield.

The drivers sampled six of the more than 200 cars in Forza Motorsport – from the modification-friendly, 240-horsepower Volkswagen Golf R32 to the mind-blowing 605-horsepower Porsche Carrera GT – on the Xbox digital version of Road Atlanta. Jeannette and DeVera were then given the keys to take those same six cars around the track on the real-life course and instructed to report any similarities or differences.

“Forza Motorsport is an incredible driving simulation that we’ve been working on for more than three years and are extremely proud of,” said Dan Greenawalt, Lead Designer, Forza Motorsport. “When Popular Science – a publication that prides itself on technology and innovation – came to us with the idea to put the physics and realism of Forza to the test, we jumped at the opportunity.”

In the end, the study yielded uncanny results with eerie similarities between the drivers’ hot lap times, shift points and apexes on the track and in the game. One factor that could not be replicated by Forza or any driving simulator, though, was the element of human fear.

“Head-to-head, the performances were very similar, with lap times in the game consistently a handful of seconds faster than those recorded on the track,” said Adams. “I think that’s mainly because in the simulator, the drivers started out at a maximum and took the no-fear approach. That is, if they took a corner too sharp and hit a wall, they knew they could always start the race over without any consequence. The fear of real-life impact at 150mph is probably what prevented Gunnar and RJ from taking that same approach on the track, and ultimately what prevented them from reaching the benchmarks they set in Forza.”

Find out more on the results of Popular Science’s experiment between reality and virtual reality by picking up the magazine’s April issue, which hits newsstands March 15, 2005 or visit www.PopSci.com.

VIDEO

[SilviaEvo]

sounds good. but its coming out in May :cry: