Forza2 Demo Review

[RC45]

Well - now that it's out and we can sample it in all its 720p (I think) glory, awith the Micro$haft FFB wheel.. here's a little review of the "demo"..

The bad news

First - the replay cameras SUCK.

What a let down, all that eye candy, and youcan't even watch a decent "TV style" replay of the action.

Second - the XBox360 hardware either sucks, or the Turn10 progammers are amayeurs

If you want a rear view mirror, then you can't have "hood view" (includes a littl eof the hood) - you get 2001 GT3 view instead

Third - what a silly view point - youare int he center of the car, not to the left or right - so you have no way to realisticly place your self on the track - this is 2007, racing simd shoul dplace you left or right orientated in the car.

Fourth - if the ForceFeedBack is any indicaiton of what the M$ Wheel and F2 are capable of - ***puke***

It has to be the WORTS FFB of a so-called mainstream title/controller combo EVER.

Really weak forces and even then, not at all intuative.

And if you turn off ABS, the wheels lockup as soon as you touch the brake pedal. Instant lockup and you understeer in the dirt.

Really poor - and this is supposed to showcase the title.

Isn't this the build that has "Wowed" the press and reviewers everywhere? If so then the idiots reviewing the game who are impressed by these controls have NEVER tried a 4 year old FFB wheel on a 5 year old PC game.

And lack of a stick to shift is very annoying - I will need to rig up the M$ Wheel in an old Logitech chassis

Fifth - Some of the 3D assets must have been either borrowed from PGR3 or the same folks made them. The SLR Macca still has no air brake deploying on decel... and the graphics has the same glossy "cartoon" look of PGR3 and Forza1.

Not photorealistic at all. Great detail renders, but the lighting is "fake" looking.

The good news

First - Sounds are nice, not fantastic, but good. The Viper as always sounds the best - for some reason 10 cylinders digitize well

Tyre screeches are not that great, reminds me of GT3/GT4/GTHD screeches - all games seem to get them wrong.

Second - Visuals are pretty nice, track environment is nice and adds to the atmosphere.

Third - AI seems to behave and not just ram into your or randomly stop - they only pose a challenge because they follw the same perfect line lap after lap.

This is where a PC driving sims beat the consoles hands down - AI is unpredictable but realistic and variable.

Verdict

This is of course a demo, and has rough edges - but the things that had better be fixed by the time it goes on sale (in 3 weeks ) are the Replay Cameras, stronger FFB and adjustable control thresh-holds/dead-zones etc.

Its a pity yousit in the center of the car like a Formual 1 driver - these are supposed to be "street cars" tuned.

All in all - a huge let down after all the hype.

Will I buy it..?? Probably, because I am addicted to trying semi-realistic driving games

[ZfrkS62]

so have they kicked you off the Forza boards for this yet?

It really seems like they are just trying to get their fanboy's allowances.

3 weeks and it sounds this rough? i hope for their sake that this was a beta version of the demo

[RC45]

Originally Posted by ZfrkS62 so have they kicked you off the Forza boards for this yet? It really seems like they are just trying to get their fanboy's allowances. 3 weeks and it sounds this rough? i hope for their sake that this was a beta version of the demo

I was double-life-time banned from the Forza Forums weeks ago

They only tollerate pure blind praise of the product.

Period.

Any criticism is instantly quashed - pretty much the way all Mirco$haft product lifecycles are handled

[666fast]

A guy on another forum I visit worked on Forza 2 for a little while. He's been pretty open about his experience. Basically, a lot of corners were cut. Th game HAD to come out now to meet the fiscal calender and thats why features were pulled and what not.

Some highlights:

The engine sound for the BMW M5 is actually the LM V12 sound thats been modified. The wheels are drawn by a database program. Which means the wheels are the same on either side of the car. An example is the Carrera GT, it won't have the red nut on one side and the blue on the other. Wheels are not scaled correctly - a 20" will have much larger lugnut spacing than a 15" version, because the program just stretches the base 15" wheel instead of there being seperate models. Some cars have bigger size wheels on the rear than the front in real life, but not in Forza. Take a look at the NSX in the game. Having the F40, F50, and Enzo with a euro spec front and a US spec rear. There was supposed to be an incar cam, with the full dashboard and such ala PGR3. It was yanked because it was taking too long. He also said it looked terrible. There is no hood cam because of hood deformations. Animated active aero bits do not exist in the world of Forza. He also said this: My best guess would be that they underestimated the amount of work required. With a lot of the material in the game, it was assumed that they team could just use and adapt what was in Forza 1. It seemed like a lot of the time people were surprised at the amount of work that was still required to get the game developed, and a lot of the planning seems to have been lacking - for instance, it wasn't until the weekend of X06 that they decided not to show the demo publicly - that may not be surprisign in and of itself, but the demo had only been tested for about 2 weeks prior to that, and everyone seemed surprised that it was going to lack the polish that people were going to be expecting. The truth of the matter is that I don't really know how everything got so out of hand. The June release date is regarded as a best case scenario because that way any revenue goes to the last fiscal year which is where all the development money is. To hit that date they have taken an axe to the project, chopping out quite a bit of the promised features and content - which means they are essentially going 8 months overdue on a project that has, at best, about 60-70% of the content that was originally planned.

In all honesty, despite the cut corners and yanked content, I'll still buy it. I don't like the thought of playing Forza 1.5 but whatever. I'm sure I'll still have fun with it. I'm also sure that all the yanked content will be available later......... at a price. :roll:

[RC45]

Originally Posted by 666fast I'm also sure that all the yanked content will be available later......... at a price. :roll:

Don't count on it..

Look at PGR3... all the "promised content' fizzled out after a few car packs

And besides, remember that revenue thing? Well, the team and assets need to be pointed to the next "profitable' project.. maybe Forza3 or hopefully "better"

[RC45]

Originally Posted by 666fast A guy on another forum I visit worked on Forza 2 for a little while. He's been pretty open about his experience. Basically, a lot of corners were cut. Th game HAD to come out now to meet the fiscal calender and thats why features were pulled and what not.

And apparently the entire project is over-shadowed by complted fucking idiots.

Che Chou: Then, there's the lingering question of the Forza Motorsport 2 Limited Collector's Edition, which includes a soundtrack CD, a special making-of book (which yours truly contributed to), as well as nicer packaging and different cover art. On top of all that, the LCE comes with a code that allows you to download three exclusive cars available only to those who own the LCE. While the Forza 2 LCE has been confirmed for Asia and Europe, I'm sorry to say that it will not be coming to the U.S. Was it a Turn 10 studio decision? Of course not. When it comes to retail matters, there are many internal and external forces at work in the channel. Unfortunately, it was decided early on that the U.S. wouldn't get the Forza 2 LCE. Why? You'll just have to chalk it up to one of life's great mysteries, I guess. So the question is, just how badly do you want the three exclusive cars ('06 Ford Saleen Mustang S281 E, '03 Ferrari Challenge Stradale, '06 Subaru Impreza S204) and how far will you go to track down a LCE?

What a stupid choice... the game is developed here and they stupidly leave money on the table.

Age of Empires 3 Limited Collectors Edition was one of the top sellers at AOE3 launch...
I guess they really don't want to make money from this franchise...

Oh - and look at these people lapping it up like its the GREATEST simulaiton since the intergrated circuit wa invented..

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/fo...ad/130396.aspx

[vexor]

and one more thing they forgot in the demo which had better be in the final version.

where is the damadge?

the cosmetic damadge looks nice but going head on into another car at 250 km/h and not a dam thing happening to the suspension, engine, tranny... come on...

[twboy1999]

Originally Posted by vexor and one more thing they forgot in the demo which had better be in the final version. where is the damadge? the cosmetic damadge looks nice but going head on into another car at 250 km/h and not a dam thing happening to the suspension, engine, tranny... come on...

is a demo
what do u expect

[fabro_s]

Well, I just downloaded the demo yesterday, and well, its not that bad, I mean, Forza comes with everything Gran Turismo lacked since GT3.
The sound in the demo is incredible, its miles away from Gran Turismo, the sounds of the cars are almost identical to its counterparts from the real world. Well, visually, it looks pretty cool at 60 fps, but I must say, Gran Turismo still wins in this department, I havent played GT HD, but just by the screenshots, I can say GT HD looks better, Forza 2 looks good, it improved in the graphical department but not to the levels of Polyphony Digital.
In the customization part, well, you can customize everything you want, visually, something GT lacked, and well one of the most important thing, DAMAGE, wich I can tell it looks pretty awsome in Forza 2, tha crashes sound real good, something we all now GT doesnt have. But what really is important in this "simulator" is its lack of a real simulation wheel, its a shame Microsoft doesnt have a good one, because with that, Forza 2 could become an excelent game, not just a cool game.

[vexor]

Originally Posted by twboy1999 Originally Posted by vexor and one more thing they forgot in the demo which had better be in the final version. where is the damadge? the cosmetic damadge looks nice but going head on into another car at 250 km/h and not a dam thing happening to the suspension, engine, tranny... come on... is a demo what do u expect

well there was a vid of a white acura rsx on sebring a while back with full damadge, complete with suspention, engine, etc..

I was expecting more of the same.

[FoxFour]

I was just reading at the Forza Forums that the mechanical damage will be in the career and online races. Arcade mode features cosmetic damage only. The braking problems are a minor inconvienance with the steering wheel, but I am sure that the brake settings will once again be available, so we all can tune them to our liking. And yes, the replay views are dissapointing. I hope it will be straightened out in the final version.

[bmagni]

wow, i must say I almost agree with all your points...

1st - 100%
2nd - 100%
3rd - 50 %, the view point is important but not that important...
4th - 50% the FFB isn't as bad as you say IMO. The ABS is a total annoying bitch, turn it off and as you say you block all the time with its consecquences. The shift stick isn't a must for me though. Still you forgot to complain about the steering lock which in some cases makes me wish for more.
5th - 100%

[Pokiou]

i agree with RC..

it waw pathetic to a point i deleted the demo..

Pathetic feeling of the car...

the slr doesnt deploy its rear wing.. infact it was the largest let down of any game i have ever had....

Im seriously going to continue to play with Test Drive Unlimited .!!! as the sounds are real.. the wheels are real... works great when you cruise up behind REAL people in a REAL enviroment !

[crazidude]

Originally Posted by Pokiou the slr doesnt deploy its rear wing.. infact it was the largest let down of any game i have ever had....

LOL I find that line amusing to no extent.

But the demo was quite disappointing. Maybe I had too high hopes for the demo, but I'll save my verdict for when the game retails. It is ranking quite high right now because it has the Z06 in it lol.

[twboy1999]

test drive unlimit is total crap