August 17, 2006 - Forza Motorsport, Xbox's answer to Gran Turismo, managed to steal its fair share of fans through sweet ways to customize your ride and some fancy AI. The foundation has been laid out and now it's up to Microsoft to improve upon the formula in Forza Motorsport 2. If you're anything like us, you're wondering just how Microsoft plans to keep the momentum going.
To get the best info, you've got to go straight to the source. With that in mind, we went to Forza Motorsport 2's Game Director, Dan Greenawalt, with the questions we needed answers to. The responses shed new light on what we can expect from the second Forza title.
IGN: One thing that sets apart the original Forza from competitor Gran Turismo is the inclusion of certain exotic car makes. Can we expect to see Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini in Forza 2? What other car makes will we see in Forza that aren't seen in competing games?
Dan Greenawalt : As you say, Gran Turismo 4 was missing all three. While we had roughly 40 Ferrari's and Porsche's in the original Forza Motorsport, the Lamborghini and the McLaren F1 street version were not included. Forza Motorsport 2 features over 50 Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini models plus the McLaren F1 street version. We are adding other brands such as Scion. But honestly, there is no other single brand is as influential as Ferrari, Porsche, or even Lamborghini are individually.
IGN: Will we see more common car types appear in Forza 2, or will the game continue the emphasis on sports cars and exotics? There are some wicked possibilities if you combine Forza's decal editor with a Dodge Magnum…
Dan Greenawalt : Forza Motorsport 2 has over 300 cars. While it's true that Forza Motorsport contains lots of sports cars as well as exotics, we also have plenty of accessible production cars such as the 2003 VW Golf R32, 1994 Honda Civic hatch, and 2003 Ford Focus SVT. There are tons of race cars such as the Le Mans winning 2002 Audi R8 and even classic muscle cars like the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. We have tons of customizable Japanese Domestic Imports such as the 1998 Toyota Supra RZ the 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II. Forza Motorsport 2 covers the full spectrum of cars that are fun to collect, customize and race.
IGN: Forza's decal customization really took off at the game's release and gave the game extended life. What new things are you looking to do with the decal customization in Forza 2? Are there any specific new ideas for sharing custom cars across Xbox Live?
Dan Greenawalt : Forza Motorsport 2 contains the same TV style spectating feature as PGR3. The biggest difference is the content that can be viewed in these features. In Forza Motorsport TV you won't be watching a race full of the same red car model. Instead, you'll be able to watch virtual customized car show.
There are several improvements happening to the decal and paint editor itself. One feature we just got in last week - sssh, we haven't told anyone about this one yet.
IGN: In simulation racers of this sort--Gran Turismo, TOCA, the original Forza--there's often an emphasis on a variety of cars that overshadows any attachment to a single vehicle. Will Forza 2 do anything to make it easier to "live with" just one car in the game?
Dan Greenawalt : In the original Forza Motorsport, the player leveled by winning races. This leveling granted access to more races. It also unlocked cars and discounts on parts for the player. For Forza Motorsport 2, we've added a car leveling component as well. The goal is to encourage the player to invest time racing in one car. As the car levels, it will unlock rewards and discounts for itself and other cars in its brand as well as other brands entirely. It's a pretty cool system, chalk full of real-world branded relationships. Also, it really "sets the hook" deep.
IGN: Forza was originally touted for its advanced AI in computer controlled opponents. What advancements or changes to the AI system are being made for Forza 2? It could be argued that the AI in the original Forza, while certainly more dynamic than AI in other racers like Gran Turismo, suffers being a bit too errant, often causing wrecks. Will Forza 2's AI racers retain this same unpredictable element?
Dan Greenawalt : Drivatar technology is a neural network learning system developed by Microsoft's advanced AI research team in Cambridge, England. This is by no means normal racing game AI. Occasionally the Drivatars did things we never expected. At times it felt less like tuning game AI and more like teaching a child. Sometimes they learned good habits and sometimes they learned bad habits.
We are addressing their aggression levels. However, there will always be an aspect of character to the Drivatars - it's built into the system. Therefore, we're adding a system to better communicate Drivatar character to the player.
I would also note that if other racing games had more realistic collision physics, you would notice how frequently their AI hits you as well. If during a collision the two cars just bonk like lead bricks without simulating the transfer of force and torque, the collisions are less noticeable - no matter how frequently they happen. One of the ramifications of a next generation sim engine is that collisions have ramifications in the forces acting on the car - and I'm not even talking about damage.
IGN: What other Live features will Forza 2 have? Will we see anything like Project Gotham Racing 3's Gotham TV?
Dan Greenawalt : As I mentioned earlier, it also features Forza Motorsport TV, built on the same technology that drove Gotham TV. We have few other big ticket features up our sleeve that aren't being announced until later. Suffice to say that the MGS racing family and Xbox Live will continue to raise the bar for the online experience.
IGN: What sort of Xbox Live Marketplace support will Forza 2 provide? A popular micro-transaction fear among gamers is the mass exclusion of content, like cars and tracks, from a game's retail release--essentially selling a videogame "shell"--and the subsequent selling of said excluded content on Marketplace. What precautions are you taking with Marketplace to ensure that gamers don't feel cheated out of content, especially considering that the previous Forza (and competing games like Gran Turismo) have historically offered so much content out of the box?
Dan Greenawalt : Personally, I love all of the extra stuff I get from Marketplace - the PGR3 speed pack is great. I'm not sure I understand how having access to new content means getting cheated on the disc.
Regardless, 300+ cars, more than 400 single player races, 70+ ribbons, over 2000 scoreboards, thousands of cosmetic upgrades, nearly 100 performance upgrades per car… Needless to say, this isn't a "shell"
.
IGN: Forza puts a huge emphasis on realism in racing, and as such most of the race courses in the original are recreations of real-life tracks like Leguna Seca and the Nurb. Will Forza 2 be similarly focused on real-life tracks, or can we expect to see more fantasy-type tracks with environments more interesting than tire walls and grandstands?
Dan Greenawalt : Forza Motorsport 2 is roughly 50/50 on licensed to original tracks. We're adding some new high profile real-world tracks, and we're adding some new original ribbons. In Forza Motorsport "more interesting" is all about giving car and the physics a workout - elevation changes, camber, and surface type. As a simulation racing game, you're not going to drive through prismatic ice caves, lava filled Mayan ruins or zombie ridden shopping malls. That said we've got some next-gen graphical trickery up our sleeve that makes even the most utilitarian of real-world tracks look pretty freaking amazing.
IGN: What if any changes are being made to Forza's career mode? Will the vehicle grading system--which puts strict limits on the overall quality of your car for each event, to balance difficulty--of the original game return?
Dan Greenawalt : As mentioned before, we've added a car leveling system to the career and some changes to the AI. We've also improved the car classification system. In the first version, the math model we used to classify the cars was linear and only cued off 5 variables. For Forza Motorsport 2, we threw out the linear math model and switched to a neural network that searches simulated results. This search results in a non-linear model based on far more variables. At the end of the day, our goal is to have improved balance in the car classification system as well as more interim steps between classes.
IGN: Will there be any true force feedback support in Forza 2? Hard-core racing fans bemoaned the lack of true force feedback in the original Forza, which was limited by the lack of any true force feedback wheel available for the Xbox. Will Forza 2 be able to support USB-based steering wheels (like Logitech's excellent wheels) to supply true force feedback? Or will Microsoft's first-party racing wheel provide force feedback equal to what gamers have available on other systems?
Dan Greenawalt : Yes, Forza Motorsport 2 and the Xbox 360 will support true Force Feedback. We've been working with an internal Microsoft hardware team to develop a true Force Feedback steering wheel that can also run wirelessly. We also have several prototype wheels from 3rd party that we are tuning the game with.
IGN: Sixty frames per second--will it happen? High frame rates are especially good for certain genres, racing being one of them, but will the pressures to up polygon counts and dazzle with special effects keep Forza 2 from running at 60 FPS?
Dan Greenawalt : The Xbox 360 was new hardware last Holiday. The development community has learned a ton about optimizing the power on the box since then. Forza Motorsport 2 is currently running at 60fps with 12 high-poly cars, far superior shaders and higher texture resolution. Truth be told, creating a beautiful game for the next-gen consoles is less and less about the poly counts. Getting the next-gen look is all about shaders, texture resolution and texture tricks such as normal mapping.
IGN: Any chance we'll see in Forza 2 a camera view like PGR3's in-car dashboard camera?
Dan Greenawalt : For Forza Motorsport 2, we're adding a hood cam to help immersion and give the player better car-track context for apex'ing corners.
IGN: Can you explain to Mr. Peer Schneider, veteran of IGN.com, why, when in the first-person bumper cam of most racing games, the engine noises seem to come from "in my ass" with surround-sound setups? Peer's pressing blog post on the subject can be read by clicking here.
Dan Greenawalt : Even in the original Forza Motorsport, we specifically placed the positional audio (or "listener") in the driver's seat even though the camera was on the bumper. Basically, we did it right first time, and we'll do it right again - in the bumper camera view, rear engined cars have the audio behind the player, front engined cars have it in front, and the tires surround the player. We are making a bunch of audio improvements, but our listener was already placed correctly to optimize player feedback.
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