Forza Motorsport 2
June 4,2007 - Forza Motorsport came out for the original Xbox in 2005. It racked up numerous awards and praise from both critics and players alike, and developed a huge customizing community almost immediately. The game had everything a car enthusiast wanted. It had lots of cars, a good amount of tracks, nearly limitless potential for customizing your cars, and the ability to sell your cars online. Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360 builds on what the original started, and the results are just what you would expect.

For starters, Forza 2 is a racing sim. There is no story mode or any crazy live action cut-scenes. You start your racing career at level 0 and try to work your way up to level 50. You progress in level by winning races, which in turn earns you credits. These credits not only allow you to purchase upgrades and cars, but they also serve as a type of Experience Points system. Each level has a certain credit threshold to reach in order to advance.

Along with the single player modes, there is a suite of multiplayer features as well. The game offers Xbox Live play for up to eight players. It’s also possible to play career races online. There is even the option to setup or join a tournament. In addition to Xbox Live, Forza 2 also offers System Link play, as well as two player split-screen.

The most important aspect of Forza 2 is the actual driving model. The original Forza had a very good physics model which did a great job of simulating what it feels like to drive a car on a race track. Forza 2 takes this further still with the car damage model being more complete now. Parts of your car can fly off during a collision, and they’ll stay on the track. The physics model is now sampling at 30 samples per second, which allows the game to transmit the car’s subtle nuances to the driver. This is particularly noticeable with the Microsoft Wireless Steering Wheel. Whether you play with a wheel or gamepad, the controls work well.

One of Forza’s strong points has always been how easy it is to get into the game. Though it is more of a simulation, Forza 2 offers plenty of assists to help ease newcomers into the game. For example, the suggested line assist paints a line on the track which indicates where to accelerate and brake, and where to enter turns. This feature has two modes, the first and default mode will only show where to brake. The original Forza had the line either on or off. Having just the brake points makes this feature useful without feeling like you’re relying on a crutch. If there is a particular race that feels impossible for you to win, then you have the option to hire an AI driver. Each driver will take a cut of the race winnings. The better the driver you choose the more they’ll take. Some of them will want all of the race money, but hiring those drivers is an almost guaranteed win.

Forza Motorsport developed a following for its incredibly deep and flexible livery editor. This popular feature is back, and it’s bigger and better. The number of layers has been bumped up from 600 to 4000, so it’s now possible to do as complex a design as you’d like. The editor also now allows you to save groups of layers so you can quickly stamp them to any car you’d like.

What may be the coolest new feature of Forza 2 is the online car auction house. Here you can put your career mode cars up for sale as well as search for cars to buy. Each car comes with its own car history which lets you track where the car has been. There is now a vibrant used car market which not only will let you get a great deal on a car, but you also have the chance to find some excellent custom paintjobs as well.

 Another neat community oriented feature is the ability to save in-game photos and upload them to forzamotorsport.net. From there you’re able to download a high quality image file to your PC. You can use them as wallpapers on your PC or Xbox 360, or show them off in a gallery. Currently there is no way to do this with saved replays, but hopefully that will come in a future update.

From a presentation standpoint, Forza 2 is top notch. From the great looking UI to the absolutely astonishing car models, it’s evident that a lot of time and effort went into making Forza 2 look as good as it could. It doesn’t sound too bad either. The in-game sound effects are excellent, though sometimes tracks feel as if they are missing some ambient sounds. This is mostly noticeable during replays, where things get quiet for several seconds at a time.

On the whole, Forza Motorsport 2 is everything you could want in a sequel. It has more of what made the first one great, and lots of new features that set it apart from the rest of the games in this genre. With its deep customization and hearty online component, Forza 2 will keep you playing for months.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More