There are many different types of gamers out there. Some love first-person shooters, some love RPGs, others love fighting games, and some live and die simulation racing games. Xbox owners have always been jealous of the king of all racing sims, Gran Turismo. Microsoft tried, and succeeded in making a worthy competitor to the Gran Turismo series called Forza Motorsport. The game released on the original Xbox was all about cars, and simulation style racing. This was no Burnout or Need for Speed title. Ever since the release of the Xbox 360 racing fans have been wondering when we would get a sequel to the racing title that is Forza Motorsport. Publisher and developer (Turn 10 Studios) Microsoft Game Studios has finally made everyone's dreams come true with the recent release of Forza Motorsport 2 exclusively for the Xbox 360. While it is true there is not much competition on the Xbox 360 in terms of simulation racing games, Forza 2 delivers on almost every level possible for what a sequel would have to offer. Better graphics, more tracks, tons more cars (300+); well the word tons does not even begin to describe the amount of cars this game has. Car fanatics rejoice and read on to find out why Forza Motorsport 2 is not only a great racing game; it is a great game in many more aspects than the racing element.
Developer Turn 10 spent a lot of time making this game as close to a real driving experience as possible, spending countless hours tweaking the car physics and racing mechanics. The polish that went into Forza 2 is evident from the moment you boot up the game and continues to shine throughout the time you spend with it. Unfortunately this polish does not encompass every aspect of the game, a little feature called graphics suffers greatly in terms of next-generation gaming. Although it is obvious that the reason for the lack of quality graphics is that the developers crammed so much stuff into Forza 2 and then tweaked it to a nice solid 60 FPS – it would be near impossible to make everything look fantastic at the same time. Some graphic hogs may be turned off by this revelation but to me the amazing physics engine and realistic driving conditions are worth the graphical trade off.
The meat and potatoes of any racing sim is the career mode and it is here that Forza Motorsport 2 doesn’t disappoint on any level. Spending upwards of 20+ hours will be no problem with the single player portion of the game. New to the series is the option gamers are faced with before starting their career; which of the three regions do they want to be their “home” base. The choices are North America, Europe, or Asia. Choose wisely because which side of the Atlantic you choose will have an impact on many in game features such as the price and availability of cars or rewards. For example if you choose North America as your home, purchasing Fords or Chevys will be a much easier and cheaper experience that say buying your first Ferrari or Mazda. The idea behind this is that instead of just playing through the game, buying up all the cars you can there is an element of strategy and “collecting” that comes into play with Forza 2. Don’t get me wrong, all cars can be purchased and raced with from any one of the three regions, it is just easier to get said cars from a local dealer instead of import them overseas, it only makes sense.
The main focus of Forza Motorsport is and always has been the cars, that being said during your stint with career mode you need to remember that it isn’t always a great racer that wins, sometimes it just takes a great car. Using points earned from wins you can upgrade each and every part of your car, taking it all the way to a level 5 speed demon. This is great to a point but will surely cause some dissention with gamers that are looking for a racing game that requires only skill to win. As long as you take your turns with minimal speed and try not to damage your car too much, most of the races are fairly easy as long as you have the right beefed up car. For this reason your number one priority should be making the vehicle you choose the best it can be, worry about your racing skills later. Overall it was a joy upgrading my vehicle but considering most of the tracks are similar in nature and you can only race during the day in sunny weather, the career mode can get tedious at times. Almost half of the races are available from the get go and the others must be unlocked by gaining points through wins. After completing the single player career mode I was not disappointed at all; it only left me wanting more. It is a pretty complete and comprehensive career mode causing me to remember why I loved Forza 1 so much on the original Xbox.
