In a genre that is usually dominated by arcade racers, realistic simulations of motor sports have taken a backseat for the most part. However, you can’t deny Gran Turismo’s success in bringing realism to the racing genre. Up until the release of Forza this was the only competitor worth mentioning, with titles like Ridge Racer, Metropolis Street Racer, Project Gotham Racing offering more arcade like experiences. Many believed that Forza was Microsoft’s answer to Gran Turismo and looking back I suppose this could be true as there was a lack of racing games similar to the successful Gran Turismo. It is important to know what features Forza brought to the racing genre and why it was appreciated so much by racing fans who owned Xboxs’ as it was a fresh change from the arcade games.
Forza Motorsport on the Xbox was a big hit and it is easy to see why. It promised to offer exciting new ways to customise players’ cars in ways that had never been done before in video games. Players were able to customise their cars in terms of performance and looks, you could buy engine parts or give it a new paint job – not just any old colour though, the ability to add your own decals was much loved and even sparked off competitions within the Forza community. In Forza 2, this level of customisability has been increased; the paint job tool will have more features, more decals, and more layers; it generally has been made a more powerful tool to use. As for parts, expect more options and a bigger variety of performance parts and aftermarket body kits to customise the shape of the car. Turn 10, the developers of Forza 2 are very much aware of the community following the original Forza had in terms of players showing off their custom cars and paint jobs, so they aim to develop and expand on this with Forza 2 by updating the tools already available and adding more content. I admit I was never really any good with the paint job tool, but I have clear memories of viewing sites which had pictures of gamers pride and joy posted, ready to be rated by fellow Forza fans. However one drawback of this was that there was some quality loss because some players didn’t have access to tools which allowed them to transfer the in-game shot of the car directly to their PC’s so the majority of shots were taken by digital cameras of the car displayed on their TV set.
If you have ever played Project Gotham Racing 3, then you will have probably been frustrated that you cant take pictures from the photo mode and transfer them to your PC and send to other people or use as a wallpaper for example, although some technical people can extract them it was slightly disappointing that this feature wasn’t part of the game. Well thankfully, the Forza developers also believe this was a missed opportunity and have hinted that they are including a photo mode similar to PGR 3’s and that they want to retain the same level of community interaction so hopefully they will include an option to transfer the pictures that players have taken in Forza 2, to their PC’s or make them sharable in some way via Live.
There is no doubting the fact that the level of customisability offered in Forza 2 will contribute to the realism factor the developers are striving for, but the most important aspect of the game when going for realism is probably the physics and car handling. When Forza was released it was the ‘most technically advanced driving simulation on the Xbox’ available and in fact it probably still is. Forza 2 will be looking to keep that title of being the most advanced and from what has been said so far about the game, they are well on their way! Turn 10 has racing drivers and engineers as consultants to make sure they get the feel of the cars spot on. The physics in Forza were brilliant, but with the increased power of the Xbox 360, there will be improvements made to the original engine, for example it will be able to run at higher frequencies. Every upgrade available will make a difference to the cars performance no matter how significant the upgrade; there will be a difference in the relevant area - acceleration, braking, handling etc. Car damage and wear will also have an affect on the performance, so unlike most games where you can just go straight into a barrier and bounce off with only a crack in the windscreen or something, a major crash in Forza 2 will dampen your cars performance making it harder for you to win, whilst also adding to that all important realistic factor. Although no specific details or numbers have been given about the physics, one example to show that the team mean business, would be to look at their tyre and suspensions model which they discussed in a recent interview and stated that it took them a few months to do on the original Forza and will respond to outside factors which most players would perhaps not have heard of, let alone thinking about them when playing a video game. I’m talking about heat and pressure changes and even weight transfer – I bet that puts a smile on people faces who understand what that means!
I think it’s clear already that in the jump from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, Turn 10 are not skipping on anything, in every area there will be improvements and additions, this includes the multiplayer. Forza allowed up to eight players to race against each other over Xbox Live, Forza 2 will allow up to 12 players on the same track. It has been revealed that Turn 10 and Bizarre Creations, the makes of the PGR series, have a good working relationship and so have been working closely together on the online aspect of Forza 2. I would just like to point out that this comes as no big surprise as both teams are very passionate about cars and racing. We have seen an example of this mentioned before in regards to the photo mode, however PGR fans might also recognise the ‘Forza Motorsport TV’ mode. This will allow players to watch races between other players and their custom cars. Nothing has been announced yet about the race modes that will be included however I don’t think you would be far away if you guessed that the same modes that were in Forza were included, as well as a few more, perhaps based on modes in PGR3. Going back to the point earlier about how damage affects the cars performance, the developers feel that this will hopefully help in online racing. Maybe those maniacs who barge me off the road in PGR will think twice about doing in Forza 2 because there’s a good chance they could come off worse! Luckily the AI in Forza wasn’t as bad as this, because in some games the AI drivers certainly wouldn’t let you take the racing line.
It is definitely worthwhile mentioning the AI because there was a noticeable difference between the AI in Forza and other racing games. Forza on the Xbox used ‘Drivatar’ which meant that AI drivers would try to use the same techniques as the player when racing; they would even copy your mistakes sometimes! The ‘Drivatar’ technology will remain in Forza 2 however it will be upgraded. The names of the AI drivers will give players an idea of their racing style, which might be aggressive towards other cars but slower at the corners for example. You might say the developers are getting two-for-one here, because it means that players will race against similar opponents in single player which should create a few rivalries and worthy competition but it will also prepare you better if players decide to race online, because the ‘Drivatar’ technology means that the AI drivers are more human like, they will make errors and they do have varied racing styles.
If you haven’t played Forza, by now you are probably wondering why, unless of course you dislike racing games. Forza was praised for its visuals as well as being an excellent racing game. Unfortunately the only trailer for Forza 2 is pre-rendered footage although this was created to sum up what to expect from Forza 2 – an intense driving simulator that prides itself on the features that makes it so realistic. Well I can’t say I have seen Forza 2 running, I haven’t even seen any in game screenshots but if the original is anything to go by, this game will be stunning. Turn 10 have made it clear that they are using the same sort of principles as they did on Xbox, where they are squeezing as much as they can out of the Xbox 360 to get as much detail as possible into Forza 2. The textures have been rebuilt and will be displayed at a much higher resolution. So although we don’t know what the game looks like, it sounds promising when the developers confirm that they will have it running at 60fps, in 720p (High Definition), HDR lighting, Motion Blur and 4 x Anti-Aliasing. Enough said really.
Forza was very highly rated by reviewers when it was released, it ticked all the boxes on paper but more importantly the developers made it work and it came together nicely, so when Turn 10 say they are improving the game, it is hard to believe what they can do except from just the graphics upgrade which is what many would expect. The guys at Turn 10 have always shown themselves as car mad, racing fans and it shows in their work. They are so passionate and enthusiastic about what their doing, they must be pleased that they are making such a great game. All of the fans have faith in them that they will again deliver a stunning killer racing title, which may well just take the centre stage as the best on the Xbox 360. Forza 2 is scheduled for a holiday release this year so there’s still a little wait before we can get our hands on it, although we will no doubt see some in-game movies and screenshots to keep us entertained. Hopefully the team don’t get too distracted with publicity; because they will surely need all the time they can get to fit in all the features they have promised.
You can view Forza 2 movies by clicking here.
Preview By: Fraser Keith
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