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#2238003 - 06/18/07 04:11 PM Review: Forza Motorsport 2  
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citizen guod Offline
Lifer
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Lifer

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Chuck "PFunk" Bellows test drives the latest version of the popular racing ...game? ...sim?
Read here: http://www.simhq.com/_motorsports3/motorsports_087a.html


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#2238085 - 06/18/07 05:23 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Fantastic review PFunk, still don't think your going to convince certain, close minded people...but thats OK... great review, and great game...

Thou I agree 100% with PFunk's accessment... I would like to add that IMO, I have felt butterfly's and flashbacks from real word situations when playing this game...thats how well the cars were modeled.

I use to race at our local track in HS, I've been 2 two racing schools, and 3 police driving schools (with yearly re-training)... I've raced on the track, and I've race "pursuits" on the real world streets... I've own 3 Ford Mustangs, driven a Merc Benz, Porche, BMW's, different police cars, and mini-vans, lol...so I'd say I'm an experienced driver... (my wife is German, so i drove here family member cars, I've never own those luxuries, lol)

One day, I was driving home after a night shift in my 5.0 1989 Ford Mustang GT... I was doing 75 to 80, when there was a crash on the interstate in front of me, I saw cars spinning and flipping, and i drove through the smoke, and held my line, and made it through... I re-experienced that crash a number of times in FM2 and got flashbacks from it... thats how real it seemed.

I've raced my Mustangs and they have always been fast with a fat rear end, always fishtailing around turns or what have you, those same cars in FM2 feel the exact same way to me, on the other hand I drove my brother in laws Porse and BMW, and my father in laws Merc... and at speeds of 170 or so on the autobahns of Germany they hugged the road and was like a glider, same as in FM2...

So what I'm saying is IMO FM2 has seemed to capture true feelings and physics of the real world car counter parts...fantastic job.

I do wish the console would get a IRtrack type device thou...

and I noticed PFunks system specs, he got all that from a 19inch LCD, which is fine, but also imagine it on a 50in DLP 1080p with a 700 watt 5.1 surround sound system... INCREDIBLE!

also, I went to the extreme, I have the Microsoft wireless wheel, and it's great... just FYI... the wheel was actually made for FM2...so you can imagine how well they fit each other, and I even went to the extreme and got me one of those race seats from gogamer.com... and besides having to pull it in to the living room to use it, (wife won't let it stay there,lol), it's still adds to the felling.

Fantastic job all around with FM2... best damn racer i ever played IMO (PC and console.)

In car view and track device is of course highly needed.

#2238089 - 06/18/07 05:29 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Magnum]  
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WHOOP!


It's unbelievable that you can do that on an Xbox. All that its missing is a class of '99 license plate ;\)

#2238124 - 06/18/07 05:53 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Roosterfeet]  
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A great review and I agree with ever word. I too bought the wireless wheel for this title \:\) and my pc sims are gathering dust. I also find the market place a great place to pick up some excellent user made skins.

Jeff

#2238126 - 06/18/07 05:54 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: murkz]  
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searchthis Offline
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Console games. ::snort::

For shame.

#2238178 - 06/18/07 06:44 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: searchthis]  
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Good job on the review Chuck. And great Camaro skin! Man, how I miss my old '68 with the 350 Corvette V8. Too bad it didn't have a 4 speed, 2 speed Powerglide. It still screamed.

But you know, the lack of in cockpit view would seriously aggravate me. I'm so used to it. A little bit of "this is real!" immersion factor. I know, serious simmers play without it, just me. Like my never use autoshift. I just have to have that control and use the shifter God gave me.

Uh, G25 gave me.


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Forever United States Army Ranger.
#2238297 - 06/18/07 09:12 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Magnum]  
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I lurk. A lot. BUt I have to kick in and say that I agree with almost all of the review and Magnum's comments.

Like Magnum, I have some driving experience (I'm an instructor with the Houston Lotus club and have also instructed with with Speedventures out west, have a few driving schools undermy belt and get roped into the ocasional NASA race here in Texas...

Anyway, my favorite thing about Forza is how accurately it protrays the relative feelinsg of all the cars in the game. I drive a Lotus Exige at club events in real life (Incidentally -- the orange car pictured in the review is an Exige, not an Elise ;\) ) and the exige in the game feels pretty much right. Likewise, and even more importantly IMHO, when you race an Exige in Forza you have to drive it like you wold an Exige in real life. If you got out of your Exige and then got into a Porsche 911 (997), you have to adjust your driving style, braking points and line to some extent, and Forza2 does this really really well. Is the exact top speed, lateral grip optimal suspension setting the exact same in Forza as it is in real life? I have no idea (I haven't dug into the telemetry stuff yet). I do know, however, that IF I drive the Exige like I do on my local track, good things happen. And if I try to drive the Exige the WRONG way, Forza 2 delivers the "correct" result.

Two thumbs up from this Lotus driver/club racer/amatuer instructor \:\)

#2238393 - 06/19/07 12:05 AM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: TheGeezer]  
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What I'm glad to see is this article got a couple of folks register and post in here that wouldn't ordinarily. We're glad to have you guys, so welcome.

Rooster, glad to have you aboard. I'm class of '97 (Hullabaloo! Caneck! Caneck!), majored in Animal Agriculture, minored in Agribusiness and Ag Engineering. The license plate actually says 'Reveille'.

Anyway, I may not convince anyone, but I think the advent of simming on consoles is here. I hope to be able to be a regular on SimHQ Saturdays, these last two have been hectic. Mag, yer a hell of driver. Hope to be in your rearview mirror real soon.

pfunk


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#2238435 - 06/19/07 01:22 AM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: PFunk]  
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There is one major drawback to Forza2, which is about the most fun you can have with a racing sim, and that is that the Wheel made by Microsoft...well sucks. Its only got about 3/4 of a turn in it (thats all the way from full left to full right, not each way), and is about 10 times too sensitive near the center because it apparently has no scaling. Not only that, but the game adds in steering cheats for the gamepad, but nothing for the wheel.

At a common track, Laguna Seca, my times drop by 10-20 seconds (keep in mind its a 1::40-1:50/lap track). All this because the wheel is so imprecise and, well crappy.

Just for a point of perspective, I have a PC racing wheel (the red MOMO) and have none of these issues, and cant imagine driving without it in games like Live For Speed, or GTR.

Forza2 Rocks!

The wheel....SUCKS!


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#2238502 - 06/19/07 03:41 AM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Combathanger]  
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Great article Pfunk!


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#2238503 - 06/19/07 03:45 AM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Combathanger]  
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Dart Offline
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Lifer

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Heh...I'm one of the certain close minded people!

Great article, though. If I was ever forced by kidnappers to touch a console (on guarantee to release my wife and child), I'd pick this game.

;\)

Question, though - above Combathanger is commenting on the wheel; didn't the article say senseativity is adjustable?


The opinions of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

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#2238506 - 06/19/07 03:58 AM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Magnum Offline
Lifer
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Lifer

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Quote:

Question, though - above Combathanger is commenting on the wheel; didn't the article say senseativity is adjustable?


yes.

#2239831 - 06/19/07 02:14 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: sinner6]  
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Revvin Offline
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Nice article. For those who would criticise FM2 for its lack of cockpits it should be pointed out it does model over 300 cars, the artwork for that many cars would be an immense undertaking and there is nothing on the PC that compares to it. I use the bonnet view which gives a good drivers eye view and realistic enough to give the feeling of actually racing.

#2239854 - 06/19/07 02:40 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Revvin]  
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I majored in microbiology and the wife was double E (elementary ed ;\) ).

My original account here got deleted for inactivity. There just hasn’t been much excitement in the flight sim world in the last 5 years but my hardware caught up with LOMAC and I found EECH and BOB2, picked up a Track IR, and started lurking again.

As for consoles, I’m sick of endless tweaking for every game I install. And I can’t afford to spend many times the price of a console on endless upgrades anymore. DX 10 and Vista are the last straw. When this machine reaches the end of its useful gaming life, I’m saying, “Screw you Microsoft.” and I’m buying an Xbox 360. Wait… Crap. Oh well, maybe after next Christmas when more decent titles are out I'll go the way of the 360 and give Forza2 a whirl.

#2239914 - 06/19/07 03:53 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Roosterfeet]  
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Balsa Munitions R&D Institutio...
I think that's the best review you've ever written Pfunk. Well done for capturing what Forza 2 is all about!




Hengist.
#2239939 - 06/19/07 04:37 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: TheGeezer]  
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citizen guod Offline
Lifer
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Originally Posted By: TheGeezer
<snip> ....the orange car pictured in the review is an Exige, not an Elise ;)<snip>


Noted and corrected. Thanks for the catch! I should have caught that one!


Wisdom is knowing what's enough
#2239974 - 06/19/07 05:23 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: citizen guod]  
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McGonigle Online cool
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Excellent review PFunk.

I have to say that having 300 cars and as a consequence doing away with the cocpit view, to me seems a job only half finished. In my opinion it would have been prefereable to leave out some 250 cars and then have the rest of them done properly. Quality over quantity.

I'm probably more strange than I thought because I actually love downloading, installing and driving new mods. I also like some tweaking options to get the best of my sims and to be able set them up the way I like them set up. Not to mention the small and huge addons and mods that keep gems like Grand Prix Legends still going strong after nearly 10 years. OK, sometimes it gets a bit hectic managing and modding all my sims and sometimes I wish for a simpler life, but not at the expense of my immersion and enjoyment of these titles.

Different people, different priorities.


Jens C. Lindblad


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#2240049 - 06/19/07 07:02 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: McGonigle]  
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Revvin Offline
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Unfortunately for new console racers they already had a fanbase from the original Forza who would have expected a similar number of cars to the first version, cutting the number would have likely hurt sales more than it would not having cockpits. I'm just speculating of course but one of the view options available in Forza 2 does put the view around the normal cockpit view area minus the cockpit so its not a case of having to drive with external view on or with the few centimetres off the ground like some games.

I like to mod - sometimes. When I bought rFactor I knew it was a platform for modding but also having a central place like the rFactor Central site makes it easy for me to find mods. That being said it took me a few days spending numerous hours per day after an OS re-install to get rFactor up and running downloading, checkign version numbers against my backups, installing mods just so when I went online I would'nt get mismatches. The good thing there is we've perhaps seen mods for vehicles or tracks that might not necessarily be chosen by developers because they may not be popular enough for a retail product.

I do however like to be able to pick up a racing sim and just play. Even GTR2 has an abundance of mods that can result in mismatches online and to be able to just sit down, stick a CD in the player and just play is very attractive. I'm not shelving racing sims on my PC far from it - infact I'm still trying to download the free Caterham add-on for RACE (I posted about it in the racing sim forums BTW) But with Forza 2 arriving its made racing on the 360 a much more interesting format.

#2240067 - 06/19/07 07:19 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Revvin]  
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Great review! I have a 360 and I like playing the games they have on there. I bought the MS wheel and FM2 a few weeks ago to try it out but I'm just not a car guy. My first real car that I bought and paid for all on my own was a stinkin lil hatchback! I really didnt care, just wanted it to run and keep me warm and dry in the winter.

FM2 was waaay more simulation than what I expected. I was hoping to at least get some nice boomin music as I tore down the track! I think unless your into cars your not going to like this game. I ended up returning the wheel and sold the game (can't return opened games).

Overall I recommend the car guys / girls to get this! But the non-car people out there to rent it or borrow it first. I thought I'd jump in there and try it, buy the wheel at walmart and you can get all your money back so if you rent it just buy the wheel there and if you end up not liking it return the wheel when you return the game to block buster! Remember to keep the receipt!

#2242637 - 06/22/07 11:06 PM Re: Review: Forza Motorsport 2 [Re: Blazin]  
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Sorry. They lost me at "The lack of an in-cockpit view....".

Aviar


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