XBOX 360. Please Clue me in.

[Banshee16]

Well, my wife bought me a 360 for Christmas, and so far Forza2 > me.

The irony is that I've got track time with my car (an S2000) on several tracks. I'm still a novice, and not fast. But on Forza with an S2000, I can't even get around the track once without going off. I'm glad I decided to drive on a track before trying Forza, because if I'd tried the game first thinking it was representative of what track driving is like, I'd never have had the guts to go to the track. I do wish the tracks I have driven were in the game so I could do a direct comparison. I know the feedback from the controller doesn't map well to in-car feel, but I'm wondering what else is off.

Luckily, I got Halo as well, so when driving gets frustrating I can go kill aliens (which isn't nearly as frustrating).

The controls *are* different for the game than from a real car. Give it a bit of time though. The theory and knowledge of racing dynamics that you use on a real track do apply in the game. My brother races his car, and is quite good. I've got far more time on Forza. When he first started playing when visiting, I was kicking his butt for quite a while, until he got the handle of the controls...now he leaves me in the dust all the time.....simply because his real-life racing experience gives him a huge advantage.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Forza 2 is okay, but I'm sort of disappointed with it. I was a big fan of the original Forza, so Forza 2 was a big reason I got a 360. But it's basically the same exact game in most areas, except a step back in some areas (like tracks).

They also didn't address some of the issues (IMHO), like how when you upgrade cars, the performance index goes up dramatically, but often not in relation to its actual performance. So upgrading a lot of cars is useless, since they will get smoked. And certain cars just dominated in certain levels, no matter what.

Track design is also really really bland. I realize most tracks are real, and so are drab in real life, too. But the fictional tracks are bad, too. I don't want races through an enchanted forest with unicorns and waterfalls and dancing smurfs, but some nice scenary would be nice.

And technically, it's not a great game. Loading times are quite long, the graphics are pretty bad (for a 360 game, that is), no in dash view, only a hood cam (for some cars anyway) - and if you do use the hood cam, that means no rear view mirror. You also apparently can't change what music plays in the menus. (There's a song I can't stand in it, but some I like.)

You do have to use those ratings though, to figure out about the cars. Their racing modelling seems pretty good. In reality, some cars are just better than others. They model that in the game pretty well. It's not like 3E where it's designed so that no choice is a bad one. In Forza some cars are just not as good.

Personally, I found the upgrading system seems rather generous. My understanding is that unless you want to spend a tonne of money, modding in reality is a pretty inefficient way to improve your lap times. You're better off investing in more training, rather than a K/N filter or something. Yet in the game, just for fun, I've been modding a Mustang GT, similar to my own car, and have it up at 550 horse or so, plus a bunch of suspension improvements and such, and it's slaughtering everything in the rating level as itself. Seems a little extreme compared to what I expected.

Part of the trick is balancing which enhancements to use, in a manner that minimizes the impact on your car's rating.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Well, I had the exact same problem. Couldn't stay on the tracks. Then one major revelation hit me: the thumbsticks aren't the only things that are analog--the trigger buttons are too! And that means that every time I mashed the right trigger in, I was going pedal-to-the-metal.

Use less brakes, use the triggers to feather your way around the corners. I find that I get my best track times when I do that.

Banshee

 

[trancejeremy]

It's funny - I bought my father a weather station for X-mas, and he gave me his old clock-temperature combo which I put in the same room as my 360. When I my 360 is playing a game, the room is 2-3 degrees warmer than when it's off. (My computer only adds about half a degree, though to be fair, I haven't tried it when playing a game).

 

[trancejeremy]

Part of the trick is balancing which enhancements to use, in a manner that minimizes the impact on your car's rating.

Yeah, some improvements are better than others. But I still feel that they should rate cars not by the "Performance Index", which seems almost totally arbitrary, but by adding up the numbers on the 10 point scale for handling, top speed, braking and acceleration (omitting rarity), which essentially describes accurately how the car actually performs.

 

[John Crichton]

It's funny - I bought my father a weather station for X-mas, and he gave me his old clock-temperature combo which I put in the same room as my 360. When I my 360 is playing a game, the room is 2-3 degrees warmer than when it's off. (My computer only adds about half a degree, though to be fair, I haven't tried it when playing a game).

LOL

That's actually not that surprising, depending on the size of the room. My old room used my PC as a space heater one year. It easily raised the overall temperature in that small space buy 6-7 degrees.

 

[trancejeremy]

Interesting thing about Forza 2 - the best improvement you can buy, at least in terms of making the car handle better, is increasing the size of the rims. It doesn't so much make the car handle better, though it does improve that too, I think, but mostly it wobbles less, making it easier to control.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Well, I picked up a racing wheel, and it is much better. I'm actually able to make smooth inpu,,s hit my turn-in points and set the wheel, and use some of the things I know from real world track driving. I'm still struggling with some of the feedback settings -- for some reason I occasionally get swerving and just cannot pull out as I'm chasing the wheel all over the place -- but the wheel has definitely improved my enjorment of the game, and will make it a better track training tool.