Hard driving

by ERIK LEIJON

The mere mention of Forza Motorsport 2 (X360/Microsoft, Turn 10) will elicit one of two reactions. If you find yourself suddenly daydreaming about your custom-made Lancer, then go ahead and worship this bloated symphony of a car racing sim. If you groaned, dreading a smattering of unpleasant licence tests and gearhead terms that may as well have been written in Swahili, Microsoft has done everything in their power to make this game appealing to the average, Taurus-riding Joe. Still, it’s really impossible to change the engine on this baby—once a sim, always a sim—no matter how good it looks, or how many cars, or even with the elimination of those damned licence tests.

I hate to discourage anyone from playing this game because it’s the perfect racing sim. The over 300 real-life cars offer something for everyone, from luxury sports cars to family sedans. The online car trading system is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Gamers trade, buy and sell cars as if on a virtual eBay. Players can customize their cars down to the minute details, give them kick-ass paint jobs and truly personalize their driving experience.

All of this was extremely fun, and I have no doubt many will exclusively play the car trading online-mode, which, despite being a mere added bonus, has more depth than most full games. The problem started when I finally took these cars for a spin: I just couldn’t wrap my head around the preciseness of the driving.

I’m convinced Burnout has ruined my palette. Over the years, an obvious pattern has formed; my favourite racing games have been Burnout, Sega Rally and Cruis’n USA. While others were ogling Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo, I just wanted to play San Francisco Rush and subject my non-licenced car to some wild jumps. It may just be my own bias, but I know that I’m not alone in finding the sim experience to be a tad too overwhelming.

And even though Forza softens the blow by including such revolutionary community-based modes and real-time car damage (which is rare for a sim, since car companies don’t like their cars to look anything less than perfect), very rarely will one get to slam on the accelerator without spinning out or losing the race. A few of the tracks are really narrow and impossible to steer at high speeds. The cars are hypersensitive to turning as well, resulting in many frustrating spin-outs during the lengthy learning process.

At least some of the menus have been simplified. The car upgrades, such as buying new parts, is now done through the terror alert colour scheme, making it easy for even the most clueless of motorists to maintain a fast set of wheels.

However one feels about working on a fictitious vehicle, the car models are frighteningly lifelike. The game is running at a smooth 60 frames-per-second at all times, and while the cars in Forza 1 for the original Xbox had 400 layers of graphics, these bad boys have over 4,000. The insides of the cars are just as detailed—notice how when you crash, whole pieces of the car, such as tires or even the muffler, are sent flying. The time spent on perfecting these cars was truly painstaking.

Not unlike 2005’s Project Gotham Racing 3, the majority of the game is spent online, either playing against fellow drivers, trading cars, or merely posting lap times and videos. This title is neutered without Xbox Live, so only the most hardcore of racing fans consider playing Forza offline. Forza 2 is a gateway to the future in terms of online play and graphics, but it’s still a hardcore sim at heart.