Forza is Golden. Ready to BLOW up racing.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Forza is being pressed baby, ready to hit the bricks May 3rd, about 2 weeks. I've looked at every new movie on IGN, and I can say confidently, the graphics from the demo have been UPGRADED baby, seriously upgraded. The lines on the cars look precision tight, the cars gleam and glisten, and this is all from a low res movie. Its going to rock on widescreen.

Some bad news. no hood-cam or cockpit camera. One movie showed the guy switching through all the available cameras, this i'm not happy about. According to IGN's updated preview though, they've not only spruced up the graphics, but also the menu's graphics have been changed. Cool, because those demo menus looked like doo-doo. Also, they say the menu system is fast, that is always a plus. According to IGN the graphics overall don't look as good as GT4, so I stand corrected GT4 will have better graphics and more cars, other than that, GT4 can be prepared to get blown off the map.

Here are some snippets from the Popular Science article about Forza challenging reality:

<b>"Rather than simply using 0-60 times, top speeds and the standard slate of stats available from automakers, the designers entered each car's physical attributes- the ingredients of performance -into a physics model that predicts how that particular collection of parts would slice through the air and grab the road. (Forza's main competitor, GT4 can't match its power- GT4's physics engine recalculates 60 times a second, Forza's runs four times as fast at 240 time a second.)"</b>

For those who don't know Popular Science got two drivers, one a real race car driver to test Forza on Road Atlanta, then use the very same cars in real life on Road Atlanta. The results were remarkable. In fact, they thought the physics model was off on one car, a lotus, because it wasn't accelerating as fast in the game as it did in real life. Later, they found out that the game was using the UK version of the Lotus Elise, which has a 156hp engine, while they test drove the US version which has a 190 hp engine. Its a great article, and the real race driver was able to best his real times in Forza, because he says in Forza its always sunny and 70 degrees, plus you don't have to fear crashing so you can push it. Both drivers were amazed, its a great article.

For those of you interested in a new XBOX racing wheel. They used a Fanatec Speedster Forceshock, which should be coming out in time for Forza or very soon afterward. I went to the Fanatec website, and the wheel is going to be hot. Apparently, because the XBOX doesn't use USB it can't support real forcefeedback, but this controller simulates force feedback, but does so very convincingly. It will be $150 and head over to FANATEC.COM to read about it.

This game is suppose to be a hardcore racing fans dream. So i'm not so sure the mainstream media will like it as much as they did Project Gotham2. And that is cool with me, its time hardcore racing fans got their due on consoles. No offense GT4, but you ain't hardcore. You might be hard with all the AI crashing, but not hardcore. The only decision now is which region to start on, Asia with the Skyline GTR or Europe with Audi A6, decisions decisions.

[shogun]

wait, you're forced to play from a 3rd person perspective?! :mad:

[Horngreen]

There is 1st person just no dashboard.

[Glockstar]

May 3rd?! Dang, that's right around the corner! Holy quacomole, my Xbox is getting bombarded with games!

Oh well, guess I shouldn't complain, right? It's now or never to get our last-minute game-time in, my fellow Xbots. I mean, we only got about 6 more months before all our Xboxes dissappear off the face of the earth like so many left socks! (Well, that's what that MS-hater folken is suggesting will happen when the Xbox 2 comes out anyways.)

[Darwin]

I'm definitely glad I passed up on Jade Empire for right now.

Now the question is this: will Darwin shell out another $150 for a driving wheel? And the answer is: probably not. Unless I am totally blown away by the game and the impressions of the wheel are top-notch, I will skip the wheel in-leu of the controller-s. Already have two wheels for the Gran Turismo games.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

It's about time. I definitely didn't want to see another delay for the game. It's good to finally get another sim racer for Xbox, since the arcady racers (NFSU, Burnout 3) were getting tired.

I can only guess the GT4 vs Forza battle is about to begin......

[Fivespot]

I've played the Forza demo more than any other demo in my gaming history. If the graphics and gameplay are better in the actual game, this game will be unbelievable. Finally a sim racer for the XBOX that compares to GT4. Plus its online, GT4 can't do that!

I'll admit GT4 is a damn fine game, but I'm more excited for this one being an XBOX exclusive plus being ONLINE - I don't own a PS2.

Regarding the $150 wheel - I'd be much more apt to buy it if the game had a cockpit perspective. The whole racing wheel and pedals experience seems to lose it for me when racing in 3rd person (kind of defeats the purpose IMO).

If the wheel is as good as the Logitech GT4 wheel for PS2, it may be hard to resist.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

I'm definitely glad I passed up on Jade Empire for right now.

Now the question is this: will Darwin shell out another $150 for a driving wheel? And the answer is: probably not. Unless I am totally blown away by the game and the impressions of the wheel are top-notch, I will skip the wheel in-leu of the controller-s. Already have two wheels for the Gran Turismo games.

I wish they would have come up with this wheel a few years ago. But i'm afraid to buy this wheel, cause you won't get much lifespan out of it. XBOX2 is right around the corner, and compatiability is not guaranteed. Even if it is, the next XBOX will have true force feedback capability cause it is rumoured to use true USB, this means better wheels are in the future. Plus I agree with what Fiveski said, without the cockpit view, I don't if a wheel would feel right. Another thing also is i'm sorry, but wheel guys will get smoked online, unless the wheel behaves exactly, I mean exactly like a "real" steering wheel, the delay between feet, hands, and button pressing means you will get your azz roasted online. I don't mean delay in the response of the device, but in the mechanical motions. Hell, I use to race TOCA2 with a clutch, most guys online don't use a manual, and none of them used a manual with a clutch. That small delay in pushing the clutch button each shift, per lap did translate over the course of a race into valuable seconds. So much so that it was costing me about 200 ranking points. After I switched back to a normal clutch, I went from the 1650's to the 1850's.

I hope Forza allows the host to force all users to use the same control scheme. I am sick of racing against guys using automatics, and i'm convinced most guys avoid the stick because "everybody else is using automatic." Either allow the host to force the same control, or give a car a performance hit for being an automatic. In real life, some of these cars would be a lot slower if they were automatic. But traditionally, these games don't model true automatic transmissions. Instead they gift the gamer who chooses an automatic with the computer model that shifts perfectly and accurately all the time.

Plus, no offense, but automatic guys race improperly. They don't have to downshift, so they go into corners too hot, rely on using the E-Brake, or having to brake excessively. Of course, when they are behind you, they don't have a concern that you begin to downshift, so they ram right into you, or nudge you a bit by mistake. I'm sick of E-Brake riders, and guys diving into turns at the wrong angle, then they get overpassed in the turn anyway cause they didn't take the proper line through.

[Darwin]

Regarding the $150 wheel - I'd be much more apt to buy it if the game had a cockpit perspective. The whole racing wheel and pedals experience seems to lose it for me when racing in 3rd person (kind of defeats the purpose IMO).

Forza will still have the bumper-cam, which is a first person perspective. I've put in about 200+ hours with GT3 and GT4 using a driving wheel and the bumper cam, and it works great.

[Darwin]

I Another thing also is i'm sorry, but wheel guys will get smoked online, unless the wheel behaves exactly, I mean exactly like a "real" steering wheel, the delay between feet, hands, and button pressing means you will get your azz roasted online.

Either allow the host to force the same control, or give a car a performance hit for being an automatic.

I disagree with the first statement. When it comes to simulation racing games, the wheel is usually better. You get much better analogue steering input, and thus better racing lines. I know from my own personal experience with Gran Turismo, that I get singificantly better results when I use the wheel verses DualShock 2. (or perhaps that is a flaw of Dualshock 2's setup)

The Moto GP1 demo online gave an acceleration advantage to those using the manual transmission. (GP2 didn't, though). If you used automatic, the tactometer will stay "stuck" in the red zone for a split second before upshifting.

[Horngreen]

Forza claims to reward drivers for using manual ($ I guess) trannys so that may be incentive. I also wonder if you are racing online to advance your career mode, like the games claims you can, will damage received online have to be repaired with game money? My understanding is that if you break it you bought it but does that apply to online career mode as well? If any of this is true it should weed out the PGR2 guard rail riders pretty quick, I hope.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

From what i've read damage incurred online will have to be corrected out of your loot. They say this will be an incentive to prevent bad driving. I don't know, I think the best incentive to prevent bad drivers is to take away all the driving assists, and make the physics as real as possible.

Doing this does two things, or at least it did in Motogp2. First the bad drivers go around the first few corners and fell flat on their faces. Secondly, once they fell, they could never catch up and bother you again. You only had to deal with them as backmarkers about to be lapped. Eventually, the bad drivers will either quit, or hopefully learn to race well. I think we had a mixed result in Motogp2. We would put the settings on 100 sims, some guys would come in and say "i've never raced sims, i'm getting smoked but I love it so i'll keep trying." Those guys got better. Other guys, especially highly ranked guys, would come in get smoked and leave mid-race never to be seen again. Hopefully Forza will give the host control over these options and more. The more options people have the better. Some guys liked to race full sims, some guys liked arcade, some guys liked playing games and doing dirty lap races, etc etc etc. That was the great thing about Motogp, the host had the ability to control the settings for his room.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I finally finished a race in the Forza demo. Regarding the views, I actually hope there's another view that takes the cam a little farther from the car. I drive better with that type of cam.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

There's a 3 page Forza "blowout" over at 1UP.com. It has some comparisons with Gran Turismo 4, of course, but it also does a good job previewing the AI, Customization, Physics, and stuff.

From reading the article, I got the feeling that the game does a good job of catering to both offline and online gamers, which is good for gamers who feel the game may cater more to the Live crowd.

[plan b]

I also downloaded the Forza vs GT4 video from IGN where they have Forza on the right side and GT4 on the left where they're both racing a Viper on Laguna Seca. They both look good but Forzas details toward the track and outlying areas really look better than GT4, just a tad bit more detail and "realness" to its overall look. But... GT4 does look like its running more frames per second(60 to be exact) where forza seems to be running a little lower than that, though its hard tell that since I'm looking at it through .wmv format. But if I had to choose between just by going on what I saw, I just might choose Forza. Now its time to see some reviews so I know whats really going on with Forza.

[Horngreen]

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/606/606961p1.html?fromint=1

A story about the final build of Forza is here. Looks to be quite good so far..Quite good indeed!

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Well, whether or not the wheel was great, I wasn't gonna buy it. Its just too late in the game to be buying expensive XBOX peripherals that may not be supported or be replaced by something better when 360 comes out. That said, looks like this wheel comes up short in comparison to the Logitech wheel anyway. It doesn't have 900 degrees of rotation and secondly the force feedback isn't convinving. Head over to IGN to read the details.

It does have some great features. One of which is not the price, suggested retail is $199, are they insane? It has a better clamping system than the Logitech, alternatively it can also be used resting in your lap. It is built with quality and according to IGN the lack of 900 degree rotation isn't a problem, the problem is the force feedback. Basically it mimics the rumble feedback of a control and not true road resistance. It also lacks a shifting knob.

Oh well, this won't be an issue, hopefully with the XBOX 360 as it is said to support regular USB peripherals. That was one of the dumb moves MS made with respect to the XBOX. Never do proprietary stuff.