Forza Motorsport 2

"One reason to buy a Xbox360"

Before I start this review I thought I would first let you know that I work at a reacetrack in Australia, I am also an avid car fan of many motorsports (Drifting, V8 Supercars, Super Trucks, etc.) and have driven and owned many fast cars including but not limited to 300rwhp RX7's and 250rwhp S13 Silvias.

I love my racing. I love my cars. Thus I have been waiting for Forza 2 since I first saw the "Coming Soon" box in the shops.
I bought my Xbox 360 as soon as I found out, being a big fan of Forza 1 I knew this game would have to be excellant.

With these big expectations could Forza 2 really live upto the hype? The answer, is yes. Forza 2 takes everything you loved from Forza 1, the cars, the mods, the engine conversions, the tracks, everything, and then squishes in even MORE content, from more realistic graphics and sounds to being able to do RWD conversions to your AWD/FWD vehicles.

When I first put Forza 2 in, unlike Forza 1 I didn't have a cheat for 1000,000,000 CR so I started from the bottom. I bought an FC RX7 and started with nothing. This was Possibly the one thing that made me realize how realistic this game was. The car drove and handled just like my real life FC did when I first got it. From the sound of the tires losing grip to the boatish feel of the stock suspension. I was also extremely excited to find that S13 silvias have been added to the lineup aswell! Again, the car had its own complete feel from the other cars.

Being a simulator Forza 2 really lets you know how hard motorsport can be, you have other competitors trying to Pit manouvre you (tap the rear of your car so you spin off), when heated your tires can let go and you go from a perfect line into a wall in a split second, watching all the other cars fly past.
No Forza 2 is not very forgiving! Thankfully the game has had a "Performance Index" added to every car. This PI number lets you compare the power and handling of your car compared to competitors so that you have an idea of what you need to be at to have a chance of winning, the PI also (usually) determines your spot on the starting grid.

You will also notice that when modifying a car you now have specific brands to choose from. Besides making it feel less like a generic upgrade for any car the Brands also work by a discount system. When your car levels up you will get discounts on specific brands that make parts for your car. For example if you have a Mazda RX7 you might get a 10% discount on Mazdaspeed swaybars. Now ANY mazdaspeed swaybar set is discounted for anycar they make it for.
The importance of this is that later in the game if you have only been driving Mazdas and you need to buy a Nissan or Chevvy to race, you will have little to no discounts for this vehicle and therefore building a powerful car from scratch will be very expensive!

Many new tracks have been added (Although from what I have seen it has been at the cost of some old tracks) and they look fantastic! Short tracks have also been added to several tracks, such as Tsukuba Circuit. I remember the first time I raced at Tsukuba I came hurtling around the right-hander thinking "Finally I know this track I know the line perfectly", only to find that it was the short track and the line I had taken was completely off, not to mention I was heading straight to a wall at over 120 km/h with no chance of braking!

The sounds all fit into place, from the sound of the tires screeching to the brap brap of the rotary engines. Well built V8's sound very angry and the crowd does tend to go wild on occasion!
Softly you can hear the blow off valves releasing pressure and the turbos spooling. Even the "Crunching" of your fibreglass bumpers have that cringing feeling some of you might have felt when damaging one of your own cars bumpers, it sure puts a shiver down my spine!

Now with any game there will be down points. Things that, atleast I feel need to be changed or added to make the game perfect.
The first of these is the option to put engines from differant manufacturers into your car. V8's into Mazdas, Rotarys into Nissans, etc. I also would like to see the exhaust actually change when you upgrade it and make the car louder.
As for the way the game plays I feel the AI is a bit shoddy. The amount of times I have been rammed simply because I braked early and the car behind just kept going and smacking into me I wouldn't be able to put into an exact number it was so many.

Besides these small gripes the game is almost perfect and well worth buying. Whether you like racing or not you will have a ball building ridiculously stupid cars such as 1000rwhp 800kg Ae86s, or S15's with rb26's that spin as soon as you touch the accelerator. Even buying the supercars and trying to drift them at 400km/h.

Overall I rate the game 9.75/10 (rounded up to 10/10) a must have for any 360 owner and the reason to buy a 360 if you dont already have one!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/07